The name of God, the God of Israel, that has been kept in secret for the Jewish people since the beginning is about to be revealed. Since God revealed His name to Moses in Exodus 3;14, this name is being kept hidden for a reason. The meaning of the name is so powerful and incredibly beautiful that can’t be said in vain for the Jewish, and in history, there has been a burglar that stole the meaning of the Eternal and used it for his own sake. He is one of the most famous Greek philosophers of all times.
The name that today is read in our bibles as the Lord and very well known among all Christians around the world is the direct translation of the name of Jehovah to the Greek Kurios, Lord. Lord in English and in Greek means sir, master, the possessor, the owner. Jehovah in Hebrew means the Existing One. Jehovah is the combination of the name Adonai and Yahweh with the purpose of creating a different word to call God and show respect to His name. The name that came from this is Jehovah. Even the name Yahweh, the name of God that is read for us from the bible is not the original.
“When the Hebrew bible added vowels to the consonants for the first time (about 300 BC), it put the vowels of adonai to the consonants YHWH. This produced a new word, Jehovah, though Jews continued to substitute adonai for YHWH when speaking.”
This name, YHWH, would not be spoken openly since then as a way of respect from the Jews and also to keep His name, The Holy Name, apart and protected from comparison with other gods from other nations.
The true meaning of God’s name spoken in Exodus 3;14 (God said to Moses: IAM WHO I AM – YHWH -…)from different and famous people is:
“I AM THAT I AM – EHEYEH asher EHEYEH. These words have been understood in different ways from different translations and languages. The Vulgate (from Latin) translates EGO SUM QUI SUM, I am who am. The Septuagint (Greek translation), I am he who exists. The Syriac, the Persic, and the Chaldee preserve the original words without any gloss. The Arabic paraphrases them: The Eternal, who doesn’t pass away, which is the same interpretation given by Abul Faraijus (a famous and well known interpreter and priest that wrote a bible dictionary), who also preserves the original words, and gives the above as their interpretation. The Targum of Jonathan, and the Jerusalem Targum paraphrase the words as: He who spoke, and the world was; He who spoke, and all things existed. God wasn’t only telling Moses about His deeds in the past with his ancestors, but He was also saying I am what or who I am and I will be what or who I will be. The words seem to point out to the eternity and self-existence of God. Plato, (a well known Greek philosopher) in his Parmenides, where he treats sublimely of the nature of God, says: “nothing can express His nature; therefore no name can be attributed to him.”
“This signifies the real being of God, his self existence, and that He is the Being of being; as also it denotes his eternity and immutability, and his constancy and faithfulness in fulfilling his promises, for it includes all time, past, present and to come; and the sense is, not only I am what I am at present, but I am what I have been, and I am what I shall be, and shall be what I am.”
There has been a very famous thief in history and in the name of knowledge he stole the meaning of the name of The Eternal, The Creator and Everlasting God. His name was Plutarch, one of the most famous Greek philosophers of all.
“To this divine discovery the ancient Greeks owed the inscription which they placed above the door of the temple of Apollo at Delphi; the whole of the inscription considered in the simple monosyllable EI, THOU ART, the second person of the Greek substantive verb I AM. On this inscription Plutarch, one of the most intelligent of all gentile philosophers, made an express treatise, having received the true interpretation in his travels in Egypt, where he had gone for the express purpose of inquiring into their ancient learning, and where he had doubtless seen these words of God to Moses in the Greek version of the Septuagint, which had been current among the Egyptians (for whose sake it was first made) about four hundred years previously to the death of Plutarch. This philosopher observes that this title is not only proper, but peculiar to God, because He alone is being, for mortals have no participation of true being, because that which begins and ends, and is continually changing, is never one nor the same, nor in the same state. He informs us that the ancient mode of addressing God was: “EI’EN, Thou are One (you are one), for many cannot be attributed to the divine nature, in which there is neither first nor last, future nor past, old nor young, but as being one, fills up in one now an eternal duration”. And he concludes with observing that “this word corresponds to certain others on the same temple – Know thyself, as if, under the name EL, THOU ART, the deity designed to excite man to venerate HIM as eternally existing, and to put them in mind of the frailty and morality of their own nature”.
“The Platonists and Pythagoreans seem to have borrowed this meaning, which expresses with them the eternal and invariable Being. It is also said that the temple of Minerva at Sais, a city of Egypt, had this inscription on it: “I am all that exists, is, and shall be”.
“What beautiful things have the ancient Greek philosophers stolen from the testimonies of God to enrich their own works, without any kind of acknowledgment? And strange perversity of man! These are the very things which we so highly applaud in the heathen copies, while we neglect or pass them by in the Divine originals!”
We can also see, through the bible, how different writers called God through the same interpretation. How strong it is!
Exodus 6;3 – I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty (EL), but by my name The Lord (JEHOVAH) I didn’t make myself known to them.
Psalms 90;2 – Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
Isaiah 44;6 – This is what the Yahweh, the king of Israel, and his Redeemer, Yahweh of Armies says: “I am the first, and I am the last, and besides me there is no God.
Matthew 28;20b – “Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age”, Amen.
John 8;58 – Jesus said to them, “Most certainly, I tell you, before Abraham came into existence, I AM (from the Greek EIMI: to be, to exist, to happen, to be present).
Hebrews 13;8 – Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.
Revelation 1;4 – John to the seven assemblies that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from God, who is and who was and who is to come;… 1;8 – I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, The Almighty. 1;17 –When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. He laid his right hand on me saying, Don’t be afraid, I am the first and the last, and the Living One. I was dead, and behold, I am alive forever more… 4;8 – The four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within. They have no rest day and night, saying, “ Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, The Almighty, who was, who is and who is to come!
Glory and honor to The One who created all things. “For of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen.” Romans 11;36.
Knowing that “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning . Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. – The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1,1-4 and 1;14.
His name is Jesus, he is the Lord, he is YHWH, he is fully God. He was sent in flesh to redeem us and now His name is above all names in earth. Honor and glory to Jesus forever.
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