Michael Servetus (1511-1553) participated in the Protestant Reformation and translated the Hebrew Bible into Latin. In July 1531, he published his book entitled De Trinitatis Erroribus (On the Errors of the Trinity) in which he explained clearly that the Trinity was a 3-headed monster.
Accordingly, Catholics and Protestants alike condemned him. He was then arrested in Geneva and burnt at the stake as a heretic by order of the city's Protestant governing council. Despite the fact that Servetus had an exceptional scientific knowledge, for example he was the first European to correctly describe the function of pulmonary circulation, as well as an amazing linguistic knowledge, he was gifted in languages like Latin, Greek and Hebrew, his masterpiece De Trinitatis Erroribus was translated into English only in 1932, 400 years later1 !
Still worse, his main arguments in part V of his book were completely distorted. For example he explained that God's name was Iehouah because in Hebrew this name was close to the name of Iesuah (Jesus), or Iehosuah, which means “Ie[houah]-salvation”. He also knew that according to Paulus de Heredia, a Christian Cabbalist, the meaning of God's name was “He causes to be” (yehauueh, piel form of the verb “to be”), but he never confused the pronunciation of God's name (Iehouah) with its Cabbalistic meaning (yehaweh). For Servetus, Iehouah was the only true God. Paradoxically, most modern commentators of the book of Servetus have changed the name Iehouah (Jehovah), vigorously defended by Servetus, by Yahweh, a name based on a Cabbalistic guess suggested by Paulus de Heredia in his mystical book Epistle of Secrets (published in 1488).
In addition, it is noteworthy that a (diabolic) erratum at the end of the De Trinitatis Erroribus indicates that Iehonah was printed with an n inverted instead of Iehouah. Since Servetus died, more than 450 years ago now, I have decided to promote his De Trinitatis Erroribus and I have collected more information in order to show that his choices regarding God's name were absolutely reasonable and correct, specially his explanation of Jesus as “Iehouah is salvation”. The reader will see if I have been faithful to the spirit of Servetus. 1 The Two Treatises of Servetus on the Trinity (Harvard University Press XVI, 1932).
“Hallowed Be Thy Name” —What Name?
You have probably already heard this expression “Hallowed be thy name”, or more commonly now “Sanctified be your name”, because it is the first request of the Lord’s prayer, also called “Our Father”, which is regularly recited today in Christendom by more than one billion persons. In fact Jesus himself has made that well-known request when he encouraged his disciples to sanctify the name of the God of Abraham (Matthew 6:9, Luke 11:2). Consequently, the God of Jesus was the God of the Jews (1st century) as well as Christians and Muslims later. The prayer of Jesus is still recited by Jews today when they say the Kaddish2 (“Holy” in Aramaic). The opening words of this prayer are inspired by Ezekiel 38:23.
Similarly, the holiness of God's name is daily invoked by more than one billion of Muslims when they pray to God because all the surahs of the Quran (except the 9th) begin by “In the name of God”.
One might therefore think that the name of the God of Abraham is the same today for Jews, Christians and Muslims but paradoxically this is not the case.
If you ask a Catholic priest: what is God's name?, his answer will probably be “God”, “Father” or “Lord”, if you ask an Evangelical pastor, his answer will probably be “Lord” or “Jesus”,
If you ask a Muslim imam, his answer 2 Kaddish (קדיש ,Qaddish) is a hymn of praises to God found in the Jewish prayer service. The central theme of the Kaddish is the magnification and sanctification of God's name. will probably be “Allah”, which means “The God” in Arabic, and if finally you ask a Jewish rabbi, his answer will probably be “Hashem” or “Adonai”, knowing these names mean respectively “The Name” and “My Lord” in Hebrew. Why such a mess? If you ask again these religious leaders why God's name is not the same, their answers generally will be: “it does not matter”; “God has many names, you can choose which one you like”; “God's name has been lost, in fact pleasing God is more important”.
