You are listening to the Open Door Series with Nehemia Gordon. Thank you for supporting Nehemia Gordon's Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at NehemiasWall.com.
Announcement: For over 2,000 years, Jewish scribes and Christian translators have worked together to conceal God's name so that you could not proclaim it. Now, God has united a Jew and a Gentile for the singular purpose to reveal His name to the nations. “Therefore, My people shall know My name. Therefore, on that day, I am the one who is speaking. Here I am.” That day has come for God's people to know His name.
Within a year apart, God revealed His name to both Nehemia Gordon and Keith Johnson from the two most important Hebrew manuscripts in the world. Now, they are collaborating to bring all of their valuable information, inspiration, and revelation together in what they call the “Hammer Pack". These resources will break through layers of tradition to reveal the truth about the name of God that has been concealed for too long. In the Hammer Pack you'll receive Keith Johnson's book, “His Hallowed Name Revealed Again,” with a newly released complete “His Hallowed Name” audio-video study kit, which includes the 12-episode TV series, “His Hallowed Name,” and an instructional CD where you'll learn to proclaim the unique name of our Heavenly Father, and 80 of His powerful Hebrew descriptions.
Also included is an important research update, as well as an uplifting teaching regarding encountering the name of God. Included in Hammer Pack is Nehemia Gordon's latest work, “Shattering the Conspiracy of Silence,” where his search for answers leads him to uncover an age-old conspiracy of silence surrounding the Priestly Blessing found in the Book of Numbers that is based on God's name being unleashed.
Get the Hammer Pack right now, and you'll also receive the bonus DVD set, “Stand Against the Ban,” a live teaching series where Keith and Nehemia employ the linguistic, historical, and contextual hammer regarding God's name that you can use today. Remember, when you get the Hammer Pack, you'll be equipped to pray, praise and proclaim God's holy and powerful name. “Therefore behold, I am going to make them know. This time, I will make them know My power and My might. They shall know that My name is...” Visit our website now.
Nehemia: Yesterday, I talked about the literal Antiochus. He was a Greek ruler who tried to stamp out the Jewish faith, the faith of the Old Testament.
Woman: Halleluyah.
Nehemia: This is it. Thank you. Keith is jealous that I have a nicer shirt than him. That's what that acting out was about. So, I'm gonna talk to you today about the spiritual Antiochus. The literal Antiochus came along with a sword... where's my sword? He came along with a sword and threatened people's lives if they spoke the name of the Creator and followed the faith of the Hebrew Scriptures. The spiritual Antiochus tried to use intimidation to threaten your spirit, to threaten your soul.
Woman: Yes.
Nehemia: And what am I talking about? Now, growing up with my background as an Orthodox Jew before I realized I was a Karaite Jew, I was threatened by the spiritual Antiochus. I was warned that I must never speak the name of the Father of Creation, that I was always to replace it with a title, with a circumlocution, with “Adonay” or “Elohim,” with “Lord” or “God,” and never to actually speak the name that appears more than any other name in the Hebrew Scriptures. And here's one of the key passages that dates to around the year 150 CE or AD, which talks about this prohibition to speak the name, and actually it's a list of things. It opens up and says, “The following have no portion in the world to come.” I mean, if that's not spiritual antiochism, I don't know what is. They're threatening your eternal salvation here, these Rabbis.
This is the Mishnah, the writings of these ancient Rabbis. They have a bunch of categories and one of them is, “He who reads the outside books.” Does anyone know here what the outside books are, what they were referring to? They explain, in the writings of these Rabbis, that the sfarim khitzoniyim, the outside books or external books that they're referring to are what you refer to as the “Gospels.” It was forbidden by these Rabbis. A curse was laid upon anybody who read those books that they would have no portion in the world to come. And I've mentioned, I'm not Christian, I’m not messianic, but I've read those books and I think they got me on that one. Should I go run and be afraid?
Audience: No.
Nehemia: Okay, well, what's the second category of those who have no portion in the world to come? It says, “And he whispers over a wound saying…” and this is a verse from Exodus, “I will put none of these diseases upon thee which I brought upon the Egyptians, for I am the Lord that healeth thee.” And what they're saying here, is that anybody who prays over someone who's wounded, someone who has some kind of physical affliction, prays over them using the verse which describes the Creator of the universe as a healer, prays using that name and using that verse, that is someone who has no portion in the world to come. That is forbidden, to pray over someone, calling upon the name of the Creator of the universe. Well, they've got me on that one, too. Uh-oh.
Let's see what the third one is. The third one, they say in the same passage, in the name of Abba Saul, who was one of the Rabbis. He says, “Also, he who utters the Divine Name the way it is written.” So, three things they got me on. Three things according to these Rabbis, according to the spiritual Antiochus, I'm gonna burn in hell. According to the Rabbis, I have no portion in the world to come, in the future world, because I've read the Gospels, uh-oh. I've prayed over people who were sick, using the verses from Scripture. And I've spoken the name of the Father of creation the way it is written.
Audience: Oh.
Nehemia: Now, if you want to follow those traditions, that's between you and your Creator. If you want to say, “We must not speak the name of the God of the Hebrews, of the Father of creation, because it will offend our Jewish brothers and sisters.” Maybe you're Jewish, and you don't want to offend the Rabbis who have established this rule for us. Or maybe you're just like my good friend Tevya, from the movie, who says, “Tradition, tradition.” If it's just about tradition, or whatever it is for you… Should I give up my day job and become a singer? I don't know. I thought Anaise was good, but I think I'm better than you, Anaise. Let's admit it, come on. Tradition, tradition.
I dance with that song, yibbe-yibbe-yibbe-dum. So, whether it's about tradition for you, or you don't want to offend people, whatever it is, you're entitled to do that. That's between you and your Creator, I'm not gonna judge you for not speaking the name of the Creator of the universe. But I refuse to be intimidated by the spiritual Antiochus. And when I was studying this and came across this passage, I said, “Wait a minute. Abba Saul, who was the first Rabbi ever to say it's forbidden to speak the name of the Creator the way it is written, he lived around the year 150 AD, or CE as Jews say. He lived around the year 150. Well, what about the history of Israel for 1,700 years before Abba Saul? What did they do before that?” And this sent me on this long investigation that lasted many years, trying to find out what they did before Abba Saul, when they stopped speaking the name of the Creator of the universe, replacing it with these titles exclusively. When did that happen?
