. . . and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God.
Phil 2:11
The seven names before us as suggested by the commentators as the options for “The Name Above Every Name”
KuriosThe Lord Jesus Christ- Adonai <–
- Ha Shem
- YHWH
- LORD
- The Name for both God and Jesus
I hope you have noticed what I have been doing over the previous two Gems. I have short circuited things for you on the alternatives for “the Name above every name” which don’t warrant much attention. I have dealt with each alternative suggested by the experts in full but have let you know any which don’t warrant much attention at the beginning of the gem so you can skip to the end if you wish or skip it altogether. I simply want to deal with the alternate suggestions thoroughly but advise you when you can skip them. With this alternative we come to one of importance which requires you to pay attention. Not only will you gain a better understanding of ‘the Name above every name’ which Paul is referring to but also a fuller understanding of the Name(s) for God. Hence this Gem is important for your understanding.
Where does “Adonai” comes from?
“I am not aware of the mention of that name in Scripture, Ian. Can you give us some references?”
I gave you some when I dealt with “Kurios”. Adonai is the Hebrew word for master, lord, prince, boss, owner etc. In that way it is similar to “kurios“. But it is also a world apart from Kurios; kurios is Greek and adonai is Hebrew. Put quite simply “Adonai” is the circumlocution (the substitute name) to be uttered when the unmentionable name of God appears in the text of the Hebrew TANAKH (The Law, The Prophets and The Writings). The Name of God was so holy no God fearing Jew would dare to take it on their lips. Instead they would substitute another word “Adonai” for the unmentionable Name of God. Adonai means Lord or more literally “my Lord”. Adonai is the substitute word to be used when you are reading the TANAKH and you come across the Tetragrammaton, the Four Letters, יהוה YHWH. But there is a difficulty in reading this word in the Hebrew text when you see it. The vowels that have been added to the consonants y h w h are the vowels of Adonai and not the vowels of YHWH. The vowels are the dots and dashes that have been added to the consonants. This causes a problem for pronunciation because three vowels appear on to a two syllable word.
The vowels of the first word (adonai) have been put on the second word making it not only unmentionable in the sense of holiness but also unsayable because two vowels Qamets and Holem have been placed on the single radical Waw or Vav . (As seen in the image below.)
That makes the word unsayable. As new Hebrew readers, we would come to that word in class when asked to read the Hebrew text and stumble over how to say it. Bill Osbourne would have to remind us, “It’s the Tetragrammaton”. “Oh yes, so it is.” (Note to self: Just say Adonai.) The second word as it appears above has two vowels on the same letter leaving you a problem or how to say the word,. That’s right! You can’t say it as it’s written because that form does not follow the conventional rules of Hebrew. A signal for you to the substitute Adonai in its place.
Here is the complete Chart of Hebrew Vowels:
If you try to say the word, breaking the conventions of Hebrew you end up with Ye – Ho – Vah! Is this making sense to you? Have you just realised something as you read that sentence, pronouncing the word you are not supposed to say by breaking the rules of Hebrew. That’s right you just said the word Yehovah or Jehovah. That word was never the name for God. It was a mistaken mispronunciation of the name of God when you break the rules. Those who introduced “Jehovah” as the supposed name of God did so in ignorance of the Hebrew language. Tell that to the Jehovah’s Witness representatives the next time they come calling.
When the word appears in the Hebrew text often the dot (Holem = o) above the letter Waw is substituted for two parallel lines to ensure you don’t make the mistake above. I have simply taken a photo from the text in my Hebrew Bible to illustrate (below).
Adonai is a much stronger contender for the Name that is above every name but we will leave our final decision on this being the Name we are looking for until we have eliminated some of the others in order to choose our finalists. I hope you are tracking with me on this and putting yourself in a position of being able to take part in the final choice because you understand the background. The first two alternatives we have eliminated; this one still stands as a strong contender for the Name above every name. Adonai needs to be added to the list as a finalist for our choice of the Name above every name.
It is also time to add a song to the Gem as I do somewhere in each Gem series on a Bible book. Here is the first one at least for this Gem series on Philippians. The song is Adonai by Paul Wilbur and the clip is from YouTube. Pay careful attention to the lyrics of the song as it is sung.
Adonai is the name God fearing Jews substitute for YHWH when they should not utter the Holy Name of God.
Ian Vail
Jehovah is the name mistakenly given to God when those who didn’t understand the rules of Hebrew attempted to mention the unmentionable Name.
Ian Vail
Ha Shem is Hebrew for the The Name. Shem = Name.
Ha Shem signifies The Name we shouldn’t say. It’s another way of not mentioning the unmentionable name.