What’s in a Name?

Does God have a name? According to one of the most prominent strands of tradition in the Old Testament of the Bible, yes. The name was revealed to Moses at the burning bush when Moses insisted that he needed to know the name of the God who was calling him to liberate his people. 

The name God gave appears in Exodus 3:15 as YHWH. Most scholars believe it was pronounced something like Yahweh. The name seems to come out of the verb “to be,” echoing the previous verse when God says “I am who I am” or “I will be who I will be.” It speaks to the eternal presence of the Divine, not bound but always existing as the Divine chooses to be. 

A second dominant strand of tradition in the Hebrew text uses the term Elohim. Elohim is a more generic Hebrew word for God or gods. Context determines whether it means God, as in the God of the biblical story, or more generally a god or gods.

On Sunday, September 13, we will read portions of the Noah story, or better said, the Noah stories. This is one of the easiest places in the Old Testament to see what many biblical scholars understand as two streams of tradition woven together. You can actually pull them apart and find two substantially complete versions of the Noah story. In the classic source-critical analysis, one is associated with the YHWH tradition and the other with the Elohim/Priestly tradition. It is important that however we translate into English, we find a way to preserve the difference so we can notice the traditions.

Which brings me back to YHWH. Over time, a tradition developed among our Jewish siblings. When they encountered YHWH in the text, they read aloud a substitute because the name was eventually deemed too holy to pronounce. Instead of pronouncing the name, they substituted Adonai (translated as “lord” or “master”) when reading the text aloud. This tradition eventually led to the English translation tradition of rendering YHWH as LORD in the written text. 

For the last couple of years, I have opted to pronounce the unique name of God, Yahweh, as it appears in the original text. This is true to the text and avoids the challenges of applying a word like the English “lord” to the God of Creation (I won’t unpack all the reasons that can be problematic). Using Yahweh is a practice consistent with English translations like The Inclusive Bible and the New Jerusalem Bible… but I know this can be confusing, especially for people visiting or new to FBCH.

So what to do? Some modern Christian and Jewish translations simply translate both YHWH and Elohim as God, though that loses the uniqueness of traditions and something spectacular about the actual name of God in the original text. However, there are many alternatives used in translation around the world, and one of the most prominent comes out of the Francophone Protestant Reformation. In a 1537 revision of the Olivétan Bible, YHWH is translated as l’Éternal, in English “The Eternal.” This became a long and influential French Protestant way of translating the name of God, capturing something of the timelessness and self-existence that is in the name, YHWH.

So, this fall, as we once again consistently open the Old Testament for Sunday reflections, I’ll lean into the French Protestant tradition and adopt “The Eternal” in place of Yahweh. It seems like a solid Canadian choice to adopt a practice from the French language! I hope this is easier to understand while also helping us faithfully hear the scripture that has been passed down to us. I’ll be interested to hear from you—what do you think?