Why dump Yahweh?

By Dr Richard C. Lux

The recent ruling by the Vatican’s Congregation for Worship and Sacraments on the prohibition of pronouncing God’s name, Yahweh, in liturgy, songs and prayers during Mass must be perplexing to many Catholics.

Since the Vatican II Council’s Declaration on Non-Christian Religions (Nostra aetate) on October 25, 1965, the Catholic Church has sought to reverse almost 19 centuries of anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism in its teaching, liturgy and actions; it has been wonderfully successful in this new direction, a direction dramatically advanced by the late Pope John Paul II and confirmed by Benedict XVI.

In the rightful attempt to become more sensitive to Jewish traditions, history, practice and prayer life, we Catholics have become aware that Jews, from the most Orthodox to the most liberal, do not pronounce the sacred name of God, Yahweh. This omission of pronouncing God’s revealed name includes the great daily prayer, the Shema (Dt 6:4): Hear, O Israel the Lord (Adonai) is our God, the Lord (Adonai) alone. Adonai was substituted for Yahweh long before the time of Jesus in this prayer and itself was a name for God  perhaps as old as the name Yahweh, but appearing only 600 times in the Hebrew Scriptures. Given this Jewish tradition, it seems to me that the Vatican Congregation is trying to promote that sensitivity among Catholics an understandable but terribly misguided direction for reasons which follow.

The name Yahweh was revealed to Moses in the burning bush (Ex 3:13-15) and becomes the preeminent name by which God is addressed in the Hebrew Scriptures  more than 6,700 times and in every book of the Bible except Qoheleth and Esther.

For reasons not entirely clear to scholars, about the year 300 BC, the name Adonai began to be substituted whenever the name Yahweh appeared. Nevertheless the latter name and pronunciation never ceased to be known and spoken; traditionally the High Priest, on Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) entered the Holy of Holies and uttered this name. This name is attested to in the Second Temple period; in fact, the name Jesus is a Greek transliteration of his Aramaic name Yeshua which means Yah(weh) is [my] salvation. We know from archaeological finds of this period that this was a common and popular name in Judea and the Galilee.

How did it come to be suppressed? In about 250 BC the Greek-speaking Jews of Alexandria, Egypt needed their sacred writings translated from Hebrew, which they could not read, into Greek, which they could read. The Hebrew word YHWH (Yahweh) was translated as kyrios (Lord), which also became the title used by the Roman Emperor. St Paul considers Jesus to be the true Lord (kyrios) of the universe because of his obedient death and Resurrection (Phil 2:6-11). When the Hebrew Scriptures were translated into Latin in the 4th century by St Jerome, who himself was taught by Rabbis and was conversant with their traditions, he translated YHWH as Dominus (Lord), and this traditional translation has continued to the present day.

Then should we not respect the Jewish tradition and also not pronounce God’s revealed name, Yahweh, in our liturgy and prayers? The first question to ask is why Jews don’t pronounce God’s name. Some Jewish scholars believe it was caused by a misunderstanding of the Third Commandment (Ex 20:7; Deut 5:11) as meaning Thou shalt not take the name of YHWH thy God in vain, whereas it really means You shall not swear falsely by the name of YHWH your God  (Encyclopedia Judaica).

In any event, after more than 30 years of personal involvement in Catholic-Jewish relations in America on the local, national and international levels, I know of no Jewish scholar or Rabbi who would impose specifically Jewish requirements upon Christians, whether it be keeping the kosher food laws, maintaining the Sabbath (Saturday) as a day of rest rather than the Christian Sunday, or traditions such as not pronouncing God’s revealed name. Out of respect Christians should avoid speaking this name in Jewish presence or when Jews are present this is the common respect we should pay to any religious tradition in order not to offend their sensibilities.

Since Vatican II there has been a wonderful re-discovery of the original revealed name of God, Yahweh  a name which appears in many songs now sung during the Eucharist and at other occasions. The Jerusalem Bible has used Yahweh throughout its translation; it is especially noteworthy in the psalms. If we were to abandon the use of Yahweh now, the end result would be to prohibit even the saying and singing of Alleluia, for this Hebrew word means (Allelu)You [plural] praise Yah(weh)! It is a call, a command to all within hearing to praise Yahweh  a glorious acclamation to Yahweh.

Finally, scripture itself commands us to use the name: This is my name [Yahweh], and thus I am to be invoked for all generations to come (Ex 3:15). This command from Yahweh to invoke him with this name is oft repeated in the Psalms and elsewhere in the Hebrew Scriptures. We should resist any attempt to prohibit use of this name in our prayers, both public and private, and in our songs.

Dr Richard C Lux is a visiting lecturer in Old Testament at St Joseph’s Theological Institute, Cedara, and professor of scripture studies at Sacred Heart School of Theology in Hales Corners, Wisconsin.