Yahweh, as depicted by Michelangelo.
For more information, see the Skeptic's Annotated Bible article:
God gave Abraham a loyalty test: sacrifice your only son. An angel stops it at the last second.
The Bible describes Moses having a personal revelation of God in the form of a burning bush. Exodus 3:1-5
Yahweh, also known as Jehovah and YHWH (or JHWH), is the notional god of the Bible — "notional" because the text fails to present a consistent or coherent picture of the nature, characteristics, abilities or utterances of this deity such as would encourage one to acknowledge that a single real entity is being described. This situation no doubt results from the fact that the Bible is a post-hoc assemblage of texts from a number of different eras and mythic traditions, in some of which the male creator-god is omniscient, invisible, non-physical and all-powerful, while in others he is fallible, visible, requires food, can be heard walking, has limited power, and so on.
"Then he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God. [...] And God said unto Moses, I Am That I Am: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you."
"A close study of our holy books reveals that the God of Abraham is a ridiculous fellow-capricious, petulant, and cruel-and one with whom a covenant is little guarantee of health or happiness."
- — Sam Harris, The End of Faith
"He was a hidden God, full of secrecy. Verily, he did not come by his son otherwise than by secret ways. At the door of his faith standeth adultery. Whoever extolleth him as a God of love, doth not think highly enough of love itself. Did not that God want also to be judge? But the loving one loveth irrespective of reward and requital. When he was young, that God out of the Orient, then was he harsh and revengeful, and built himself a hell for the delight of his favourites. At last, however, he became old and soft and mellow and pitiful, more like a grandfather than a father, but most like a tottering old grandmother. There did he sit shrivelled in his chimney-corner, fretting on account of his weak legs, world-weary, will-weary, and one day he suffocated of his all-too-great pity."
- — Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra
Contents
- 1 The Tetragrammaton
- 1.1 Judaism
- 1.2 Christianity
- 2 Divine attributes
- 2.1 Just
- 3 See also
- 4 References
The Tetragrammaton[edit]
The Tetragrammaton is four Hebrew letters representing the name of the god of Israel in the Hebrew Bible, namely יהוה (YHWH). The written Hebrew language does not make clear the correct use of vowel points in the name, and, as such, the correct historical pronunciation it not known.
Judaism[edit]
According to Jewish tradition, the name is sacred and not to be said aloud in casual speech, reading, or even in prayer. The name is instead substituted with one of several titles. Modern-day Jews practice this by writing G-d instead of God, so that the full name is not communicated.
Different vowel points are added to the Tetragrammaton to indicate the title being substituted in, and its pronunciation. For example, the Masoretic Hebrew text has the name written as יְהֹוָה (YHWH with the vowels from "Adonai" added) and as יֱהֹוִה (with the vowels from "Elohim" added) to indicate the reader should substitute the name with "Adonai" or "Elohim", respectively.
Note that the vowels from appropriate titles are added to allow for vocalization of the title in reference to God. They are not the "correct" pronunciation of the name itself because the pronunciation of vowels is unknown in all words.
Christianity[edit]
Christians do not have an issue with saying the name of God, however the exact pronunciation is ambiguous. Since vowels were not recorded, the names Yahweh and Jehovah are based on adding likely vowels to complete the name. It is uncertain if these are the correct vowels. Jewish tradition holds that the name should not be spoken, so this only is a practical problem for Christians.
- "However, there is no correct pronunciation for the name of God because the letters are only consonents, not vowels. So we cannot tell what the "real" name of God is YAHWEH, or YEHWAH, or YAHWAH, or YEHWEH, etc. [1]"
The majority view is that Yahweh is more historically accurate.[2] The most popular theory of the origin of the name Jehovah is that it takes the consonants from YHWH and the vowels from adonai ("Lord" in Hebrew). Some Christians claim the J sound in Jehovah is consistent with the translation of the name Jesus from Iesous in Greek and Yeshua in Hebrew.
Jehovah's Witnesses claim that God's name has effectively been removed from the Bible by substituting it with "Lord". Although they prefer the name Jehovah, they argue that the exact pronunciation is not that important:
"Even though the modern pronunciation Jehovah might not be exactly the way it was pronounced originally, this in no way detracts from the importance of the name. While many translators favor the pronunciation Yahweh, the New World Translation and also a number of other translations continue the use of the form Jehovah because of people's familiarity with it for centuries."
- — The Divine Name Brochure p.10
Divine attributes[edit]
Many attributes are ascribed to God. However, some of them are incompatible. Since no object exists that has contradictory attributes, God does not exist (this is the argument from incompatible attributes). Traditionally, God is considered to be:
- Omnipotence
- Omnipresence
- Omniscience
- Omnibenevolence
- Worthy of worship
- Divine simplicity
- Necessarily existent
- Exists as a Trinity (according to most Christians)
More controversially, he has the attributes of:
- Fallible
- unworthy of worship
- Of changeable character
- Capable of emotions
- Poor communication skills
Just[edit]
- "Justice is God’s ontologically necessary attribute, so HE cannot unjustly kill even one person. God cannot be unjust. [3]"
This is just defining God to have particular attributes a priori. It is conceivable that God does not have this attribute. Also, there are Biblical examples that clearly show God often commands atrocities. There is the problem of evil.
"And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people."
"I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things."
See also[edit]
- God commanded atrocities in the Old Testament
References[edit]
| v · d | Religion |
| v · d | Abrahamic religions |
| Judaism | Judaism · Samaritanism · Messianic Judaism |
| Christianity | Origins of Christianity . Catholicism · Protestantism . Eastern Orthodox . Jehovah's Witnesses · Mormonism |
| Islam | Overview of Islam . Sunni Islam . Shi'a Islam . Contemporary Islamism |
| Other | Baha'i · Druze · · Mandaeism · · Rastafarianism |
| v · d | Dharmic religions |
| Dharmic Religions | Buddhism · Hinduism · Jainism · Sikhism · Zoroastrianism |
| v · d | Folk religions |
| African folk religions | African traditional religion · Santeria · Egyptian mythology |
| North American folk religions | Inuit mythology |
| v · d | New religious movements |
| Christian NRMs | Mormonism · Jehovah's Witnesses · Christian Science · Pentecostalism |
| Eastern NRMs | Caodaism · Chondogyo · Chen Tao · Jeung San Do |
| Modern NRMs | Scientology · Heaven's Gate · Raëlism |
| Islamic NRMs | Ahmadiyya · Babism |
| African NRMs | Rastafarianism · Hoodoo · Vodun · Candomblé · Santeria |
| Pagan NRMs | Ásatrú · Wicca |
| Esostoric NRMs | Theosophy · New Age |
| v · d | Taoic religions |
| Taoic religions | Shinto · Taoism · Confucianism · Caodaism · Chondogyo · Chen Tao · Jeung San Do · Yiguandao |
