What Is God’s Name?
One of the questions Jehovah’s Witnesses frequently ask is “Do you know the Lord’s prayer?” When the answer is given, it will include the phrase “… hallowed be thy name….” Then the JW will ask, “What is God’s name?” This conversation-starting question is intended to show that “Christendom” has not “hallowed” God’s name but Jehovah’s Witnesses have.
We are posting a number of e-letters Make Sure Ministries has received from David Henke, founder of Watchman Fellowship, Inc., an apologetics ministry, on a variety of subjects. They will post on Tuesdays into the foreseeable future. As always, we appreciate your comments. Please consider clicking on the link following this blog to learn more about Watchman Fellowship and what they have to offer. E-letters have been slightly edited for clarity.
The name of God is comprised of four Hebrew letters that are pronounced Yod Hay Vav Hay, or YHWH. These four letters are known as the Tetragrammaton. The Jews do not pronounce this name out of reverence but the closest we can come to its pronunciation would be Yahweh. The name Jehovah is a hybrid name created in the Middle Ages by including the vowel sounds from Adonai (Hebrew for Lord) between the four Hebrew consonants YHWH thus creating Jehovah, a Latinized version of Yahweh.
Jehovah’s Witnesses have very little understanding of the Name they have taken for themselves. The origin of the Name is in Exodus 3, where a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus as “the angel of the Lord” says His name is I Am. In Hebrew the Angel of the Lord said, “ehyeh asher ehyeh” which was translated as “I Am that I Am.” It means “I Am the Eternal” which tells us the Angel of the Lord was the pre-incarnate Jesus. The Hebrew behind I Am is the origin of Yahweh. So based on Exodus 3 and many other Old Testament passages we can conclude that Jesus is Yahweh. The JWs don’t know that.
Hebrew letters have multiple functions. Of course, they are first of all letters. But they are also used as numbers like Roman numerals. In addition, they are also used as pictograms. A male or female silhouette on a restroom door is a pictogram. Here is where the four letters of the Tetragrammaton become very interesting.
Recall what “doubting” Thomas said–that he would not believe Jesus had risen unless he saw the wounds of the nails? When Jesus appeared to him in the upper room, He offered the evidence of His wounds as proof of His resurrection (John 20).
Recall also that in Zechariah 13:6 the prophet said, “And one shall say unto him, ‘What are these wounds in thine hands?’ Then he shall answer, ‘Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.’”
Now to the pictographic meaning of the four Hebrew letters. The letter hay occurs twice and can be used pictographically as ‘eye,’ ‘see,’ ‘look,’ ‘behold,’ and ‘window’. The other two letters, yod and vav, are used to depict the hand and the nail, or spike. So, our pictographic meaning of YHWH would be “Behold the Hand, Behold the Nail.”
There is a chart of Hebrew pictographic symbolism at the website of Hebrew4Christians.com. This chart is an excellent gift to give a JW. He will be curious to look up the letters of the Tetragrammaton. I would love to see his expression when he learns what they mean.
December 31, 2021 E-Letter
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