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God revealed His Name!

(By the way, the term "God" is NOT "pagan"; it's merely a title for ELOHIM in the English language....Don't allow some self-proclaimed armchair "scholar" to tell you otherwise!)

Reader question: Although the ancient Greek NT manuscripts do NOT contain Elohim's Personal Name, I was hoping you could tell me whether the Shlichim of Y'shua really added His Father's Name or not in the original autographs.

Excellent question, and the answer is: Several passages in Genesis reveal that YHWH (Yahweh) provided His Name:

Genesis 4: 26 And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enosh. That is when people began to call upon the name of YHWH.

Genesis 12: 8 He (Avram) left that place, went to the hill east of Beit-El and pitched his tent. With Beit-El to the west and 'Ai to the east, he built an altar there and called on the name of YHWH.

Genesis 21: 33 Avraham planted a tamarisk tree in Be'er-Sheva, and there he called on the name of YHWH, the everlasting God.

YHWH's NAME was never "God" or "ADONAI" or anything else; those were simply TITLES....

We are then told in Exodus that He provided His Name to Moses:

Exodus 3: 13 And Mosheh said to Elohim, "See, when I come to the children of Yisra'el and say to them, 'The Elohim of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they say to me, 'What is His Name?' what shall I say to them?" 14 And Elohim said to Mosheh, "I am that which I am." And He said, "Thus you shall say to the children of Yisra'el, 'I am has sent me to you.'" (ISR)

NOTE: The Hebrew text reads: ’eyeh ’asher ’eyeh, the word ’eyeh being derived from hayah which means to be, to exist, but the Aramaic text here in v. 14 reads: ayah ashar ayah. This is not His Name, but it is an explanation that leads up to the revelation of His Name in v. 15, namely: .

Exodus 3:15 And Elohim said further to Mosheh, "Thus you are to say to the children of Yisra'el, ' Elohim of your fathers, the Elohim of Abraham, the Elohim of Yitsh'aq, and the Elohim of Ya'aqob, has sent me to you. This is My Name forever, and this is My remembrance to all generations.' (ISR)

The English transliteration of the Hebrew letters "Yud-Hey-Vav-Hey" is YHWH. Thus, God Himself revealed His Name to us, and man has had access to it all along; but, ironically, traditional Jews refuse to utter his Name for fear of mispronouncing it or misspelling it, etc.; while, on the other hand, you'll never hear the Father's Name mentioned in most Christian churches as they are all concentrating on "Jesus" whom they erroneously believe came to replace the Father and abolish all his original Divine instructions/ teachings (Torah, the first five Books of Moshe), without which we would have NO blueprint for holy, moral living.

Now, let's discuss YHWH's Messiah and "Son":

Jesus' given Hebrew name was actually Yeshua, which means, "YHWH is Salvation." Yeshua who, contrary to popular belief, was the MESSIAH and not someone who came to replace ELOHIM, was the creative Word through which everything was made (Psalm 33:6, John 1:1-5, Hebrews 1:1-5). He was "echad" (the plural form of "one" ... as in "one bunch of grapes" or "one dozen eggs") with the Father (John 10:30) because of who he was and where he came from (see Isaiah 53).

The divine Messiah whom YHWH placed into Miriam's womb was a holy and perfect image, of his Father! He came NOT to replace YHWH, but to be His MESSIAH who was to preach the Good News and do everything his Father commanded. (See Luke 4:43; Luke 8:1; Acts 28:23; and Acts 24:14 wherein the Apostle Paul also confirmed Torah: "But this indeed I acknowledge, that in that same doctrine of which they speak, I do serve the Elohim of my fathers, believing all the things written in Torah and in the prophets.")

Now, here's a million-dollar question: Did Yeshua "pre-exist"? The simple answer is: Yeshua, the "entity" did pre-exist as we see in John 1:1-3; but "Yeshua" the "man", the "redeemer" was created...

As background, the "Word of YHWH" was always with YHWH; it pre-existed, as we see in the first three chapters of Genesis that reveal the "echad-ness" of YHWH who "spoke" everything into being," (that was the Word) and whose Spirit floated above the waters, etc. (See Genesis 1 through 3; John 1:1, 14). But, Yeshua, the human Messiah, was clearly "created" in a virgin's womb - again, "spoken" into being via YHWH's "echad-ness". YHWH didn't have sex with Miriam to create His Messiah!

