What’s in a Name? Part 2
So, Not Howard. Elohim (Hebrew) = Theos (Greek) = God (English) Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh (Hebrew) = I Am Who I Am Ehyeh, meaning "I am" represented by the derivation YHWH YHWH, given vowels = YaHWeH = Yahweh (pronounced YaaWay) The name of God is Yahweh, I am who I am. Davar (Hebrew) = Logos (Greek) = Word (English) Word = The revelation, mediating principle, the perfect revelation of God’s self in the flesh = Jesus The Word is Jesus, Jesus is the Word. When I proposed last week that I would walk us through “Emmanuel, El-Shaddai, Adonai, Abba and a few others,” perhaps I jumped the gun. Before we open ourselves to the intimacy and understanding of these titles, we need to have a good understanding of the relationship between the Word and Yahweh and also Jesus and the Father. We now are secure in the knowledge that God’s name is I am who I am or Yahweh. The name of God is the name of the whole of God, not a part of God. Yahweh does not mean Word, but we know that Jesus–the Word is also Yahweh. Additionally, Jesus regularly refers to Yahweh as Abba, which is Aramaic for Father–his Father and our Father. Appearing to Mary at the tomb after the resurrection, Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’” (John 20:17) How is Yahweh, God both Father and Son? The overwhelming testimony of Scripture, much of which comes directly from Jesus, tells us that the Son and the Father are both distinct members of the Godhead. Many times Jesus prayed to the Father and taught us to pray that way as well, Our Father, who art in heaven hallowed be thy Name. Through his witness we know that Jesus the Son is not the Father, yet we also know that the Word is God. The revealed Trinitarian nature of God makes these truths understandable. The Word is the second person of the Trinity–of Yahweh. When the Word became flesh the Word was also the man Jesus. When the Word, co-equal with the other two persons of the Trinity, became flesh he also became the Son. The Word became the Son in the same way that I am a son, or you are a son or daughter. God did this for the same reason that God gave us his name, to call us into intimacy with a person. As person, Jesus (the Word) had a Father. As the Word lived life in the flesh, Jesus taught us about his Father as we would teach or tell of our own. While the Word was Yaweh he was also Jesus and in that relationship, human and fleshy, Yahweh was Father. The Word was able to live, not only as Yahweh, divine and transcendent, but as Jesus, human and finite. An imperfect and limited example might help you. In the show, “Undercover Boss,” the Boss (owner, president, etc.) of a company joins the workers of his company without them knowing. He/she does this to experience and understand the workings of the people in those positions and, eventually, to show that he/she cared enough to do this. While the Boss is participating as a worker, he/she does not stop being the Boss, they just stop acting as the Boss for a time. When the Boss goes back to being the Boss, they are now different than they were by the experience and relationships they had. The Word stopped acting as Yahweh (but was still Yahweh) and lived as one of us. When Jesus died, he rose as Jesus, but also as the Word, both human and divine. Now, this is where the example ends. God did not need to do this to know all of what we are and what we experience. God became flesh out of love for us to extend intimacy to us through his relationship in the flesh. The Word, then, is coequal with the other two persons of the Trinity, and also Jesus, the Son of the Father. The joy and value of understanding this relationship and the names and titles of God is found in the intimacy of the revelation. God told us his name, Yahweh, so that we would know God’s self not as an abstract thought or energy construct, but as a person. Only people have and give names, and although Yawheh is much more than a human person, God made it possible for us to know and recognize God as such. The generous gift of God’s name Yahweh foreshadowed the incarnation of God’s self. The Word, the Second Person of the Trinity Yahweh, who became flesh and dwelt among us: his name is Jesus. With a better understanding of the relationship of Father and Son, we return next week to more titles and names. In Jesus’ Name, Fr. Bill†
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AuthorFather Bill Burk† Archives
February 2025
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