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).