I looked at many ancient sources, and I did a little bit of investigation. One of my big questions was, “Did they speak the name of the Creator in the time of the Second Temple?” Remember, the Second Temple was destroyed in the year 70. And the popular belief and understanding is that sometime during this period of the Second Temple, the Jews stopped speaking the name of the Creator, and replaced it with this title, “Lord.” We know one specific group, the Essenes, the people who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls, there's no question that they forbade speaking the name of the Father, that's for sure. But what about all the other Jews? That was one small little group with representatives on the shore of the Dead Sea and a few other communities. It was a very small group, though. What about the vast majority of Jews?
Well, I've done some digging and I found out… I discovered that there's actually some evidence that it was blasphemy to speak the name of the Creator of the universe in the 1st century, to speak the Father's name, and I actually have a video. Now, I was speaking before to Khayim, who is a videographer, a film guy, and I asked him when the first talking picture was. And he told me the first commercially produced talking picture was in 1927, “The Jazz Singer.” Great movie, if you haven't seen it. It's about this young Jewish man whose father is a cantor, and his father wants him to become a cantor just like him, but he feels called to go out and sing jazz songs, hence the name, “The Jazz Singer.” Amazing movie, I think it still has relevance even today. I kind of connected with the father and the son interaction there, which reminds me of my own experience, even though I'm not a jazz singer. But 1927, it turns out that there's a video going back 2,000 years. Can I get an Amen?
Audience: Amen.
Nehemia: Can we watch this ancient video that shows how the name was approached in the first century of the Common Era? Here we go.
Speaker: Matthias, the son of Deuteronomy of Gath. Say yes?
Matthias: Yes.
Speaker: Yes. You have been found guilty by the elders of the town of uttering the name of our Lord and so as a blasphemer, you are to be stoned to death.
Matthias: Look, I had a lovely supper and all I said to my wife was, “That piece of halibut was good enough for Jehovah.”
Speaker: Blasphemy. He said it again. Did you hear him?
Nehemia: So, that really wasn't the video from the 1st century. Was there anyone who thought it was from the 1st century? No, I believe that was from the 1970s, or something like that. But really, what this shows is that it's infiltrated into popular culture that in the 1st century, people no longer spoke the name of the Father. I mean, it's right there in a Hollywood movie, it must be true, right?
Audience: Right.
Nehemia: Well, what do the sources actually say? And this is what I wanted to get to the bottom of. Is it really blasphemy to speak the name of the Creator? Are they going to stone me to death? Is that what they would have done in the Temple in the 1st century?
Here's a key passage, and this is Exodus 3:15. This is where God first revealed His name to Moses. Moses says, “What name should I tell the Israelites?” And it says, “Thus shall you say to the children of Israel, ‘Yehovah, the God of your fathers, has sent me to you. This is My name forever. This is My mention, a memory for every generation.’” Yesterday, I talked about this word “zekher,” “mention, or memory.” “My mention, or memory, for every generation.” Every time we mention Him with our mouth or summon Him up in our mind, we are to call upon His name as “Yehovah.” I want to focus today on the other thing it says here, that “This is my name forever.” And the Hebrew word for forever is “le'olam.” Say, “le'olam.”
Audience: Le'olam.
Nehemia: And "le" just means "for" so we're not gonna really be concerned with that. But “olam” is ever, forever. Say, “olam.”
Audience: Olam.
Nehemia: And the word “olam,” “forever,” comes from the word “olam” meaning the “universe.” And when you say something is "le'olam" you mean, “for the continued existence of the universe.” As long as the world continues to exist, this will continue to be true.
Now, what the Rabbis did in the 4th century, when the ban on the name really did come into place... Remember, around the year 136, 137, the Rabbi was actually burned at the stake by the Romans. Khanina Ben Teradion was burned at the stake by the Romans for speaking the name. Sometime shortly after that, Abba Saul comes along and says, “Anyone who speaks the name the way it is written has no portion in the world to come.” By the 4th century, the name was completely banned and no one was allowed to speak it. And the Rabbis wanted to find support for this practice of not speaking the name, in Scripture. And where's the best place to look? In the very passage that says, “This name is for all time.” That's the place you want to find a proof to ban the name.
And they came to that verse, Exodus 3:15, where it said, “This is My name forever.” And they said, “We're gonna change that word. We're gonna change the word of scripture.” And here's how they decided to read it. Instead of, “This is My name forever,” a Rabbi named Rav Nakhman bar Isaac comes along and says in the 4th century, “Let's read the word ‘le'olam’ as ‘le'ha'alim.’” He changes the vowels, he adds two letters, and it becomes a statement that says, “This is My name to be concealed.” Say, “le'ha'alim.”
Audience: Le'ha'alim.
Nehemia: Now, here's the thing. Even though this Rabbi changed the way the verse is to be read, and said, “Therefore, God intended from the very beginning that His name would be concealed until the Messiah would come and restore it,” this is what Rabbi Nakhman Bar Isaac says. Even though he changes the way the word is written in every synagogue in the entire world, guess how they read this verse. Do they read it as "forever" or "to be concealed?” They read it as "forever,” and that's because the Rabbi, he could interpret the verse any way he wanted. He could change the vowels for the purpose of interpretation. But to actually read the verse in the synagogue, he didn't have the authority to change that. That was fixed long before the Rabbis ever came on the scene of history, and the Rabbi couldn't change that. So, every printed Bible in the world, every single synagogue in the world where they read the Scripture, they read it as "forever,” even though the official interpretation is to read it as "to be concealed.”
Now, the fact that he needs to change that word, change the vowels and add two letters, that tells you that he knew that the original reading really meant “the name was forever.” Now, my approach in trying to understand scripture is, I want to understand it based on the language and the context using reason, which confuses people. What do I mean by that? What I mean by that is, I want to understand the words as they were spoken 3,500 years ago, in the original language they were spoken, which happens to be ancient Hebrew, in the ancient cultural context in which these things were spoken. And if you can't understand the culture and the language of ancient Israel, then you're going to have a hard time understanding what scripture is saying.
