By Prof. Protus Nathan Uzorma
“Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God and he shall go no more out, and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God; and I will write upon him my new name” Revelation 3:12.
Let start by thanking the God of creation who has a new name which is only revealed to the few in the world of man; I have come to explain what may not be native to our corporeal understanding. But it must be said in order to free those that have been held sway by ‘perishable’ credo.
Nothing reaches a person as direct as his real name. I recall few weeks ago while in school (usual class lecture), the course was ‘Philosophy of the Existence of God’ for two hundred level students, I decided to ask them a question that made many of them laughed me to scorn. The question was, what if you are praying in the name which God has either changed or disused, do you think the prayer would be answered? We all laughed over it but I later asked them to reflect on it as I promised them of discussing it which I did eventually. We all benefitted from it as knowledge is dynamic and no knowledge is a waste. I shall soon revisit this but suffice it to say here that God is a title and not a name.
The word “God” has a very ancient and interesting history. From the Hindu perspective the term could be traced back to Sanskrit through the Old Teutonic language: gudo , ghudho, gheu, and hu. The Sanskrit meaning is to “to invoke, to pour, to offer sacrifice.” In the Hindu Philosophy of Religion (Sanskrit language), puru –huta means “much invoked” and is a name of Indra, who is worshipped by sacrifice. However, the word “God” in English originally meant “that which is invoked” or, “the object of worship.”
In Christian Religion, many people call God Jehovah and regard same as the true name of God. In the Hebrew Scriptures the name of God is recorded as YHWH. Research shows that ancient Hebrew did not use vowels in its written form. The vowels were pronounced in spoken Hebrew but were not recorded in writing. This particularly became a serious issue to some scholars while studying the Hebrew name of God written as YHWH also known as Tetragrammaton.
Despite much study and serious debate among religious scholars it is still not generally agreed upon how the Hebrew name for God-YHWH was pronounced. Some prefer “YEHWEH” others prefer “Yehoweh,” “Yahuweh,” or “Yahawah” still others argue for Jehovah. However, everything is up for serious debate. Should YHWH be pronounced with three syllables or two? Should the vowels be borrowed from Elohim or Adonai? Should the “W” be pronounced more of the “W” sound or more of a “V” sound? My purpose here is not to use this article to settle the academic debate but to use this medium to properly educate my numerous readers on the need to understand God than man’s creed.
Yes, I wish to accentuate here that majority of Jewish and Christian Biblical scholars and linguists do not share the view that the right pronunciation of YHWH is Jehovah. In ancient Hebrew, there was no true “J” sound; even the Hebrew letter “vav” which is transliterated as the “W” in YHWH is said to originally have had a pronunciation closer to “W” than the “V” of Jehovah. Jehovah is essentially a Germanic pronunciation of the Latinized transliteration of the Hebrew YHWH. It is the letters of Tetragrammaton, Latinized into JHVH, with vowels inserted. However, “Yahweh” or “Yehowah” is far more likely to be the correct pronunciation according to Ken Hemphill.
If the name of a personality like God in the Christian world is mispronounced and misapplied, the confusion it will generate shall not be drenched easily. The problem is human creed and nobody wants to take blame for it.
Names are very important to God and when a name does not reflect his will and purpose in the person’s life, God changes the person’s name. God changed the name of Abrm to Abraham, Sarai to Sarah, Paul and Peter and much more. Even Christian believers are told that they will be given new names in the new kingdom of God as is evident in the book of Revelation 2:17. If God can change the names of the people of his interest, is it impossible for Him to change His name too? And if God decides to Change his name in line with different assignment He wishes to accomplish, how will the earthmen know of it?
