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Namesw of God

What’s God’s Name?

Something of a fuss broke out recently when the Vatican made an announcement about the way we should address God in worship. There is a word for God that is used in the bible but rarely pronounced by Jewish people and it sounds like “Yahweh”. In fact, in Hebrew this name for God consists of four letters but whenever Jewish people refer to it they say it in a completely different way. They change it to “Adonai” and we usually change it to “Lord”.

This four-letter name YHWH (known by scholars as the Tetragrammaton) is the word that God spoke to Moses when they met on Sinai and Moses asked God for his name. In those days people believed that if you knew someone’s name then you held a certain power over them because you knew something of their character. People were often given names in a way that today we give nicknames. “Grumpy”, “Shorty” and “Smiler” tell us something about the sort of people they are. Some people think “Moses” means “drawn out of the water”.

So we shouldn’t be surprised when God doesn’t fall into the trap. When you get back to the people, God tells Moses, tell them that my name is Yahweh, in other words, “I am the one who is”. Not much was being given away with this name except that God is beyond any concepts we can form about him. He is infinitely great and majestic.

The Congregation for Divine Worship, in issuing the new directive, reminds bishops that in the Hebrew tradition, which the early Christians adopted, the faithful avoided pronouncing the name of God because “as an expression of the infinite greatness and majesty of God, it was held to be unpronounceable”.

Who Gave God a Name?

Well, of course, we did. Very early on in Jewish history people wanted to use words to try and describe God even though they knew that they could never really tie God down to one title. So they quickly added the names like Elohim (God), Avinu (Our Father), El Shaddai (Almighty God), El Elynon (God the Most High) etc.

In reality these are not really names but descriptions of God. The reason we give titles to God is so that we can remind ourselves of the type of God we have. So we’re quick to talk about God as “loving”, “merciful” and “forgiving”.

For Christians it’s worth remembering that the face of God revealed in the New Testament is Yeshua (Jesus) and this means “the One who saves”.

From the Mouth of God

God said to Moses, “You are to say to the sons of Israel that Yahweh…has sent me to you. This is my name for all time; by this name I shall be invoked for all generations to come.” (Exodus 3:14-15

Are We Sure it’s “HIS” Name?

We have been begging a question that some people don’t want to ask and others don’t want to answer! Are we sure that God is a “he”? Is God male?

To answer this question we have to realise that God made human beings in the divine image and likeness and this proved to be both male and female. If we are made in the image and likeness of God then God must have characteristics that are both masculine and feminine. At the start we have to be clear that God is neither a man nor a woman because God is asexual, transcending the vagaries of human gender.

So what’s the point of even asking whether we’re sure about “his” names? If we realise that God has characteristics that we normally attribute to men and others that we usually associate with women then we get a more complete picture of the type of God we are dealing with.
We’re used to the masculine characteristics of God. Over the centuries people have attributed power and might, fatherhood and lordship etc to God. But what would happen if we thought of the other side of God? May be we would end up with a more complete, a more rounded God. What about the maternal qualities of God? What about God’s tenderness, community-forming skills, ability to nurse, to nourish and foster others?
We could argue all day about which qualities are found more in men and which in women, but one thing is sure: if we widen our understanding of the nature of God then we get twice as much God for our money!

Not Such a Secret

It’s not such a secret that God isn’t simply masculine. Hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus, Isaiah speaks about God in feminine terms and God gets the title of “mother”:“Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her;rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her,that you may be suckled and be satisfied from her consoling breast.For thus says the Lord: I will extend prosperity to her like a river,and the wealth of the nations like an overflowing stream;and you shall be nursed and be carried on her arm, and dandled on her knees.As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you;you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.”
(Isaiah 66:10-13)

Saying It All

In the light of all these names and image questions, maybe the least we say about God the closer we will get. So our prayer could be:
God, you who are, be with us in the power of your Spirit, through Christ our Lord. Amen.