How the Name of G-d Was Lost

The Name of G-d used to be part of daily greetings. “And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said unto the reapers, The LORD (YHWH) be with you. And they answered him, The LORD (YHWH) bless thee” (Ruth 2:4). (Boaz, who lived in the 11^th century B.C., was the great grandfather of David.)

Five centuries later, however, G-d said through the prophet Jeremiah, that the people had forgotten His Name. “How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? Yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart; Which think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbor, as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal” (Jer 23:26-27).

The Jewish Encyclopedia informs us that in "former times the Name was taught to all; but when immorality increased it was reserved for the pious"¹ The Encyclopedia Judaica  notes the last time G-d’s Names was spoken freely: "At least until the destruction of the First Temple in 586 B.C.E., this name was regularly pronounced with its proper vowels, as is clear from the *Lachish Letters, written shortly before that date.”²

Utterance forbidden.

The priests and scribes invoked a number of seemingly legal reasons in forbidding the utterance of the Tetragrammaton (Four-Lettered Name) by the people.

Third commandment. The prohibition against carelessly pronouncing the Name of G-d is embodied in the third commandment: “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain” (Exodus 20:7).

The Jewish Encyclopaedia notes: “According to Dalman… the Rabbis forbade the utterance of the Tetragrammaton to guard against desecration of the Sacred Name.”³ To keep the people from desecrating the sacred Name, wittingly or unwittingly, the rabbis instructed them never to pronounce G-d’s Name at all!

Too sacred. In the Second Temple period (5^th century B.C.), the Tetragrammaton came to be regarded as too sacred to be spoken. The practice of substituting other terms to refer to G-d thus became common.⁴

The Jewish Encyclopedia says: “Awe of the sacredness of the names of G-d and eagerness to manifest respect and reverence for them… in the Targumim the name of Yhwh was replaced by two ‘yods’ with a ‘waw’ over them… which letters are equal in value to Yhwh (=26).”⁵

G-d of all peoples. The Encyclopaedia Britannica tells us that “As Judaism began to become a universal religion, the proper name (YHWH) tended to be replaced  by the common noun Elohim, meaning ‘God,’ which could apply to foreign deities and therefore could be used to demonstrate the universal sovereignty of Israel’s God over all others.”⁶

Solomon Zeitlin wrote in the Jewish Quarterly Review of April 1969: “In the biblical period (YHWH) was a proper name for the G-d of Israel, an ethnic G-d. After the Restoration (of the Temple) those who adhered to the view of the universality of G-d maintained that (YHWH) is not an ethnic G-d but is the G-d of all the universe, the G-d of all peoples. To propagate this view they declared that the word (YHWH) in the Pentateuch should be pronounced Adonai to signify that He is the L-rd, Master, of the universe.”⁷

Clerical caveats.

Some passages in Scripture had been reinterpreted to ensure that the people would avoid uttering the sacred Name of G-d.

To be concealed. Exodus 3:15a reads: “And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever...”

According to Mackey’s Revised Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, “The word forever is represented in the original by l’olam; but the Rabbis... by the change of a single letter, made l’olam, forever, read as if it had been written l’alam, which means to be concealed, and hence the passage was translated ‘this is my name to be concealed,’ instead of ‘this is my name forever’.”⁸

Death for uttering. Leviticus 24:16 declares: “And whoever blasphemes the name of the LORD shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall certainly stone him, the stranger as well as him who is born in the land. When he blasphemes the name of the Lord, he shall be put to death” (NKJV).

In the original Hebrew text, “the word nokeb, here translated to blaspheme, also means to pronounce distinctly, to call by name.” It could be and was thus retranslated as "'whosoever shall pronounce the name (YHWH) shall suffer death.”⁹

G-d’s Name taken back.

The rabbis and scribes gave reasons for concealing the Name. Little did they know that it was actually the L-RD who took back His Name from them! G-d retracted His Name from the Jews in three distinct steps. The retractions occurred roughly over 600 years.

First time taken back.

In 586 B.C., King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon invaded Judah for the second time, destroyed the Temple, and took most of the Jews captive. He appointed one of the remaining Jews, Gedaliah, as governor of the land. But some defiant Jews, egged on by the king of the Ammonites, murdered Gedaliah. The other Jews prepared to escape to Egypt for fear of reprisal from the Babylonians (Jer ch. 39-41). Before fleeing, they requested Jeremiah to ask G-d on what to do (Jer 42:2-3).