Let me give you a quick example, this is one of my favorite examples. Three times in Scripture, it says, “Lo tevashel gedi bakhalev imo.” Now, you don't have to know Hebrew, I'll translate that for you. It says, “You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk.” And kid, in Hebrew, “gedi,” is a young goat, and not boiling a young goat in the milk of its mother, what does that mean? Well, if you look at Jewish tradition, it says that this means that you must not eat meat and milk together. And because you can't eat meat and milk together, you have to have separate dishes for meat and milk, and you can't boil them together or consume them together.
When I look at that, “Do not boil a kid in its mother's milk,” it says it three times word for word. I say, “Okay, what does that mean, three times word for word, ‘Do not boil a kid in its mother's milk?’” First of all, I can't just throw out what the Rabbis say. If they say it means, "Don't boil a kid in its mother's milk" means “Don't eat meat and milk together,” I've got to ask them why do they say that? What evidence I there for that? What proof is there for that? That's the starting position, this interpretation that most Jews follow. Well, I look, and I see there really is no evidence for it. And on the contrary, I find in ancient Canaanite sources that the ancient Canaanites used to boil a kid in the milk of the mother as a fertility rite. This was a sacrifice brought to Easter, to Ashtoreth, the ancient goddess. And to this day in Lebanon, which is the one place where the Canaanites survived, in the mountains of Lebanon, they still prepare a dish which is boiling a kid in the milk of its mother. They don't know why, they don't remember it has to do with Ashtoreth, or Easter, but to this day they eat that as a delicacy.
Now, here we give the Rabbis the benefit of the doubt, but when we actually check the information and the sources, it doesn't fit. And as Keith likes to say, “If it doesn't fit, you must acquit.” I think he made that up, is that right? No. So, there's an example where if you look at the cultural context of ancient Israel, you find out in fact, the traditional interpretation does not fit the cultural context. The traditional interpretation misunderstands that the context has to do with an ancient pagan fertility rite.
Now, if you ask yourself, “How does this commandment apply today, do not boil a kid in its mother's milk, ‘cause nobody's doing that outside of Lebanon. What's the principle behind the commandment?” That's the question I always ask myself, what is God trying to teach me here? What is the principle behind the commandment, “Do not boil a kid in its mother’s milk?” And to me, it seems the principle is, don't participate in pagan fertility rites.
Audience: That’s right.
Nehemia: If somebody sets up a tree to the goddess Asherah and they worship that tree, and they bring that tree into their homes and decorate it with different fertility symbols... I’d better drop this topic. Now, I wore this shirt today to convey a certain theme. These are Hanukkah colors, that's what we call these in Israel. No, all right, I'm gonna move on this is… I'm like Keith, this is too controversial.
Genesis 9:16. One of the things that you need when you look at scripture is to ask yourself, “Is it consistent?” If they say that “le'olam” means “to conceal” or “to be concealed” there, does it work in other places? Let's look at it. Genesis 9:16 talks about the covenant of the rainbow. After God destroyed the world, He put the rainbow in the heavens. Every time we would see it, we'd be reminded that God promised never to destroy the world through a flood again. And it says, “The rainbow shall be in the cloud and I will look on it to remember the everlasting olam.” Say, “Olam.”
Audience: Olam.
Nehemia: “A covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that's on the earth.” Now, if I'm consistent and I accept the interpretation of Rabbi Nakhman Bar Isaac, that this is My name to be concealed, le'olam, really means to be concealed, then I have to say in this verse too it means “concealed.” And rather than be the everlasting covenant, the rainbow, it is the concealed covenant between God and every living creature. Does that make sense?
Audience: No.
Nehemia: Not to me. And by the way, Keith has an amazing whole section in his book, “His Hallowed Name Revealed Again,” in which he talks about this topic. I was very impressed with this when I read Keith's book. Has he ever told this story? He was trying to prepare the study on the book, and he wanted me to help him. He wanted me to write it with him, and I was very busy at the time, preoccupied with certain personal matters in my life, and he was cut off. He had no ability to interact with me, so it forced him to go back and interact with the sources himself.
And I'm so glad and feel so blessed I was able to read his book after he’d interacted with the sources all on his own. And he brought this source, I was very impressed. He looked at the source about “to be concealed” and “forever” and all on his own, without talking to me and looking at my Hebrew skills, he came to the same exact conclusion that I came to. And he said, “Look, it's not consistent. If you're consistent and you look at other places where “olam” appears, and it means “forever,” it means, “for the continued duration of the existence of the universe,” we can't say, “This is my name olam means This is my name concealed.”
That's a great book, “His Hallowed Name Revealed Again.” As I mentioned, the only drawback to that book is that I'm not the co-author. But in retrospect, that was a great blessing both to Keith and to me, even though I don't have any percentages. All right, let's move on. Exodus 19:9, “And Yehovah said to Moses, ‘Behold, I come to you in the thick cloud that the people may hear when I speak with you and believe in you forever.” And if you look in most of your English translations, you won't find "believe in you,” it'll just say, "believe you" or "trust you.” But in the Hebrew, it actually says that God revealed Himself to all Israel, 600,000 men and hundreds of thousands of women and children, for what purpose? “So that the people will hear when I speak with you…” God speaks with Moses, “and believe in you, Moses, forever.”
Did you know that in the Hebrew scriptures you're supposed to believe in Moses? What does it mean, “to believe in Moses?” What does it really mean? Think about it for a second, what did God mean here? It meant to believe that God really was speaking through Moses, and to live your life according to that instruction that God gave through Moses. To say, “I believe in Moses, would you like some of my pork sandwich?” I don't believe in Moses. My actions show that I don't believe in Moses. My actions say that yeah, Moses is some interesting little guy, who maybe some people have a tradition that God spoke to him thousands of years ago. But if you really believe the Creator of the universe spoke to Moses, and you believe in Moses, you've got to live your life in accordance with what Moses said, with the words that came out of his mouth from the mouth of God.
But let's look at the issue here of "forever.” “When I speak with you, and they will believe in you forever, olam,” does that mean we're supposed to believe in the concealment of Moses? Was this message of God speaking to all of Israel to be concealed? And you know, one of the really interesting things about the revelation at Sinai, I love the story of the revelation at Sinai, because if you look at every other religion in the world, you find out that they start out with one man in a cave somewhere up on a hill, having a revelation. But the faith of the Hebrew scriptures begins with 3 million people, 600,000 men and who knows how many women and people, they say about 3 million people, hearing the actual voice of God speaking from the mountain. And why did He do that? So that we would believe in Moses.
