Monthly Archives: November 2009

In the Old Testament, Yahweh’s Name appears almost 7,000 times. According to Bible scholar Charles Ryrie, it appears exactly 6,823 times. That makes Yahweh the most prominent Name in the Old Testament. Yahweh’s Name appears in the New Testament as well because there are almost 700 direct quotes from the Old Testament in the New Testament, but surprisingly, most Christians have never heard it or seen it. The reason is simple. Yahweh’s Name has been edited out of most English Bibles and the titles LORD and GOD have been inserted where it should be. Most English Tanachs substitute HASHEM for Yahweh. HASHEM is a Hebrew word that means The Name.

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In the Old Testament, Yahweh’s Name appears almost 7,000 times.  According to Bible scholar Charles Ryrie, it appears exactly 6,823 times.  That makes Yahweh the most prominent Name in the Old Testament.  Yahweh’s Name appears in the New Testament as well because there are almost 700 direct quotes from the Old Testament in the New Testament, but surprisingly, most Christians have never heard it or seen it.  The reason is simple.  Yahweh’s Name has been edited out of most English Bibles and the titles LORD and GOD have been inserted where it should be.  Most English Tanachs substitute HASHEM for Yahweh.  HASHEM is a Hebrew word that means The Name.  For details, you need to read His Name is Yahweh.  You can download it for free or you can purchase it from Amazon for $5 if you have a Kindle.

Yahweh’s Name appears for the first time in Genesis 2: 4—“This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that Yahweh God made earth and heaven.”  The creative process actually begins in Genesis 1: 1 and continues in Genesis chapter 2.  I don’t want to focus on the creation here because it takes some time, but this much is certain.  Genesis chapter 2 declares unambiguously that Yahweh is the Creator.

In Genesis chapter 3, Yahweh’s Name is used 9 times.  For example, it appears as “Yahweh made,” “Yahweh called,” and “Yahweh said,” but no person calls Him by the Name Yahweh in Genesis chapter 3.  Genesis 4: 1 is the first occasion in the Bible where anyone calls Yahweh by Name.  At the birth of her son Cain, Eve said, “Now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, ‘I have gotten a manchild with the help of Yahweh.’”  Obviously, Eve knew Yahweh’s Name, and she realized that He played an essential part in Cain’s birth.  It makes sense that Adam knew His Name too.

Enosh, Seth’s son and Adam’s grandson, knew Yahweh by Name.  In Genesis 4: 26, the Bible says, “To Seth, to him also a son was born; and he called his name Enosh. Then men began to call upon the name of Yahweh.” (Genesis 4: 26, the New American Standard Bible)  The King James Version and the New International Version differ only slightly from the NAS translation.  However, The Septuagint Tanach (a version of the Tanach, or the Old Testament, that was translated from Hebrew to Greek in 285 B.C. by a team of 70 rabbis) and The New Jerusalem Bible tell us in Genesis 4: 26 that Enosh (not men as the NAS, KJV, and NIV suggest) was the first person in history “to invoke the Name of Yahweh.”

This is a literal translation of the Hebrew in Genesis 4: 26—“And to Seth also was born a son, and he called his name Enosh.  Then he (Enosh) began to call on the Name of Yahweh.” (Genesis 4: 26 in The Interlinear NIV Hebrew-English Old Testament by John Kohlenberger, III.)

The Hebrew word translated in Genesis 4: 26 as “to call” is qara (kaw-raw’).  It means to call upon, to cry unto, or to proclaim.  Obviously, Yahweh had a reason for including this information in the Bible.  He wanted us to know who declared his Name publically the first time and when he did it.

Today, I want you to take a look at the use of the phrase “I am Yahweh” in Exodus chapters 1-29 and the context in which it is used.  This phrase is important and revealing because the primary purpose of the Exodus was to distinguish between Yahweh and every so-called “god”.

Exodus 6: 2-3—“God spoke further to Moses and said to him, ‘I am Yahweh; and I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as God Almighty (El Shaddai), but by My name, Yahweh, I did not make Myself known to them.’”

Exodus 6: 6-8—“Say, therefore, to the sons of Israel, ‘I am Yahweh, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage. I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. Then I will take you for My people, and I will be your God; and you shall know that I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.  I will bring you to the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you for a possession; I am Yahweh.’”