Ten days later, Jeremiah met with them. “And said unto them, Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, unto whom ye sent me to present your supplication before him; If ye will still abide in this land, then will I build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up: for I repent me of the evil that I have done unto you. Be not afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom ye are afraid; be not afraid of him, saith the LORD: for I am with you to save you, and to deliver you from his hand” (Jer 42:9-11). Their worst fears would follow them in Egypt if they persisted. “If ye wholly set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to sojourn there; Then it shall come to pass, that the sword, which ye feared, shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine, whereof ye were afraid, shall follow close after you there in Egypt; and there ye shall die” (Jer 42:15b-16).

Abandoned the land. Yet, instead of obeying, the Jews accused Jeremiah of lying and conniving with the followers of the Babylonians (Jer 43:2-3). They pushed through with their plan to escape to Egypt and abandoned the land the L-RD had given their fathers (Jer 43:7).

The Jews forgot a prohibition the L-RD told Moses some 900 years earlier: “Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since the LORD has said to you, ‘You shall never again return that way'” (Deut 17:16, NASU). G-d had warned the Israelites never to return to Egypt.

G-d’s Name profaned. The Jews put G-d’s Name to shame by leaving the land He had given them. “And when they entered unto the heathen, whither they went, they profaned my holy name, when they said to them, These are the people of the LORD, and are gone forth out of his land. But I had pity for mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went” (Ezek 36:20-21).

G-d had given the Jews a “land of milk and honey.” Abandoning the land for another country was an embarrassment and a shame to G-d. It made the L-RD look like a deceiver and a liar, or a weak G-d who could not keep His promises. His Name or reputation as an all-powerful G-d was tarnished, even ruined.

Name lost in Egypt. G-d said: “Therefore hear ye the word of the LORD, all Judah that dwell in the land of Egypt; Behold, I have sworn by my great name, saith the LORD, that my name shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, The Lord GOD liveth” (Jer 44:26).

Moreover, as G-d had said, many of the Jews died just the same when Nebuchadnezzar invaded Egypt. “And when he cometh, he shall smite the land of Egypt, and deliver such as are for death to death; and such as are for captivity to captivity; and such as are for the sword to the sword” (Jer 43:11).

Lost also in Babylon. The Hebrew tongue fell in disuse in Babylon among the captive Jews, who spoke the language of the land, Aramaic or Syriac, sometimes called Chaldee. ¹⁰ They also stopped saying the Name of God. The Jewish Encyclopedia avers: “The avoidance of the original name of God both in speech and, to a certain extent, in the Bible was due according to Geiger… to a reverence which shrank from the utterance of the Sublime Name; and it may well be that such a reluctance first arose in a foreign, and hence in an ‘unclean’ land, very possibly, therefore, in Babylonia.”¹¹ In Judea, the poorest Jews who had been left behind adopted the language of their conquerors, too.¹²

Only 3 times a year. Rabbi Yeshayahu Heiliczer wrote in Messianic Home (Summer 1999): “After the return from Babylon we find that ‘The Name’ was totally suppressed by the P’rushim (Pharisees), who had removed the sons of Aharon from Moshe’s seat. They forbade the use of ‘The Name’ and limited its use to temple services held on the ‘Shalosh Regalim,’ the three pilgrimage festivals of Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukkot. The rest of greater Isra’el had no permission to use ‘The Name’.”¹³

Thus, the sacred Name of the L-RD could be uttered only three times a year -- during Temple services on Passover (Pesach) and the Feast of Unleavened Bread; Pentecost (Shavuot, Feast of Weeks or Harvest); and Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot, Booths or Ingathering).

Second time taken back.

The next retraction of G-d’s Name took place during the inter-Testamental period -- the so-called “400 silent years” in the Bible, between Malachi, the Old Testament’s last book, and Matthew, the New Testament’s first book.

Alexander arrived. The prophet Daniel, as a Jewish captive in Babylon, had visions of a powerful two-horned ram that was later destroyed by a one-horned he-goat (Dan 8:3-8). The angel Gabriel explained: “The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia. And the rough goat is the king of Grecia: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king” (Dan 8:21). As history recorded, the unified kingdom of Media-Persia conquered Babylon, while Greece, under Alexander the Great (“the first king”), defeated Media-Persia.