Would Jesus have agreed with these answers, did he know the name of God and finally, is it really important to know that name? Have you ever wondered why Jesus put the sanctifying of God’s name first in his prayer? Afterward, he mentioned other things such as the coming of God’s Kingdom, God’s will being done on earth and our sins being forgiven. The fulfilment of these other requests will ultimately mean lasting peace on earth and everlasting life for mankind. Can you think of anything more important than that? Nevertheless, Jesus told his disciples to pray first of all for the sanctification of God’s name. It was not merely by chance that Jesus taught his followers to put God’s name first in their prayers. That name was clearly of crucial importance to him, since he mentioned it repeatedly in his own prayers. On one occasion when he 4
DID JESUS “JE[HOVAH]-SALVATION” KNOW GOD’S NAME?
Jesus praying publicly to God, he was heard to say: Father, glorify your name! And God himself answered: I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again (John 12:28, The Jerusalem Bible). The evening before Jesus died, he was praying to God in the hearing of his disciples, and once again they heard him highlight the importance of God’s name. He said: I have made your name known to the men you took from the world to give me (...) Holy Father, keep those you have given me true to your name. Later he repeated: I have made known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love with which you loved me may be in them (John 17:6,11,26).
After Jesus' death God's name remained a central theme among his disciples. For example, the apostle Paul, who was educated at the feet of Gamaliel3 (Acts 22:3), wrote to his fellow Hebrew Christians: As it was his purpose to bring a great many of his sons into glory, it was appropriate that God, for whom everything exists and through whom everything exists, should make perfect, through suffering, the leader who would take them to their salvation. For the one who sanctifies, and the ones who are sanctified, are of the same stock; that is why he openly calls them brothers in the text: I shall announce your name to my brothers, praise you in full assembly (Hebrews 2:10-12).
He also wrote to the Romans: For in Scripture he says to Pharaoh; It was for this I raised you up, to use you as a means of showing my power and to make my name known throughout the world (Romans 9:17). He warned Christians: However, 3 Gamaliel, a well-known Pharisee, was a Law teacher esteemed by all the people (Acts 5:34). God’s solid foundation stone is still in position, and this is the inscription on it: The Lord knows those who are his own, and: All who call on the name of the Lord must avoid sin (1 Timothy 2:19).
However the early Christians who were of Jewish origin were extremely puzzled that now (first century CE) pagans could invoke God's name. That’s why James4 explained to the apostles: When they had finished it was James who spoke. My brothers, he said, listen to me. Simeon (Peter) has described how God first arranged to enlist a people for his name out of the pagans. This is entirely in harmony with the words of the prophets, since the scriptures say: After that I shall return and rebuild the fallen House of David; I shall rebuild it from its ruins and restore it. Then the rest of mankind, all the pagans who are consecrated to my name, will look for the Lord, says the Lord who made this known so long ago (Acts 15:13-18).
Even though the New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology (Volume 2, page 649) says: One of the most fundamental and essential features of the biblical revelation is the fact that God is not without a name: he has a personal name, by which he can, and is to be, invoked, in 2001, the Vatican's Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (the agency in charge of liturgical matters) put forth an “Instruction” known as Liturgiam Authenticam which included the following directive: In accordance with immemorial tradition ... the name of almighty God expressed by the Hebrew tetragrammaton (YHWH) and James was a son of Joseph and Mary, and half brother of Jesus (Mark 6:3; Galatians 1:19).
“HALLOWED BE THY NAME” —WHAT NAME?
The Name rendered in Latin by the word Dominus, is to be rendered into any given vernacular by a word equivalent in meaning. In 2008 this rule was then reinforced by a “Letter to the Bishops Conferences on The Name of God”: In the light of what has been expounded, the following directives are to be observed: 1. In liturgical celebrations, in songs and prayers the name of God in the form of the tetragrammaton YHWH is neither to be used nor pronounced.
. For the translation of the biblical text in modern languages, destined for the liturgical usage of the church, what is already prescribed by No. 41 of the instruction Liturgiam Authenticam is to be followed; that is, the divine tetragrammaton is to be rendered by the equivalent of Adonai/Kyrios: Lord, Signore, Seigneur, Herr, Señor, etc. 3. In translating in the liturgical context, texts in which are present, one after the other, either the Hebrew term Adonai or the tetragrammaton YHWH, Adonai is to be translated Lord and the form God is to be used for the tetragrammaton YHWH, similar to what happens in the Greek translation of the Septuagint and in the Latin translation of the Vulgate.
