Monday, November 30, 2009, 10:22 AM
[General]
(Many "names" of God: only One Proper Name)
The critical passage in the Bible is this:
18 Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (Now he was the priest of the Most High God.) 19 He blessed Abram, saying,So, at verse 22, Abraham solemnly declares that YHWH (Yĕhovah, Yahweh) and the "Most High God" ( 'el 'elyown, El Elyon) are one and the same God.
“Blessed be Abram by the Most High God,
Creator of heaven and earth.
20 Worthy of praise is the Most High God,
who delivered your enemies into your hand.”
Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of everything.
21 Then the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the people and take the possessions for yourself.” 22 But Abram replied to the king of Sodom, “I raise my hand to the LORD, [Hebrew, יהוה (Yĕhovah - H3068 )] the Most High God, [אל עליון ( 'el 'elyown - H410 + H5945)] Creator of heaven and earth, and vow 22 that I will take nothing belonging to you, not even a thread or the strap of a sandal. That way you can never say, ‘It is I who made Abram rich.’
(Genesis 14:18-23)
The identification established by Abraham, though very strong, is rendered somewhat problematic by what we read in Exodus, viz. that Yahweh, having revealed to Moses His Proper Name ...
God also said to Moses, “You must say this to the Israelites, ‘The LORD [ יהוה, Yĕhovah ]– 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 [that is, יהוה, Yĕhovah] forever, and this is my memorial from generation to generation.’ (Exodus 3:15)
... and having therefore identified Himself as one and the same as "the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob", in a later couple of verses of Exodus ...
2 God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the LORD. [ יהוה, Yĕhovah ] 3 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty, [אל שדי ('el Shadday - H410 + H7706)] but by my name ‘the Lord’ I was not known to them. (Exodus 6:2-3)
... declares that His Proper Name (יהוה, Yĕhovah) "was not known to them".
It is therefore evident that the name יהוה, must have been "retrofitted" in Genesis 14:22. In this respect, the NET © Note 5tn/sn, appended to Exodus 6:3 (too long to be examined here) is worth examining in detail. (#)
All we can say, in conclusion, is that the relationship between the appellatives El Elyon, and El Shadday, and the Name Proper Yahweh is a complex one, not fully explained.
I refuse as a Jewish-Gnostic heretic myth the idea that El Elyon would be the "father" of the "degenerate" son Yahweh, and that Jesus, the "holy son" of El Elyon, (or himself an incarnation of El Elyon?) would have come to earth to re-establish the "truth and order" of El Elyon, against Yahweh.
It is clear that one of the implication of this Gnostic idea is to lead straight to anti-Semitism. It is a real irony of history that the remote and obscure Jewish-Gnostic heretics, are the ones who, in a remote past, have paved the way to anti-Judaism and prepared one of the most formidable weapons against their own people, for the following 2000 years, and in particular for the 20th century.
(#)
5 tn The verb is the Niphal form נוֹדַעְתִּי (noda’ti).
If the text had wanted to say, “I did not make myself known,” then a
Hiphil form would have been more likely. It is saying, “but by my name
Yahweh I was not known to them.”
sn There are a
number of important issues that need clarification in the interpretation
of this section. First, it is important to note that “I am Yahweh” is
not a new revelation of a previously unknown name. It would be
introduced differently if it were. This is the identification of the
covenant God as the one calling Moses – that would be proof for the
people that their God had called him. Second, the title “El Shadday” is
not a name, but a title. It is true that in the patriarchal accounts “El
Shadday” is used six times; in Job it is used thirty times. Many
conclude that it does reflect the idea of might or power. In some of
those passages that reveal God as “El Shadday,” the name “Yahweh” was
also used. But Wellhausen and other proponents of the earlier source
critical analysis used Exod 6:3
to say that P, the so-called priestly source, was aware that the name
“Yahweh” was not known by them, even though J, the supposed Yahwistic
source, wrote using the name as part of his theology. Third, the texts
of Genesis show that Yahweh had appeared to the patriarchs (Gen 12:1, 17:1, 18:1, 26:2, 26:24, 26:12, 35:1, 48:3), and that he spoke to each one of them (Gen 12:7, 15:1, 26:2, 28:13, 31:3).
