The Revelation Of The Name Yhwh To Moses

In this book the varied and important reception is traced which the story of the revelation of YHWH’s name to Moses received in Judaism, early Christianity, and the pagan Graeco-Roman world.

Biblical tradition asserts that the revelation of God to Moses in the burning bush involved also a declaration of the divine name, the Tet (represented by the letters Y, H, W, H), and its meaning. There are indications that the divine name was known prior to the time of Moses, although ultimate questions of origin and precise meaning are shrouded in obscurity. IN fact, even the exact pronunciation of the name (usually pronounced YAHWEH) is by no means certain. The author of The Divine Name in the Bible surveys the immense literature on this subject, and traces the use of various names for deity in Israel from patriarchal times onwards, with special attention to the significance of the Tetragrammaton, which in course of time, became the name by which the God of Israel was known. Various aspects of the theological meaning of the name in the Old Testament writings are explored. The Dead Sea Scrolls, the Jewish Talmudic literature, and later mystical writings are also examined. The translators of the Old Testament into Greek used Kyrios as the equivalent for YHWH—with implications for the New Testament understanding of the person of Jesus Christ, reflected also in subsequent Christological formulations.

The obvious riddles and difficulties in Exod 3:13–15 and Exod 6:2–8 have attracted an overwhelming amount of attention and comment. These texts make important theological statements about the divine name YHWH and the contours of the divine character. From the enigmatic statements in Exod 3:13–15, most scholars reconstruct the original form of the name as “Yahweh,” which is thought to describe YHWH’s creative power or self-existence. Similarly, Exod 6:3 has become a classic proof-text for the Documentary Hypothesis and an indication of different aspects of God’s character as shown in history. Despite their seeming importance for “defining” the divine name, these texts are ancillary to and preparatory for the true revelation of the divine name in the book of Exodus. This book attempts to move beyond atomistic readings of individual texts and etymological studies of the divine name toward a holistic reading of the book of Exodus. Surls centers his argument around in-depth analyses of Exod 3:13–15, 6:2–8 and Exod 33:12–23 and 34:5–8. Consequently, the definitive proclamation of YHWH’s character is not given at the burning bush but in response to Moses’ later intercession (Exod 33:12–23). YHWH proclaimed his name in a formulaic manner that Israel could appropriate (Exod 34:6–7), and the Hebrew Bible quotes or alludes to this text in many genres. This demonstrates the centrality of Exod 34:6–7 to Old Testament Theology. The character of God cannot be discerned from an etymological analysis of the word yhwh but from a close study of YHWH’s deliberate ascriptions made progressively in the book of Exodus.

Tryggve Mettinger's much-praised work analyzes the major names for God in the Old Testament to trace, through the many confrontations and challenges of individuals and groups that mark Israel's story, the historical development of Israel's conception of God.

In The Westminster Theological Wordbook of the Bible an outstanding group of biblical scholars explain key theological and ethical words of the Bible (New Revised Standard Version). In its exploring groups of related words and drawing the reader into the meanings of the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, Gowan's Wordbook will prove immensely helpful in understanding important terms such as "Just," "Kingdom of God," "Resurrection," and "Son of Man."

Few phrases in Scripture have occasioned as much discussion as has the “I am who I am” of Exodus 3:14. What does this phrase mean? How does it relate to the divine name, YHWH? Is it an answer to Moses’ question (v. 13), or an evasion of an answer? The trend in late-nineteenth- and twentieth-century scholarly interpretations of this verse was to superimpose later Christian interpretations, which built on Greek and Latin translations, on the Hebrew text. According to such views, the text presents an etymology of the divine name that suggests God’s active presence with Israel or what God will accomplish for Israel; the text does not address the nature or being of God. However, this trend presents challenges to theological interpretation, which seeks to consider critically the value pre-modern Christian readings have for faithful appropriations of Scripture today. In “Too Much to Grasp”: Exodus 3:13?15 and the Reality of God, Andrea Saner argues for an alternative way forward for twenty-first century readings of the passage, using Augustine of Hippo as representative of the misunderstood interpretive tradition. Read within the literary contexts of the received form of the book of Exodus and the Pentateuch as a whole, the literal sense of Exodus 3:13–15 addresses both who God is as well as God’s action. The “I am who I am” of v. 14a expresses indefiniteness; while God reveals himself as YHWH and offers this name for the Israelites to call upon him, God is not exhausted by this revelation but rather remains beyond human comprehension and control.