Exodus 7: 4-5—“When Pharaoh does not listen to you, then I will lay My hand on Egypt and bring out My hosts, My people the sons of Israel, from the land of Egypt by great judgments.  The Egyptians shall know that I am Yahweh, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the sons of Israel from their midst.”

Exodus 7: 17—“Thus says Yahweh, ‘By this you shall know that I am Yahweh: behold, I will strike the water that is in the Nile with the staff that is in my hand, and it will be turned to blood.”

Exodus 8: 20-22—“Now Yahweh said to Moses, ‘Rise early in the morning and present yourself before Pharaoh, as he comes out to the water, and say to him, Thus says the Yahweh, ‘Let My people go, that they may serve Me.   For if you do not let My people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you and on your servants and on your people and into your houses; and the houses of the Egyptians will be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground on which they dwell. But on that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, where My people are living, so that no swarms of flies will be there, in order that you may know that I, Yahweh, am in the midst of the land.’”

Exodus 10: 1-2—“Then Yahweh said to Moses, ‘Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may perform these signs of Mine among them, and that you may tell in the hearing of your son, and of your grandson, how I made a mockery of the Egyptians and how I performed My signs among them, that you may know that I am Yahweh.”

Exodus 14: 3-4—“For Pharaoh will say of the sons of Israel, ‘They are wandering aimlessly in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.’ Thus I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will chase after them; and I will be honored through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am Yahweh.’”

Exodus 14: 18—“Then the Egyptians will know that I am Yahweh, when I am honored through Pharaoh, through his chariots and his horsemen.”

Exodus 15: 26—“And He said, ‘If you will give earnest heed to the voice of Yahweh your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I, Yahweh, am your healer.”

Exodus 16: 12—“I have heard the grumblings of the sons of Israel; speak to them, saying, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread; and you shall know that I am Yahweh your God.’”

Exodus 20: 1-17, The Ten Commandments—“Then God spoke all these words, saying, ‘I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.  You shall have no other gods before Me.  You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.  You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.  You shall not take the name of Yahweh your God in vain, for Yahweh will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.  Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of Yahweh your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you.  For in six days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.  Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Yahweh your God gives you.  You shall not murder.  You shall not commit adultery.  You shall not steal.  You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.  You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

Exodus 29: 38-46—“Now this is what you shall offer on the altar: two one year old lambs each day, continuously.  The one lamb you shall offer in the morning and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight; and there shall be one-tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with one-fourth of a hin of beaten oil, and one-fourth of a hin of wine for a drink offering with one lamb.  The other lamb you shall offer at twilight, and shall offer with it the same grain offering and the same drink offering as in the morning, for a soothing aroma, an offering by fire to Yahweh.  It shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the doorway of the tent of meeting before Yahweh, where I will meet with you, to speak to you there.  I will meet there with the sons of Israel, and it shall be consecrated by My glory.  I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar; I will also consecrate Aaron and his sons to minister as priests to Me.  I will dwell among the sons of Israel and will be their God.  They shall know that I am Yahweh their God who brought them out of the land of Egypt, that I might dwell among them; I am Yahweh their God.”

These verses make it clear that the Exodus wasn’t exclusively about delivering the Children of Israel from bondage in Egypt.  It wasn’t even primarily about delivering them.  The principal purpose of the Exodus was for Yahweh to reveal Himself to the world BY NAME.  He chose Egypt as the place from which He would deliver His people because Egypt was the lone superpower of the day.  Yahweh chose Pharaoh because his countrymen thought he was god incarnate.  Yahweh told Moses to write it all down so we would have a permanent record.  That record is called the Torah or the Books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

In the Internet Age, no living human who can read and has access to a computer can claim ignorance.  Everyone can know and everyone needs to know that there is only One God—Yahweh.  He is our only Savior and our Redeemer.

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News Items of Interest

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His Name is Yahweh

There is a wealth of material available for free download on www.hisnameisyahweh.org including the book His Name is YahwehHis Name is Yahweh is also available at Amazon on Kindle for just $5.  If you haven’t read His Name is Yahweh, you should.  The importance of Yahweh’s Name is becoming more apparent with each passing day.

HNIY bookcover in JPEG Kindle edition

Available on Amazon Kindle and it can be downloaded at www.hisnameisyahweh.org