Wednesday, March 19, 2025

Does the Bible Forbid the Pronunciation of God's Holy Name?

 



It is being claimed that the in the past the Jews were not allowed to pronounce the personal name of "YHVH" of God because this name was so sacred to be pronounced by human lips. While some cite some scriptures pertaining to not using God's name in vain, those scriptures do not tell anyone not to pronounce God's Holy Name. Actually, according to the idea that God's Holy Name is too sacred to pronounce, this would not mean to change the Holy Name to other words and then pronounce the Holy Name with those words, but it would actually mean that whenever the Holy Name appears one should just skip over the name without giving any pronunciation to the name at all. However, we know of none who actually do this. We have found that most people do give a pronunciation of the Holy Name with words such as ADONAI (Supreme Lord); ELOHIM (Supreme Mighty One); Lord; the Lord; God; HaShem; and many other ways. Definitely, all the pronunciations given to the Holy Name are false pronunciations. However, we have not found anyone who does not give some kind of pronunciation to the Holy Name.

To illustrate:

I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. -- Isaiah 42:8, King James Version.

Most English translations present God's Holy Name as being "the LORD", and usually most people who read this verse aloud from any of this translation will not just skip over the Holy Name so not to pronounce it, but they do pronounce the Holy Name as being "the LORD". 

Another presents Isaiah 42:8 as saying:

I am ADONAI; that is my name. I yield my glory to no one else, nor my praise to any idol. -- Isaiah 42:8, The Complete Jewish Bible.

This would change the Holy Name to ADONAI, and rather than not pronounce the Holy Name at all as often claimed, the reader would usually mispronounce God's Holy Name as being ADONAI, meaning "Supreme Lord" or "Sovereign Lord". 

The only way to truly NOT pronounce the Holy Name would be to skip it completely, which would make it read, "I am ; that is my name." However, this would make it appear that "I am" is God's Holy Name. We should note, that, in the Hebrew, there is no verb at all in the first sentence, except that the Holy Name itself is a verb, although it being used in the sentence as a noun. Thus without the added linking verbs, and without pronouncing the Holy Name, it would be read as "I, that my name". This would actually end up making it appear that "I" is God's Holy Name, thus it would appear that that entire sentence would be probably be misunderstood if one actually did not give any pronunciation at all to God Holy Name.

It is claimed that that the prohibition of pronouncing the Holy Name is the reason why Moses that Abraham and Moses only called "YHVH" with the terms "Adon" or "Adonai" in Hebrew. No scripture is given, but evidently it is referring to Exodus 6:2,3, which reads according to the American Standard Version.

Exodus 6:2 And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am Jehovah:
Exodus 6:3 and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, as God Almighty; but by my name Jehovah I was not known to them. 

Since the book of Genesis records Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and many others, as using God's Holy Name, Moses evidently was not saying that they did not know the Holy Name, often represented in English as "Jehovah", as being the name of God Almighty. Some have claimed that the Holy Name was not originally used by anyone in the times recorded in the book of Genesis, but that Moses retroactively put the Holy Name into the book of Genesis. Some imagine and assume that in the book of Genesis where we now have a form of the Holy Name, that it was originally a form of ADON (meaning Lord). The actually usages of the Holy Name in book of Genesis, however, would tend to show that they did indeed know what God's Holy Name is, although they did not know that name is its completed meaning.

For instance, in Genesis 22:14, we find:

And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of Jehovah it shall be provided.

It would seem rather fantastic that Abraham did not here actually use the Holy Name. One would have to imagine and assume that he did not, and that he did not give the place of sacrifice the name "Jehovah-jireh", but something else. If one claims that Moses actually gave the name of the place "Adon-jireh" or "Adonai-jireh", this would an additional assumption that would have to be added to and read into the scripture.

So how do we reconcile the usage of the Holy Name throughout the book of Genesis with what is stated in Exodus 6:3?

Matthew Poole gives two opinions related to this:

Answ. 1. He speaks not of the letters or syllables, but of the thing signified by that name. For that denotes all his perfections, and, amongst others, the eternity, constancy, and immutability of his nature and will, and the infallible certainty of his word and promises. And this, saith he, though it was believed by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, yet it was not experimentally known to them; for they only saw the promises afar off, Hebrews 11:13.

Answ. 2. This negative expression may be understood comparatively, as many others are, as Genesis 32:29 Matthew 9:13 1 Corinthians 1:17: q.d. They knew this but darkly and imperfectly, which will now be made known more clearly and fully.

It is further claimed that "all Jewish scholars translated the written Hebrew term 'YHVH' in the OT to 'KYRIOS' in Greek (meaning Lord or Mater) in their Greek OT version LXX."

The reality is that "Kyrios" is not at all a "translation" of God's Holy Name. There is definitely no way that Hebrew active verb that represents God's Holy Name means "Lord", "Master", "Sir', etc., all of which are not verbs, but nouns. Furthermore, we should note that God never authorized anyone to change his eternal Holy Name to other words that do not even mean the same thing as His Holy Name.

Except for a few fragments often attributed to being from Jewish LXX, we do not actually have the Jewish LXX at all. What we have is the Christianized edited LXX from about the fourth century AD. Nevertheless, at least two of the earlier fragments often attributed to the earlier Jewish LXX do contain some form of the Holy Name. One can see pictures of these fragments at:

https://eliyah.com/tetragrammaton-found-in-earliest-copies-of-the-septuagint/

It is also claimed:

"That’s why the Greek term 'Kyrios' in the NT was translated as 'Lord' to match with the LXX translation. But by its context, the reader can realize it is YHVH who incarnated in Jesus Christ for his salvation in the NT."

Actually, no scripture in the Bible ever presents such an idea. The whole idea has to be created beyond what is written, added to what is written, and then read into what is written. Actually, no scripture anywhere presents any reason for the NT writers to change God's Holy Name to other words. We do know that there is no scripture that authorizes anyone to change God's eternal Holy Name to other words. Beyond that, we would have to look beyond what is actually written to see if we can find some reason for God's Holy Name to be changed in the New Testament to some other words, such as the Greek words often transliterated as KURIOS or THEOS. We do not have the original autographs of the New Testament writers; all we have are later copyies which appear to have been copied by Gentile Christian scribes. The best conclusion we can see is that, due to Roman and Jewish persecutions, these Christian scribes probably sought the keep the New Testament writings from being destroyed by the Jews or the Romans, possibly first by using name holders for various names of the Bible, during the process of which the Holy Name was represented with Greek characters corresponding to KS, short for Kurios, or as some prefer, Kyrios. According to this theory, later copyists simply expanded KS to KURIOS, thus making it appear that the Holy Name had been changed to KURIOS in the New Testament. I could not be dogmatic about this theory, all it does fit with several historical events. I have more about this in the studies linked to at:

https://nameofyah.blogspot.com/p/holy-name-in-new-testament.html

Nevertheless, if Jesus came in the name of Kyrios instead of coming in the name as foretold, then according to Deuteronomy 15:18-22, he would be a false prophet. 







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