And it's interesting, there's a verse in Deuteronomy, where a challenge is laid out, and I forget the exact chapter and verse, but you can look it up. That's kind of funny. You can look it up, but I don’t know the chapter and verse. I'll post it on Facebook. There's a verse in Deuteronomy that talks about how there's never been a nation in all of history which has claimed that God has taken them out of bondage and spoken to them. And when I was a much younger man, I was starting to question the whole issue of the Rabbis. I said, “Well, if I'm questioning the Rabbis, maybe I need to question the word of God as well, the scriptures. How do I know it's really the word of God?” And I looked at that verse, and I went and began to investigate every religion in the ancient world, to see, is this statement true? If this statement really came from God, from the Creator of the universe, then it must be true, and there must not be any other nation in all of history that has claimed that God has taken them and spoken to them directly. And I found out that in fact, it was true.
There was always the man up on the hill somewhere in the mountain, who had the revelation, sitting under the tree in India, or whatever. But there was never in all of history, a nation that claimed that God spoke to the entire nation. And why is that? Because a man sitting under a tree in India can make something up and say, “Yeah, I had some experience.” Maybe he's telling the truth, but maybe he made it up and how can I ever know? But if three million people hear the voice of God, you can't make that up. Somebody would come and they’d look at the history in the Bible, the Old Testament, every one of the iniquities of Israel is laid out there. David sins, and Solomon sins, and Moses himself, his sins are laid out in the Hebrew scriptures. If Moses had made this up, if God had not spoken to the people, somebody would have stood up and said, “That was a lie. God didn't speak to us at Sinai.” And that's never happened, not in the history of ancient Israel. So, this is one of the reasons I do trust in the Hebrew scriptures.
Now, going back to the “olam” issue, it was not “to be concealed.” On the contrary, the very purpose of why God spoke to all of Israel was for it to be revealed and that we would believe in Moses for the continued duration of the existence of the universe, le'olam, forever. Let's look at another example. Exodus 31:16, “Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath…” the Shabbat, “to observe the Sabbath throughout the generations for a temporary covenant for only 1,500 years.” Wait, that's not what it says, let's look at it again. “Throughout the generations as a perpetual olam, covenant.”
So, how long is the Sabbath relevant? Forever, le'olam, as long as there's an olam. As long as the physical universe continues to exist, this covenant will stand, according to the Hebrew scriptures. Verse 17, it says, “It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever. For in six days, Yehovah made the heaven and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.” And so, if you deny that this is forever, the sign of the covenant of the Shabbat, you are essentially denying that God is the Creator of the universe, ‘cause that's what this is a sign of. This sign of the covenant is a sign that God, Yehovah, the Father of creation, the God of the Hebrew scriptures, the God of Israel, that He is the Creator of the universe. And if you deny the Sabbath, you're denying that He is the Creator.
Let's look at another example, Jeremiah 31:35-36, “Thus says Yehovah who gives the sun to light the day, and the statutes of the moon and stars to light the night. ‘If these statutes depart from before Me,’ says Yehovah, ‘so too shall the seed of Israel cease from being a nation in My presence all the days.’”
What He's saying here is, as long as the physical universe continues to exist, as long as there's a sun lighting the day, and there's moon and the stars in the night, these are signs in the heavens, their continued existence, that My covenant with Israel shall continue to stand. It was not intended to be a temporary covenant. It was intended to be forever. And if you believe the God of the Hebrew scriptures, then that covenant still stands today.
Every time I see the new moon up in the heavens beginning the Hebrew month, it reminds me that the God of creation is true, that the covenant with the God of creation with Israel is a true covenant. That's what these signs in the heavens remind us, and this is olam. He's not saying here the word “olam,” but He's saying it in very concrete terms. As long as there's a sun, as long as there's a moon and stars, as long as these statutes of nature continue to exist in the physical universe, the covenant with Israel will continue to stand.
Matthew 5:18. Now, I'm going out on a limb here, because this is y'all's book. There was a Rabbi 2,000 years ago who used this Hebraic expression. He said, “For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law, till all is fulfilled.” He's saying, “As long as the heavens and earth continue to exist, as long as olam, as long as the physical universe continues to exist, this thing shall not pass away.” This word that was revealed through Moses will continue, not even the smallest little dot or dash. You know, "jot and tittle" is a really interesting phrase, because what is a tittle? The Greek word there is “kuriah,” which means a “diacritical mark,” little dots and dashes that separated one word meaning from another word. And in the Hebrew version of Matthew... Maybe I shouldn't reveal this, ‘cause...
Audience: Go ahead.
Nehemia: Okay, in the Hebrew version of Matthew, it doesn't say "jot and tittle,” it says, “Ot venekudah” which means “consonant and vowel.” Whoo-hoo. We need to move on. Babylonian Talmud brings a story that is interpreted by many historians, and many people in the Jewish, Christian and Messianic worlds, to mean that in the 1st century, the Jews no longer spoke the name of the Creator. And let's look at this story, ‘cause this is one of the things I struggled with when I was trying to find the answers. It says as follows… this is a rabbi named Rabbi Tarfon. He's actually kind of a famous Rabbi, ‘cause he appears in something called “Dialogues of Trypho” with Justin Martyr, and he was a Kohen, a Priest. And he said, “I once ascended the dais…” This is in the Temple, there was a platform where they would recite the Priestly Blessing. He says, “I once ascended the dais after my mother's brother, and inclined my ear to the High Priest, and heard him swallowing the name during the chanting of his brother Priests.”
And many historians will bring this passage which describes Rabbi Tarfon coming up to the dais where all the Priests would stand up there and they'd recite the Priestly Blessing. “Yevarekhekha Adonay veyishmerekha. Ya'er Adonay panav elekha viykhuneka. Yisa Adonay panav elekha veyasem lekha shalom.” That's how it's recited in every synagogue in the world today, with “Adonay,” with the replacement. If you look in the original in Numbers chapter 6 it has the actual name, “Yud-hey-vav- hey,” Yehovah. Rabbi Tarfon seems to be saying that when he went up to the dais in the Temple in the 1st century, that he listened really closely to the High Priest and he heard him say the name, mumbling it. While everybody else said “Adonay,” he heard the High Priest say, “Yehovah.” And if that's true, that means that in the 1st century, they didn't speak the name. But is that really true?