In 332 B.C. Alexander entered Judea, where the Jews led by the high priest ceremoniously welcomed him. “Josephus (Ant. 11:8, section 5) says that Alexander meeting the high priest Jaddua (Neh 12:11,22) said that at Dium in Macedonia he had a divine vision so habited, inviting him to Asia and promising him success. Jaddua met him at Gapha (Mizpeh) at the head of a procession of priests and citizens in white. Alexander at the sight of the linen arrayed priests, and the high priest in blue and gold with the miter and gold plate on his head bearing (YHWH’s) name, adored it, and embraced him; and having been shown Daniel's prophecies concerning him, he sacrificed to God in the court of the temple, and granted the Jews liberty to live according to their own laws, and freedom from tribute in the sabbatical years.”¹⁴

Jews Hellenized. As the Greeks conquered southwestern Asia, the Greek language and Hellenistic thought spread throughout the occupied lands. “Greek became the language of literature and commerce from the shores of the Mediterranean to the banks of the Tigris.”¹⁵

The Jews were greatly impressed by the sophistication of the Greek culture. The Greek way of life became established in Judea. Many Jews abandoned the Mosaic laws for Greek customs. At a gymnasium in Jerusalem, some Jews tried to hide their circumcision when competing naked in games. Greek names became fashionable. Two high priests of the Second Temple, Jesus (Jeshua) and Onias (son of High Priest Jaddua and father of High Priest Simon the Just) adopted the Greek names “Jason” and “Menelaus,” respectively.¹⁶

A foreign king. The Jews ignored an express commandment of the L-RD by welcoming and acknowledging a foreign king over them! G-d had said: “When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, ‘Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,’ be sure to appoint over you the king the LORD your God chooses. He must be from among your own brothers. Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not a brother Israelite” (Deut 17:14-16, NIV).

Only once a year. The Jewish Encyclopedia informs us: “At the beginning of the Hellenistic era… the use of the Name was reserved for the Temple… it appears that the priests were allowed to pronounce the Name at the benediction only in the Temple.” Later, “from the time Simeon the Just (310-291 or 300-270 B.C.) died (this is the traditional expression for the beginning of the Hellenistic period), the priests refrained from blessing the people with the Name…”¹⁷

After the death of Simeon the Just, the utterance of the Sacred Name even by the priests was further restricted. We learn from the Encyclopedia Judaica that the Tetragrammaton was “pronounced by the high priest only once a year on the Day of Atonement in the Holy of Holies… and in the Temple by the priests when they recited the Priestly Blessing.”¹⁸

The Name mumbled. The priests also “pronounced it indistinctly, or they mouthed or mumbled it. Thus says Tosef… Formerly they used to greet each other with the Ineffable Name; when the time of the decline of the study of the Law came, the elders mumbled the Name. Subsequently also the solemn utterance of the Name by the high priest on the Day of Atonement, that ought to have been heard by the priests and people… became inaudible or indistinct.” “R. Tarfon (or Tryphon) relates…: ‘I was standing in the row of young priests, and I heard the high priest mumbling the Name, while the rest of the priests were chanting’.”¹⁹

Adonai and Kyrios substituted. When the Jews stopped uttering the Tetragrammaton, they started using the Hebrew term Adonai to refer to the L-RD. (Adonai is plural ["my Lords"], but is regarded as a plural of respect or magnitude. Jews only use the singular form Adoni ["my lord"] to refer to a distinguished person. It is the source of the Greek name “Adonis.”)

From the 3^rd century B.C. onward, when a Jewish reader came across the sacred Name YHWH in the Biblical text, he pronounced it as Adonai. The Babylonian Talmud teaches: “The Holy One, blessed be He, said, ‘I am not pronounced as I am written; I am written with (the letters) yod he, but I am pronounced by alef daleth’ (Kiddushin 71a). That is to say, although the name was written as YH(WH), it was pronounced as ‘d(wny) (Adonay), ‘Lord’.”²⁰

In addition to using the Hebrew term Adonay, it became a custom among the Jews from the Second Temple period onward to say the Greek word Kyrios, which also means “Lord,” whenever they encountered G-d’s personal name YHWH in the Scriptures.²¹

Third time taken back

The third and last retraction came after a little over 300 years. “When Simeon the Righteous died, with many indications that such glory was no more enjoyed, his brethren no more dared utter the Ineffable Name.”²²

When did Simeon the Righteous die? The historical marker for his death was the loss of the Temple. “After the death of the high priest Simeon the Righteous forty years prior to the destruction of the Temple, the priests ceased to pronounce the Name (Yoma 49b). From that time, the pronunciation of the Name was prohibited”²³ Next question: When was the Temple destroyed?

