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Then YHVH rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah,
from YHVH out of the heavens.
Genesis 19:24
The most famous Hebrew consonants, Yod-He-Vav-He, which we call YHVH, have been a source of intense religious debate for thousands of years.
The meaning of YHVH as “He WILL BE” has perplexed many. Why would the Almighty God call Himself “He WILL BE,” and why did two bare this Name?
As Christians, we understand that YHVH was the Name of the invisible God and His Messenger. In the Old Testament, they shared the Name of He WILL BE, and now they share the Name “He WILL SAVE” in Greek, Jesus. But to the Jews, the Name “He WILL BE” was very confusing.
The Name of YHVH Was First Used in the Garden of Eden
The name of Eve in Hebrew means “She WAS.”
In Genesis 3:20, we read, “Adam called his wife’s name, Eve (She WAS), because She WAS the mother of all the living.” Adam compared the name of “She WAS,” the mother of all the living, to “He WILL BE,” the “Father of all.” (Ephesians 4:5)
After Adam and Eve left the garden of Eden, Eve bore her first son, and she exclaimed, “I have acquired a man from He WILL BE.” (Genesis 4:1)
We will discuss this again in more detail in The Many Proofs of Yihvah, He WILL BE.
God Named His Messenger YHVH at the Burning Bush
Before God named His Messenger “He WILL BE” at the burning bush, in Exodus 3:15, the Name of YHVH was spoken or heard no less than 12 times in the Old Testament. This is recorded in Genesis 4:1, 4:26, 15:2, 16:11, 22:14, 28:13, 28:21, 29:32–35, and 32:9.
Everyone knew the Name of God was He WILL BE, but no one knew the Name of His Messenger until it was revealed at the burning bush.
The Name of the Word of the Lord in the Targumim
The Jews also understood that “He WILL BE” was really the Name of God’s Messenger, who was “the Word.” The Palestine Targum, also known as the “Pseudo Jonathan Ben Uziel Targum,” used the expression “the Name of the Word of the Lord” 19 times, including four times in Genesis. The Palestine Targum used this expression in Genesis 4:26 long before the Messenger had appeared to anyone. The Jews understood that the Name of God’s Messenger was only being shared by God. God was otherwise nameless, with no one older to name Him.
The Jerusalem fragments use the expression “Name of the Word of the Lord” in four verses of Genesis and in Exodus 6:3, where we read, “And YHVH was revealed in His Word to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as the God of Heaven; but the Name of the Word of YHVH was not known to them.” Here, we clearly understand that the Messenger, the Word, was God’s image, and His Name was not known to Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob. But the Name of the invisible God was known to them.
After Christ came, the Rabbis tried to hide the teaching of the Word. They began to call God’s Messenger “the Metatron.” But even as late as the fourth century A.D., the Rabbis continued to recognize that YHVH was the shared Name of the invisible God and His Messenger, whom they now called “the Metatron.” The following quote from the Talmud will prove this:
And unto Moses He said, “Come up to the Lord.” But surely it should have stated, Come up unto me!—“It was Metatron who said that,” he replied, whose Name is similar to that of his Master, for it is written, “For My Name is in Him.”
.Babylonian Talmud, Talmud, Sanhedrin 38b