Yeshua is our example:
He never used the name Yahweh.
QUESTION RECEIVED: Our parsha was
Shemoth 1-6 where Yahweh reveals His name. The commentators are
wrong and I'd like some scriptures to debunk their theory. I know some,
but especially need some where they say our Rabbi, Yeshua is our example
and he never used Yahweh.
Ehrman's Books
AND ANSWERED: Yes, these
commentators are speaking out of a pharisaical misinterpretation of
Exodus 3:15, which is discussed by Rabbi Azriel Rosenfeld
at this link.
We must remember that the Scriptures were
heavily worked over by anti-Yahwehists in the first 10 centuries.
A good source of information o this is Bart Ehrman's The Orthodox
Corruption of Scripture. However, let's use what we know for
sure to disprove this fallacy.
1) Yahweh is universally established
as the name of the god of the Scriptures. Only the small minority
disputes that.
2) If Yahshua were a Pharisee or
Sadducee, he may never have spoken the name because at that
particular time, the name wasn't uttered.
3) But considering the canonicity of
Jude, James, 2 Peter and John, all of these are very similar in
doctrine and the scenes of the reviling of Pharisees - we conclude that
Yahshua and his extended blood family were of the Northern Essenes - not
the Pharisees or Sadducees. The Essenes most certainly taught the
name Yahweh as evidenced in the quotations from Enoch and Assumption of
Moses, both of which employ no substitutes for the name Yahweh in the
versions we have.
4) Additionally, the Dead Sea Scrolls,
some of which have been determined by top flight scholars to have
been written by or about James (Ya'aqov) do indeed include the name
Yahweh, often in paleo-Hebrew. Very much of the doctrine of the
movement originated in these texts and other Enochic style texts,
including 2 Enoch.
5) We go to the very edited New
Testament, especially with the extraordinary culling of
agenda-driven translators. Yet even so, we find in the high
priestly prayer of John 17 several specific references to "the Name"
that can't be explained away. Obviously, Yahweh was part of the
initiation (6 years) of the disciples (reference). The following
chapter also contains the name Yahweh translated by the early
Greek church.
6) Many of most of the old
testament quotes in the new came from either an unknown OT version
or the Septuagint - and we know for a fact that the Septuagint contained
the tetragrammaton over 7000 times. Yahshua certainly read from
the Dead Sea version of the scriptures, which contains the sacred name
in Hebrew, Aramaic and paleo-Hebrew (Phoenician).
7) Josephus tells us how the
sacred name was spelled and pronounced in antiquities.
8) Hegesippus and Jerome report
that James (brother - as close as we can get to Yahshua) pronounced
the name. This was well known at the time (prior to 62 AD) and of
course condemned by the Pharisees - the forerunners of modern-day Jews,
messianic or not.
9) The sacred name is liberally
sprinkled throughout The Revelation of Jesus Christ. Even the
most sceptical scholar will tell you that Rev was written in Aramaic and
crudely translated to Greek (or that, if original Greek, was written by
an Aramaic writer). Have you counted the Aramaicisms - like
Hallelujah? What is the meaning of the Aramaic word, Hallelujah.
Why is this not also translated? Look at Rev 14:1 - that should be
proof enough in itself. Also, Zech 14:20 and 14:9. Yahshua
was a better scholar than rabbinical Pharisees.
10) The problems you Jews have in
regard to this is your Pharisaic rabbis intentionally
misinterpreting Exodus 3:3, etc. Rabbi Rosenfeld wrote to me
personally this explanation:
The verse in Ex.3:15, which can be read
"This is My Name to conceal" (LE-ALEM) rather than "This is My Name
forever" (LE-OLAM), is interpreted by the Talmud as saying "I am not
spoken the way I am written" (Pesachim 50a, Kiddushin 71a). See also
Deut.28:58, "To fear this honored and awesome Name (HA-SHEM), Y-H-V-H
your G-d", which foreshadows the replacement of Y-H-V-H by "Ha-Shem".
This validity of this mistranslation is a
very long shot.
11) Finally, if the passage
proclaiming the millennium are full of the sacred name and
Yahshua, whose very name itself contains the divine name, is to be ruler
and IS in fact King. Doesn't it make perfect sense that this name
should be taught, seeing as it is the only name by which we may b saved?
Let us not be like the dog in the manger,
unable to eat yet not allowing the cattle their sustenance either.
If Zechariah 14 comes to pass soon, those who conceal the name of our
Elohim will be overruled. We pray your overruling on such an
important matter may come quickly, and that your teaching will not make
you unfit to teach in the golden age.
Let us also remember that in no place
does Yahshua light a Sabbath candle, speak of kosher eating or wear a
prayer shawl, though we can be quite sure he did. These practices
were undoubtedly also censored out. Even a quick reading of
Ignatius reveals the kind of purging of truth that was going on in the
days of his bishopric.
Peace in Yahweh,
Jackson Snyder
Appendix:
Snyder: The use of the ‘HaShem
your G-d’ (in your Torah
studies) is very
disturbing to me. Are you now worshiping a G-d
named HaShem? I realize it means, "the name,"
but shouldn't the actual name YHWH be spoken instead of a disturbing
substitute? The god HaShem has taken on a life of his own, it seems.
Do you have any
teaching on this
that could enlighten me?
Rosenfeld: In Biblical times
the Tetragrammaton was pronounced the way it was written, and in the
Temple it was pronounced by the Kohanim when they blessed the
people, but since that time it is always replaced by a generic
Divine Name, usually the one spelled A-D-N-Y and translated "My
L-rd". For secular purposes, even the generic Divine Names are not
pronounced the way they are written; in particular, A-D-N-Y is
replaced by "Ha-Shem" ("the Name") because it usually stands for the
Tetragrammaton. The verse in Ex.3:15, which can be read "This is My
Name to conceal" (LE-ALEM) rather than "This is My Name forever"
(LE-OLAM), is interpreted by the Talmud as saying "I am not spoken
the way I am written" (Pesachim 50a, Kiddushin 71a). See also
Deut.28:58, "To fear this honored and awesome Name (HA-SHEM),
Y-H-V-H your G-d", which foreshadows the replacement of Y-H-V-H by
"Ha-Shem".
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