NOTE TO THOSE SEEING THIS STUDY ON THE WEB PAGE 1 Beginning sometime in May of 2002, we will be regularly posting each new lesson as time goes along until this first series is completed. Our plans are for at least one lesson a month. So please check regularly if you wish to follow this course of study. Your questions or comments are welcomed and will be responded to as much as possible (Series One) PATHWAY OF LIGHT STUDY COURSE by R. W. Young But the path of the just is as a shining light, that shines more and more unto the perfect day. (Prov. 4:18) Study No. 1 - Chapter 4 IN THE BEGINNING ELOHIM CREATED THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH Gen. 1:1 In this chapter I will be dealing with the subject of our Creator's name. In the first chapter of Genesis the Hebrew term Elohim is used throughout the Chapter to designate the Almighty. As I've already pointed out Elohim is commonly translated by the term God in our English Bibles. Sometimes in Bible dictionaries, and other sources, it is said that Elohim is one of "the names of God". Although Elohim is a name in the generic sense, it is not an actual personal name. In other words, Elohim is a name pretty much in the same way as the term man is a name. Man is the name of a certain type of being. You could say, "the man came", or you could say, John came (if the name of that particular man was John). In the first instance you are using man as a name only in the generic sense, that is, as a descriptive noun. In the second instance you are using the actual name of the individual about whom you are speaking. In other words, man is a name only in the generic sense, but John is a proper noun, a specific, personal name. In the same way as illustrated above, when you use the Hebrew term Elohim you are speaking of a certain kind of being. You are not giving the personal name of that being, but merely giving the generic name of the being of whom you are speaking. Strictly speaking the Hebrew word Elohim means mighty ones. This is the sense in which this word would generally be used when speaking of more than one false god. This would be a numeric plural. However, when speaking of the one true Almighty One the plurality is a plural of majesty, and not of number, for there is only one true Almighty One. But in either case the term Elohim is a name only in the generic sense. It is the name of a kind of being whether speaking of the true Almighty One, or of false, fictitious mighty ones. Thus, as has been said, Elohim is a name only in the generic sense. It is not a proper noun or personal name.
2 Strictly speaking then is incorrect to say that Elohim is one of the names of God. Although our creator has many titles or generic terms used of Him in the Bible, the fact of the matter is that He has only one actual name. He has only one personal name. The term Elohim is the only term used to speak of our Creator in the Genesis Chapter one, and in the first three verses of Chapter two. As has been pointed out, in most English translations of the Bible this term Elohim is translated by the word God. The English term God, according to its most common usage in the English language, means the Supreme Being or object of worship. However, in the Hebrew language there is a word pronounced exactly like we pronounce the English term God. This Hebrew word means fortune or troop, with fortune being the meaning most commonly given to it today. Written with the Hebrew letters that are equivalent to the English letters G-d, this word, pronounced as we pronounce the term God, is used as the name of one of the tribes of Israel, and as the name of one of the prophets of Israel. It also is used as the name of a false deity - the god of fortune, or possibly the god of troops or fortification. This name of one of the tribes of Israel, of a prophet of Israel, and of this deity of fortune is written in English as Gad, with the a pronounced like the a in the word dad. But, as already pointed out, in Hebrew it is pronounced like our English word God. Because of this seeming link to the name of a particular pagan deity that Isaiah tells us the children of Israel forsook the Almighty in order to worship, there are some who feel it is wrong to use the term God when referring to the Almighty. [See Isaiah 65:11 wherein the Hebrew word Gad is translated as that troop.] I understand how those who reject the use of this word in reference to the Almighty feel. I have even leaned in that direction myself at times myself. I will explain my thinking in this matter more at a later time. However, for the time being, in this study course I use the term God in its common English meaning and as a common translation for the Hebrew term Elohim and other related Hebrew terms. For the moment, I just wish to note again that the term God, which is used in most English versions of the Bible as a translation of Elohim, is the only term used in them to refer to our Creator in the book of Genesis until we reach the 4 th verse of chapter 2, and to note that this is not used as a personal name or proper noun, but merely as a title or generic, descriptive noun. When we come to Genesis 2, verse 4, we have the first occurrence in the Bible of the term " the LORD". We read, "These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens." This is the way it is written in the King James Version. Notice that the term " the LORD " has all capital letters for the word LORD. In other places in the Bible you will find this term Lord spelled with only the first letter capitalized and all the rest in small letters. In most of such cases it is a translation of a Hebrew or Greek word meaning Lord when referring to the Almighty as being our Sovereign, Master, or Lord. And in other instances the term lord is found in the Bible with none of the letters capitalized. In such cases it is again a translation of a Hebrew or Greek word mean lord, master, or sir when not referring to the Almighty. However, when the term " the LORD " occurs in this fashion, with all the letters capitalized, it is not the translation of any Hebrew word meaning Lord, but is merely a substitute for the Creator s name. These two words, "the LORD", have been substituted for our Creator s name over 6,832 times in the King James translation of the Bible as well as in most other English translations.
