IN OUR approach to this vital and important theme, it is well for us to pray for a well-balanced mind a mind that will not go to an extreme on a single text, but will give careful and thoughtful study to other and similar passages in Holy Writ before coming to a conclusion.
Not long ago one of our workers felt certain that he had the one and only answer to a particular Old Testament text in its application to Jesus, the Messiah. Quite confidently he read to us from Acts 13:33 where the apostle Paul applies quite clearly to the Lord's resurrection from the dead the Messianic promise of Psalm 2:7: "Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee." Fortunately, this worker dropped his rather strong conviction when he discovered that the divine record like wise applies this particular Old Testament text to several other important incidents in the life and ministry of Jesus, notably to:
Christ's incarnation ____ Heb. 1:6, 5
Christ's baptism ______ Luke 3:22 (R.S.V.)1
Christ's inauguration to His priesthood _____ Heb. 5:5, 6
Christ's second advent _____ Heb. 1:6 2
What is true of Psalm 2:7 and its application by Paul in Acts 13:33 is true also, in part at least, of the names of the members of the Godhead as found in certain particular texts of Scripture. Someone reading Jeremiah 50:34 ("the LORD [Yahweh] of hosts is his name"), for instance may conclude that there is no other name for God than "the LORD [Yahweh] of hosts." 3 But a wise reader will search the Scriptures in order to ascertain whether this name is, or is not, the only name given to God in the Bible.
Today, some well-meaning individuals urge that there is only one actual name of our heavenly Father; that it is "Yahweh" and that there is but one name for the Son of God: "Yeshua'," or "Yashuah." It is this claim to which we shall give consideration in this series of articles. In this first article we shall deal only with the Biblical evidence.
1. "Yahweh" (LORD) is one of the names of the Most High.
Both in Hebrew and in English there are several terms by which we may address the Majesty in the heavens. The following are listed as found in the Scriptures with the number of times they are used respectively in the Scriptures and with their English equivalents as given in the King James Version:
2. Yeshua' (Jesus) is one of the names of the Son of God.
Because it is the Hebrew word from which stems the Greek name "lesous" ("Jesus") given to our Lord at His birth,7 Yeshua' is the Hebrew name of our Saviour Jesus Christ. But this is only one of His names. Like the invisible Sovereign of the universe, God's Son, who in the incarnation became God visible to mortal man, is designated in the New Testament by various appellations, several of which are actually called "names." We might note the following:
If we were to classify some of the terms in this listing, we would be inclined to call them "titles," or "appellations," terms expressive of office. But the Word of God calls them "names," as we shall see in the next section.
3. Most of the terms listed in the sections above are called "names" in the Holy Scriptures. These terms will be mentioned in two listings; one pertaining to our heavenly Father, the other to Christ our Saviour.
a. Names applied in the Scriptures to our heavenly Father:
Yahweh ("LORD"):
"I am the LORD [Yahweh]: that is my name" (Isa. 42:8).
"A man . . . prophesied in the name of the LORD [Yahweh]" (Jer. 26:20).
Yahweh ("GOD"):
"Thus saith the Lord GOD [Yahweh]; . . . Pollute ye my holy name no more" (Eze. 20:39).
"Thus saith the Lord GOD [Yahweh]; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name's sake" (Eze. 36:22).
YAH ("LORD"):
"Sing unto God, sing praises to his name: extol him that rideth upon the heavens by his name ] A H [Y A H]" (Ps. 68:4; emphasis supplied).
'Elohim
"Save us, O God ['Elohim] of our salvation, . . . that we may give thanks to thy holy name" (1 Chron. 16:35). "In the name of our God ['Elohim] will we set up our banners" (Ps. 20:5).
'Elah ("God"):
"In the name of the God ['Elah] of Israel" (Ezra 5:1).
"Blessed be the name of God ['Elah] for ever and ever" (Dan. 2:20).
'El ("God"):
"His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God ['El], The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace" (Isa. 9:6). "I will praise thee, O Lord my God ['El], with all my heart: and I will glorify thy name for evermore" (Ps. 86:12).
