In the Bible, both Christians and Jews are told to fear their God so much that the uttering of His name became taboo.
When the Israelites feared they might die if they continued to experience revelation and so asked of Moses to step in and be their intermediary with God, they were told that it is precisely the awe of God that humbles a person and prevents him from sin, keeps evil away, makes him walk aright and perform justice
Malachi2:5-6,Prov19:23,Ex20:16-17"in order that His awe shall be upon your faces, so that you shall not sin".
The same is stated in the Quran 79:40. As the psalmist states, the one wo performs justice and rigtheousness can only be one whose
Ps119:120"flesh bristles from fear of You, and I dread Your judgments".
Ezra to whom part of the book of Chronicles is traditionally attributed to, states, while recalling the prophet David's prayer
1Chr16:30"Quake before Him, all the earth.."
To fear God reverently is actually among the 613 commandements revealed at Sinai Deut6:13,10:20 and reiterated time and again by the prophets 1Sam12:24-5, including Solomon, the wisest of all prophets who stated when concluding the last book attributed to him that fear from, and servitude to God is the whole purpose of man's existence Ecc12:13-14. In fact the whole of creation has been arranged in such a way so as to result in fear of God for the spiritually aware, who cannot but perceive God's all-encompassing grasp in the functioning of all existence Ecc3:14.
His father David before him echoed that universal purpose, it is every human's duty, to be inculcated from the youngest age
Ps34:12,Ps33:8"Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him".
He also stated, in the context of a time where all nations will be brought low before the Jewish people and either convert to Judaism or die
Ps2:11"Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with quaking".
God fearing is a precondition for divine acceptance and guidance Ps25:12, one of the prime qualities of the righteous believer Ex18:21, up to the most respected, upright leaders of a community 2Sam23:3 and prophets
Isa8:13,Ps5:8,Ps34:10"Fear the Lord, His holy ones".
The love of YHWH certainly has degrees, it is directly proportional to the servant's fear, not love, of Him. Fear of God is the pre-condition to wisdom itself, as well as discipline, uprightness and true knowledge, and to gaining God's praise and acceptance Ps111:10,112:1,Prov1:7,8:13. David also stated that
Ps19:10"the fear of the Lord is pure"
and hence the absence of that fear is often equated with disbelief Jer2:19. This is why a time will come where those that do not fear God will be considered worthless and deserving a severe chastisement. Those that feared Him, more particularily His chastisment, will be saved and rewarded Mal3:5,20,Ps85:10,Prov28:14. As the Quran equally states, fear of God, when kept in view in one's daily life and actions, inevitably leads to reward in the Hereafter 55:46,76:5-10,79:40-1.
It will be the fear of God that will animate the mythical messianic figure that will come at the end of times to restore justice and righteousness Isa11:2-5 and it is the fear of God, carved into the hearts of the Jews at the end of times that will make them walk the straight path forever Jer32:38-40.
The fear, awe and reverence to God is so deeply rooted in the teachings of Judaism that they may not pronounce what they have construed as His actual proper name
Deut28:58"fear this glorious and awesome name, the Lord, your God".
Because those consonants cannot be pronounced, the Jews apply the biblical instruction of making God Himself, throughout the HB, does not identify any word as His unique, proper name. It is the Jews that have identified these 4 consonantal letters YHWH (the Tetragammaton) as such. The instruction to fear the name YHWH creates difficulties within the text and its interpretation. For example HaShem, Elohim or Adonai replace these 4 consonants whenever they appear in the text. When describing the sacred Ark of the Jews, and speaking of the inscription on it representing these 4 letters, the author of 2Sam6:2 refers to "the name" so as to avoid pronouncing the word.
The biblical instruction of making God's name known to the world is reinterpreted in the sense of making His fame, reputation known. Knowing "about" God is achieved by showing the manner in which His attributes manifested in the world and throughout history. The text however shows that the name was known in ancient times, without any restrictions Gen4:1, just as was the case in the times of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob Gen15:7,17:1,22:14,28:3,13,35:11.
Later however, due to the high awe, and reverence towards the name, the priests forbade the laymen from uttering it, and preserved it among their own descendants. This of course is an unfounded traditional claim, since nobody today can claim to known the correct spelling of the 4 letters, even among those who trace their lineage to the priestly clan. Legend says that the mystery shrouding the correct spelling of the name will continue until the Messianic era where the 4 consonants will be made known to all, and without any restriction.
In Lev24:10-16 there is the story of someone who attempted to pronounce it
"..the son of the Israelite woman pronounced the [Divine] Name and cursed it.. Any man who curses his God shall bear his sin. And one who NOKEV the Name of the Lord, shall be put to death; the entire community shall stone him; convert and resident alike if he NOKVO the [Divine] Name, he shall be put to death."
The verb NAKAV apears in many instances, including Gen30:28,Num1:17,Isa62:2 and never means to blaspheme or curse but is equivalent to "saying" or "calling". It is purposefuly mistranslated as "blaspheme" in Christian Bibles that seek to bypass the total restriction concerning the utering of God's name. In fact the very plain reading of the verse reveals the important fact that the person commited not 1, but 2 sins, and that he was not actually executed for cursing God's name, but for pronouncing it. The person pronounced, then cursed the name. For the cursing, the sentence was that he shall "bear his sin" meaning that no atonement would be possible for him and he will carry the burden all throughout his life until it is dealt with by God after his death. For the sin of pronouncing the name, the sentence was that he should be put to death.
In addition to due reverence, there are other pragmatic reasons to avoid pronouncing the 4 letters. It only consists of consonants, which can only result in an incorrect pronunciation to anyone who tries. There is nothing more insulting than mispronouncing someone's name, let alone one used for God. The pronunciation "Yahweh" or "Jehovah" is based on that used by some of the Church Fathers but even among biblical scholars there is no certainty at all in this matter which is why most prefer to render it simply as YHWH without the vowels. In fact the pronounciation "Yahweh" is a Christians blunder, who took the vowelization which Jews use for ADNY (The aleph has the vowel "ah", the daled has "o", the nun has "ah" and it ends with a yud = AhDoNahY) and applied it to YHWH (They gave the first "ah" to the Y, then the "o" to the H, and finally the last "ah" to the letter vav = YaHoVah, regularily pronounced Yahweh or Jehovah).
No comments:
Post a Comment