Yahweh, The Great Exalter of Man

For those of you who need a hobby, might I make a suggestion? Nothing has expanded my view of the Bible (specifically the Hebrew Bible) more than learning the language that the Hebrew Bible was written in. (Which, of course, is Hebrew).

There is a deep symbolism in how the ancient Hebrews spoke about the Lord. His was a name so sacred it could only be uttered once a year in the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement. The Lord Yahweh who spoke to Moses on Mount Horeb in a flaming bush (1) and delivered His covenant people out of bondage was held in such reverence that the Hebrews dared not even utter His holy name out of a lasting love and honor for Him; in English the name of God is pronounced Jehovah after the Latin. When the name Yahweh appears in the Hebrew text, the King James translators inserted the word LORD.

Other names of God in the Hebrew Bible include Elohim or Adonai. Elohim is in its purest sense a plural word of the name El, denoting the Supreme God in early Canaanite and Israelite worship (2) and should be translated, in its truest sense, as Gods. Thus, "In the beginning Elohim, or rather, the Gods, created the heaven and the earth." (Gen. 1:1). The fact that multiple beings assisted in the creation of the world is attested to in the Book of Abraham: "And they went down at the beginning, and they, that is the Gods, organized and formed the heavens and the earth." (Abr. 4:1). These Gods I sincerely believe included not only El, our Father in Heaven, but also our Heavenly Mother, Yahweh (who was the premortal Jesus Christ), and the Holy Ghost, in addition to other hosts of God's premortal children such as the archangel Michael. (The word Elohim has also been translated as the plural form gods in the King James Bible, though never in reference to the God of the Hebrews.)

The name Adonai is often traslated in the King James Bible as Lord, though a more proper translation would be My Lord. This title was more often spoken than the other names for God, and the vowels for Adonai were transcribed into the Masoretic text for Yahweh's name as a way to ensure the proper vowels were never used to show respect to God.

Another instance of God's name is found in the usage of Yahweh-Elohim, translated in the King James Bible as The Lord God. 

Now, why is all this important?

In Hebrew, the spelling of Yahweh is YHWH. This name shares the same root in Hebrew as the verb to be, or even to cause to be. Thus, Yahweh could be translated as "The Self-Existing One," or "He Who Causes To Be." (3)

Now, it should be noted that the following information is my own thoughts on the matter from the standpoint of a believing Latter-day Saint only. While there is ample evidence for the doctrine of theosis (becoming like God) in both the Old and New Testaments, I am making no claim that this is the only way to interpret the following passages or potential translations or that this is exactly how all of the ancient Hebrews believed. I am only stating the insights I have learned from studying the God of the Hebrew Bible only, with the utmost gratitude to my Hebrew teacher Monica Richards for originally pointing this out to me.

The Lord Yahweh created, under the direction of the Father, all things (see Heb. 1:1-2).Yahweh is He who causes all things to be, whether it be creation from chaotic matter, a new nation of His covenant people from outcasts and former slaves, saints from sinners, joy from sorrow, light from darkness, or gods from men.

The name-title Yahweh-Elohim holds special place for me. Perhaps, I believe, instead of The Lord God, it should be translated as He Who Causes Gods To Be, for that is the role that Jesus Christ came to fulfil as He suffered pains only a God can suffer that all men who would come unto Him and “be born again; yea, born of God, changed from their carnal and fallen state, to a state of righteousness” would then be “redeemed of God, becoming his sons and daughters” (Mos. 27:25).

“For behold,” the Lord told Moses, “this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39). Or, in other words, “Behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the salvation and exaltation of man.”

Through the Mediation and Atonement of Jesus Christ, the Lord Jehovah, we can be brought back into the presence of God and share in His glory. For if we are children of God, Paul reasoned, then we are His heirs, “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Rom. 8:17-18).

Jesus Christ is the great Exalter of man, allowing us to enter the presence of our Divine Parents once again. Jesus Christ is He who causes all good things to be for the benefit of man, so that one day “when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen” (Moro. 7:48, see also 1 John 3:1-3, emphasis added).

NOTES

1. In the JST for Ex. 3:2, note that it is not an angel of the Lord who appeared to Moses in the flaming fire, but the presence of the Lord Himself. As Moses ascended the Mount, though he may not have realized it at the time, Moses' ascension allowed him to enter the presence of the Lord, behold His face, and receive a divine manifestation of His love for His children. Because of Moses' clean hands and pure heart (see Ps. 23:3-4), He beheld the face of God in a natural Temple-like environment.

2. For a treatise on the relationship between El and Yahweh in early Israelite worship, as well as a treatise on the concept of a Heavenly Mother Goddess named Asherah in the early Hebrew religion, see Daniel C. Peterson, "A Divine Mother in the Book of Mormon?" in Mormonism and the Temple: Examining an Ancient Religious Tradition, ed. Gary N. Anderson (Logan, UT, Academy for Temple Studies, 2013), 109-125.

3. One scholar has noted, speaking about Moses' experience at the flaming bush, "Moses says: May I say who sent me? He asks for God’s name. The Israelites will want to know who has sent me, and God replies with a sentence, “Ehyeh asher ehyeh.” This is a first person sentence that can be translated, “I am who I am,” or perhaps, “I will be who I will be,” or perhaps, “I cause to be what I cause to be.” We really don’t know, but it has something to do with “being.” So he asks who God is, God says, “I am who am I am” or “I will cause to be what I will cause to be.” So Moses, wisely enough, converts that into a third-person formula: okay, he will be who he will be, he is who he is, “Yahweh asher Yahweh.” God’s answer to the question of his name is this sentence, and Moses converts it from a first-person to a third-person sentence: he will be who he will be; he is who he is; he will cause to be, I think most people think now, what he will cause to be, and that sentence gets shortened to “Yahweh.” This is the Bible’s explanation for the name Yahweh, and as the personal name of God, some have argued that the name Yahweh expresses the quality of being, an active, dynamic being. This God is one who brings things into being, whether it’s a cosmos from chaos, or now a new nation from a band of runaway slaves." See Christine Hayes, Open Yale Lecture 7 - Israel in Egypt: Moses and the Beginning of Yahwism (Genesis 37- Exodus 4).