And look, for me, it doesn't really matter. God said to Moses, “The name is forever.” I'm not all that concerned about what happened in the 1st century, but I do want answers. And what I mean by that… You know, Michael said I don't have an agenda. I'm gonna let you in on a secret, I do have an agenda. My agenda is, I want the truth.
Audience: All right.
Nehemia: But I don't think you can handle the truth. Can you?
Audience: Yeah.
Nehemia: Okay, I'm gonna bring you the truth. And for me, this is important, because if you come to me and say, “Something has been changed,” I wanna know when it was changed. Maybe you can't tell me the exact year, but you can tell me roughly, “Before this, it was this way, and after this, it was that way.”
And let me give you a quick example with the biblical calendar. We know from the ancient rabbinical sources that the Hebrew month used to begin with the sighting of the new moon on the western horizon, shortly after sunset. There are great details discussing this in the early writings of the Rabbis. They talk about how they would bring in the witnesses and they would interrogate them. And there was one incident that took place in Jerusalem in the 1st century, where a man named Tobias the Physician saw the new moon with his son and his emancipated slave. And he came before the council of the Priests. And the Priest said, “Okay, who saw the new moon?” And everybody raised their hand, and they said, “Well, we don't listen to emancipated slaves,” so they took the testimony of him and his son.
He then went before the council of Rabbis, a different council, by the way. The Priests and the Rabbis disagreed not about how to begin the month, just about which witnesses to listen to, and they each had their own courts. They said, “Who has seen the new moon?” And all three raised their hand, and they said, “Sorry, we don't listen to father and sons. We'll take the father and the emancipated slave.” And so, they didn't disagree about how to begin the month, they only disagreed about which witnesses were valid. And that tells you in the 1st century, all the Jews in Jerusalem, both the Rabbis and the Priests, although they couldn't agree on much, agreed that the month began with the sighting of the new moon. That's solid information. Now, what year did it change? That's what I want to know.
We find out reading in rabbinical sources that there was a Rabbi in the year 359 who came along and changed it under the pressure of the Romans. It had to do with the defeat of a Roman Emperor who the Christians called “Julian the Apostate,” I won't go into that, that's a whole history. After Julian, the Christians decided to crush the rabbinical council, wipe it out. And Hillel the Second came along and established the modern calendar that most Jews use today, saying that when the Messiah would come, we would go back to the original calendar. And you know, as a Karaite, I'm very controversial, I say I want to follow the biblical calendar today. Okay, we could agree or disagree on that. You know, when the Messiah comes, we'll all do the same thing anyway, so it shouldn't be a point of division, in my opinion. In any event, there I can point to, here's what they did before, here's what they did after, and here's the time in which it changed.
Now, what about the speaking of the name? I want to know what they did before, I saw that in Exodus 3:15. I want to know what they did after. Well, I grew up with that. And I want to have some idea of when it changed. And that's why I'm concerned about what they did in the 1st century, because there I have evidence that I can find out, did they really speak the name? Was the High Priest really mumbling? Everyone was saying “Adonay,” and he said, “Yehovah.” Is that really what happened? Let's find out.
I went to the sources, and I found out that that's a complete lie. And why is it a lie? Well, it's not really a lie, it's just not what we think it is. Let's look at the continued passage here, and this is the same passage in the Talmud. If you read the context... You know, Keith has this great expression that I love that I've adopted and stolen for myself, “Keep reading.” Repeat after me, “Keep reading.”
Audience: Keep reading.
Nehemia: So, if you keep reading, not just in the New Testament, and not just in the Old Testament, but if you're looking at any source, don't just take one word out of context that fits your theory. If you want the truth, you gotta keep reading and read the whole context. So, let's see what it says in the Talmud. It says that, “Our Rabbis taught it, first they used to transmit the 12-letter name to every man,” say, “12-letter name.”
Audience: 12-letter name.
Nehemia: “Ever since the robbers multiplied, they would only transmit it to the humble Priests, and the humble Priests swallow it during the chanting of their brother Priests.” Oh, so we're not talking about the name, “Yud-hey-vav-hey,” “Yehovah.” We're talking about the 12-letter name of the Father. What is the 12-letter name of the Father? It's so secret, I don't even know what it is, and frankly, I don't care. It's not in my Bible, so I'm not really concerned about what it is. Maybe it's a good thing that it became a secret, but we're not even talking about the four-letter name.
The first part is the most widely quoted passage of historians talking about when the name ceased to be used and it's not even talking about the name, “Yud-hey-vav-hey,” “Yehovah.” It's talking about some secret 12-letter name that we don't even know what it is today. And like I said, I could care less.
Another source they quote is Josephus, who was a Jewish historian in the 1st century. There's a lady there in the back, who I'm going to ask the stand up. I'm going to put her on the spot, Madeline. She's a 69-year-old lady who just went on a two-week tour of Israel with me and some friends. And she was hiking up and down the mountains, through the valleys, scaling the walls of mountains, literally. And one of the things I kept talking to the group about is Josephus, and she is a very honest woman, raised Jewish. And she said to me, “I'm Jewish, but I don't know who Josephus is.” And I explained, “Josephus is a Jewish historian who lived in the 1st century. He was actually a general of the Jewish revolt against the Romans, which began in the year 66. He was the leader of the Jews in the Galilee, and when the Jews were defeated in the Galilee, he was captured by the Romans. And he decided, “Okay, I'm just gonna help the Romans out instead of continuing the revolt. We have no chance of defeating the Romans, I'm going to survive.” He was a survivor. The importance of Josephus is once he got under Roman rule, one of the things he immediately saw is that the Romans, under the influence of the Greeks, despised the Jews. And one of the things the Romans were claiming is the Jews were this tribe of lepers that were so sick and miserable, they were kicked out of Egypt.
