Audio only:
In this episode Trent talks about the name of God and when it is and isn’t aIn this episode Trent talks about the name of God and when it is and isn’t appropriate to say.
To support this channel: https://www.patreon.com/counseloftrent
[NEW] Counsel of Trent merch: https://shop.catholic.com/apologists-alley/trent-horn-resources/
Be sure to keep up with our socials!
https://www.tiktok.com/@counseloftrent
https://www.twitter.com/counseloftrent
https://www.instagram.com/counseloftrentpodcast
Transcript:
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:23:10
Did you know that God’s name is so sacred that Catholics aren’t allowed to say it in certain contexts? So in today’s episode, we’ll examine the 3000 year old mystery of God’s name when it can and can’t be said, and which religious groups still misunderstand God’s name and identity today? Now, right off the bat, you should know God’s personal name isn’t God, just as the president’s personal name isn’t Mr. President.
00:00:23:12 - 00:00:38:04
The word God comes from an old German word meaning the invoked one. Now, a believer can use the title God as a kind of name and refer to God in that way, such as in the liturgy of the hours. When we pray, O God, come to my assistance, O Lord, make haste to help
00:00:38:11 - 00:00:45:16
But Scripture reveals God’s personal name in Exodus chapter three, when it describes Moses encountering God in the burning bush, it says.
00:00:45:16 - 00:01:02:24
Then Moses said to God, if I come to the people of Israel and say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you. And they ask me, what is his name? What shall I say to them? God said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, say this to the people of Israel. I am has sent me to you.
00:01:02:24 - 00:01:29:29
The phrase I am who I am is aa aa in Hebrew. In verse 15, the word rendered im comes from four consonants rendered in English. Most scholars believe this word and aa come from the same root haya, which means to be in John 858. Jesus uses the divine name to describe himself because he says, truly, truly, I say to you, Before Abraham was, I am, or in Greek ago, Amy.
00:01:29:29 - 00:01:48:00
In earlier parts of the Old Testament, God’s personal name was spoken frequently, but after the Babylonian captivity, Jewish people became much more hesitant to say God’s name for fear of breaking the second commandment you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
00:01:48:01 - 00:01:55:03
The Talmud records a tradition that the high priest only uttered God’s name once a year during Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement,
00:01:55:03 - 00:02:01:29
when the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek. The word curious, or lord was often used in place of the divine name.
00:02:01:29 - 00:02:11:07
By the time of Jesus ministry, this was a widespread practice with the Hebrew word for Lord, Adonai, replacing God’s name when Scripture was read aloud.
00:02:11:08 - 00:02:17:05
This became universal practice among Jews after the destruction of the temple in 1870, and
00:02:17:05 - 00:02:45:23
in the medieval period, Jewish scribes added the vowel points for Adonai to y to remind readers to say Adonai and not God’s name. Christian scholars who weren’t familiar with this notation thought the consonants and vowels belong together, so when they translated it into Latin, we would get God’s name as YHWH, with the vowels roe leading to the word yahova or Jehovah.
00:02:45:24 - 00:02:56:14
Though the spelling gets interesting, as you may remember in this scene from Indiana Jones in The Last Crusade, where Indy has to step on stones to spell God’s name to get to the Holy Grail.
00:02:56:14 - 00:03:07:27
00:03:07:27 - 00:03:42:03
India ends up correcting his error and spells Jehovah with an eye because, as his dad correctly noted, Latin used an eye because the letter J did not exist until the 17th century. Before that time, Latin used an eye even for names like Julius Caesar in 1524. Jean Giorgio Trecento proposed an elongated eye to represent J. Sounds, though it took a while for his idea to catch on, as can be seen in the first 1597 edition of Romeo and Juliet being spelled with an eye, and the 1611 edition of the King James Bible spelled Jehovah with an eye.
00:03:42:05 - 00:04:05:27
But by 1629 the KJV rendered Jehovah with a J as we know it today. But most Bibles in church history followed the Jewish tradition of not translating God’s name, and instead used the word lord or Dominus in Latin. After the Reformation, Protestant scholars attempted to go back to the sources for their biblical studies and believed Jehovah was the correct pronunciation of the divine name.
00:04:05:28 - 00:04:32:07
However, by the late 1800s, scholars like Wilhelm Disentis used archeology, textual study, and early Christian sources to show the divine name sounded more like Yahweh than Jehovah, and now scholars have settled on Yahweh being closer to the original pronunciation. But in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, one group was still firmly committed to God’s name, being pronounced Jehovah, and you can probably guess which group I’m talking about.
00:04:32:08 - 00:04:55:26
In 1874, Charles Taze Russell, a self-described Bible student, taught that several Christian doctrines on hell and the soul were wrong and that Christ had invisibly returned to earth in 1874. By 1882, Russell had published Zion’s Watchtower, which openly denied the Trinity, saying the incomprehensible doctrine of Trinity was of papal decree and without any foundation in Scripture.
00:04:55:26 - 00:05:06:07
Russell’s text also frequently refers to the true God as Jehovah, who exists apart from Christ, who is not the one true God, but merely a God or an exhausted creature.
