LEB TAHOR
PURE HEART
HISTORY
As
explained in Part 1,
of the Name YHWH study, "elohiym"
and "adonay" have been used by the Yahudiym (Jews,
descendants and/or residents of the tribe of Yahudah [Judah],
primarily Rabbinic Judaism), as a substitute for the name dedi
[YHWH, Yahuweh], in the Scriptures. The substitution
of the name dedi
began before the capture of Yahudah, but increased tremendously
after the exile to “To
my lord Yaush. May dedi send you good news this very day!
I am nothing but a dog, why should you think of me? May dedi help you find out what you need to
know!” “May
dedi send you, my lord, the very best
possible news this very day! I am nothing but a dog, why have
you sent me these letters? I am returning them to you. I pray
that dedi will let you see a good harvest today.
Is TobYahu going to send me some of the king's’grain?"
During
the exile and afterward, the increasing use of substitute names
and titles, took the place of the name dedi,
even within the Scriptures themselves, as recorded in the Massorah
(see The Name YHWH Part 1 – The Tanak). This practice carried
over from liturgical, to everyday writings and communication,
where the kohaniym [priests], as well as the commoner no longer
used the name dedi. “The Rabbis, however, were certain
that the true name of God was the Tetragrammaton. In the period
of the Second Temple, YHWH was never pronounced except by the
high priest on Yom Kippur, on which occasion the people would
prostrate themselves and recite, ‘Praised be the name of His
glorious kingdom forever and ever’ (Yoma 6:2).”
[2]
Despite the fact that the Yahudiym knew that
dedi was His name, they came up with a
variety of terms and titles to call Him, except His name. “The
name YHWH is considered as the Name proper; it was known in
the earliest rabbinical works simply as the Name; also as Shem
ha-Meyuhad (“the Extraordinary Name” ; Sifre, Num. 143); as
Shem ha-Meforash (“the Distinguished Name”; Yoma vi. 2); as
Shem ben Arba Otiyyot (“the Tetragrammaton” or “the Quadriliteral
Name”; Kid. 71a); and as Yod He Waw He (spelling the letters
of YHWH).”
[3]
“Theodoret (c.450) showed that in his time the
Jews did not pronounce the name and already called it the tetragrammaton
(cf. F. Field, Hexapla, i. 90, on Ex. vi. 3, The
following is a list of substitutions used in the Jewish apocrypha.
“In
the Apocrypha, as in the Hebrew Bible, the most common names
for the deity are ‘God’ (Gr. Theos; in Ben Sira usually Elohim
but sometimes El), ‘Lord’ (Gr. Kyrios, which no doubt generally
stands for Adonai; but Ben Sira commonly has YHWH, represented
by three yods in the medieval mss.), ‘the Most High’ (Gr. ho
Hypsistos, probably for Heb. Elyon, but perhaps at times for
Ha-Gavoha as in the Talmud), ‘the Lord Almighty’ (Gr. Kyrios
Pantokrator for Heb. YHWH Zevaot) or simply ‘the Almighty’ (Gr.
ho Pantokrator for Heb. Zevaot alone), ‘the Eternal One’ (Gr.
ho Aionios (I Bar. Among
the terms used for God that are more or less peculiar to the
Apocrypha are: ‘the God of Truth’ (I Esd. An
interesting passage occurs in IV Ezra 7:62 (132)–70 (140), where,
based on Exodus 34:6–7, the author of this book lists seven
names of the Most High: ‘I know that the Most High is called
“the Compassionate One,” because He has compassion on those
who have not yet come into the world; and “the Merciful One,”
because He has mercy on those who repent and live by His law;
and “the Patient One,” because He is patient toward those who
have sinned, since they are His creatures; and “the Bountiful
One,” because He would rather give than take away; and “the
One Rich in Forgiveness,” because again and again He forgives
sinners, past, present, and to come, since without His continued
forgiveness there would be no hope of life for the world and
its inhabitants; and “the Generous One,” because without His
generosity in releasing sinners from their sins not one ten-thousandth
part of mankind could have life; and “the Judge,” because if
He did not grant pardon to those who have been created by His
word by blotting out their countless offenses there would probably
be only a very few left of the entire human race.’ The
earliest occurrences (except for Dan. 4:23: ‘It is Heaven that
rules’) of the substitution of the word ‘Heaven’ (God's abode)
for ‘God’ (Himself) are found in the Apocrypha: ‘In the sight
of Heaven’ (I Macc. 3:18), ‘Let us cry to Heaven’ (I Macc. 4:10),
‘They were singing hymns and glorifying Heaven’ (I Macc. 4:24),
‘All the people... adored and praised Heaven’ (I Macc. 4:55),
‘With the help of Heaven’ (I Macc. 12:15), and ‘From Heaven
I received these [sons]’ (II Macc. 7:11). In the Christian Gospels
this usage is especially common in the Judeo-Christian Gospel
of Matthew, where, e.g., ‘the kingdom of Heaven’ corresponds
to ‘the kingdom of God’ in the parallel passages of Mark and
Luke (Matt. 3:2 = Mark 1:15; Matt. 5:3 = Luke 6:20; et al.),
but also in Luke 15:18, 21: ‘I have sinned against Heaven.’
