Question:
I have a Bible question for you that I’ve been wondering about. God reveals his name YHWH to Moses at the burning bush. He also says in Ex 6:2-3 he says that by the name YHWH he did not make himself known to the patriarchs. I think in the NIV whenever the word, LORD appears it is YHWH in the Hebrew (I thought it said that in the NIV preface, but I can’t find it in the Bible I’m looking at right now.)
I know YHWH appears throughout Genesis, but that could be just Moses writing it that way. But there are times where God uses LORD in talking to the patriarchs. Here are two of them (I think there are more but I will just focus on these) Gen 12:8. It is interesting that it specifically says that Abram called on the *name* of the LORD. But perhaps that just means he called on the name that he knew at the time. Perhaps Adonai. But then Gen 15:7 says “ he also said to him, ‘I am the LORD, …” it seems like God is giving him the YHWH name. Am I to understand that this word in Hebrew is YHWH?
Do you have any thoughts on this?
Answer:
I, too, have noticed the use of YHWH in the Book of Genesis. At first glance this is problematic, because, according to the first chapters of Exodus, the name YHWH was not used by the people of God before the 15th century BC, whereas the events in Genesis occurred between about 2000 and 1800 BC.
My response is that the actual book of Genesis was put into its final form significantly after the time of Moses. It contains information principally from Mesopotamia in the early second millennium BC, but it was quite significantly edited and even added to after the Jews entered the Promised Land. Genesis 50:22-26 shows evidence of later editing. When this was, we cannot say for sure, but there is at least one fragment of Genesis from the 9th century BC. Let me give a very rough guess. The more or less final version of Genesis was produced somewhere around 1000 BC. By this time, the name YHWH was known to be the personal name of the Lord/El/Elohim/Adonai.
It still bothers me just a bit that the later editors of Genesis put the name YHWH into the mouth of God in the Book of Genesis, but that is apparently what happened.
BTW, I have never believed that Moses wrote Genesis. There is no evidence that I am aware of for this idea. I do not see his fingerprints anywhere in the book. Who did the editing and the assemblage of Genesis is simply not known.
John Oakes