00:05:06:08 - 00:05:27:06
In 1931, the organization’s president, Joseph Rutherford, changed the group’s name to the Jehovah’s Witnesses in order to distinguish them from other competing Bible student groups. According to Jovi’s witnesses, it is important not only to know, but also to use that name. Why? Because the Bible tells us everyone who calls on the name of Jehovah will be saved.
00:05:27:06 - 00:05:34:06
But Romans 1013, the verse this author references does not say everyone who calls on the name of Jehovah will be saved.
00:05:34:07 - 00:05:54:15
It says everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, or in Greek. Everyone who calls on the name of the Kuru will be saved. The name Jehovah, or any variation of that name like Yahweh, is not found in any New Testament manuscripts. Which brings us to one of the oddest features of the Jehovah’s Witnesses New World translation of the Bible.
00:05:54:16 - 00:06:06:00
Whenever the word Lord or curios is found in the New Testament, the New World Translation renders it Jehovah, with a few curious exceptions. Look how the New World Translation renders Romans ten
00:06:06:00 - 00:06:14:06
for a few publicly declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and exercise faith in your heart, that God raised him from the dead. You will be saved.
00:06:14:06 - 00:06:17:25
For everyone who calls on the name of Jehovah will be saved.
00:06:17:25 - 00:06:30:08
If the New World Translation were consistent, it would render Romans ten nine this way for a few publicly declare with your mouth that Jesus is Jehovah, and exercise faith in your heart, that God raised him up from the dead. You will be saved.
00:06:30:08 - 00:06:38:23
But the Jehovah’s Witnesses translation can’t do that because Jehovah’s Witnesses deny Jesus is the true God or that he is Jehovah.
00:06:38:24 - 00:07:04:04
Even though the New Testament identifies Jesus with the God called Yahweh in the Old Testament in John chapter 12. John describes how some of the people’s unbelief fulfilled the prophecy of the suffering servant in Isaiah 53. Lord, who has believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? John 1241 then says, Isaiah said this because he saw his glory and spoke of him.
00:07:04:07 - 00:07:31:02
The pronouns his and him out to in Greek refer to Jesus. But the incident John is referring to is found in Isaiah chapter six. Razia has a vision of God of Yahweh on his throne. That means John is saying that Jesus is the enthroned God that Isaiah saw, and so Jesus is fully God and fully man. Another non-Christian group that makes the mistake about Jehovah are Mormons.
00:07:31:02 - 00:07:53:16
In the Book of Mormon. Nephi is an Israelite who emigrated to the Americas and delivers various teachings in a text called Second Nephi. About one third of the text, or 13 chapters, are direct copying of Isaiah, and what appears to be the translation of Isaiah found in the King James Bible, which was published almost 2000 years after Nephi allegedly lived in the original Hebrew.
00:07:53:17 - 00:08:21:22
Isaiah 12 two says, Your or Yahweh is my strength, while second Nephi 22 two says, Jehovah is my strength, matching the King James Version. I’ll let you decide if this is because Joseph Smith just wanted his translation to sound like the vernacular of his time, so he chose not to use your Yahweh. As some Mormons claim, or if he just borrowed straight from Isaiah and didn’t translate anything as non-Mormon scholars claim.
00:08:21:22 - 00:08:33:08
In 1916, the Mormon presidency officially taught that quote, among the spirit children of Elohim, the firstborn was and is Jehovah or Jesus Christ, to whom all others are juniors.
00:08:33:08 - 00:09:00:11
Mormons are correct that Jesus Christ is Jehovah or Yahweh. Where they air is that they do not believe Yahweh is the only divine being. They believe the Hebrew term Elohim, which also means God, refers to a different being than Jehovah. As I noted in my episode on whether Mormons or atheists, Mormonism can be best described as a kind of henna that recognizes multiple divine beings exist, but only one of them deserves the highest form of worship.
00:09:00:12 - 00:09:26:09
In contrast, Christian monotheism believes there is only one divine being who exists as three distinct persons, each of whom is worthy of the highest form of worship. That’s why the Mormon Book of Abraham describes the gods plural organizing the world, whereas Genesis one one says, God, Elohim created the world. The verse uses the singular verb bara to note that only one being engages in this creation.
00:09:26:10 - 00:09:37:12
Even though Elohim has plural elements to it, similar to the plural of majesty given to ancient kings who would speak of themselves with plural pronouns. Also known as the royal we.
00:09:37:12 - 00:09:50:07
00:09:50:07 - 00:10:22:11
However, the division of Elohim and Yahweh into separate beings does not explain how the Hebrew Bible treats them as being interchangeable. This includes Exodus 20, verse two, which says, I am Yahweh, your a form of Elohim, and Deuteronomy 435, which says, Yahweh Elohim or Yahweh is Elohim. Now it is true that early in biblical history, the term Yahweh referred to the God who rescued his people from Egypt, while El or Elohim referred to the supreme deity of the Canaanites.
