No One Knows How to Say God’s Name in Hebrew
How is it that no one knows how to say God’s name in Hebrew? Let me unpack this issue and think what we can gain from it. Ancient Hebrew may have been the oldest alphabet in existence. When God says in Exodus:
7 “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
The LORD refers to the name God gave for himself to Moses at the burning bush. Back to Hebrew. Ancient Hebrew had no letters for vowels but only listed the consonants. The image shows the letters.
YHWH is how we can spell those letters. Jewish people in excess fear of misusing the name, would never pronounce it at all. They added vowel points under words after 600AD. But for YHWH, they were even afraid to put the right vowel points, so often put random vowel points to protect people from saying the name. (Should I stop calling friends by their name in fear of saying it in the wrong heart?) Further, spoken Hebrew fell into disuse after Alexander the Great and in the diaspora. All together today we are left with a list of a few of the guesses for how to say the name of God in Hebrew. There are more.
YaH-WeH YiH-WeH YeH-WaH Ye-Ha-WaH Ye-He-WeH Ye-Ho-WaH
Mariology is another effort to find a way to God that is easier than just going to Him directly. It shows a deep reverence for God leading to seeking a mediator other than Jesus. I see it as similar to what happened to reverent Jews above.
God loves us, and he is not dysfunctional needing kid gloves. He call us His children and wants us to be like children. Let’s just love Him back and not push him farther away by our fear of mistake. Let’s be free in his presence. He died, so we would not live in fear, but obey him out of love. Let’s not put space between the main thing and our life in God.