Nobody has ever seen YHWH, nor do we know what comprises Him. We only know that He "is" thanks to verses such as you see above in Exodus 3:13-15!

There are hints, however, that Yeshua, the human, came to earth BEFORE he was ever presented to the world as "Yeshua". For instance, Genesis 32:22-32 tells us that "some man" fought Jacob - that that "man" blessed Jacob and changed his name to "Israel." WHO had the power to do that? Surely not a "mere man" or an angel, because Jacob SAID he saw God face-to-face!

Genesis 32:28 Then the man said, "From now on, you will no longer be called Ya'akov, but Isra'el; because you have shown your strength to both God and men and have prevailed." 29 Ya'akov asked him, "Please tell me your name." But he answered, "Why are you asking about my name?" and blessed him there. 30 Ya'akov called the place P'ni-El [face of God], "Because I have seen God face to face, yet my life is spared." (CJB)

Also, whom did Hagar see in Genesis 16:7-13? The text says "an angel" but Hagar was convinced it was YHWH!

Genesis 16:13 So she named ADONAI who had spoken with her El Ro'i [God of seeing], because she said, "Have I really seen the One who sees me [and stayed alive]?" (CJB)

So, with what we can surmise according to Torah is that the Word (that spoke the universe and everything in it into "being") pre-existed, but Yeshua, the redeemer in his human form, was created to become the Divine Messiah.

The bottom line is, Messiah Yeshua taught Torah, constantly mirroring his Father's commands for ALL to obey, as we see outlined in Numbers 15:13-16:

Numbers 15:13 "'Every citizen is to do these things in this way when presenting an offering made by fire as a fragrant aroma for ADONAI. 14 If a foreigner stays with you - or whoever may be with you, through all your generations - and he wants to bring an offering made by fire as a fragrant aroma for ADONAI, he is to do the same as you.

15 For this community there will be the same law for you as for the foreigner living with you; this is a permanent regulation through all your generations; the foreigner is to be treated the same way before ADONAI as yourselves. 16 The same Torah and standard of judgment will apply to both you and the foreigner living with you.'" (CJB)

Please re-read the above in case you missed it: Any "foreigner" (Torah-less non-Jew/Hebrew/Israelite) who wishes to accept the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is to do exactly as those who are already belong to Him....

And Paul confirmed it:

Romans 10: 12. And in this, it discriminates neither Jews nor Gentiles. For there is one, Master YHWH, over them all, who is abundantly generous towards every one that calls on him. 13. For everyone that will call on the name of Master YHWH, will have life. (AENT)

As you can clearly see, YHWH, Yeshua and Torah go hand-in-hand! Attempts to separate them is a very grave mistake!

The Aramaic English New Testament (AENT) (from which the contents of this article were borrowed) was a direct translation of the Khabouris Codex which was written in ALL Aramaic - and includes the correct Name of YHWH. The following explanation on the correct pronunciation of YHWH's Name was borrowed from an appendix in the AENT:

YHWH (yud-hey-vav-hey, pronounced YAH - WEH...because the "vav" takes on an "oo" sound to make it YAH-WEH instead of YAH-VEH) is the Name of the Most High Elohim. Netzari followers of Mashiyach never subscribed to the Rabbinic ban against vocalizing the Name of YHWH. Neither was the pronunciation of the Name lost within Jewish culture.

When Torah was translated into Greek, observant Jewish scribes preserved the Name of YHWH by writing "YHWH" with Hebrew characters in the Septuagint. Isaiah 52:5-6 states that the Name of YHWH is "continually every day blasphemed, therefore YHWH’s people shall know His name." This prophecy is nested in Scripture that reveals the "arm of YHWH" who is Mashiyach; therefore, it is Mashiyach Y’shua who brought the knowledge of the Name of YHWH to the world. (Footnote to Matthew 1:20, AENT)

While we're at it, let's also discuss the English spelling of the transliteration of our Divine Messiah, Yeshua:

It is actually wrong to insist that we must spell Mashiyach's Name as "YAHSHUA" because, the fact is, no one who knows Hebrew or Aramaic believes it "has" to be spelled that way. It is dangerous to have a theological issue masquerading as linguistics. In Hebrew, both the long form YEHOSHUA and the short form YESHUA are pointed with a TSERE (AY) NOT a PTAHA (AH). The belief arises from a mistaken idea that "not one yodh" means preserving the YAH sound.