For a sincere Catholic the present situation must be very uncomfortable, because he can read in his official Bible (Jerusalem Bible): They are doing their best, by means of the dreams that they keep telling each other, to make my people forget my name, just as their ancestors forgot my name in favour of Baal ("Lord"). Let the prophet who has had a dream tell it for a dream! And let him who receives a word from me, deliver my word accurately! 'What have straw and wheat in common? Yahweh demands (Jeremiah 23:27-28).
Paradoxically his own Bible is now under the ban (!) because it uses the forbidden name Yahweh, and if he obeys his Church he disobeys God who condemns the prophets of the “Lord” (Baal). On the other hand it was written in his former Bible (Crampon 1904): Then those who feared Jehovah talked to one another about this, and Jehovah took note and listened; and a book of remembrance was written in his presence recording those who feared him and kept his name in mind. On the day when I act, says Jehovah of armies, they will be my most prized possession, and I shall spare them in the way a man spares the son who serves him (Malachi 3:16-17). Since the Bible of Abbot Crampon became the official Bible of Catholicism in 1904, the Latin title Dominus “Lord” in the Vulgate has been systematically replaced by Jehovah, however, when this name appears for the first time in the text of Genesis 2:4 a footnote explains: Its real pronunciation was Yahveh; the form Jehovah comes from the Masoretes, who attributed to this word the vowels of Adonaï, another name for God, which means Lord.
When the Bible was revised in 1923, the main revision was 5 The Vulgate is a late 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible that became, during the 16th century, the Catholic Church's officially promulgated Latin version of the Bible. The translation was largely the work of Jerome, who, in 382, was commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Vetus Latina ("Old Latin") collection of biblical texts in Latin then in use by the Church. Once published (405), it was widely adopted and eventually eclipsed the Vetus Latina and, by the 13th century, was known as the "versio vulgata" (the "version commonly-used") or, more simply, in Latin as vulgata. The Catholic Church made it its official Latin Bible as a consequence of the Council of Trent (1545-63).
DID JESUS “JE[HOVAH]-SALVATION” KNOW GOD’S NAME?
There aim was replace Jehovah by Yahweh. Obviously this new choice created a cacophony in God’s name and its controversial oneness (until 1923) collapsed because that name, which appeared for the first time in the Tyndale Bible6 in 1530, exploded into a multitude of names: Jehovah, Yahweh, Jahweh, Jahveh, Jahve, Jave, YHWH, etc. In view of all of this, there is a risk to conclude (if you trust more in scholars than in the Bible): We simply do not know how God’s ancient servants pronounced this name in Hebrew. However if we no longer know the pronunciation of God's name, its meaning, according to most Christian theologians, is Yahweh “He causes to become” in Hebrew.
This naive conclusion contradicts both logic and (worse) the Bible itself. Those who state that the pronunciation of God's name has been lost are illogical because most Egyptian gods were able to preserve their names (Râ, Amun, Thoth, Isis, Horus, Aten, etc.) but the Almighty God would not have been able to preserve his great name whereas he had warned the Israelites: Which think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbour, as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal “Lord” (Jeremiah 23:27, King James Bible).
The prophets of 6 Tyndale included the name of God, usually spelled IEHOUAH, in several verses (Genesis 15:2; Exodus 6:3; 15:3; 17:6; 23:17; 33:19; 34:23; Deuteronomy 3:24. He also included God's name in Ezekiel 18:23 and 36:23 in his translations that were added at the end of The New Testament, Antwerp, 1534), and in a note in this edition he wrote: Iehovah is God's name... moreover as oft as thou seist LORD in great letters (except there be any error in the printing) it is in Hebrew Iehovah. the Lord, because Baal means “Lord” in Hebrew, would have succeeded to make forget God's name. Apparently they succeeded because it is written in many English Bibles: If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, would not God have discovered it, since he knows the secrets of the heart? (...) Let them know that you, whose name is the LORD —that you alone are the Most High over all the earth (...) Blessed is the people of whom this is true; blessed is the people whose God is the LORD (Psalms 44:20-21; 83:18; 144:15, New International Version).