And so, he sat down after the war, after the rebellion, and he wrote a history of the Jews. And this is the first full-scale history that’s survived of the Jewish people, beginning with creation... I mean, besides the Bible, I'm talking about, and ending with the Jewish war against the Romans in the year 74 at Masada. And to this day, Josephus is a key source, because he's a Jew who lived through this period of the Temple standing, the Temple being destroyed and what things were like after the Temple. He actually had been in the Temple. He was from a family of Priests. He’d interacted with Jewish groups, so he's a very important source. And he tells us all kinds of important pieces of information about ancient Judaism. One of the things we need to do with Josephus, just like with any ancient source, is keep reading.
Audience: Keep reading.
Nehemia: And we have to look at the context. Josephus was writing primarily to two audiences. The main audience was the Greeks, who he was trying to convince that the Jews were not a tribe of lepers, we’re an ancient nation that goes back to the time of Abraham and Moses, and we have an ancient culture and an ancient tradition, and you've got to respect us. The Greeks respected ancient things.
The other group he was writing to were Jews in the diaspora, trying to convince them not to rebel against the Romans. That was a minor, secondary purpose he had. Here, in his book called “Antiquities of the Jews,” the second book, section 276, he says as follows. “God declared to Moses His holy name, which had never been discovered to men before, concerning which it is not lawful for me to say anymore.” Now, some historians have looked at this and said, “Well, in the time of Josephus, they no longer said the name of the Creator, the name of the Father, the name that was revealed to Moses, because that's what he means by, ‘It's no longer lawful for me to say anymore.’” Now, it's really interesting that the word for "lawful" Josephus used in that passage is a word that he doesn't normally use, and it's the Greek word “semitos.” Say, “Semitos.”
Audience: Semitos.
Nehemia: And it turns out that this is a technical term that has a very specific connotation, and it explains why he made this statement in the 1st century. Let's look at one of the commentaries on Josephus. The commentary on Josephus says, “The word ‘semitos,’ ‘lawful,’ used by Josephus here, is a technical term in the mystery cults.” Uh-oh. “Josephus thus takes the opportunity to impart to Judaism the flavor of a mystery cult.” Now, what is that about? What that's about is there were these religions, they call them “cults,” but they were really just temple-worshiping religions. They had a temple, and they had all kinds of mystery that you had to go through in order to become part of their religion. Those were called the “Greek mystery cults.” And Josephus wants to impress the Greeks. And so, to impress the Greeks, he kind of presents Judaism disingenuously as a mystery cult, because he knows that will impress his Greek readers.
And he wants two things to impress the Greeks more than anything. One is the name of the Jewish God, which he makes out that this is a mystery. “I'm not allowed to reveal it to you, simple people who haven't been inducted.” It's a mystery. It's a secret. There's a second thing. Remember, keep reading. What's the other thing he says is a mystery that only the initiated Jews are allowed to know? In Antiquities book 3 section 9, he says, “And they all heard a voice that came to all of them from above.” This is describing the revelation at Sinai, “which Moses wrote down two tablets.” That's the two tablets of stone with the 10 Commandments, “which it is not lawful, semitos, for us to set down directly, but their import we will declare.” In plain English, what is Josephus saying? The 10 Commandments are so secret and holy, I can't tell you Greeks what they are. I can tell you the basic gist of the 10 Commandments, but the actual words that God revealed to Israel on Mount Sinai are a secret. They’re a semitos, that it's forbidden to reveal to the Greeks. This is what Josephus tried to convince his Greek readers and they didn't know any better, how would they know the difference? So, he gives them a summary, a paraphrase of the 10 Commandments, but not the actual Commandments, which he says is semitos, unlawful to reveal. And that has to do with trying to present Judaism as this ancient mystery that would impress the Greeks. Are the 10 Commandments really a mystery?
Audience: No.
Nehemia: No. Is it true that in the 1st century, it was forbidden to reveal to people what the 10 Commandments really said?
Audience: No.
Nehemia: No. So, do you think it was really forbidden to reveal what the name was? If we're consistent, if we'll keep reading, the name and the 10 Commandments are both treated as these mysteries by Josephus. And they weren't mysteries, he was just trying to impress his Greek audience. And this is why it's important to look at the full context of the ancient sources. People will bring you one verse, or one passage, or one sentence out of context, and they'll say, “Look, I've proven my point.” And you really need to get into the depth of it and get to the sources and keep reading. Keep…
Audience: Keep reading.
Nehemia: …reading. Get to the sources and find out what it really says, if you want the truth. If you have the Nehemia agenda of uncovering the truth, you've gotta keep reading.
Here's a really interesting passage I came across in the Mishnah, the writings of these Rabbis, describing the service of Yom Kippur every year in the Temple, where the High Priest would come. And it says, “When the multitudes standing in the courtyard of the Temple heard the explicit name…” that's the name “Yehovah,” “…come forth from the mouth of the High Priest, they would kneel prostrate and fall on their faces, and then say, ‘Blessed is the glorious name of His kingdom forever.’” Now, why is this source important? If the multitudes heard the High Priest speaking the name in the Temple, and they bowed down on their hands and knees, and they said, “Barukh shem kevod malkhuto le'olam va'ed,” “Blessed is the glorious name of His kingdom forever,” could it have been a secret?
Audience: No.
Nehemia: I guess it wasn't a very well-kept secret. And what's really interesting about this, I didn't realize this until I was doing this research, I actually rehearsed this ceremony with my father growing up in the synagogue. In every Orthodox synagogue in the world to this day, during the Yom Kippur service, at certain points in the service, 10 times during the service, the entire congregation will bow down on their hands and knees, like the Muslims do. They'll bow down on their hands and knees, the way that they used to bow down in the Temple. And if you ask the Rabbis, “Why you do this?” they say, “This is a rehearsal of what we used to do in the Temple every time the High Priest spoke the name, the shem hameforash, the explicit name of the Creator, and what we will once again do when the Messiah comes.” So, I actually rehearsed this growing up and didn't even realize it until I was researching this.
Now, here's the point, here's the bottom line. The name was not a secret in the 1st century and it wasn't forbidden in the 1st century. Every Jew who came to the Temple heard the name spoken in the Temple by the High Priest at least 10 times. In addition, they heard it recited every day by the Priests who were reciting the blessing. It doesn't go, “Yevarekhekha Adonay veyishmerekha.” It really says, “Yevarekhekha Yehovah veyishmerekha,” “Yehovah bless you and keep you” “Ya'er Yehovah panav elekha viykhuneka.” “Yehovah shine His face towards you and be gracious towards you.” “Yisa Yehovah panav elekha veyasem lekha shalom.” “Yehovah lift His face towards you and give you peace.”
