G-D’s Name
9 “Pray, then, in this way:
‘Our Father who is in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
10 ‘Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
11 ‘Give us this day our daily bread.
12 ‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 ‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’] Matthew 6:9-13
In the L-RD’s prayer, Yeshua commands us to pray, “Hallowed be Your name.” Hallowed is defined in the Strong’s reference as below at http://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/nas/hagiazo.html :
The NAS New Testament Greek Lexicon
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We are called to glorify G-D and have reference for His name. Many may not know but in the Old Testament, G-D’s name is not the LORD or GOD. These are titles for G-D but not His name.
G-D’s actual name is presented in Genesis 2:4, however, G-D does not truly introduce or reveal His name until Exodus 3:14, when Moses requests from G-D who it is that he shall say is sending him to the Israelites in Egypt.
Exodus 3:13-15:
13 Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will 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?” 14 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.’ ” 15 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.
This is the place where scholars get what is call the Tetragrammaton, which is revealed to Moses. It consists of four Hebrew letters that are transliterated as YHVH. The Hebrew text did not have vowel points in the beginning. So, it is really unknown how to pronounce G-D’s name.
Out of reverence and to hallow G-D’s name, the Jewish people would not even speak His name but instead would use G-D’s titles. They would use HaShem, which means “The Name”. Or perhaps Adonai, which translate to Lord in English, and means ”owner” or “master”. Or they may use El, which translate into God in English and has single form and plural form of Elohim, and means “mighty one”, “ruler”, or “judge”.
Many have tried to insert the vowel points of Adonai or Elohim into the Tetragrammaton to come up with many different variations of what they call G-D’s name. Examples are Yahweh and Jehovah but there are many variations of spelling that are used. I choose not to use these because I do not believe they’re accurate. No one truly knows how G-D’s name would have been pronounced in the original Hebrew but only guess by adding vowel points from what I’ve studied.
Furthermore, in honor of this tradition to respect the L-RD’s name, I will try not to use the actual Hebrew name for G-D on this site. I usually just use G-D or L-RD, which some Jewish believers will even further try to revere G-D’s name by not using the vowel points in the substitutions. Please forgive me though because I am not always consistent depending on the post and the audience I’m thinking of at that moment. Normally when I’m writing more to a Christian audience that is not informed of their Jewish Roots, I will simply use LORD and GOD.
For further study below are some great resources on this topic:
“Hallowed be Your Name: Sanctifying GOD’s Sacred Name” by Aaron Eby and Toby Janicki of First Fruits of Zion- Mayim Chayim Series (can be obtained at http://ffoz.com/books.html#ty;pagination_contents;/books-page-2.html)
Geoff Ashley from The Village Church has a great overview in his blog Titled “Why does the Old Testament Sometimes Capitalize LORD or GOD?” at http://www.thevillagechurch.net/the-village-blog/why-does-the-old-testament-sometimes-capitalize-lord-or-god/
Baruch HaShem Messianic Synagogue has a great little overview as well at http://wp.bhsdallas.org/?page_id=521. They write the below on the topic:
Special Notes
The personal name for God—When G-d appeared to Moshe (Moses) at the burning bush, He revealed his personal name, I Am [YHWH] B’resheet 3:14. Sometime between Moshes’ time and B’rit Chadashah (New Testament) times, the Jewish community came to believe that it was irreverent to utter G-d’s personal name; only the priest who entered the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement spoke the name of G-d, and only on that one occasion. For that reason, the Jewish community developed alternate terms to use in place of G-d’s personal name: Adonai and HaShem.
Adonai —Literally, “my Lord.” English translations commonly translate the Hebrew word “Adonai” as “Lord,” and translate “YHWH” as “LORD.” When reading the Tanach in Hebrew, it is common to utter, “Adonai” when the Hebrew text reads “YHWH.”
HaShem —Literally, “the Name.” An alternate tradition is to utter “HaShem” when the Hebrew text reads “YHWH.” Scripture teaches that G-d’s Name is holy (Mattityahu 6:9), and it speaks of the Tabernacle and the Temple both as dwelling places for His Name (D’varim 14:23, 16:2; Divrei HaYamim – Aleph 22:8, 10, 19; 29:16). In keeping with this tradition, and out of reverence to G-d, the Messianic Jewish community commonly removes the vowels of words that refer to G-d when writing in English (i.e., “L-rd,” “G-d”).
Grace and peace be with you,
In Messiah Yeshua,
Coley