In Hebrew YAH morphs to other sounds in names that contain YHWH/Yahweh. YAH (YHWH) + KHANAN (our mercies) = YOH-KHANAN NOT "Yah-khanan". YAH + EL = YOH-EL (Joel) NOT YAH-EL (which is a separate girl's name - get the picture?)

One thing is for sure: We know that neither YHWH's nor Yeshua's Names were pronounced as "LORD." Doubters need to go to the Western Wall in Jerusalem next Yom Kippur (rabbinic calendar) in the early morning and they will hear pious Jews call on the Name properly, as YAH-WAY. The world doesn't know that we Jews have NOT forgotten His Name in spite of the fact we also conspired to hide it.....

And the Son's name always has a TSERE (eh) not a PATAHA (ah) sound in proper Hebrew pointing. It is the shortened form of YAY-HOE-SHOO-WAH (Joshua) and that pointing does NOT change in truncation. Unfortunately, there are a myriad "experts" who attempt to say otherwise, and this is because they don't understand basic Hebrew morphology.

The YAHSHUA or YAHUSHUA error arises from THEOLOGY and not from sound linguistics or Semitic grammar. The idea is a misapplication of "not one yodh shall pass", where they think wrongly that changing the sound to YAY takes part of YAH's name out. The fact is, YHWH created Hebrew and in that creation He, in His Wisdom, made names that CHANGE the sounds of words.

No serious Hebrew scholar would ever suggest that Moshe's sucessor's name is not YAY-HOE-SHOO-WAH and this is the same etymology of Y'shua, same words "YHWH is salvation". Therefore, if Yehoshua does not come under "not one yodh" and changes its words from YAH to YOH, so much the shortened form of the SAME NAME, YAY-SHOO-WAH.

So, for those who insist on spelling Yeshua as "Yahshua" or even "Yahusha" - go for it! But please don't go around insisting "your way" is the ONLY way, or send death threats to those of us who don't agree with that spelling!

A Jewish gentleman wanted to know why we use the tetragrammaton, and this was our response:

YHWH is our Creator's Name; "God" is just a title. There was never a ban on using the Name; there was a ban on CURSING in the name or abusing it in some way (i.e., attributing something to Him that He never said or did). There are at least 300 incidences in Tanakh where we are commanded to use the Name of YHWH, who accepts no substitutes!

Furthermore, Y'shua called His Father MarYAH (Master Yah) in Tanakh quotes like Psalm 110 and in regular conversation. Y'shua was squarely against the Oral Law that included the ban (Joshua 23:7, Isaiah 42:9).

Even in the Greek NT why do you think everyone was upset with "Before Abraham was I AM"?

Why do we use the tetragrammaton?

"Conspiracy theory" alert!

Be careful about what you see, read or hear! Many "ear-tickling" teachings are concocted by those who don't necessarily know what they're talking about. They "hear" or "read" something, then put their own twist on it - and, suddenly, it becomes "doctrine."

So, BE CAREFUL about everything you see, read or hear! Please don't allow yourself to be sucked in by self-proclaimed, armchair "experts" who serve to do nothing more than to lead you away from YHWH's Truth!

For instance, there's a "teaching" on the Internet that suggests YHWH's Name supposedly means "Behold hand, behold nail" - and they post the attached meme to "prove" it.

The "Behold the Hand Behold the Nail" assertion is not really about YHWH; but rather, it is symbolism and meanings that some Paleo folks think is hidden in the arrangement of the letters.

The VAV/WAW means "hook, hang, nail" - and in the ancient Hebrew form it actually looks kind of like a nail and the reference to it is made in the Torah, where a hook or nail in the Tabernacle is called VAV.

"Yahweh" however, is THIRD person whereas "Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh" (I am that I am) is FIRST person. The latter is what Yahweh calls HIMSELF; the former is what we are supposed to call Him, as it parses out to "Yah Who is" or "Yah, He Who exists".

But the third person Name (Yahweh) is on another level "targummed/understood" as referring to the other Name; hence, "I am that I am" when the other Name is linked to it.