Copyright © 2006 By Doug Lawrence. All Rights Reserved.
Catechism Of The Catholic Church Reprinted With Permission.
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Hello God. Nice to Meet Ya!
(Volume 1 - Part 6) - Commentary By: Doug Lawrence
God has a Holy Name and He wants you to know it.
Sometime around the year 1500 BC the great prophet, Moses, was tending sheep
in the Midian desert when he came across a bush that seemed to be on fire but
wasn’t being consumed. The “Burning Bush” then spoke, explaining to Moses the
initial details of his mission to free the Israelites from slavery.
Amazed by this unexpected turn of events, Moses still had the good sense to ask,
“What will I say to the people when they ask who sent me to them?” At that, the
One, True God of all creation revealed His Holy Name to Moses, saying:
"I Am Who I Am; and He said,
thus you shall say to the
sons of Israel,
I AM has sent me to
you... this is My eternal name,
and this is how I am to be
recalled for all generations."
(Exodus 3:14-15)
From that day forward, the Holy Name of
the mysterious God of Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob was known to the Israelites. As far as we can tell, the entire
conversation was conducted (and later, written) in the Hebrew language, which is
quite different than English, Hebrew being written from right to left, using no
punctuation, and having no vowels (A-E-I-O-U’s).
I AM is the English rendering of the Hebrew word for the Name of God.
Moses would have spelled it
.
Translated from Hebrew, it is YHWH.
We spell it Yahweh. Pronounce it reverently: Ya–ha–vey.
The Second Commandment declares God’s Name to be Holy and cautions us to
use it only with the utmost veneration and respect. See Exodus 20:7:
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not
hold him guiltless that shall take the name of the Lord his God in vain.
To avoid any possibility of offense against the Holy Name, (YHWH – I AM) the
ancient Hebrews, (and many of today’s devout Jews) would substitute the word
“Lord” or some similar term.
14th century illustration
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