For You light my lamp;
Psalm 18:28
The LORD (YHVH – Yehovah) my God illuminates my life.
This is My Name Forever
For years when reading Hebrew out loud, upon seeing the tetragram for the name of God in the Old Testament, I automatically said, “Adoni,” which means Lord, because my well-intended rabbi teacher taught me that we never desecrate the name of the LORD by saying His name out loud.
Over the years, I’ve read a daily Bible that gets me through the entire text. I’ve read through the Old Testament enough times to know that what the rabbi taught me (And it seems to be nearly universally accepted by Jews and Christians alike) doesn’t add up with the what God says about His name in the Scriptures. Many Christians have come to the same conclusion. This insight generated a debate on how to pronounce the name YHVH of the tetragram and divided folks into different camps.
Not being a linguist or an adamant devotee of a particular version of the Bible, their argument is not why I am writing this post. The point of this post is to look into how God’s I.D. got confiscated by rabbis in favor of addressing Him as Ha Shem – The Name – or Adonai – Lord.
This is How I Am to Be Remembered Generation After Generation
As I’ be said before, God has a proper name, and he first made it clear to Moses in the Book of Exodus. From then on, His name is well documented among the Jewish people and throughout the Bible.
God said further to Moshe, “Say this to the people of Isra’el: ‘Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh [Yehovah not Adonai NM], the God of your fathers, the God of Avraham, the God of Yitz’chak and the God of Ya‘akov, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever; this is how I am to be remembered generation after generation. – Exodus 3:15, The Complete Jewish Bible
Rabbis’ Conspiracy of Silence
I never understood why the perpetual name of God could appear nearly 7,000 times in the Hebrew Bible but almost always be translated as LORD in English Bibles or printed as Adoni (Lord) or HaShem (The Name) in Jewish English Bibles. I came across a video that addresses this topic precisely. Nehemia Gordon shares about the “conspiracy” to cover up the name of God! If anyone has done real, on scene research concerning this issue, it’s Nehemia.
The video gets lengthy. However, a second part appears after the initial interview, which might be a portion edited out of the original, full of good points! Listen while doing some tasks around the house; it’s worth hearing.
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May God bless you with a wonderful New Year 2023.
Blessed be the Holy One of Israel,
Nan Montgomery
© 2023 Nancy Montgomery – Israel Letters aka Haverim.blog
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