Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Joel C. Salomon" <joelcsalomon AT gmail.com>]

On Wed, Dec 23, 2009 at 8:09 PM, James Christian
<jc.bhebrew AT googlemail.com> wrote:
> Hi Yigal and all,
>> 1. God HAS a "personal" Name - YHWH. It is the only one of the many
>> epithets
>> that the Bible uses for God, that is not also a title or description. Ex.
>> 6:3 actually say that God was known to the Patriarchs as "El Shaddai" and
>> that He did not make His Name YHWH known to them (and yes, this is a
>> problem
>> since the Patriarchs use YHWH all the time, but let's leave that aside).
>
> Actually, this would probably make for an excellent discussion. What is the
> official Jewish Orthodox positions on this question? What did the Rabbis
> have to say about this?
>
> I've always understood this in a nonliteral sense but in a kind of a
> spiritual sense i.e. that while the Patriarchs knew and used the name YHWH
> God did not reveal himself to them in the same way as he revealed himself to
> Moses and the sons of Isreal he saved from the hands of Egypt. I've always
> seen this as how YHWH showed himself to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as the
> almighty God and father of all but to Moses and the Isrealites YHWH entered
> into a more personal relationship by showing himself to be their saviour and
> being exclusively the God of their nation.

See Rashi, for example at
<http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/9867/showrashi/true>.
The various Names are taken to mean different Attributes of God; and
although the patriarchs knew of the Tetragrammaton, God had never made
Himself known to them with that associated Attribute.

To tie this to b-hebrew and away from theology, note the choice of
words: "לא נודעתי", not "לא הודעתי".  If the text had read "ושמי ה׳ לא
הודעתי להם", it would mean "… but My Name Y—— I did not make known to
them".  The text "ושמי ה׳ לא נודעתי להם" is taken to mean "… but
[with] My Name Y—— I did not make Myself known to them".

—Joel Salomon