What’s in a Name?

Matt. 6:9 (ESV)  Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.“

Most of us recognize this as the first line of the Lord’s Prayer.  Note that this is not a prayer of Jesus but an instruction from Jesus to us, teaching us how to pray: a sample prayer.

What I find interesting here is: if Jesus is speaking of God’s specific name, Yahweh, then why doesn’t He use it?  He calls Him Father instead.  Some would say, “Do you call your father by his name?”  But that doesn’t apply.  Jesus isn’t praying but teaching how we should pray.

Jehovah’s Witnesses try to compensate for this by inserting the divine name as they understand it – Jehovah – 237 times in their New Testament of The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures.  This is disingenuous, though, in that there is no Greek New Testament manuscript of the nearly 6,000 currently in existence that contains the divine name.  The Jehovah’s Witnesses just insert it because they want to.

Just as a side note, of the 237 times they insert the divine name into their New Testament, they quote Jesus as using it only 22 times.  20 of those are Old Testament quotes, and two are in passing.  Jesus never used it in speaking to God the Father.  So, even if they were right, Jesus didn’t think it was all that important for us to use.

Psalm 138 has something to say about this: Ps. 138:2 (ESV) I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word.

Jehovah’s Witnesses hold God’s name, Jehovah, in such high regard, but are willing to add and remove words from God’s Word freely.  According to Psalm 138, God’s Word is to be revered as highly as His Name.

But what exactly does it mean to say things like “in God’s name?”

Psalm 20:7 (ESV)  Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

Should we take Psalm 20 to mean God’s name is a sort of lucky charm or magical word?  No, the word name in both Hebrew and Greek carries much more meaning than just a name like Mike or Jim.  It carries the idea of reputation, authority, even commission:

1 Sam. 17:45 (ESV)  Then David said to [Goliath], “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.

David was saying to Goliath, “You may have come with all those weapons of war, but I have something greater.  I have been sent by God, commissioned by Him, and have His authority to vanquish you.”

Why is this Important?

John 17:6 (ESV)  “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.”

Jesus is talking to the Father here about Jesus’ disciples.  He didn’t make known God’s literal name to them.  These guys were Jews.  They knew the name of the God of the Jews.  The word manifested here means revealed.  Jesus showed His disciples by example just who their God truly is:

John 14:9 (ESV)  Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”

So, when Jesus showed His person and nature to the disciples and to us, He was showing us exactly who God is:

Hebrews 1:3a (ESV)  He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature

There is a lot in a name.