The Hallowed Name

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   Please allow me to share with you a little good news about the “The Hallowed Name.”  I’m no scholar, yet have studied the Bible independently for many years. God’s Word has amazed me many times, however a simple translation sent shivers up and down my spine. Immediately I was searching in the Gospel of John.

   While scholars use the term “tetragrammaton” (Greek = four letters), I prefer “The Hallowed Name” from Mathew 6:9. Often translated “The LORD” or transliterated as “JeHoVaH or YaHWeH.”  Or you may recognize the Aramaic fonts (See inset, Hebrew reads from right to left).

   Dr. M. Reisel titled his book The Mysterious Name of Y.H.W.H. Though scholars tend to overlook a simple point. The SOLE AUTHORITY upon GOD’S chosen personal proper name is GOD! Were they with Moses to hear HIS WORD?  Have they seen HIS AUTOGRAPH upon the stone tablets? I can’t make those claims either, I was simply studying the basics of Biblical Hebrew.

   How did “The Hallowed Name” become mysterious?  Basically, this was due to Jewish traditions meant to guard against profanation. It was almost inevitable that an “unspoken” and “unwritten” or “miswritten” name would become “unknown.” For thousands of years, Jews have refrained from any pronunciations.  The Dead Sea Scrolls attest to scribes substituting four dots “. . . . ”  rather than write the letters. Even today many alter the Aramaic fonts, by substituting a different symbol for one of the letters. Thank GOD for another scribal tradition to preserve paleo-Hebrew letters exclusively to write “The Hallowed Name” (see inset). Many artists use similar types in their depictions of “The Ten Commandments.”  Could they be wrong?

   Now to that simple translation. Due to the acrostic design of Psalm 119, the Hebrew letter names were preserved. It has also long been known that those letter names are also Semitic/Hebrew words. The “Yod” of Psalm 119:73 is Strong’s # 3027 translated “Hand” in Genesis 3:22 and elsewhere. The “Hey” of verse 119:33, is also Strong’s #1887 translated “Lo” in Genesis 47:23 and “Behold” in Ezekiel 16:43. The “Vav” of verse 119:41, is  also Strong’s # 2053 translated “Hooks” thirteen times in Exodus, though “The Companion Bible” note for Exodus 26:37 reads, “Hooks = pegs, pins, or nails.”

   Now, I ask what story would you think of from the words, “Hand, Behold, Nail, Behold?”  For me it was the story of “Doubting Thomas” in John 20:25, “…. unless I behold in His hands the prints from the nails…”  As well as the LORD’s admonition in v. 20:27 “… behold My hands …”  I will admit that translating the letters of “The Hallowed Name” as words is unorthodox. Yet I am confident from many resources that “Hand, Behold, Nail, Behold” is a valid translation of the Hebrew “Yod, Hey, Vav, Hey.”  I wondered why no one else had made such a translation, or should it be dismissed as just a curious coincidence?

   In “Semitic Writing from Pictograph to Alphabet,”  Godfrey Rolles Driver relates how the earliest Semitic letters were adapted from Egyptian hieroglyphs.  While these early scripts puzzled Sir Flinders Petrie and other scholars, Moses would have been familiar with such pictographs; hieroglyphics were his childhood ABCs.  Artists still figurately represent GOD’s MIGHT by an arm/hand reaching from the heavens or cradling the earth.  Is it so unreasonable to suggest GOD may have chosen a similar looking letter to be the first in HIS AUTOGRAPH? 

   Exodus 28:36, 37 and 39:30, both indicate “The Hallowed Name” was engraved as a signet or seal upon Aaron’s golden headpiece.  Certainly, Moses and others were authorized to write “The Hallowed Name,” perhaps using Paleo-Hebrew fonts, however “THE SEAL” was chosen and first written by GOD.  Acting as HIS SIGNATURE upon the tablets of The Law. Consider the treatment of royal seals or the cartouches of the pharaohs, also think of brand names, trademarks and logos as used today.

   In that light consider John 5:43, “I am come in My Father’s Name.”  Certainly, that may be taken figuratively as by His authority, but in ancient times such would also require HIS SEAL. Quite literally on Mount Calvary, “THE WORD was made flesh” (John 1:14).  Also consider John 12:23 and 28, “the hour has come that the SON of man should be glorified…,” and “FATHER glorify THY NAME.”  The first portion of John 17 relates a similar message, especially verse 6, “I have manifested THY NAME…” 

   My research has gleaned much more evidence upon this literal interpretation.  I had thought to include my own artistic representation of GOD’s SACRED SEAL. However, for nearly two thousand years other artists have in another manner done just that with depictions of the crucifixion.  With their minds’ eye, any believer may behold the prints from the nails in His hands. I’ll conclude with this often-quoted verse, Isaiah 53:1, “Who has believed our report? And to whom is the arm of                _______ revealed?” (See inset to fill blank).

And this poem:  “What is lain lost in a mystery, buried in letters long years before?  Once blood bathed each hand raised, in new glory ever revealed!”

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