Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Karyn Traphagen <karyn AT birchbarkstudio.com>]

On Jun 13, 2006, at 2:01 AM, Edward Andrews wrote:

> My wow comes with Exodus 3:13, 15, when I first learned that God  
> has a personal name. For those who speak Hebrew, it is full of  
> meaning. It comes from the basic Hebrew root ???, h·w·h, meaning,  
> "to become" However, the name is in the causative form, Hiph·?il´,  
> expressing causative action. This has helped me to appreciate that  
> God's personal name is not about His existence but instead that he  
> causes things to come to be or to come about according to His will  
> or purpose. When He chose to free His people from Egyptian bondage,  
> He caused it to be. Is it not comforting, to realize, there is no  
> power that can stand in the way of the things JHVH (YHWH) purposes  
> to do? Thus, He causes Himself to be the fulfiller of His promises  
> to His creatures, His name alone assures us that something will be  
> done, it is certain. Furthermore, a personal name to me equals a  
> personal relationship. It boggles the mind to think one can  
> actually have a personal relationship with the Creator of all things!
>
> Edward Andrews
>
> Grand Canyon University

Edward, could you (or others on the list) explain how you defend a  
hiphil parsing of the tetragrammaton? I'm curious to track this down  
further.

Thanks,
Karyn Traphagen
Westminster Theological Seminary