Do You Know God’s Name? Divine Self-Disclosure in the Hebrew Bible
Self-disclosure of the deity is central
to the religion of ancient Israel as described in the Hebrew Bible. The deity’s self-disclosure involves revelation
of his name, but the divine name, it turns out, is more than a single vocable. When
God reveals himself in words to Moses, he ‘proclaims’ or, as I loosely
translate, ‘expounds’ his name:
YHVH came down in a cloud,
stood next to him there,
and expounded the
name YHVH.
YHVH passed in front of him and called out:
YHVH, YHVH!
A compassionate
and gracious God,
slow to anger,
and abounding in
kindness and faithfulness,
who maintains kindness to the
thousandth generation,
forgives iniquity,
transgression, and fault,
but will not remit
punishment;
who visits the iniquity of
parents
on their children
and children’s children,
on the third and fourth generations.
I presented 22 “names of God” arranged acrostically with a scriptural preface in a previous post. In this post, I discuss the scriptural preface, various ways in which the term “name” of God is deployed in Jewish and Christian tradition, and the first four names of the acrostic list, which are:
אהב גר
בונה ירושלם
גדל חסד
דרך על־במתי ארץ
כִּי יהוה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם
הוּא אֱלֹהֵי הָאֱלֹהִים
וַאֲדֹנֵי הָאֲדֹנִים
הָאֵל הַגָּדֹל
הַגִּבֹּר וְהַנּוֹרָא
אֲשֶׁר לֹא־יִשָּׂא פָנִים
וְלֹא יִקַּח שֹׁחַד
עֹשֶׂה מִשְׁפַּט
יָתוֹם וְאַלְמָנָה
וְאֹהֵב גֵּר
לָתֶת לֹו לֶחֶם וְשִׂמְלָה
וַאֲהַבְתֶּם אֶת־הַגֵּר
כִּי־גֵרִים הֱיִיתֶם
בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם
For the
Lord your God
is the God
of gods
and the
Lord of lords,
The great
God,
mighty and
awesome,
who shows
no partiality
and does
not take a bribe,
who secures
justice
for the
orphan and the widow,
who
befriends the stranger,
giving him
food and clothing.
You too are
to befriend the stranger,
for you
were strangers
in the land of Egypt.
Deut
10:17-19
Strands of mystical theology in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam both
affirm and deny that anything at all can be predicated of God. That which is
predicated of God is variously referred to as an attribute, a name, a
representation, or an image. In Jewish and Christian tradition, a distinction
between attributes and names of God is made in terms of scribal proprieties. A
short list of sacred names receives special treatment.
In other contexts, predicates of God are termed names of God. An example may
illustrate. In the following excerpt from The Mystical Theology of Dionysian
tradition,[1]
“names” is a term used for one might call “philosophical” predicates of God:
Again, in the treatise on Divine Names, we have considered the meaning, as concerning God, of the titles of Good, of Being, of Life, of Wisdom, of Power, and of such other names as are applied to him; further, in the treatise on Symbolic Theology we have considered the analogies of God drawn from the world of sense and applied to the nature of God; we have spoken of the material and intellectual images we form of him, the functions and instruments of activity attributed to him; of the places he dwells and the raiment with which he is adorned; what is meant by God's anger, grief and indignation, or the divine inebriation; what is meant by God's oaths and threats, by his slumber and waking; and all sacred and symbolic representations.
It will be observed how far more copious and diffused are the last terms than the first. The theological doctrine and the exposition of the Divine Names are necessarily briefer than the Symbolic Theology. For the higher we soar in contemplation the more limited become our expressions of that which is purely intelligible; even as now, when plunging into the Darkness that is above the intellect, we pass not merely into brevity of speech, but even into absolute silence of thoughts and of words.
According to mystical theology, God calls us to a place of radiant darkness
and absolute silence, the place he himself indwells.
According to a more common theology, of which Deuteronomy 10:17-19 is an
expression, and of which Psalms 111 and 112 taken together are a stunning
example, God’s names are meant to be our names. Not all, but many.
The ultimate thrust of an aniconic faith like that ancient Israel was
supposed to have is that the burden as it were of being God’s icon is not
fobbed off on a divine simulacrum, but placed squarely on the shoulders of
humankind.
Is God a befriender of strangers? Then we too are to befriend strangers. Is
God the one who puts things right (the meaning, often, of ‘righteous’ in
context)? Then we too are to put things right.
The first four names of the acrostic, sourced, contextualized, and
translated, are:
אֹהֵב גֵּר
A befriender of the
stranger.
Deut 10:18
Context and comment provided above.
בּוֹנֵה יְרוּשָׁלַםִ יהוה
נִדְחֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל יְכַנֵּס
The Lord is the rebuilder of Jerusalem,
he gathers in the scattered of Israel.
Psalm 147:2
חַנּוּן וְרַחוּם יהוה
אֶרֶךְ אַפַּיִם
וּגְדָל־חָסֶד
The Lord is gracious and
compassionate,
slow to anger,
and abounding in kindness.
Psalm 145:8
כִּי־הִנֵּה יוֹצֵר הָרִים
וּבֹרֵא רוּחַ
וּמַגִּיד לְאָדָם
מַה שֵּׂחֹו
עֹשֵׂה שַׁחַר עֵיפָה
וְדֹרֵךְ עַל־בָּמֳתֵי אָרֶץ
יהוה אֱלֹהֵי־צְבָאוֹת שְׁמֹו
For the one who formed the mountains is here,
who fashioned the wind,
who announces to humankind
what his thought is,
who changes dawn to darkness,
who treads on the earth’s heights,
whose name is YHVH the God of
Armies.
Amos 4:13
[1] I refuse to call the author of the treatise Pseudo-Dionysius. This is etic, not emic terminology. The author’s pen name is Dionysius the Aeropagite. It is puerile to suggest that there is something “pseudo” about this. The use of the pen name is meant to point to a truth, to wit, that its author seeks to fill the shoes of Dionysius the Aeropagite, to be his voice for a readership of a time and place beyond the Aeropagite’s own. The author might be referred to as “the Dionysius of later Christian tradition.” The translation I provide adapts and reworks that of an anonymous translator as revised by Arthur Versluis (go here), and that of Colm Luibheid in Pseudo-Dionysius: The Complete Works (New York: Paulist Press, 1987).
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