The Significant Name of God (18)
Why Rabbinic Judaism refuses to mention THE NAME
André H. Roosma
14 June 2020 (NL original: 27 Aug. 2014)
It has always puzzled me why Rabbinic Judaism consciously banished the
glorious Name of the God of the Bible. I am talking about the Name  in Paleo-Hebrew script,
יהוה in the later square script - best
transliterated as IAUA or YaHUaH.1 In my Dutch
discussion of the name יְהוּדָה - Yehudāh, the
basis of our word Jew, I show how it was from the very beginning the call of
Yehudāh and his progeny to name, thank and
proclaim this great Name of God, not to conceal this Name.
The rabbis themselves say that this prohibition on the mention of this
– in their opinion unspeakable – Name is based on the
commandment in the Torah (a.o. Exodus 20:7)
not to take this glorious Name of God in vain, that is, not to use it empty.
But why, for example, did David use the glorious Name so often and full in
his beautiful Psalms? And what, if God Himself says that this is THE NAME by
which He wants to be called, thanked, praised and proclaimed, how can someone,
as a mere human being, give such a totally opposite twist to this?
This all the more, because in ancient times mentioning or not mentioning
the name of a God or idol had to do with whether you wanted that God / god to
be your God too. If you wanted to distance yourself from any god/idol, then you
explicitly did not mention his name, if you wanted to serve a God, then
you mentioned His Name often (cf. Exodus 23:13 that says not to mention names of other gods; Deuteronomy 12: 2-4
that says not to do so to YaHUaH; Joshua 23: 6-8; and Jeremiah 23: 23-27 that speaks of false prophets that make God’s people
forget His Name).
To conceal the glorious Name of the God of the Bible means, in effect, that
you want to separate yourself from Him, to distance yourself from Him, and
not to treat Him with respect at all!
So I always had the idea that there was more going on. What I often do in
such a case is that I put the subject before God, asking if He will give me
light on it, in His time. I often get a clear insight shorter or longer time
later. Similarly in this case.
Recently I was looking up something in Julius Fürst’s beautiful
Hebrew-English dictionary (Samuel Davidson (transl.), Hebrew & Chaldee Lexicon
to the Old Testament, Bernhard Tauchnitz, Leipzig / Williams &
Norgate, London/Edinburgh, 1885). My eye fell on page 548 (p.589 in the digital copy), where the writer discusses a
common abbreviated version of the glorious Name of the God of the Bible: יָהוּ - JāHU.
In doing so, he quotes a variety of ancient writers such as Tacitus, Lydus,
Plutarch, Proclus, and Julian, and gives perhaps the most important real
reason for the rabbinic Jewish leaders to declare the glorious Name of God
secret after their stay in Babylon. What he tells there is that of old the
overruling Chaldeans also knew a god, whose name was written in Aramaic as
יָהוֹ - YāHO and in Greek as Ίαώ - Yaho. According to the ancient
writers mentioned, this God was just as mysterious and unmentionable as the
Hebrew יָהוֹ - YāHO, and his name was
communicated only to initiates.2
Also the Phoenicians – those intimate allies of Isra’el since the time
of David – knew a supreme god with a three-letter secret name,
which was also Ίαώ - Yaho.
Some further investigation showed that indeed all nations around Isra’el at
that time knew the glorious Name of the God of Isra’el. And it was known to
many peoples that this Name was different from the names of other, so-called
‘gods’ (read: idols). Just saying this Name out
loud was thus seen as dangerous.
So the Jews in Babylon had learned for 70 years (many
even longer!) from their teachers and neighbors there, that you should
keep the Name of the God יָהוֹ - YāHO
or יָהוּ - YāHU secret. Secrecy of
the glorious Name יהו - YāHU or
יהוה - YāHUāH was a custom
from the world of syncretistic Babylonian idolatry, that preferred to keep
the one true God at bay!
That leaves us the choice: do we follow the rabbis in their following the
idolatry from Babylon, or do we listen to what God YaHUaH Himself
says:
“I am - YaHUaH; that is My name; and My glory I will not
give to another, nor My praise to graven images.”
Yesha‘-yahu (Isaiah) 42: 8
Hallelu YaHUaH !
Notes
| 1 |
The names in the Bible have meaning. That is why I
transliterate them carefully so that they remain recognizable. Especially
the glorious Name of God I represent here as accurately as possible from the
oldest Hebrew original, instead of replacing this grand personal Name of The
Most High by a common word, such as ‘Lord’. For more background information
see:
André H. Roosma, ‘The
wonderful and lovely Name of the God Who was there, Who is there, and Who
will be there’  , extensive Accede! / Hallelu-YaH! study, July 2009.
See also the other articles on the
significant Name of God, on the articles page here. |
| 2 |
Also ompare what had
happended in the great Babylonian empire under king Nebhukhadnetstsar, as described in Dani’el 3 and 4. In case you had,
as resident of that large empire, possibly not learned to fear the God of
Israel from childhood, you would not dare to use His Name, in fear of the ruler
Nebhukhadnetstsar, who would cut everyone into
pieces and turn his house into a manure pit, who would speak a disrespectful
word against YaHU, the God of Dani’el (= God is my judge) and his
three friends Chanan-yah (= mercy of YaH), Misha’el (= who is like God?)
and ‘Azar-yah (= YaH helped) (Dan.3: 29; notice how what Nebhukhadnetstsar says there, is actually a wordplay on
the names of these men!). |
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