00:10:22:11 - 00:10:46:11
So in that sense they were considered separate beings. But eventually God’s people recognize these different names referred to the same being the one supreme creator of all things, what the Canaanites called El. The Israelites new is Yahweh. In fact, the name Israel means El rules. This is like when Saint Paul said, the God he preached was what the Athenians called the God.
00:10:46:12 - 00:11:11:23
It also helps explain how Christians can say Muslims worship God, even though Muslims don’t completely understand God. According to Old Testament scholar Mark Smith, although the Bible fiercely criticizes other pagan deities like Baal. Quote. There are no biblical polemics against El. At an early point, Israelite tradition identified El with Yahweh or presupposed this equation, and John Day, in his book Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan, writes.
00:11:11:23 - 00:11:36:14
It is interesting that the Old Testament has no qualms in equating Yahweh with el, something which stands in market contrast to its vehement opposition to Baal, let alone the equation of Yahweh with ball. This must reflect a favorable judgment on Els characteristic attributes as supreme deity, creator God, and one possessed of wisdom, l was deemed wholly fit to be equated with Yahweh.
00:11:36:17 - 00:12:03:21
Day goes on to say that Yahweh was not a Canaanite deity, but was introduced to the land of Canaan and originally came from the region of Midia, which corresponds to Moses learning God’s name in Midia, since he fled there after killing the Egyptian. So to summarize in Scripture, words like Elohim refer to God, but the name God revealed to Moses sounded more like Yahweh than Jehovah, which was the result of misunderstanding medieval Hebrew renderings of the divine name.
00:12:03:21 - 00:12:11:08
But in knowing God’s name, we also have a sacred responsibility to treat that name with the utmost respect. The Catechism says this
00:12:11:08 - 00:12:25:07
among all the words of revelation, there is one which is unique the revealed name of God. God confides his name to those who believe in him. He reveals himself to them in his personal mystery. The gift of a name belongs to the order of trust and intimacy.
00:12:25:07 - 00:12:29:23
The Lord’s name is holy. For this reason, man must not abuse it.
00:12:29:23 - 00:12:36:19
Catholics aren’t always prohibited from referring to God as Yahweh. Since I’ve said God’s name numerous times in this video and nothing bad has
00:12:36:23 - 00:12:37:01
00:12:37:01 - 00:12:39:03
00:12:39:21 - 00:12:39:26
00:12:39:26 - 00:13:00:01
I’m kidding, I’m kidding. But the church has sought to preserve the reverence of the divine name when it’s used in the liturgy, and to maintain continuity with the tradition of how it was treated in that context. In 2008, the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship gave an instruction for how the name of God should be used in the public worship of God.
00:13:00:03 - 00:13:10:01
It recounted how Christian biblical tradition, going all the way through the contemporary Latin Vulgate, did not translate the divine name, but rendered it some equivalent of the word lord.
00:13:10:01 - 00:13:23:22
The letter says this practice was related to remaining faithful to the church’s tradition from the beginning, that the sacred Tetragrammaton was never pronounced in the Christian context, nor translated into any of the languages into which the Bible was translated.
00:13:23:23 - 00:13:38:22
The congregation then said in liturgical celebrations, in songs and prayers, the name of God in the form of the Tetragrammaton YHWH is neither to be used or pronounced. It then instructed alternatives like God or Lord be used instead.
00:13:38:26 - 00:13:48:13
Now it’s important to remember that it’s not intrinsically wrong to utter God’s name. God never said his name can’t be uttered, only that it can’t be uttered in vain.
00:13:48:14 - 00:14:16:28
Moreover, a person can utter the name Lord in vain if they’re hard to set on doing that. But the people of God can develop customs to encourage holy behavior, and one of those customs was to not treat God’s personal name like any other name we might proclaim in the context of the liturgy. Other commenters have noted that referring to God as Yahweh in the liturgy can be confusing to those who don’t understand that the logical background of the term, and it could be insensitive to Jewish people who may be inquiring about Catholicism.
00:14:16:28 - 00:14:40:07
So while there’s nothing wrong with calling God Yahweh, the church also desires us to be in conformity with ancient tradition that shows a special reference to the divine name by not including it in the liturgy. Ultimately, as Cardinal Orange put it in his letter, by focusing our liturgical prayer on calling God Lord instead of Yahweh, we are placing an important emphasis on Christ’s divinity, which should always be the focus of our prayer.
00:14:40:08 - 00:14:41:10
He wrote the following
00:14:41:10 - 00:14:57:11
when in fact Saint Paul, with regard to the crucifixion, writes that God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name. He does not mean any other name than Lord. For he continues by saying, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
00:14:57:13 - 00:14:58:20
Or as we see in Isaiah 42.
00:14:58:21 - 00:15:16:07
Eight I am the Lord, that is my name. The attribution of this title to the risen Christ corresponds exactly to the proclamation of his divinity. The title in fact, becomes interchangeable between the God of Israel and the Messiah of the Christian faith, even though it is not, in fact, one of the titles used for the Messiah of Israel.
00:15:16:10 - 00:15:26:11
you like more information about the name of God, God’s nature, and other questions about the liturgy. Be sure to check out our resources at Catholic Com. Thank you guys so much for watching and I hope you have a very blessed