The prophets of old prophesied of the first advent of Christ in a paradox. The name Jesus Christ did not appear in the Old Testament but Christ was present not in human form of incarnation but in different forms of reality. He theophanized himself in different ways to different personalities. He was ever present in the Old Testament writings viz: The “I AM” in whom Abraham rejoiced was Jesus Christ (John 8:56-58). The Lord who motivated Moses was Christ (Hebrew 11:26). The Redeemer who brought them out of Egypt was Jesus (Jude 5). The Rock in the wilderness was Christ (1 Corinth 10:4). The King of Isaiah’s temple vision was the Son (John 12:40-41).
I wish to assert on a serious note that every individual in creation is a reflection of the inner reality of Christ consciousness. This assertion however may astound or amaze the Christian who sees all things from the physical perceptive. Human life is not just a physical thing but the physical is a unit of inner camouflage.
Everybody born in this physical unit is said to have existed in other probable systems of existence, this may conflict with our daily credo which we attempt to preserve with our lives which in turn hurt and haunt us with deeper nemesis; this I may explain much later if possible.
But let it be emphasised here that the reality we search for cannot be found in our various religious credo. God the unassuming reality is beyond the formation of time, energy, space and matter upon which our creed is based. Just as the most realizable truth that can stabilize a person academically cannot be found in our contemporary academic curriculums, so also most hidden and freedom oriented and soul refreshing truth cannot be found in our creed and religious credo.
I must say that any credo that may not be in uniform and harmony with reality must be discarded seriously. As a Christian philosopher and a student of the great universe, I do know that most time what we know about things are the ones we were taught by our teacher. But supposing you were taught by a bad and ignorant teacher who was also taught by same, what legacy do you think you will hand over to your generation? No wonder Alexandra the Great enthuses “I am indebted to my parents for living, but more indebted to my teacher for living well.” Yes, for the sake of emphasis, what legacy could someone who was taught by an ignorant teacher live behind?
The above question reflects a billion Dollar type one would say, yes, it is indeed a billion dollar question but I want you to know that God has a way of balancing creation and he sends people to advance the human race in the right direction by properly equipping them with inner and outer information to balance the disequilibrium hitherto created by misinformation as contained in our various credo.
In balancing creation, he equipped us with inner knowledge that sustains existence in a higher form and manner. He did this by sending his beloved Son, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who in his first advent came like a thief in the night and taught like a thief in both day and night and was killed by thieves who wanted to preserve their creed and credo as well as their traditions. Christ was sincerely misunderstood by the thieves who indeed preferred to free a notorious thief than Christ the then saviour.
The teachings which led to his crucifixion were completely at variance with the Jewish traditions which negated the religio-philosophical concept of anthropomorphism. Yes, God cannot be man and man at the same time cannot be God and even if God was to be a man, he should not have been born by Mary and Joseph in the local and neglected city of Nazareth.
Nathaniel’s first reaction to Philip’s claim that he and others found the messiah was rather disappointing. In John 1:46 the Bible reports, “And Nathaniel said unto him, can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip said unto him, come and see.” No doubt Nazareth was a very small village, in fact, according to archaeological findings, it boasted no more than 150 residents, it was over showed by the roman with a large Jewish population city just 30 to 45 minutes’ walk a way that served as an administrative city center-Tzipori (Sepphoris).
Jesus must have spent there as a child and youth, was neglected as God in view of what they knew about him. He was neglected because of his humble origin. For Philip, Jesus was not from Nazareth but from God. However, when Nathaniel meets Jesus in prison, Jesus revealed something to him and Nathaniel’s response is very enthusiastic, he said, “Rabbi, you are the son of God. You are the king of Israel!” John 1:49. This simply implies that a God is known by his actions and not only by his words. Let me inform my readers here that the Bible has been misunderstood for years as a result of this some people have taken undue advantage of the masses to both hoodwink and manipulate the psyche of the masses in order to enrich their pockets.
The way and manner our religious leaders have interpreted the aspect of Christ teachings that has to do with his second advent is so disturbing. They have created their own world via their doctrines and expect the messiah to adopt such method. Some people may be amazed that I am saying this, but it is true that must be exposed.