This usage still persists in such modern English expressions
as ‘Heaven help us!’ “
[5]
The
following are those listed in Rabbinic writings. “The
rabbis evolved a number of additional names of God. All of them,
without exception, are references to His attributes, but curiously
enough they are not included in the list of the permitted names
enumerated in the passage in Shevu'ot: ‘the Great, the Mighty,
the Revered, the Majestic,’ etc. (35a–b). The most common is
Ha-Kadosh barukh Hu (‘the Holy One, blessed be He’; in Aramaic,
Kudsha berikh Hu). It is an abbreviation of ‘the Supreme King
of kings, the Holy One blessed be He.’ The full formula is found
in the Mishnah (e.g., Sanh. 4:5; Avot 3:1), but more often the
abbreviation is found (e.g., Ned. Even
though the Scripture is quite clear, on the use of the name
dedi, the Rabbis developed teachings to
justify their practice of substitution and non-use. One of which
is based on the verse in Shemoth [Exodus] 3:15.
“And dedi said further
to Mosheh, ‘Now you say to the sons of Yisrael, “dedi, elohey of your fathers, elohey of
Abraham, elohey of Yitschaq and elohey of Yaaqob, sent me to
you. ‘This is My Name forever, and this memorial for generation
to generation.’ “ ‘ “ Now the word used for “forever” is L’OLM [mlol] (lamed, ayin, lamed, mem). According
to the rabbis, this rendering means to conceal. “The sages quoted, ‘This is my name for ever,
and this is my memorial unto all generations’ (Ex. iii. 15).
Here the word ‘le-‘olam’ (forever) is written defectively, being
without the ‘waw’ for the vowel ‘o’ which renders the reading
‘le-‘allem’ (to conceal; Kid. 71a).”
[7]
This is the same note on Shemoth [Exodus] 3:15
that occurs in Rashi’s commentary to the Onkelos Pentateuch,
“The Hebrew word le’olam (‘forever’) is spelled defectively,
without the letter vav, so that it may be read le’alem, which
means ‘to conceal,’ viz., ‘to conceal it’ that the name of God
shall not be read exactly as it is written.”
[8]
This justification of “hiding” the name dedi, based on a defective spelling of
owlam, is not correct. nlr (owlam) in the Hebrew means
“ 1. long, duration, antiquity. 2.continuous existence,
eternity, uninterrupted future. 3. World. 4.PBH (Post-Biblical
Hebrew) mankind, humanity. 5. PBH pleasures of life. 6. MH (Mishnaic
Hebrew) community. [Related to Biblical Aramaic and Aramaic nlr , Syriac amli
(=eternity; world; whence probably Ethiopic alam, ‘eternity;
world’), Arabic alam (=world). According to some scholars these words litterally mean ‘the hidden, unknown time’, and
derive from base nlr (=to hide). According to several other scholars the above words are
related to Akkadian ulu, ullanu (=remote time), so that – ain
in mloi, etc., would be a suffix.”
[9]
nlr
( Another
substitution for dedi, is that of HaShem, which in the
Hebrew means, “The Name”. “ The adoption of Ha-Shem (‘the Name’;
and, for reasons of assonance, Adoshem) for Adonai. The adoption
of Ha-Shem is probably due to a misunderstanding of a passage
in the liturgy of the Day of Atonement, the Avodah. It includes
the formula of the confession of the high priest on that day.
