My Israel

What's in a Name?

What's in a name? Apparently, a great deal as the adversary, Satan, has devised a great conspiracy to conceal a name from mankind. Unfortunately, he has been very successful, deceiving even the elect. What name am I talking about? The name of God the Eternal Father. But you will say, we know His name, it is Elohim. Here is where a study of Biblical Hebrew will give clarity and uncover the great conspiracy of the evil one. Elohim, in Biblical Hebrew, simply means mighty one. It is a title not a name. Elohim is used many times in the Tanak and it CAN be used in reference to God, but it also is used in reference to pagan gods. There are even references to men, such as judges, in fact Moses is also referred to as Elohim in the Tanak.

I will now reveal the biggest translation error in the Bible. It actually is more than a translation error; it is more than a scribal error (an error in copying the text). To explain what is believed to be the impetus behind this conspiracy we must go back and learn a bit of history. In about 250 AD a Jewish rabbi was wrapped in a Torah (first five books of Old Testament sometimes referred to as the Pentateuch) scroll that was soaked in water and was burned at the stake for speaking the name of God as it is written.

After the martyrdom of Rabbi Hanina, the rabbis had to make a choice between losing an entire generation of Jewish leaders or adapting to the Roman prohibition against speaking God's name. To inculcate this decision, scribes were directed to remove one of the vowel markers in the Tanak, and the verbal reading of the Tanak in the synagogue would replace the name of God with the Hebrew word Adonai, being translated into English The LORD. It is regrettable that those that translated the Bible into the English language perpetuated this practice.

You will find in your modern Bibles that wherever the word LORD is found in all capital letters and on occasion when the word GOD appears in all capital letters it is actually the word יהוה in Biblical Hebrew. This word is sometimes referred to the Tetragrammaton. This word is actually the name of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob! It appears in the Old Testament over 6,825 times, I think it might be important!

There is some scholarly debate about how the Tetragrammaton is to be pronounced. I will not go into a great detail here for the cause of brevity, but I will present my belief. One important clue to pronunciation is the Masoretic text. Between the 7th and 10th century AD a system was developed to add vowel markers to the consonantal text of the Hebrew language to aid in pronunciation. However, due to the conspiracy to suppress the actual name of God, the scribes removed one of the vowel markers to prevent the inadvertent pronunciation of the name.

Scribes are VERY careful when copying the sacred text and before a Torah Scroll can be "certified" correct it is reviewed for any errors by a senior scribe. How do we find the missing vowel marker? Occasionally, scribes would make a "mistake" and insert ALL of the vowel markers in the Tetragrammaton, because the scribes knew how it was to be pronounced as it has been passed down by tradition! The scribe then has a problem, they were not supposed to include all the vowel markers, but when all of them are properly inserted it is the ACTUAL name of God. You DON'T blot out the NAME of GOD! So what is to be done? It is just left as is. It is literally the mistake that got it right! The name of God with the full vowel markers has been found in over 1,700 manuscripts to date. Also, at least 19 rabbis have confirmed these vowel markers are correct. (https://nehemiaswall.com)

יְהֹוָה is what the name of God looks like with the full vowel markers in Hebrew. The pronunciation is Yehovah. Hmmm. That is very close to Jehovah in English and in fact is the very same thing, but over time the letter "J" has changed from a "y" sound to the modern "j" sound. Uh-Oh! My shelf just shattered! If you are familiar with the book Jesus The Christ by James Talmage, you will immediately know why. If you have been to the temple you will also have a clue.

 According to the doctrines of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Jehovah is Jesus Christ and is the God of the Old testament. A careful reading of the Tanak as well as the Lectures on Faith, which were removed from the Doctrine and Covenants in 1921, clearly show that Yehovah is God the Eternal Father, not Jesus Christ. I know this church is true is a commonly used phrase by members of the church especially during testimony meetings. I have used it many times when I would bear my testimony. However, there is a problem when you state something so absolutely, if you find one little kink in the armor, it all quickly unravels.