Hello my dear
From perhaps the beginning of time there has been debates about the name, nature and attributes of God. Some of us may still have questions, and if so, I hope today’s Holy Nougat and the reflection that follows is beneficial to you.
“God spoke further to Moses and said to him, “I am ADONAI. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, as El Shaddai. Yet by My Name, ADONAI, I made Myself known to them.” Exodus 6:2-3 TLV
It’s interesting to note that other versions of the Bible use YHWH or Jehovah, but not Adonai as The Name for God in God’s self-revelation to Moses. Some versions use LORD; Small Caps (ie with the L being a size bigger than the others). One might wonder whether it matters, and the answer is YES. For Jews, the use of the word ‘God’ is offensive; as it fails to appreciate the God is wholly and Holy other. This is somewhat connected to the interpretation of the 2nd commandment (Exodus 20:7), you shall NOT call the Lord’s name in vain.
So what’s in The Name anyway?
Ironically, the meaning of YHWH is the source of a different kind of debate. It can be transliterated (ie almost very literal verbatim translation) to suggest Self Existent or Eternal One. And, as we can imagine if we do not actually know, God’s preexistence has been the source of many a modern debate.
So why does/did that matter?
In the second part of the Nougat, we note that God makes the distinction very clear to Moses. God appeared to the forefathers as Almighty (or many-breasted); but was revealed to them over time as Eternal. On the other hand, Moses got a direct revelation of God as the Eternal, Self-Existent One (see Exodus 3 for more details).
Moses, having been raised Egyptian – with Hebrew ancestry – would have been intimately acquainted with the notion of pharaohs as demigods or gods with finite lifespans. They were half-god/half-human (literally demigods). Deliverance of the Children of Israel could NOT be seen as having equal traits as those other gods. Because God IS ALWAYS greater than any other gods. And if God preexisted Time; then God is Eternal.
We note that this concern was raised again in the ‘personhood’ and ‘divinity’ of Jesus. Same debate; different day, different slant. In the birth narratives of Jesus in the Gospels, one may find that there is an intentionality in presenting Jesus, not as a demigod (there were too many of those to choose from in GrecoRoman culture and religion), but as FULLY human-FULLY Divine. Often referred to as the Hypostatic Union). In Matthew and Luke, the concepts are developed through the lineage and divine visitations, often citing ‘real’ historical figures as though for validation. And it probably was.
While I cannot discredit your beliefs, for me God’s Self-Existence and Jesus’s state of being Fully Human-FULLY Divine are a given to my faith. For, if those are not, then God is not the God whom I worship as a Christian.
So, what’s with the names – do we use them or not?
The jury is still out. However, we recognize that it is in our experiences with God, the Triune God, that we begin to grasp a sense of Who God is. It’s about the individual and collective experience. I pray you joy in the journey of discovery.
In Christ’s love and grace . . .
