Questo articolo è disponibile anche in: Italian English Spanish French

Question

Dear Father Angelo,

I would like to understand why the name of God, present five hundred times in the Hebrew Bible (Yahweh in our Bible has been completely canceled and replaced with “God”, or “the Lord”.

I have my own theory: (…).

Forgive me father for the tone perhaps too direct, but for me this question and his possible answer is really important.

With sincere gratitude.


A priest answer

Dear,

1.     the name of Yahweh is found in the Old Testament not just 500 times, but 6823.

It is the proper name of the God of Israel.

This name could not be pronounced by the Jews and was replaced in pronunciation with Elohim or Adonai.

The tetragrammaton YHWH for convenience of pronunciation was enriched with two vowels a and e, and thus became Yahweh.

In the Old Testament, the name Elohim is often used to indicate God, which is plural and is found 2550 times.

2.     Adonai, a name which was replaced by Yahweh in pronunciation, means Lord.

And when the Old Testament from the LXX  (70)was translated into Greek Yahweh and Adonai became Kyrios, which means Lord, in Latin Dominus.

3.     In the New Testament, written in Greek, the name Yahweh evidently never appears.

We find the Greek word Theòs, which means God.

But in the Gospels Jesus always calls God with the name Father.

And often Theòs and Father identify themselves.

4.     When Peter says to Jesus: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”, the Greek refers to Theos, who evidently identifies with the Father.

When Thomas the Apostle praises Jesus by saying “My Lord and my God” he gives him two names which are of God the Father.

Moreover, Jesus had clearly spoken of his perfect equality with the Father when he said: “The Father and I are one” (Jh 10,30)

5.     Here are the reasons why the name of Yahweh never appears in the New Testament – written in Greek.

But there is the Greek equivalent Kyrios, in the Latin translation Dominus, and in the English one Lord.

6.     Thus all the hypotheses you sketched out (some too colorful!) To which I referred with the dotted bracket are eliminated.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to clarify God’s name, I entrust you to God and I bless you

Father Angelo