'Eldah ("God"):
"Beside me there is no God ['Eldah]" (Isa. 44:6).
"Thou wilt slay the wicked, O God ['Eldah]. ... Thine enemies take thy name in vain" (Ps. 139:19, 20).
'Adonai ("Lord"):
"Among the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord ['Adonai]. . . . All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord ['Adonai]; and shall glorify thy name" (Ps. 86:8, 9).
"O Lord ['Adonai], hear; O Lord ['Adonai], forgive; O Lord ['Adonai], hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name" (Dan. 9:19).
'Ehyeh Asher 'Ehyeh ("I AM THAT I AM"): "And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM" (Ex. 3:13, 14).
Shaddai ("Almighty"):
This is always rendered in the King James Version as "Almighty," and is always used of God, often with the name of " 'El," as " 'El-Shaddai.'"
"I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty ['El-Shaddai]" (Ex. 6:3).
b. Names applied in the New Testament to the Son of God.
The expression "NAME" or "ONOMA" is used in the Greek New Testament many times in speaking of the Messiah, and it refers also to the various appellations by which He is called. We list one text on each of these.
lesous ("Jesus"): 10
"She shall bring forth a son, and thou shall call his name JESUS [lesous]" (Matt. 1:21).
Emmanuel ("Emmanuel"):
"Behold a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us" (Matt. 1:23).
Kurios ("Lord"):
"The Lord u [Kurios] said unto him [Ananias], Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel" (Acts 9:15).
Christos ("Christ"):
"If ye be reproached for the name of Christ [Christos], happy are ye" (1 Peter 4:14).
Logos ("Word"):
"His name is called The Word [Logos] of God" (Rev. 19:13).
Basileus ("King"):
"He hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING [Basileus] OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS" (Rev. 19:16).
These two collections of divine names from the Word of God are clear and definite. Whatever we may think about any of the terms listed above, whether in the Old Testament or in the New Testament, the Holy Oracles call them "names." Hence, the names Yahweh and Yeshua' are but two of the names ascribed to the Creator and to the Messiah, as the texts listed above clearly show.
But, we can go still farther and see that Yahweh calls Himself 'Adonai ("Lord"), the very name that has been used also in reference to Baal and other false gods. Let us look at a few of the Scripture references in this connection:
a. Yahweh calls Himself 'Adon ("Lord"):
"Thus saith thy Lord ['Adon] the LORD [Yahweh]" (Isa. 51:22). "Saith the Lord ['Adon], the LORD [Yahweh] of hosts" (Isa. 19:4). "That they may be my people, and I may be their God, saith the Lord ['Adon] GOD [Yahweh]" (Eze. 14:11).
b. Yahweh calls Himself Adonai ("Lord"):
"Thus saith the Lord ['Adonai] GOD [Yahweh]; In the day when I chose Israel, . . . and made myself known unto them. . . , when I lifted up mine hand unto them, saying, I am the LORD [Yahweh] your God ['Elohim]" (Eze 20:5).
"Thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord ['Adonai] GOD [Yahweh]" (Jer. 2:22). "They shall know that I am the Lord ['Adonai] GOD [Yahweh]" (Eze. 29:16).
(See also Isa. 10:16, 23; Eze. 20:39; 36:22, 23; 39:25; etc.).
All this is according to the Hebrew text known as the Masoretic, which includes a scroll of Isaiah dated about the eighth or ninth century A.D. the oldest scroll of Isaiah known until the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls. Now, with the finding of Isaiah scrolls dated as of the second or first century B.C. a thousand years earlier12 than the Masoretic scroll of Isaiah we find that 'Adon and 'Adonai were like wise applied as names to our heavenly Father at that earlier date. So, through the centuries, there has been no manipulation of the sacred text on this point at least.
c. Yeshua' "Jesus" calls Himself both "Lord and God":
In His conflict with the archenemy in the garden of temptation, Jesus recognized Himself as both "Lord" and "God." Inasmuch as we are told this concerning Christ that "in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Col. 2:9; cf. 1:1-13; John 1:1-3), the words that He spoke to Satan refer to Himself. In His response to the tempter, He declared: "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God" (Matt. 4:7, 10).