3 This practice of substituting the LORD for our creator s name came about as a result of a practice that developed, and yet takes place today, in the Jewish synagogues. In an attempt to protect the Sacred Name from being profaned, misused, or blasphemed the leaders of the Jewish people, during the time they were in captivity in Babylon, taught the people not to pronounce the sacred name, but to substitute the Hebrew term adonai, meaning Lord, for it. Therefore, when they would come to the reading of the Sacred Name - the Creator s one personal name - in the Bible, they would say this Hebrew word meaning Lord instead of the name of the creator. The translators of our English Bibles went a step further and followed this practice in written form when they translated from Hebrew into English. They took away the name of the Creator, and put the two words "the LORD" in its place. The end result is that in doing this they changed the actual text of the Bible. To indicate that they were using the LORD as a substitution for the Creator s name they used all capital letters for the word LORD. It was also the practice in the reading of the Bible in the Hebrew synagogues to substitute Elohim for the Creator s name whenever that name occurred in the Hebrew text along with the word adonai. This was in order to avoid saying adonai adonai ( Lord Lord ). This practice in the synagogue's, of substituting the term Elohim for the Creator s name, when adonai was found already written alongside of the Creator s name in text of the Bible, led the translators of our English Bibles to substitute GOD, also spelled with all capitals, for the Creator s as name. Therefore, wherever you see " the LORD ", or " GOD ", in the Bible you are not seeing a translation of any words meaning Lord or God. What you're seeing is words substituted for the Creator's name, the name of Yahweh. Therefore, if you wish to read the scriptures as they should be read, that is, as it is written in the original text, you can do so by putting Yahweh in place of those words that have been substituted for his name. If you will do this, as you read the scriptures you see that Yahweh wants his name to be known by his people and used by them, especially in their worship of Him. In fact, by reading Yahweh in those nearly 7000 places in which it was removed from the Scriptures, a person should arrive at the conclusion that it was a serious mistake to remove Yahweh s personal name from the Scriptures in the process of translating them. We owe a great deal of thanks to those who originally translated the Bible into our language. So it is not my purpose to condemn them, or to cast aspersions upon them. I suppose that what they did in this regard was done innocently with no wrong intent whatsoever. Had they given it more thought they may have sought for the correct pronunciation of this personal name of our Creator. As it appears, at least to my understanding, they merely followed the precedent set in the Hebrew synagogues without thinking it through. It may be that they did this because they were quite uncertain about its correct pronunciation. In fact, many of the translators of the more modern versions of the Bible give this as their reason for not using Yahweh in their translations, and for following the same practice of substituting for His name. They make the claim that we cannot be absolutely certain as to the correct pronunciation of His name. However, the fact of the matter is, there's much evidence that the name of our Creator as written in the scriptures is indeed to be pronounced as " Yahweh ".
4 This name is written in Hebrew with the four letters of the Hebrew alphabet that are equivalent to the sound of our English letters YHWH. We have great certainty as to the pronunciation of the first part of this name, the Y H. This is the shorter, political form of our Creator s name, and is pronounced as Yah. We know this for a certainty because it is found in the word Hallelujah, which has come down to us through time immemorial. Today it is found in most languages throughout the civilized world. This English spelling with the Jah on the end is taken from the Latin language in which the J it sounded as we do the English Y. This word Hallelujah, as has been pointed out, has come down with this pronunciation from ancient times so that there's no question about its correct pronunciation. So the YH of the Sacred Name is without question to be pronounced as we pronounce the Jah in the word Hallelujah. That is, it is with question to be pronounced as YAH. Furthermore, another word that has come down to us from the ancient past is the name of the prophet Elijah. This name in the Hebrew language is a combination of the Hebrew term El (meaning " mighty one ", and normally translated as God in English) and the basic form of our creator as name it is found in the first three letters Y H W. Again we know with great certainty that the correct pronunciation of this name Elijah as written in Hebrew is EliYahu. We know this because the Jews have sung it in the song Eliyahu ha nabi ( Elijah the Prophet ) in every Passover service for century upon century past. Thus we know the pronunciation of the first part of our Creator's name with great certainty. All that remains to be determined is which vowel is to be used between the W and of the final H. We basically have only two options. We can use the a and pronounce the name as Yahwah, or we can use the e and pronounced the name as Yahweh. (The e in this case represents the sound of the e in the word eh, not to sound of e as found in the word he.) This is really the only uncertainty there is in regards to how to pronounce but this sacred name. However, the fact