However the translation of this Bible is incoherent because it replaced the personal name of God by LORD, but many other Bibles disagree with this choice7 , which supports the main goal of the prophets of the LORD: “overshadow the name of God”. Those who state that the pronunciation of God's name has been lost contradict the Bible itself because when God revealed the meaning of his name to Moses he 7 King James Bible: That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth. American King James Version: That men may know that you, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, are the most high over all the earth. American Standard Version: That they may know that thou alone, whose name is Jehovah, Art the Most High over all the earth. Darby Bible Translation: That they may know that thou alone, whose name is Jehovah, art the Most High over all the earth. English Revised Version: That they may know that thou alone, whose name is JEHOVAH, art the Most High over all the earth. Webster's Bible Translation: That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth. World English Bible: that they may know that you alone, whose name is Yahweh, are the Most High over all the earth. Young's Literal Translation: And they know that Thou —(Thy name [is] Jehovah —by Thyself,) [Art] the Most High over all the earth!
“HALLOWED BE THY NAME” —WHAT NAME?
God, furthermore, said to Moses: Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel “The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you”. This is My name forever, and this is My memorialname to all generations (...) Your name, O LORD, is everlasting, Your remembrance, O LORD, throughout all generations (Exodus 3:15; Psalms 135:13, New American Standard Bible). Consequently, God’s name will never be forgotten: My name will be great among the nations, from where the sun rises to where it sets. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to me, because my name will be great among the nations, says the LORD Almighty (Malachi 1:11); All the nations may walk in the name of their gods, but we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever (Micah 4:5). As we can see, the translation of the New American Standard Bible is really absurd because God's name will be great among the nations for ever and ever and at the same time that name will be the LORD, which is not a personal name but a title, like Eternal or God. How can one explain this paradox? Why some translations use the title LORD instead of God's name? The answer is amazing: Discipline me, LORD, but only in due measure, not in your anger, or you will reduce me to nothing. Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge you, on the peoples who do not call on your name (Jeremiah 10:24- 25). Consequently, according to their own translation, which does not call on God's name as we have seen, God had to “pour out his wrath” on these translators. This explanation is the first key of the mystery.
In fact, God has always revealed his name to his faithful servants, those seeking his glory (John 5:39-44; 12:43), despite frequent persecutions and apparent foolishness (1 Corinthians 1:19-25), not those seeking their own glory (Matthew 11:25). First conclusion, when the translators of a Bible refuse to use God's name they strongly displease God because it is written in the Jerusalem Bible: Give thanks to Yahweh, call his name aloud. Proclaim his deeds to the people, declare his name sublime. Sing of Yahweh (...) we hoped in you, Yahweh, your name, your memory are all my soul desires (...) Yahweh our God, others lords than you have ruled us, but we acknowledge no one other than you, no other name than yours (...) My name is Yahweh, I will not yield my glory to another, nor my honour to idols (...) all day long my name is constantly blasphemed. My people will therefore know my name; that day they will understand that it is I who say: I am here (...) to make known your name to your enemies, and make the nations tremble at your presence (...) I was ready to be approached by those who did not consult me, ready to be found by those who did not seek me. I said: I am here, I am here, to a nation that did not invoke my name (Isaiah 12:4; 26:8,13; 42:8; 52:6; 64:2; 65:1). You may wonder: who proclaims the name of Yahweh today and who are the people of Yahweh? Apparently nobody. Once again the answer is within the Bible itself. For example, the apostle Peter explained why the early Hebrew Christians
DID JESUS “JE[HOVAH]-SALVATION” KNOW GOD’S NAME?