The name “Yahweh” occurs 162 times in Genesis, 34 of those times on the
lips of speakers in Genesis (W. C. Kaiser, Jr., “Exodus,” EBC 2:340-41). They also made proclamation of Yahweh by name (4:26, 12:8), and they named places with the name (22:14).
These passages should not be ignored or passed off as later
interpretation. Fourth, “Yahweh” is revealed as the God of power, the
sovereign God, who was true to his word and could be believed. He would
do as he said (Num 23:19; 14:35; Exod 12:25; 22:24; 24:14; 36:36; 37:14).
Fifth, there is a difference between promise and fulfillment in the way
revelation is apprehended. The patriarchs were individuals who received
the promises but without the fulfillment. The fulfillment could only
come after the Israelites became a nation. Now, in Egypt, they are ready
to become that promised nation. The two periods were not distinguished
by not having and by having the name, but by two ways God revealed the
significance of his name. “I am Yahweh” to the patriarchs indicated that
he was the absolute, almighty, eternal God. The patriarchs were
individuals sojourning in the land. God appeared to them in the
significance of El Shadday. That was not his name. So Gen 17:1 says that “Yahweh appeared…and said, ‘I am El Shadday.’” See also Gen 35:11, 48:2, 28:3.
Sixth, the verb “to know” is never used to introduce a name which had
never been known or experienced. The Niphal and Hiphil of the verb are
used only to describe the recognition of the overtones or significance
of the name (see Jer 16:21, Isa 52:6; Ps 83:17ff; 1 Kgs 8:41ff.
[people will know his name when prayers are answered]). For someone to
say that he knew Yahweh meant that Yahweh had been experienced or
recognized (see Exod 33:6; 1 Kgs 18:36; Jer 28:9; and Ps 76:2).
Seventh, “Yahweh” is not one of God’s names – it is his only name.
Other titles, like “El Shadday,” are not strictly names but means of
revealing Yahweh. All the revelations to the patriarchs could not
compare to this one, because God was now dealing with the nation. He
would make his name known to them through his deeds (see Ezek 20:5). So now they will “know” the “name.” The verb יָדַע (yada’)
means more than “aware of, be knowledgeable about”; it means “to
experience” the reality of the revelation by that name. This harmonizes
with the usage of שֵׁם (shem),
“name,” which encompasses all the attributes and actions of God. It is
not simply a reference to a title, but to the way that God revealed
himself – God gave meaning to his name through his acts. God is not
saying that he had not revealed a name to the patriarchs (that would
have used the Hiphil of the verb). Rather, he is saying that the
patriarchs did not experience what the name Yahweh actually meant, and
they could not without seeing it fulfilled. When Moses came to the
elders, he identified his call as from Yahweh, the God of the fathers –
and they accepted him. They knew the name. But, when they were delivered
from bondage, then they fully knew by experience what that name meant,
for his promises were fulfilled. U. Cassuto (Exodus, 79)
paraphrases it this way: “I revealed Myself to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
in My aspect that finds expression in the name Shaddai…I was not known
to them, that is, it was not given to them to recognize Me as One that
fulfils his promises.” This generation was about to “know” the name that
their ancestors knew and used, but never experienced with the
fulfillment of the promises. This section of Exodus confirms this
interpretation, because in it God promised to bring them out of Egypt
and give them the promised land – then they would know that he is Yahweh
(6:7).
This meaning should have been evident from its repetition to the
Egyptians throughout the plagues – that they might know Yahweh (e.g., 7:5). See further R. D. Wilson, “Yahweh [Jehovah] and Exodus 6:3,” Classical Evangelical Essays in Old Testament Interpretation, 29-40; L. A. Herrboth, “Exodus 6:3b: Was God Known to the Patriarchs as Jehovah?” CTM 4 (1931): 345-49; F. C. Smith, “Observation on the Use of the Names and Titles of God in Genesis,” EvQ 40 (1968): 103-9.
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