of the matter is, this uncertainty is very slight. Hebrew nouns that are masculine in gender generally end in eh. Whereas, those that are feminine in gender generally end in ah. Therefore, since the scriptures clearly represent Yahweh as masculine, we would expect his name to end in eh, not ah. Thus it is quite certain that our Creator's name, spelled Y H W H in Hebrew, would be pronounced Yahweh. This is the way it is found written in practically all scholarly writings. Furthermore, there is considerable evidence from the way that His name is transliterated into other languages, such as the Greek language, that Yahweh is the correct pronunciation of our Creator's name. The Encyclopedia Judaica, volume seven, page 679 states this: "The true pronunciation of the name YHWH was never lost. Several early Greek writers of the Christian church testify that the name was pronounced Yahweh... Also in the 20th-Century Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, on pages 1194, 1195, we read that, " the pronunciation Yahweh of the Hebrew Tetragrammaton need no longer be based primarily on traditions preserved in
5 late patristic sources. Both the vocalizations yahwe and yahu (a shortened form used chiefly in personal names) are now confirmed by a variety of ancient Near Eastern inscription materials from the first and second millennia B.C. " It would seem to me that an honest attempt to pronounce our Creator's name, to use it in worship, and in our reading of the scriptures would be much more pleasing to our Creator, even if we didn't get it just right, than completely ignoring it would be. Since there is great certainty that Yahweh is the correct way of bringing His name over into English, there should be no doubt that we should use this name in our translations of the Bible into English instead of removing it altogether and substituting something else in its place. To remove his name from the Scriptures and put something else in its place, when it is not necessary to do so, is a serious error and a transgression of the command to not take away from or add to His word. As we continue this study course, therefore, I will be using the name of Yahweh throughout the course. Another aspect of this is the existence of this name of the Heavenly Father in the name of his son, our Savior and redeemer. I will not take time now to go deeply into this matter of the Savior s name. Of course our Savior is commonly called Jesus. However, this is far removed from the correct pronunciation of his name as it was given to him when he was born of his Hebrew, Virgin mother approximately 2000 years ago. His name, as it was given to him at his birth, contained the name of Yahweh in its meaning and in its sound. Whereas, the name Jesus does neither. Two different times in the King James translation of the Bible we find the name Jesus being used when it does not refer to the Savior, but to Joshua the son of Nun who was the successor of Moses. Those passages are Acts 7: 45 and Hebrews 4: 8. In fact, many more recent translations actually use the name Joshua in those verses. The reason the King James Version uses Jesus in those passages is because in the Greek manuscripts of the New Testament the same word is used in those passages as is used elsewhere for our Savior s name. When all facts are considered, it appears that the name Jesus came about through a mispronunciation of the form used in those Greek manuscripts for the Savior s name as it was later transliterated into Latin and, then, from Latin into English. I won't take the time to go into the details connected with this at the present time. All I will say here is that the name of Joshua as it existed as in Hebrew is a combination of the name Hoshua, which meant Salvation, and the basic form of the Sacred Name of Yahweh. It was pronounced as Yahoshua, or Yahushua. This is the name that Moses gave to the one who was to become his successor and to lead the children of Israel into the Promised Land. In the course of time this name became shortened. By the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, as we read in Nehemiah 8:17 in the Hebrew text of the scripture, it became written with the Hebrew letters that are equivalents of our English letters Y S H UA. Historical evidence indicates that this is the form of the name given to our Savior at his birth. The critical question is how should it be pronounced? What vowel should be used after the Y?
6 In Modern Hebrew they pronounce this name as Yeshua (using the eh for the sound for the vowel). However, all indications are that in biblical Hebrew it was pronounced as Yahshua (using the ah sound for the vowel after the initial Y ). It could also be transliterated as Yashua. However, using that form in English leaves uncertainty with the reader as to whether the a should be sounded as the a in care, or as the a in father, whereas, the ah makes the correct pronunciation clear. Therefore, as we continue our study course I will use Yahshua for the name of the Savior. I have not gone into this matter of the Savior s name, or even into the matter of the Heavenly Father s name, in great depth in this chapter. Therefore, I suggest anyone who desires more information to request my free audiotape called The Creator's True Name, or to listen to it on our website (www.pathwayoflight.org.) on which many of you will already be reading this study course. The primary reason for this chapter is to get you to be familiar with the names that I will be using in this course of study, and with my reasons for doing so. In the next chapter I will discuss the nature of Yahweh as respects His being one while yet manifesting Himself simultaneously in different modes of existence.