Christians received the Holy Spirit: When Pentecost day came round, they had all met in one room, when suddenly they heard what sounded like a powerful wind from heaven, the noise of which filled the entire house in which they were sitting; and something appeared to them that seemed like tongues of fire; these separated and came to rest on the head of each of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak different languages as the Spirit gave the gift of speech (...) These men are not drunk, as you imagine; why, it is only the third hour of the day. On the contrary, this is what the prophet Joel spoke of: In the last days to come —it is the Lord who speaks— I will pour out my Spirit on all mankind. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams. Even on my slaves, men and women, in those days, I will I pour out my Spirit. I will display portents in heaven above and signs on earth below. The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great Day of the Lord dawns. All who call on the name of the Lord will be saved (Acts 2:1-4,15-21)
. This translation is quite accurate and reliable except on one central point: the quotation of Joel 3:1-5 in the Jerusalem Bible reads Yahweh instead of the Lord, which changes completely the meaning of what Peter said. To be saved must we call on the name of Yahweh (formerly Jehovah) or Lord? If our salvation depends on our invocation of the divine name, so it is important to know it. We have seen that the translators who replaced God's name by “Lord” had made this choice for theological reasons. This imposture was unmasked by a relatively simple investigation, indeed the fact of checking internal contradictions in the bibles of these translators has been sufficient. This imposture is very old since it appeared with the first Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible (c. 280 BCE), known as the Septuagint (LXX).
For example the text of Leviticus 24:13-16 is read in the Jerusalem Bible as: Yahweh spoke to Moses; he said: Take the man who pronounced the curse outside the camp. Let all who have heard him lay their hands on his head, and let the whole community must stone him. Then say to the Israelites: Anyone who curses his God shall bear the consequences of his fault. The one who blasphemes the name of Yahweh must die; the whole community must stone him. Stranger or native, if he blasphemes the Name, he will be put to death, but the same text is read in the Septuagint (Brenton LXX) as: And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Bring forth him that cursed outside the camp, and all who heard shall lay their hands upon his head, and all the congregation shall stone him. And speak to the sons of Israel, and thou shalt say to them: Whosoever shall curse God shall bear his sin. And he that names the name of the Lord, let him die the death: let all the congregation of Israel stone him with stones; whether he be a stranger or a native, let him die for naming the name of the Lord. Paradoxically, as had noticed a Jewish philosopher named Philo (-25 to +50) in his book on the life of Moses that: it was worse to name God than even to curse him (De vita Mosis II:203-206)! How can one explain that Philo gave such an absurd comment
“HALLOWED BE THY NAME” —WHAT NAME?
According to the text of Numbers 6:22-27, that the high priest had to name the name of God upon all the people on the day of atonement, once a year, in order to get the blessing from God: And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying: Thus ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying to them: The Lord [YHWH] bless thee and keep thee; the Lord make his face to shine upon thee, and have mercy upon thee; the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel, and I the Lord [YHWH] will bless them. According to the text of the Septuagint the high priest had to name God [YHWH] and consequently to be stoned! Obviously, this conclusion is absurd. Regarding the divine name in the first century, Philo explains: there was a gold plaque shaped in a ring and bearing four engraved characters (tetragrammaton) of a name which had the right to hear and to pronounce in the holy place those ones whose ears and tongue have been purified by wisdom, and nobody else and absolutely nowhere else. And this holy prophet Moses calls the name, a name of four letters (YHWH), making them perhaps symbols of the primary numbers (...) above this mitre is a golden leaf, on which an engraving of four letters was impressed; by which letters they say that the name of the living God is indicated, since it is not possible that anything that it in existence, should exist without God being invoked; for it is his goodness and his power combined with mercy that is the harmony and unity of all things (De vita Mosis II:115,132).
The testimony of Philo confirms several points: the name of God was still pronounced in the 1st century but only by a small group of people (the priests in the temple), this sacred name was made up of four letters that Philo could not read any more (because it was ancient Hebrew), and he concluded in his comment on Exodus 3:14 that paradoxically God had no proper name [in Greek] (De vita Mosis I:75)! The strange conclusion of Philo is explained by the fact that he did not know Hebrew. Regarding the pronunciation of God’s name, Flavius Josephus (37- 100), gave a more reliable witness because he was familiar with the Bible and was able to read it in Hebrew8 . Contrary to Philo, Josephus says that some Jews (those who spoke Hebrew) knew the proper name of God: when those people thought they had got clear of the enemy, they snatched from them what they had brought with them, even while they had frequently entreated them, and that by calling upon the tremendous name of God (The Jewish War V:438). Regarding the pronunciation of God's name, he explains: The high priest had his head dressed with a tiara of fine linen embroidered with a purple border, and surrounded by another crown in gold which had in relief the sacred letters; these ones are four vowels (The Jewish War V:235).