Every single time, three times a day, the Jews would hear the Priests saying that in the Temple. And maybe the High Priest was mumbling a 12-letter name under his breath, I don't know, maybe that's why the Temple was destroyed. But the rest of the Priests, they were reciting the actual name. And this is what the ancient rabbinical sources say, that it had to be the name. They weren't allowed to use a replacement in the Temple, because the passage ends, “And they shall place My name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them.”
So, even the Rabbis who today forbid the name and say it's a secret we mustn't share with the Gentiles, and really even with our own people, it's only revealed once every seven years from Rabbi to disciple. Even those Rabbis admit that at the time of the Temple, everyone knew the name. It was proclaimed by the Priests, and everyone heard it. Okay. Oh, boy. I said to Keith I'm not going to need the entire hour. And he wanted to bet me money, and I said I probably shouldn't do that.
Okay, but I want to talk really quickly with you about one of the really cool sources that I came across when trying to find out when they spoke the name and when they didn't speak the name. We established in the 1st century the Priests were speaking the name in the Temple. There's no question about that. There's definitive proof for that. What about the multitudes? What about the simple people? That's what I wanted to know. Did they speak the name in earlier times? And I came across a really interesting source, which was a letter written in paleo-Hebrew. In fact, here is the letter, this is what it looks like.
This is a letter from Lakhish, which in ancient times it was the second largest town in the kingdom of Judah. And in the Lakhish letter, there's a series of letters, let's go back to the previous slide. Actually, let’s go away from the slides for a second. Let me tell you what the Lakhish letters are. There were a series of letters written by this field officer who was the officer in charge of an observation post out in the Judean hills, and his name is “Hoshayahu,” which is a really interesting name because Hoshayahu means “Yehovah saves.” It comes from the same root as “Yeshua.” Actually, Hoshayahu and Yehoshua are the same exact name, just backwards. “Hoshayahu” means, “Yehovah saves.” And he's writing these reports back to his commander whose name is “Ye'ush,” which interestingly it means, “Despair.” And he's writing to the commander all kinds of things that are happening. He's writing about how we see the signal fires, and all kinds of interesting things. And these letters were discovered in Lakhish. They were sent to his commander, Ye'ush, and Ye'ush kept them in his personal archive, and when Lakhish fell, these letters were preserved. And one of the letters is Hoshayahu's response to the accusation by his commander that he was illiterate.
And I could imagine, we don't know exactly how it came up that he was accused of being illiterate, but it probably went something like this; that an order was sent to Hoshayahu by his commander, and Hoshayahu didn't follow the order. And the commander must have written something to him to the effect of, “What's the matter, can't you read letters? I gave you an order and you didn't follow it. What's the matter, can't you read?” And here is Hoshayahu's response to that accusation. He says as follows. “Concerning that which my lord said, ‘You do not know how to read letters,’ as Yehovah lives, no man has ever tried to read a letter to me. And indeed, I read every letter that comes to me, and I furthermore pay attention to it.” He's insisting that he's literate, he could read, and he can write, which is very interesting because if you would have gone to an ancient Canaanite in this period, or an ancient Babylonian, or an ancient Assyrian, and gone to one of the field officers… In fact, you could go to the Egyptian army today to some of the field officers, and the Syrian army for sure, and they can't read and write. The commanders on top, they can read and write, but the simple, little lieutenants and lower officers, they can't read and write.
And this man is insisting, “No, I can read and write. No one's ever tried to read a letter to me. I'm literate, as Yehovah lives.” Now, what's interesting is that he said, “As Yehovah lives.” Now, how do I know that he actually said those words? Maybe he actually said, “As Adonay lives,” but he wrote it as “Yehovah.” How do I know? And remember, I'm the Litvak, I want definitive evidence and proof. And when we look at the actual letter, here's what we see. We see here, this is a khet, say, “Khet.”
Audience: Khet.
Nehemia: Yud.
Audience: Yud.
Nehemia: Hey.
Audience: Hey.
Nehemia: Vav.
Audience: Vav.
Nehemia: Hey.
Audience: Hey.
Nehemia: Yud-hey-vav-hey is the name of the Creator. The khet there is the khet of the word "lives.” And the phrase, “As Yehovah lives,” which appears 44 times in the Hebrew Bible, that's the standard vow formula, or oath of ancient Israel. It's the phrase, “Khay Yehovah.” Say, “Khay.”
Audience: Khay.
Nehemia: Yehovah.
Audience: Yehovah.
Nehemia: “As Yehovah lives,” but Hoshayahu didn't write it this way. He wrote it like this. “Khayhovah.” He dropped one of the yuds in this phrase, “Khay Yehovah.” And the only reason he would do that is because he spoke that way. If you're writing it, normally you wouldn't write that way, but he wrote it the way he spoke it. And what's really interesting about this is the way he wrote it, “Khayhovah” isn't proper Hebrew. What he did here is he used a contraction. And you know, in English we have many contractions like "can't" and "won't" and "shouldn't,” and those are proper English. Ancient Hebrew doesn't really have contractions.
When an ancient Hebrew used a contraction like this, it's more like when we say in English "ain't.” What's "ain't" a contraction for? “Am not. I am not, I ain't.” That's not proper English. When you hear somebody say that, you say, “Okay, they don't speak the standard way that we're taught to speak in English.” You know, maybe some of your parents slapped your hand or corrected you. And when somebody says "ain't,” that's not standard, proper English. And when you said “Khayhovah” for “As Yehovah lives,” that was not proper ancient Hebrew. But it shows that this is how the simple captain who is the commander of this field observation post, that's how he spoke. And he actually spoke the name. I mean, that blows me away, that the faith of an ancient Israelite, of this ancient Judean, is so strong that when he swears, he doesn't say, “As the king lives,” and he doesn't say, “As Ba'al lives,” as many of his brothers and sisters did, he says, “As Yehovah lives.”
And imagine if you were his commander and you read this, and it has the equivalent of "ain't,” and he says, “I ain't illiterate.” I mean, that would have been funny, but that was the simple faith that this man had. That's how he spoke, he wrote the way he spoke. That's beautiful to me. I'm not gonna judge him for not speaking properly. To me, it's a beautiful thing, that he's a simple man who speaks the way a normal person would speak, and he speaks the name of the Father.
