Here is a great article on it..
What is it?
The second line of "The Lord's Prayer", so familiar to us all, says, "Hallowed be thy name." (Luke 11 v2)
We are also promised that, "Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved." (Romans 10 v13 )
In Acts 2 v21, Peter quotes Joel 2 v32, "In the last days everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
Exodus 20 v7 "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name."
The name of God appears 6828 times in the Bible.
Remember that the name also means essential nature, character, reputation, and authority. Read Leviticus 21 and 22 to appreciate the need to keep the name of God holy and unprofaned. Notice how often the name is used.
So what is God's name?
The name of our GOD and the titles by which he is known are extremely important and a casual use of " God " fails to communicate adequately the greatness, majesty, holiness, and grace of the one to whom we refer.
How should we use God's name?
This new book has come out of the partnership on Nehemia Gordon, a Karaite Jew and Dead Sea Scrolls scholar and Keith Johnson, an American Methodist pastor. They also produced "A Prayer to our Father" that has a bearing on the hallowed name.
These works from Keith and Nehemia make an important call on us to take seriously the name of our God and use it rightly.
Keith's book will take you through the arguments and the evidence to show that we can know and pronounce the Name. The book comes with an Audio CD or the files may be downloaded from //
www.hishallowedname.com
Nehemia is also working on another book and his first presentation of the material promises that it too will be very important in dispelling confusion between the true God of Israel and the various false gods. The clues are there in scripture if we can search them out. If we knew and respected the Name of God people who should know better would not be able to confuse with Allah and say we all worship the same God!
"God" is a title; not His name! LORD is also a title; not His name!
A god is merely any deity which somebody worships or trusts in. Included in this are the gods of the ancient Egyptians, the people of Canaan, all sorts of wood, stone and metal idols through to the newest New Age concepts of God in everybody.
LORD is used where appears in the Hebrew because it is the translation of ADONAI, which is what Jews say when reading . But the Hebrew that should be translated as Lord is Ba'al. This also means husband or great ruler and, as you can find in your Bible, is the name or title given to Canaanite Gods. Why do we leave ourselves open to such confusion?
Moses (Moshe) asked God what he was to say when the people asked, "What is his name?" (Exodus 3 v13)
"God said to Moshe, Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh [ I am/will be what I am/will be]," and added, " Here is what you are to say to the people of Isra'el: "Ehyeh
has sent me to you"" God said further to Moshe, "Say this to the people of Isra'el: "Yud Heh Vav Heh (ADONAI), 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." (Complete Jewish Bible)
The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob has a name by which he wished/wishes to be known. This most holy name of GOD is written in Hebrew by the letters yod hey vav hey.
This four letters name is called the "Tetragramaton".
(The Hebrew letters are read from Right to Left)
Jewish tradition holds that this name is so holy that it may not be uttered. It may have been uttered once a year by the High Priest when he entered the Holy of Holies. Orthodox Jews will refer instead to Hashem ( meaning "The Name")
Karaite Jews do not hold to this tradition but follow the Torah instruction to use the name of God. See Nehemiah Gordon's book, "The Hebrew Yeshua vs the Greek Jesus."
For the Christian this is worth pondering - are we as respectful as we should be to the name of our god? Is it respectful to just ignore it?
The pronunciation of is generally considered to be unknown.Using the four letters as they are usually written, without vowel sounds as is common practice in Hebrew, gives one a difficult word to pronounce; YHVH or YHWH depending on which sound you favour for the vav. Some say it should be Yarvay while others consider it to be Yarway .
Nehemia Gordon and Keith Johnson and wildolive contend that the Name should be pronounced YeHoVaH, using the pointing found in one of the most important ancient manuscripts. (see books)
( Visit //www.aleppocodex.org for a taste.)
Some say that this pronunciation is obtained by applying the vowel signs belonging to Adonai ( LORD), but Nehemia and Keith point out that this could not be the case.
This rendering came to Europe as "Jehovah", where many mainland Europeans pronounce the letter J as "Y" but the English speakers pronounce a hard "Jay" .
( is translated as LORD in the NIV and most other English Bibles and as ADONAI in the Complete Jewish Bible - look out for the capital letters)
Where the Hebrew reads Adonai , a reader of the Tanakh will say "Adonai Elohim", since the alternative would be the rather untidy "Adonai ADONAI" which is equivalent of The Lord the LORD; The English is closer to "the Lord YeHoVaH."
(Remember that Halleluyah is the Hebrew word meaning literally "praise Yah".)
"The Name " is associated with God's nature of, "Was, is and will be" (A complete existence). In Hebrew the words used are ECHEH ASHER ECHEH, meaning literally, "I am what I am" except that the word ECHEH has no tense. ECHEH can just as well mean "I was" or "I will be" ! "I AM" was the name God said Moses was to refer to him by. This is why Yeshua so upset the religious authorities when he said, "before Abraham was, I am." (John 8 v 58)
The Name ( I am) also suggests to the author that exists without reference to anything or anybody else.
"Holy to Yahveh" by Terrye Goldblum Seedman explores this issue and its implications for the believer. For the benefit of those new to this issue, I have continued the use of "GOD" and "Jesus" in this website although I believe wants us to move back to a proper use of his name.
See also Nehemiah Gordon's book, "The Hebrew Yeshua vs the Greek Jesus" for a discussion of swearing in the Name of .
His next book will include the matter of placing the Name on the people with the Aaronic Blessing of Numbers 6 v24-26.
Other Titles
is given other titles, all of which are more informative than God or Lord.
Adonai means Lord or My Lord
Elohim means God. (interestingly Elohim is plural) (Elohenu means our God.)
El Shadai means Almighty God
Elohai Olam means Everlasting God. In the blessing where God is called Melekh ha Olam, it means King, or ruler, of the Universe. God is clearly seen as ruler of both time and space.
There is also a set of names bringing out aspects of His being and His place in our lives. (Either or Adonai could be used as appropriate)
Tzeva'ot the Lord of Hosts (armies of angels)
Eloheinu Lord our God
Elohei Lord God
Nissi The Lord is my Banner
Shalom the Lord of Peace (is my peace)
Shamah the Lord who is there
Tzidkenu the Lord our righteousness
Yireh the Lord will see (to it)
Rapha The LORD your healer
Ro'ee the Lord my Shepherd
Ha Kadosh Baruch Hu is a name which Jewish people like to use - It means "The Holy One, blessed be He"
You may also have wondered why many Jewish writings use "G-D" and "L-RD". The author's understanding is that any written document may become worn or redundant and ready for disposal. If that document contained the words in full, special procedures would be required out of respect for the name of God.
Source: //www.wildolive.co.uk/namo%20of%20God.htm
