YHWH - This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name to all generations.

Submitted by Oliver (United States), Jan 26, 2008 at 15:22

My dear TAJ – thank you for your responses – I hope we will continue to be patient with each other as, I'm sure you will agree, talking about 4 or more languages in yet another language is … umm … frustrating.

I will attempt to meld your 3 responses into 1 of my own … we appear to be dancing around this subject – sometimes we waltz – sometimes we fox-trot – but not at the same time. I'm going to stop discussion of ‘your' car analogy as it has too many weaknesses (which you have only just begun to point out – thank you) and it detracts attention from more worthy matters.

First and foremost – the god of Abraham, the god of Isaac, the god of Jacob has a NAME. It is a special NAME, an eternal NAME, a NAME by which he is to be called by all generations – YHWH (in English). When Moses went to ‘see' the burning bush, he had an encounter with this god. Moses, having been raised in an Egyptian home, did not know the NAME of this god. So when he was told to go to Egypt and lead the Hebrews out of bondage, he naturally asked ‘and who shall I say sent me – and what is your NAME?'

Exo 3:13 Then Moses said to God, "Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I shall say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you.' Now they may say to me, 'What is His name?' What shall I say to them?"

Exo 3:14 And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"

Exo 3:15 And God, furthermore, said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.' This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name to all generations.

Exo 3:16 "Go and gather the elders of Israel together, and say to them, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, "I am indeed concerned about you and what has been done to you in Egypt.

Exo 3:17 "So I said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, to a land flowing with milk and honey."'

Exo 3:18 "And they will pay heed to what you say; and you with the elders of Israel will come to the king of Egypt, and you will say to him, 'The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. So now, please, let us go a three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.'

Again, this is an English translation so we have to clarify some things, i.e.: where you see the word(s) ‘God' or ‘the God' you will always find a form of the (Hebrew) word ‘elohim', which simply means ‘god' or ‘God' in English. There are no capital letters in Hebrew (nor in Arabic) so elohim is a true generic word. The significance of elohim is determined by its use in context just like the capitalization of God in English. Now as for the NAME of God: "I AM WHO I AM" [3:14] in the Hebrew is the 4 Hebrew letters that are represented in English as YHWH. They only appear ‘once' here, so ‘I AM who I AM' is an attempt to infer the deeper meaning contained in the NAME YHWH – the ever-existing one. Notice that in the very same verse the same 4 Hebrew letters are shortened to mean ‘I AM' in English [3:14]. In subsequent verses those 4 Hebrew letters are translated as ‘the LORD' in English, this is because the Jews substitute the word ‘Adonai' for the NAME YHWH so they can never speak it ‘in vain'. Adonai means Lord or Master in English but the translators purposefully capitalized all the letters of LORD so the reader will understand that the Eternal NAME is being used.

My point is, that Moses being ignorant of the NAME of God – had to ask for it. The fact that there was no protest from the Hebrews indicates that they already knew the NAME of God is YHWH. Now, when Mohammad had his encounter with ‘the god' of the Arabs, Mohammad didn't feel the need to ask this god its name – why? – because he already knew this god's name is Allah. And when he went to the Arabs and told them that Allah should be worshipped alone – there was no argument about whether Allah was the name of a god, noooooo, they argued that their ‘other' gods (who also had ‘names') were also worthy of continued worship. The argument was ‘Why Allah ALONE?' not ‘Who's Allah?'

Allah is the NAME of the god of Islam AND Allah is the NAME of the ‘chief' god of the Arabian pantheon of gods that were being worshipped by the Arabs when Islam immerged. Allah is NOT the NAME of the God of the Jews and Christians – the NAME of the God of the Jews and Christians is YHWH. But wait – allah = al + ilah = the god – so, you see allah is a kind of ‘play-on-words' if you will. One could propose that the god of Islam has NO name as allah simply means ‘the god' – however the acceptance and usage of the ‘term' by Muslims is enlightening: "Allahu akbar" = "Allah is greater" or is it "The God is greater"? No, no, no, the gods have names and the name of the god of Islam is Allah.

Moses came to the Hebrews representing a god they already knew by the name YHWH. Mohammad came to the Arabs representing a god they already knew by the name Allah. The Hebrews were aware of (and may have been worshipping) ‘other gods' that they knew the names of. The Arabs were aware of (and were actually worshipping) ‘other gods' that they knew the names of. The Hebrew word elohim is generic and can refer to ANY god or god-like entity. The Arabic word ilah is similar to eloh(im) in Hebrew – BUT al + ilah can only be applied to the ‘supreme being' if you will. You imply that Arabic speaking Christians (in a Muslim country?) call Jesus "‘allah al ibn' lit. ‘(the) god the son'" – allow me to draw your attention to the lack of capital letters in your usage of allah – god – son, you are admitting to the very thing I am trying to explain. Try to ‘hear' me on this thing – when I say or write allah am I NOT saying or writing Allah – this is either bad grammar or out-and-out dishonesty OR compulsory. You admit yourself that ilah = god and Allah = God – when al is used with ilah it MUST refer to God. So we have returned to the play-on-words that is allah. If in fact Arabic speaking Christians ‘refer' to Jesus as ‘allah al ibn' the ‘correct' English translation should have been ‘God the Son' indicating that ‘for a Christian' (even an Arabic speaking Christian) both God and Son are references to ‘The God'. In any case the words God and Son are not in any way ‘names' of God but simply references to ‘The God'. The 99 so-called names of Allah in Islam are, in reality, only references to its supposed attributes. Allah's NAME is Allah – PERIOD. The use of the word allah in ‘reference' to the God of Abraham, etc. is not incorrect in so far as Arabic grammar is concerned – however the use of the word Allah as the NAME of the God of Abraham, etc. is absolute blasphemy – for His NAME is YHWH – FOREVER.

You mentioned that YHWH and Kurios are both found in the LXX. While I can easily find the Greek word kurioV in the LXX – YHWH is a bit problematical. You see YHWH in English is hwhy in Hebrew but I don't have any clue what it is in Greek – this is because there are no Greek letters that correspond to either the Hebrew or English letters. Besides every occurrence (that I could find) of hwhy in Hebrew is rendered kurioV in the Greek of the LXX.

You mentioned that Mohammad destroyed ALL the ‘rock idols' of the Kaaba – so, where did the ‘black stone' come from? The ‘black stone' was, indeed, one of the ‘rock idols' housed in the Kaaba at the time of Mohammad. Mohammad (somewhere in Bukhari) demonstrated a great deal of attachment and affection for the ‘black stone' – he ‘handled' (fondled) it lovingly – and kissed it affectionately – and placed it in a place of honor within the Kaaba. This is testified to by Umar, (you recall: Mohammad – Abu Bakr – Umar – Ali) in great detail in Bukhari. So Mohammad did NOT destroy ALL the ‘rock idols' of the Kaaba – he destroyed ALL SAVE ONE – the ‘black stone' of Allah.

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