Since on that occasion he uttered the Ineffable Name, the text
has ‘Oh, Ha-Shem, I have sinned,’ etc. The meaning is probably
‘O [here he mentioned the Ineffable Name] I have sinned,’ and
from this developed the custom of using Ha-Shem for Adonai,
which is in itself a substitute for the Tetragrammaton.”
[11]
“In manuscripts the Tetragrammaton was represented
by first iiii
, then by iii,
and
finally by
ii or by `d
(either
for
nyd
, hashem,
‘the name,’ or as an abbreviation of
dedi
);
these abbreviations are in frequent use in prayer-books and
Hebrew Literature other than the Bible.”
[12]
“ In
the English translation of the Tanak, you will find HaShem,
where the Hebrew text has dedi (YHWH) written.
[13]
The
Shomronim Ibriym [Samaritan Hebrews], are descendants from the
ten northern tribes of Yisrael. They wrote in what is called
ancient Samaritan script. This is
similar to paleo-Hebrew. Their Pentateuch is written
in the Samaritan script, instead of the squared Aramaic script,
that is used in the Tanak.
[14]
The pronunciation of Hebrew, used in their
liturgy, varies slightly from the Jewish Ashkenaz pronunciation.
In speaking and other writing, they use Shema, to replace
dedi,
in the same manner as the Yahudiym use of HaShem.
[15]
Of the Shomroniym it is written, “But the
great name of revelation, YHWH, appears constantly throughout
the literature, without any trace of that fear at even the writing
of it which characterizes Judaism. The pronunciation of the
name has come to be avoided by uttering in its stead
`ny (pronounced
Shemma), ‘the Name,’ corresponding to the Jewish use of nyd , e.g. Lev. 24, 11. Yet the pronunciation
itself has survived in Samaritanism, whereas long lost in the
Jewish Church.”
[16]
The Aramaic custom was also to use Shema,
“The Name”, as a substitute for YHWH.
[17]
When
the scribes first introduced vowel pointings to the written
text of Scripture (the earliest were in 400 CE, by the Qarites
[18]
, to 800 CE by the Masorites), they
inserted vowel pointings to show what to pronounce (for
example, Adonay), instead of dedi. Due to the ban on the name dedi,
that began after the exile to Originally
in the Greek Septuagint, dedi was written in the paleo-Hebrew,
just as it was done in the Hebrew and Aramaic texts and the
Greek texts of the Minor Prophets found at Qumran in cave 4
and the cave at Nahal Hever.
[24]
Later, some of the Greek writers used their
own letters for the Tetragrammaton (the four lettered name dedi).
dedi ended up, inaccurately becoming PIPI (Pi, Iota, Pi, Iota), since Pi in
Greek looks similar to He in Hebrew (PIPI- Greek,
hwhy – Hebrew).
[25]
“Similarly Jerome, Origen, and the translators
of the Bible before Origen found the tetragrammaton in their
manuscripts, even in the Greek translations, where the name
was represented by the capital letters iota and pi, closely
resembling the Hebrew yodh and he. Origen seems to have transferred
the Hebrew quadriliteral in his column of transliterated Hebrew
and a later hand rendered it into the Greek iota and pi, and
this transference seems to have been the custom of Eventually, the Greeks substituted Kurios, Dios and Theos for dedi.
“Christian Scriptures frequently quote passages from the Old
Testament in which the divine name is translated into the Greek
word kyrios (Lord), or occasionally theos (God). Both of these
words are generic words for God, not limited to the Hebrew God
whose name is Yahweh and who
is represented in the Hebrew Bible by the Tetragrammaton. Most
of these Old Testament quotations in the New come from the Septuagint,
a Greek translation of the Old Testament made by Jews in pre-Christian
times. The Septuagint (or at least the extant, later Christian
copies of it) usually renders the Tetragrammaton by kyrios;
the New Testament simply follows the practice.“
[27]
“Philo gives the first sure case of a translation
of the name by the Greek Kurios, ‘Lord.’ “
[28]
When the church started deviating from the Hebrew
assembly, rather than be absorbed into it, many changes occurred.
