Divine Names

First attested to in the 10th century Chronicles of Moses, a midrash relates how Pharaoh had lions guarding the palace entrance, tearing up any unwanted visitors. Due to its popularity, it is also preserved in a 15th century mahzor, as part of its Aramaic targum to the Song of the Sea.

Philo (1st century C.E.) understands “God of Abraham and God of Isaac and God of Jacob” (LXX Exodus 3:15) as a divine name. Because the immortal nature of God cannot be directly associated with mortal human beings, and influenced by Greek principles dating back to the 6th–5th century B.C.E., Philo interprets Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as symbols of three paths to moral excellence: learning, nature, and practice.

God reveals his name to Moses as “I am,” from the Hebrew root ה.ו.י, “being.” The name YHWH, however, originates in Midian, and derives from the Arabic term for “love, desire, or passion.”

When God reveals the name YHWH to Moses in Exodus, he says that not even the patriarchs knew this name, yet they all use it in Genesis. Critical scholarship’s solution to this problem led to one of the most important academic innovations in biblical studies in the last three hundred years: the Documentary Hypothesis.

God instructs Moses to tell the Israelites two different names, Ehyeh and YHWH.

The meaning of God’s names, especially YHWH, is central to Jewish theology. Two approaches have dominated: the philosophical, focusing on God’s essence (“being”) and the kabbalistic, focusing on God’s evolving relationship with Israel (“becoming”). Some modern thinkers such as Malbim and Heschel have looked for new syntheses or formulations.