It should be noted that here the words in the Greek text read:
Kurion ton theon sou" "the Lord the God of thee"
In closing this article, it might be well for us to understand why various names are employed in the Holy Scriptures to designate the various members of the God head. Our Jewish friends experience no difficulty on this matter. One well-known Jewish writer has written:
The alternate, or combined, use of 'Elohim and 'Adonay for the Name of God presents no difficulty whatsoever. Their employment varies according to the nature of the context. Thus, in connection with the creation of the universe at large (Genesis 1), the Divine Name employed is 'Elohim. In God's merciful relations with human beings, however (Gen. 2:4-25), He is spoken of as 'Adonay, Lord. There is nothing strange or out of the way in such usage. In English, we choose words like Deity, Supreme Being, Almighty, God, Lord, according as the subject and occasion demand. One and the same writer may at various times use any one of these English terms for the Divine Being. The nature of the context decides what Divine Name is employed. In the same way, different Divine Names in the Hebrew text do not argue a diversity of writers, but simply that, the Divine Name has each time been selected in accordance with the idea to be expressed. David Hoffmann, W. H. Green, and B. Jacob have examined each and every instance of the use of these Names throughout Genesis, and have shown the exact appropriateness of each Name to the subject matter in which it occurs.13
FOOTNOTES
1. See the Revised Standard Version and footnote, Moffatt, Schonfeld, etc. Also Clement of Alexandria (153-193-217), in The Instructor, book 1, Chap. VI, ANF 2:215; Justin Martyr (100-200), in "Dialogue with Trypho," Chap, GUI, ANF (The Ante-Nicene Fathers), 1:251.
2. This text can be read as per Weymouth, "Speaking of the time when He once more brings His Firstborn into the world, He says." So also Rotherham and others. The Greek word palin ("again") in the King James Version (margin), reads when he bringeth again." * and ** (see (footnote No. 4).
3. In the spelling of these names, it will be noticed that some are all in capital letters and others are in small letters. This is because the King James Version and a few other translations Indicate the Tetragrammaton by such English words as "LORD," "GOD," and "JAH," while all others are "Lord" , and "God."
4. The numbers in column 3 are based on the following sources:
a. R. B. Girdlestone, Synonyms of the Old Testament, Eerdmanns, 1948, in the case of those preceded by one asterisk (*).
b. The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, in the case of those preceded by two asterisks (**).
c. Young's Analytical Concordance, in the case of those not preceded by an asterisk.
5. Sometimes this appears as "Most High."
6. '"Adon" is seen over 200 times in the Hebrew text, but only 27 times does it refer to the God of heaven.
7. In the Septuagint translation of the Pentateuch, Joshua, and Judges; of Ezra 2:2 and 1.0:18; and of Zechariah 3:1, the Hebrew name Xeshua' is rendered Ieisous in Greek; and in the English translation of these passages in the Septuagint, Iesous is rendered "Jesus," the name given to Christ at His birth (Matt. 1:25; Luke 2:21). We might add that in the English translations of the Old Testament, Xeshua' appears as "Joshua," and that the margin of the King James Version of Hebrews 4:8 equates the "Jesus" of the text with "Joshua." Likewise, the K.J.V. margin of Acts 7:45 makes it clear that the Jesus named in the text is the Joshua of the third chapter of the book of Joshua.
8. We are indebted to J. B. Smith's Greek-English Concordance of ike New Testament, Scottsville, Pa.: Herald Press, 1955.
9. This appears as "name" in italics in the King James Version, but the concept of "name" is implied, and so it appears in the text of Rabbi Isaac Leeser (Jewish scholar).
10. See footnote 7 on the name lesous as Yeshua'.
11. The "Lord" referred to here is Jesus, as explained in verse 17: "the Lord, even Jesus."
12. See The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 4, p. 86.
13 T. H. Hertz. Pentateuch and Haftoraks, Soncino Press, 1938, p. 199.