The Temple, also called the Second Temple or Herod’s Temple, was razed to the ground by Roman legions commanded by Titus, son of Emperor Vespasian, in 70 A.D. According to the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: “The prediction (of Luke 21:5) was fulfilled to the letter in the destruction of the temple by the Romans in 70 AD.”²⁴ So, forty years before the destruction of the Temple was in 30 A.D. This was the year the priests in the Temple stopped uttering the Tetragrammaton altogether! Why did the use of the Name cease in that particular year?

The Crucifixion. Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary narrates: “During the week before Passover in A.D. 30, Jesus taught each day in the Temple area, debating with other teachers of differing beliefs… To block the possibility of an uprising among the people, the priestly party decided to arrest Jesus as soon as possible… Arrested on Passover Eve, Jesus was brought first before a Jewish court of inquiry, over which the high priest Caiaphas presided.”²⁵ The rest of the story is in the Bible. Christ was crucified the following day in 30 A.D.

Never uttered again. G-d took back His Name completely, including all the promises that come with it, after the Jews killed His Only Begotten Son. It was the proverbial last straw! The Jewish Encyclopedia states: “After the destruction of the Second Temple there remained no trace of knowledge as to the pronunciation of the Name.”²⁶ 

The number “40” has long been known as the Biblical number of trial and testing (the Israelites wandered 40 years in the wilderness before reaching the Promised Land (Num 14:34); the people of Nineveh were given 40 days to repent or their city would be destroyed (Jonah 3:4); Christ was tempted 40 days and nights by the devil (Matt 4:1-2); etc.

It looks like G-d tested the Jews for 40 years after the Crucifixion – to see if they would still accept Christ as their long-awaited Messiah. When they did not, He allowed the full force of His judgment to fall upon them. The Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 A.D. Over one million Jews died during the war, which started in 66 A.D., while 97,000 were captured and sold into slavery throughout the Roman Empire.

(Excerpted from: Personal Names of God, Chapter 10, THE DEEP THINGS OF GOD: A Primer on the Secrets of Heaven and Earth, by M.M. Tauson.)

1.	God, Names of, The Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. 11, p. 263
2.	Name of God, Encyclopedia Judaica, Vol. 7, col. 680
3.	The Jewish Encyclopaedia, Vol. 12, p. 119
4.	Choon-Leong Seow, “The Ineffable Name of Israel’s God,” Glossary, Bible Review, December 1991, p. 49
5.	Names of God, The Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. 9, pp. 162-163
6.	Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vol. 23, p. 867
7.	Solomon Zeitlin, Jewish Quarterly Review, Vol. 59, No. 4, April 1969
8.	Mackey’s Revised Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, Vol. 1, p. 501
9.	Ibid.
10.	Languages of the Old Testament, International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, 1996
11.	The Jewish Encyclopaedia, Vol. 12, p. 119
12.	Languages of the Old Testament, op. cit.
13.	Rabbi Yeshayahu Heiliczer, “The Divine Name,” Messianic Home, Summer 1999, p. 18 Heiliczer, loc. cit.
14.	Alexander, Fausset's Bible Dictionary, 1998
15.	Alexander, International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, 1996
16.	High Priest, Fausset's Bible Dictionary, 1998
17.	God, Names of, op. cit., Vol. 1, p. 201-202
18.	God, Names of, Encyclopaedia Judaica, col. 682
19.	God, Names of, The Jewish Encyclopaedia, Vol. 1, pp. 201-202
20.	Quoted by Seow, op. cit., pp. 49-50
21.	Seow, loc. cit.
22.	The Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Yoma, p. 39b
23.	Names of God, loc. cit.
24.	Temple, International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, 1996
25.	Jesus Christ, Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary,1986
26.	Names of God, loc. cit.