“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” (Matt. 6:9b)
We all know the Lord’s Prayer from Matthew chapter 6, but when Jesus mentions we are to “hallow” God’s name what does it mean? After all, if Jesus is telling us to lift up the name Yahweh,” would He use “Father” rather than “Yahweh?” The word “name” must mean other things than just a label we place on someone.
Let’s Just look at a couple of facts about God’s name, “Yahweh” before we get into this, though. The tetragrammaton (the four Hebrew letters that make up YHWH) appears more than 7,000 times in the Old Testament though never in the New. It isn’t the transliteration issue like Joshua to Jesus, for instance. God’s formal name does not appear at all in any Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. The divine name is represented in the New Testament by the Greek words kurios which simply means Lord or theos which means God.
Another interesting point is that Jesus uses the Greek word kurios to identify the Father only 22 times in the New Testament. 20 of those are in quotes Jesus recites from the Old Testament. The other two times are only in the gospel of Mark and only said in passing. Jesus never uses the word kurios in addressing God in prayer. He consistently used pater or “Father” except once when Jesus just looks to heaven and says “open” to heal a deaf man (Mark 7:34). He doesn’t verbally address the Father at all. He knows the Father so intimately, He is always in contact.
So, if Jesus doesn’t see the divine name as of primary importance, what is He saying in Matt 6:9, “hallowed be you name? Acts 4:7 gives us some insight into the meaning of the word onoma, or “name.”
Acts 4:7 (ESV) And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?”
So, like saying “open in the name of the law,” the name of God means more than just a label. It can mean God’s power and authority. Matt. 7:22 adds support for this:
On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’
These false prophets were not using the divine name but claiming they were speaking with the authority of Jesus. In Matt. 10:22, Jesus says we will be hated for His name’s sake. That doesn’t mean because we have His name on our tee shirts but because we identify our lives with Him in so many ways.
It is our complete relationship with God and His complete devotion to us that is included in the idea of God’s name, not just the divine name but the divine relationship with His children.
Why is this important?
Sometimes a single word in Scripture loses its meaning in translation to the point we look to it in it’s common meaning and move on. Jesus said this about how important every word, every minor seeming point is to each of us:
Matt. 5:18 (ESV) For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished
2 Timothy 3:16 says all Scripture is profitable for doctrine and instruction, all Scripture! One of my favorite books of the Bible is one of the shortest, Jude. One commentary on Jude included a story about a monk who decided to devote his entire life to the study of Jude. On his death bed decades later, he told the others around him that he had only just begun to scratch the surface of the book of 25 verses.
God’s Word is deep. Look closely and dig deeply. Treasures are buried everywhere.
Ps. 20:7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.
- If you don’t know how to study your Bible, the Navigator Bible Studies Handbook is the small text I use to teach folks to study God’s Word. It might be profitable for you as well.
Believers Armed and Dangerous 