Why does he swear, "As Yehovah lives?” Deuteronomy 6:13, “You shall fear the Lord your God...” And of course, it says “Yehovah” in the Hebrew, with “Lord” in caps. “And serve Him and shall take oaths in His name.” And we see 44 times they did it in His name, again, in Deuteronomy 10:20. There is a really interesting end-times prophecy related to this. This is Jeremiah 12:16, it's speaking about the Gentiles. And it says, “It shall be if they nevertheless learn the way of My people to swear in My name, as Yehovah lives,” “Khay Yehovah.” Say, “Khay Yehovah...”
Audience: Khay Yehovah.
Nehemia: “…in the way they taught my people to swear by Ba'al.” Say, “Khay Ba'al.” No, don't say that. “Then they shall be built in the midst of My people.” This is a promise to the nations, “If they learn to swear in the name Yehovah the way they taught Israel to swear by Ba'al, they'll be built in the midst of His people.” Whoo-hoo. Now, this is an argument I have with many of my Karaite brothers and sisters, and many of my rabbinical brothers and sisters who say, “Those Gentiles, they're not gonna be part of us. You know, they talk about being grafted in. We're going to have Israelites and Gentiles, and never the twain shall meet.” This is an argument I have with many of my Karaite brothers and sisters and rabbinical brothers and sisters.
But you know, there's a really interesting passage in Genesis 12, I believe it's verse 3, somewhere around there, where God says to Abraham, He gives him a blessing. And the blessing is, “In you shall be blessed all the nations of the earth.” And this blessing appears several times to the forefathers. And the interesting thing about that is the word "blessed" can also mean “grafted in.” And that's how actually the Rabbis in the Talmud, some of the Rabbis, interpreted this, “And you will be grafted in all the nations of the earth.”
Okay, on that note, I probably need to wrap this up. Here's another passage that shows that the simple people spoke the name of the Creator. This appears in 1 Chronicles chapter 16. “Then on that day, David first commissioned Assaf and his kinsmen to give praise to Yehovah. ‘Praise Yehovah, call on His name.’” Now, these are the Levites. Okay, the Levites say the name, that's fine. What about the common folk? In verse 36, after they bring this whole long Psalm, this whole long praise using the name, it says, “And all the people said ‘Amen,’ and ‘Praise Yehovah.’” So, even the simple folk in ancient Israel in the Temple proclaimed the name, “Yehovah.” This wasn't a secret, it wasn't banned. That came about many years later, for various reasons that we talked about. The simple Israelites, they said, “Amen,” and “Praise Yehovah.” So, can we do that? I'm going to ask this side to say, “Amen.” Sorry, guys, you're not gonna be able to do it. And you guys say, “Hallel Yehovah.” “Hallel” is “Praise.” “Hallel Yehovah.”
Crowd: Amen. Hallel Yehovah.
Nehemia: Woo, I'm excited by that. Now, some people ask me, “Why on earth, Nehemia, are you coming up here and talking about this name? You could talk about a million things.” And you know what? I could. I could come up here and talk to you until you go blue in the face about the biblical calendar, and the intricacies of the aviv barley, and the new moon. And I could come up and talk to you about all kinds of interesting topics. I could talk to you about nidda, which people don't wanna hear. I could come up to you and talk to you about the laws of kosher in the Bible. I could come up to here and talk about all kinds of pieces of information that I have. Why am I so excited about this, talking about this name?
And I want to share really quickly with you a story that happened. Keith and I were invited to come and speak at this reformed Jewish temple in Georgia. And I've been to many Christian congregations and many Messianic congregations in all kinds of places, talking about the name, but this was the first time I'd been invited to come and speak in a real Jewish synagogue. No offense, Messianics. We were in there and I was speaking about this topic. And when I got to actually saying the name, I thought, “Okay, I'm not coming here to offend people. I'm very zealous for what I believe in, but I have common decency and good manners. I'm not going to come into somebody else's synagogue and say something that's offensive to them.” Michael can do that, but that's not me, even though I'm wearing his shirt.
Before I actually spoke the name, after I gave this whole presentation, I said to the man who was leading the service that day, “Would it be okay if I actually spoke the name of our God? Would that be offensive? In my Orthodox upbringing I know it would be offensive, and so, I wouldn't go to an Orthodox synagogue and speak it. Would it be okay if I said it in your synagogue?” And he said, “Absolutely, go right ahead.” And I stood there, and I was about to say it. And I closed my eyes, and I could have sworn I heard from the back of the congregation the shout of the High Priest shouting, “Blasphemy, stone him.” But I opened my eyes and there was no High Priest there, and out of my mouth came the name, “Yehovah.” And I was so excited, that was one of the highlights of my life. I felt like I was living the words of the Prophet who spoke in the Psalms these words, which said, “I will declare Your name to my brethren. In the midst of the assemblies, I will praise you.” Hallel laYehovah. All right, thank you.
You have been listening to the Open Door Series with Nehemia Gordon. Thank you for supporting Nehemia Gordon’s Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at NehemiasWall.com.
We hope the above transcript has proven to be a helpful resource in your study. While much effort has been taken to provide you with this transcript, it should be noted that the text has not been reviewed by the speakers and its accuracy cannot be guaranteed. If you would like to support our efforts to transcribe the teachings on NehemiasWall.com, please visit our support page. All donations are tax-deductible (501c3) and help us empower people around the world with the Hebrew sources of their faith!
Makor Hebrew Foundation is a 501c3 tax-deductible not for profit organization.
I recognise the new moon as the first day of total darkness, because of the verse in Joshua where he mentions, “tomorrow is the new moon”., also using both biblical and extra biblical sources. Just in my own family there are 3 different ways of noting the new moon, this discussion has been going on for millenia. I really enjoyed this podcast. Thank you.
I’ve been trying to find a reference for the Canaanite practice of eating a kid in its mother’s milk as a form of fertility worship, and I’ve not found a solid source. So far it has only been people repeating the idea. Could you point me in a direction to find a good source for this? Thank you.
May my Lord Yehovah bless you both .Que mi Señor Yehovah los be diga a Manos por el valor de declarar su Nombre que es sobre todo nombre