by Kenneth Sheets
The Hebrew Scriptures make clear the distinction between the name of God and the descriptive titles that refer to Him, and many modern English versions exhibit this distinction in their texts. God Himself, not man, established the this distinction, and thus, those who minimize or fail to observe its significance do so in demonstration of their lack of understanding of His person and nature, and His relationship to the Scriptures. Indeed, because God provided this distinction in His written revelation to humans, those who ignore or overlook the distinction are missing something the Creator intended them, and all humans, to know, and thus, all who truly seek to know Him must properly apply the significance of this name distinction as He has given it.
English versions have typically distinguished God’s name in their translations by the forms “LORD” or “GOD” in all capital letters or by using various “transliterations,” such as “Jehovah,” “Yahweh,” or “Yah.” When, however, God revealed His name to Moses, and most certainly to Adam, He expressed His name as Ehyeh. Technically, this name is the qal imperfect 1st person singular form of the Hebrew verb of existence häyäh, and as such, it is not just a name; it is a complete sentence which would be translated “I exist,” “I am existing,” or “I am.” Speaking of Himself distinctly and directly to Moses, God revealed His name in the most perfect form which can exist: Ehyeh, “I exist.” In this perfect expression, He did not refer to Himself in the 3rd person, “He exists,” but in the 1st person, using the form Ehyeh, “I exist,” three times in identifying Himself to Moses.
The Creator knew, however, that for Moses to use this name in the 1st person, “I exist,” would be potentially confusing to Hebrew-speaking persons who might have difficulty discerning between the use of “I exist” as a sentence and the use of very same form as the name of God. To remove this potential misunderstanding, the Creator, in the very next verse of Scripture, expressed His name in its 3rd person form, Yihyeh, “He exists,” “He is existing,” “He is,” referring to Himself as “Yihyeh, the God of your fathers . . . Abraham . . . Isaac . . . Jacob.” In doing so, God revealed that more than 600 years before, extending back into the time of Noah and Shem, humans had known Him by the name Yihyeh, “He exists.” This well-known 3rd person form better fit human-to-human communications, and, unlike the name “I exist,” the name “He exists” did not require Moses to use the expression “I exist sent me,” as though he, the man himself, had any part in being sent to the Israelites in Egypt. The expression “He exists sent me” made it more clear that God alone had done the sending. Thus, the name Yihyeh, “He exists,” was not new in Moses’ day; humans had known this name since the time of Adam.
In His communications with Adam before the man’s violation, God certainly manifested Himself as “I exist.” Knowing that Adam would eventually seek to know a name for his Creator, the Creator had built the man to give names to the creatures and the things around him, but the Creator’s own name could not be determined by finite human perception, however accurate that perception might be. His name must be was an absolutely accurate representation of His primary characteristic, that characteristic which by its very expression led naturally to an inescapable comprehension of every aspect of His relationship to all that existed. His name must express His existence. Thus, in whatever manner He did it, the Creator insured that Adam would recognize Him as Ehyeh, “I exist,” the God who exists. Then, too, perfectly within the design of God, Adam would use his own perfectly constructed linguistic abilities to change from the 1st person form to the 3rd person Yihyeh, “He exists,” because the man would need to communicate God to his descendants. At some point during his long life, Adam could have changed the vowels on Yihyeh to the form Yahweh in order to clarify when this word was used as a sentence or as a name, but this man, having been built directly by God, was exceedingly wise.
Though in the present day, it is impossible to determine whether Adam changed from the pronunciation Yihyeh to the pronunciation Yahweh when he wrote his second chapter, the man is most likely not the author of the change. Even if he was aware of the potential value of such a change, the man would have been reluctant to change from the purity and perfection of God’s original expression of Himself. Adam knew that the Creator was the God, the only God, who exists, and he knew that his descendants needed to constantly think of their Creator in this way. He cannot have been ignorant of the potential for a loss of meaning, and significance, which would certainly follow when the name Yihyeh with its explicit reference to the “existence” of God would become just a name, Yahweh, with no real significance, except to those who knew Him, the God Who Exists. Adam knew that every one of his descendants would need to be reminded every time they heard the Creator’s name that He is the God Who Exists.
Regardless of when the change in pronunciation occurred, this name, in either form, has always carried the meaning and significance “He exists,” and it is distinctly the name of God and not a descriptive title. Descriptive titles that describe what He is, such as “God,” “Lord,” “The Almighty,” “Savior,” etc., may be used as names, and often are, but only the name Ehyeh, with its possible variant Yihyeh, has been directly specified by God Himself to be His Name. Other names may accurately describe God, but not from the perspective which a “name” carries. The distinction of a “name” is that it does not focus on any individual characteristic of the person named; rather, it incorporates every characteristic of that person. Thus, the Name Yihyeh, “He exists,” is not limited to a significance rooted only in His “eternal existence,” nor is it indicating that “He is everything a person could need”; His name encompasses the absolute entirety of His Being in every aspect. Whether called Ehyeh or Yihyeh, the transcendent Creator, is the God Who Exists, because no other God exists. Thus, all the faithful, from Adam to the present, have known Him in this manner. The distinction of the faithful ancient Hebrews was that they worshiped the only God who truly exists. Any other being who has ever been called a “God” was either the product of human imagination or the erroneous exaltation of some powerful created antiGod angelic being who willingly accepted human worship. Neither one is a “God” in the absolute sense, and thus, any god said to exist alongside Him, or to compare to Him, is not “a God” at all. Only one God exists, and He is the “God Who Exists.”