When the Greek texts were written, the early church fathers,
did not hold the same importance to the name dedi. They did not write the name dedi
in the paleo-Hebrew script, or any Hebrew script, as the Hebrews
did, but substituted it for various Greek terms, further deviating
from the command of dedi
to call Him by His name. In
the Latin translation by Jerome (347-420 CE), the Vulgate, Jerome wrote out the name dedi as "Dominus", meaning lord
or master. Jerome also used a nomina sacra for dominus. Nomina
sacra means sacred names. “Instead of writing the name in full,
the scribe would save time and space by writing only a few letters,
usually the first and last, and by drawing a line above them
thus: “ (KC for Kurios, XC or XPC for Christ, IC, IHC or IH
for Jesus).
[29]
‘Where the Old-Latin vacillated between dns
and dms as an abbreviation of dominus Jerome seems to definitely
to have decided in favor of dns;”
[30]
The Vulgate translation was begun in 382
CE. Jerome started by
using the LXX (Septuagint-the Greek translation, allegedly by
70 scribes, hence Roman numerals LXX), but quickly decided to
use the Hebrew Text. In 386, Jerome moved to Beyth Lechem [
With
the development of the letter J and the European use of the
letter V for Waw, the corrupted spelling of Iehowah, became Jehovah.
There
are several accounts to when the first use of Jehovah began.
“But in the Middle Ages certain Christian theologians (the first
known is Raymond Martin in 1270), copying the voweled tetragrammaton
in transliteration, spelled it out to read JeHoVaH.”
[36]
“The pronunciation indicated by ‘Jehovah’ (J
being pronounced as Y) has been traced as far back as Wessel
(d. 1489), who used Johavah and Jehovah, and Petrus Galatinus,
confessor of Leo X. (1513-21).”
[37]
In 1516, Pietro Columna Galatinus (1460-1540),
Pope Leo 10th’s confessor, wrote a book titled, “De
Arcanis Catholicae Veritatis (Concerning Secrets of Universal
Truth). Galatinus was heavily into Qaballah.
[38]
In his book, written in Latin, he introduces
the spelling of Jehovah. “It was contested by other scholars
as being against grammatical and historical propriety”. But
like most things of deception, that is what was eventually embraced.
Now,
let us take a look at Greek, Latin, Germanic and Old English
substitutes for dedi,
and the roots from which they are derived. Dios
is Greek for god. According to A. B. Cook,
dios was used with Zeus, meaning “belonging to”.
[39]
It then came to refer to the brightness,
glory, or splendor of Zeus. Later, dios came to be used as a
double name Zeus Dios. Cook also mentions, an altar found in 1893, by G. Radet, in north-eastern
“The Hebrew Godhead in the later books of the Old Testament,
in the Apokrypha, and in the New Testament is often styled Hypsistos,
sometimes Theos Hypsistos or Kurios Hypsistos.”
[45]
“Hypsistos, however, was obviously susceptible
of a less material interprtation. Accordingly, in Hellenistic
times, the name of Zeus Hypsistos became attached to the supreme
deity of more than one non-Hellenic area. In
·
During the
time of Antiochus the IV, known also as Antiochus Epiphanes,
he had coins struck which had written on them, “Antiochus Theos
Epiphanes” – The God Made Manifest.
[47]
·
In a Greek
Papyrus, inventory number P. Oxy. 1021, there is a proclamation
of Nero’s succession as Roman Emperor. Once the word god and
once the word gods is used. Both times, the use is that of theos.
[48]
·
There is a
temple, built by the Emperor Hadrian to Zeus Hypistos.
[49]
·
Greek inscription
from
·
The same type
of inscription, was also used of Zeus, in an inscription in
·
“DURA EUROPOS,
ruined city on the right bank of the " Religious architecture underwent a
comparable evolution, traceable through numerous
excavated buildings: the temples of Artemis Nanaïa II and Zeus Megistos
II (Figure 30/20, 23), the necropolis temple, and the
temples of Artemis Azzanathkona, Zeus Kyrios, Atargatis,
Bel, Aphlad, Zeus Theos, Gad, and Adonis (Figure 30/9, 2, 21,
8, 1, 15, 18). This architecture diverged more and more from
the hypothetical Greek model, if in fact such a model had ever been introduced at Dura Europos.”
[52]
Kurios,
is defined as “of men,
having power or authority over, lord or master of, an owner,
possessor, principle or chief.”
[53]
· |
