A Greater Understanding for the Word "Lord"
I hope to make this post a bit short, but I mentioned in one of my recent comments that I would explain how the Romans 10:8-13 verses show that Jesus is the same God of the Old Testament. But before doing that, we have to understand a couple things about the word, "Lord".
I hope you find this interesting... it's a VERY useful piece of information when talking with Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, and other claim-to-be-Christian-but-not-really-Christian groups. And please please please, if there is anything confusing about what I write, please ask! Write it in the comments or email me. If you want to skip the detailed stuff, just go to the last sentence of this entry.
The name of God that Moses received from God was YHWH (that's what most English-speaking scholars will use in place of the Hebrew letters, Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey), for "I AM". Why no vowels? Because the Jews strongly believe that the name of God is so holy that it ought not be spoken, so to do this, they have no vowels. Also, historically, no vowels were written when writing and copying the scriptures. (The vowels generally are a series of dots and lines underneath the consonants. None of the Hebrew "letters" are vowels.)
So, the name God gave to Moses in Hebrew was YHWH. Instead of saying this word in prayer, the Jews would replace it with the word, "Adonai" which means LORD. In conversation, they may use the word Ha'Shem which also means LORD.
How about the New Testament, then? It was written in Greek, not Hebrew. The Greek word for Lord is Kurios/Kurion/Kuriou, depending on how it's used in a sentence. So when people said "Lord" at that time period, we have good reason to believe this: most likely people were saying "Adonai" or "Ha'Shem" and the New Testament writers translated that as "Kurio_"
How did the words "Yahweh" and "Jehovah" come about? Are they the same thing? Yes, they are the same word originating from YHWH. You can see how "Yahweh" came from YHWH.
How did "Jehovah" come about? In Old English, etc., the "J" was pronounced like a "Y" ("yuh") and the "V" was pronounced like a "W" (From what I remember). So that's how they got the consonants JHVH. It is believed the vowels came from "Adonai". So from that we get Jahovaih. With enough centuries passing by, that's how we eventually got "Jehovah".
So now with that big language lesson there, we can see that the words used for God's name can be written as YHWH, Adonai, Ha'Shem, Yahweh, Jehovah, Lord, I AM, and ego eimi (Greek for "I am").
Labels: Apologetics Tools, Theology
posted by Heather R. at 8/11/2006 03:27:00 PM
6 Comments:
Hey GF! Oops, I forgot to get back to this. But to answer your first question, basically it was an FYI post, but we (hopefully all of us together) are going to apply this new knowledge to a couple Bible verses to learn how they show that Jesus is the same God of the Old Testament. So basically if there are any paragraphs in this blog entry here that are unclear or need more explaining, you can post those questions here. If anyone has extra information like how JF4316 did, feel free to add that too.
About Saul/Paul's name change, back in Jesus' time it was typical for the Jews to have a Hebrew name and a Greek name (though not ALL people had a jewish and a Greek name that I know of) So his Hebrew name was Saul and his Greek name was Paulos. So basically he went by both names, but since he evangelized more to the Greeks/Romans, he is more well-known by his Greek name. Before he became Christian though, he was a Pharisee and was mostly around Jewish people, so he was known more by his Hebrew name before his conversion.
Here's a question for all of you... do you remember what YHWH is also an acronym for in Hebrew? I explained it on a Wednesday night a while ago. (Hint, it's 3 tenses of the same verb) Even if you don't remember, take a guess!
8/14/2006 11:07 AM
Hmm... to be a guess or not to be a guess... that is the question.
Are there going to be any guesses? Hmmm... I am wondering... This is getting tense.
8/16/2006 2:13 PM
hint hint
8/16/2006 2:14 PM
he he, i'm assuming (even thought i wasn't there for the lesson) that it has to do with an 'i was, i am, i will be' kind of thing?
^.^
just a guess.^.^
and i found this entry to be very informative. i didn't know about the yhwh thing. or the jahova thing. its kewl.^.^
8/16/2006 3:22 PM
Woo hoo! Yup, you got it!
So the "name" of God given to Moses, YHVH, means "I am" but as written in one of the books I have called The Secrets of Hebrew Words, "Combining the words for being in past, present, and future gives us the four-letter name of God". So we see that the very nature of God's being eternal is all wrapped up in His name.
As JF said: "In the Bible, a person IS their name." This shows God's position compared to others (that He's superior by nature) because it is from God that everything else comes (He's the only Eternal One), the created can never be greater than its creator, and that He's truly the beginning and the end.
And Jesus' name: "Yeshua"-- "Ya" is often thought to point to "Yahweh/YHVH" and "Yeshua" means "salvation" or "deliverance". All throughout the Old Testament, God over and over declares that He will be the one who saves and God is declared by the Psalms as the Horn and the Rock of salvation. Though Jesus' name was a fairly common name, people named their kids "Jesus" to say that "God saves"... Joseph and Mary were specifically told by Gabriel to give Jesus that name... basically declaring that "God is salvation" and that's WHO Jesus was... God BEING salvation in the flesh.
I just think this is sooo cool! God's awesome!
8/17/2006 1:15 AM
YAY!^.^ i wasn't even ther en i got it right.^.^ tho you DID give some pretty obviosu hints. ;)
i love this whole name thing.^.^ God is cool...
it seriosuly never occured to me o think back in the time the bible was written. when i read my bible (which i really should do more often) i find certain parts confusing... and i'm thinking its because i don't put myself in the mindset of the time which the bible was written.
I'll think to myself quite often... where did they get this name and this name? who thought of ezra and moses? how come you don't find these names now a days?
its because in this present time, only select few people will name a child by attributes. these days, your named at (or sometimes before) your born and you name doesn't change unless you go through all the legal work to change it.
....
ok strayign from point. The point is that it had never occured to me to think about why people put so much into a name, or what names meant, or how a name could change. i didn't understand why 'abram' was changed to 'abraham', and it would confuse me as i often foundmyself thinking of two names as one person. and now i have much more clarity.
^.^
8/23/2006 12:07 AM
Post a Comment
<< Home