Biblical Research information on the Sacred Name
Biblical persons, places and events according to scholarly sources
"After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name."
-Messiah's instructions found in Matthew 6:9.
The Sacred Name is incorporated into many names of pre-exilic Prophets, Kings, and others. A few examples:
Isaiah: Yeshayahu = Yahu is Salvation [probably full-form: Yeshayahua]
Jeremiah: Yirmeyahu = Yahu Exults
Micah: Mikhayahu = Who Is Like Yahu? [compare: Michael, Who Is Like El?"]
Zephaniah: Tzfanyahu = Yahu has Concealed (or Hidden)
Zedekiah: Sidquiyyahu = Yahu is Righteous
Hezekiah: Khizakiyyahu = Strengthened by Yahu
Jehoiakin = Yehoyakin
Jeconiah = Yah[u] will fortify; Assyrian written as Ia-u-kinu
Aaron's son, Abi-hu = [Ya]hu is my Father
Jeroboam's son, Abi-yah = Yah[o] is my Father
The short from of the name "Isaiah" was "yesa'ya," which "predominates in late texts" such as Ezra 8:7, 19; Nehemiah 11:7; 1 Chronicles 3:21, etc. "Elsewhere in Second Kings and Isaiah the form is invariably yesa'yahu." -Joseph Blenkinsopp, University of Notre Dame, "Hezekiah and the Babylonian Delegation: A Critical Reading of Isaiah 39:1-8," p.113 n.14, in "Essays On Ancient Israel In Its Near Eastern Context: A Tribute To Nadav Na'aman," 2006. [Another witness to the fact that pre-exilic Judahite kings and prophets often used the theophoric form "Yahu" or shortened "Ya[h], but never "Yahweh."]
[Note that Yah or Yahu are considered to be hypocoristicons for the fuller form of the Judahite Sacred Name, Yahuah. A hypocoristicon, or hypocorism, is a lesser form of a given name; a shortened form representing the fuller original name. This is frequently done even today, as in Rob/Bob for Robert, Jim for James, Sam for Samuel, Pete for Peter, etc.]
The Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research #204 (December, 1971) has more on the hypocoristicon of the Sacred Name: "A recently discovered stela of Adad-nirari III from Tell al-Rimah, in dealing with a campaign to Syria in 802 or 796 B.C., lists vassal-kings paying tribute to the King of Assyria" including "Joash the Samaritan" in line 8...A. Cody, in specifically dealing with the actual transcription, deduced that, around 800 B.C., the diphthong in the first syllable of the Hebrew name had alrady contracted: Yahu'as--> Yaw'as---> Yo'as." (pages 37-38)
"The character of Ahaz is drawn in the darkest colours (c. 16:3f; 10ff; 17f), and that this adverse judgment was of contemporary origin is clear, not only from Isa 7:10 but also from the cuneiform orthography of his name Ia'uhazi (=Jehoahaz)." -William John Chapman, "Palestinian Chronological Data 750-700 B.C. in their relation to the events recorded in the Assyrian canon," in Hebrew Union College Annual 4 (1927), p.159.
"The abbreviation Ahaz seems to express the feeling that the name JHVH was dishonored by its mere connection with such a man." -ibid. p.159 n.12 [The name "JHVH" was pronounced in the ten-tribe House of Israel (Ephraim) as "Yaho" (A.V.="Jeho"), in contrast to two-tribe Judah's pronunciation "Yahu" or full-form, "Yahua."]
Reference: "A. Malamat, B.A.S.O.R. cciv (1917), 37ff., for the probable Assyrian transcription of King Joash's name as Iu-'a-su (instead of the usual transliteration Ia'a-su), which represents a closer rendering of the Hebrew." -A. Malamat, "The Aramaeans," in "Peoples of Old Testament Times," Society for Old Testament Study, Oxford, 1973, p. 153 n.28. [Note that Israelite king Joash's name would have been pronounced something close to "Yahu-a-su."]
"The recent proposal by McCarter (1974) to interpret the name Ia-u-a / Ia-a-u in these passages [2 Kings 13] as a shortened form of Jehoram (based on a hypocoristic PN Yaw!) is unsound...It is preferable to adhere to the original interpretations, which consider the above cuneiform spellings as attempts to approximate the pronunciation of the biblical name Jehu." -Nadav Na'aman, "Ancient Israel and Its Neighbors," vol. 1, p.9, n.15. [Thus King "Jehu" was named after the Name of his God, Yahua]
Professor Avraham Biran, Israel Exploration Society, Hebrew Union College, Jerusalem, in "Biblical Dan," 1994, p.199, tells of an amphora jar discovered in the area of the northern House of Israel. Its handle was stamped "immadi-yo" meaning "God [i.e., "Yo"] is with me." (Compare to later, "emmanu-el" meaning "El is with us," and the Druidic Yo or Iao of the Celts in early Britain.) Prof. Biran adds, "The theophoric ending Yo is the same as Yahu in Judah. Indeed, the name Immadi-yahu has recently been discovered in Judah on an ostracon in Horvat'Uza in the Negev. There it appears in conjunction with his father's name -- Immadi-yahu the son of Zakar." This was dated to the eighth century, B.C., during the time of King Jeroboam II of the ten tribe House of Israel, known as Ephraim in the later prophets.
[Note that the ten tribe House of Israel used a slightly different Divine Name than did Judah: Yo or Yao in Ephraim, compated to Yahu in Judah. Neither of the two houses of Israel used "Yahweh" until many years after the pre-exilic period ended.]
"In the 1988 excavation season we discovered an amphora handle stamped with the name 'Zecharyo' in ancient Hebrew script, dated epigraphically to the middle of the eighth century, B.C.E. The name consists of the verb 'remember' and the theophoric ending yo. A king by this name (Zachariah, in the King James Version) is mentioned in Second Kings 14:29. He was the son of Jeroboam II and ruled the northern kingdom for six months before he was assassinated." -Professor Avraham Biran, ibid., p.255.
[Note again that the House of Israel, the northerrn ten-tribe kingdom that broke away from Judah after the death of Solomon, used a slightly different Divine Name (Yo), than did Judah (Yahu). The full form of the Sacred Name was Yahuah (as shown elsewhere on this website), but it is apparently not clear if the House of Israel used a fuller theophoric form than Yo or Yao.]
Regarding the exile of Israel, a leading Jewish scholar says, "It is plausible to suppose that the theophoric element ia-u in proper names is usually an indication of a person of Israelitic-Judean origin, on the plausible assumption that ia-u = YHWH (Jahu)." -Oded Bustenay, "Mass Deportations and Deportees In The Neo-Assyrian Empire," 1979, p.13.
[Note that the author is speaking of Judean exiles taken in the Assyrian attack on Judah in 701 B.C. by Sennacherib, and says that the Tetragrammaton of the Divine Name, YHWH, should be pronounced "Jahu" or actually, "Yahu," (since the "J" is pronounced as a "Y".) It is clear that at this time of the exile the Sacred Name was still not yet pronounced, "Yahweh."]
Further regarding exiled Israelites in the land of Assyria, "[Text] AOD741:14 mentions A-a-u-id-ri (= Iau-idri), possibly an Israelite." -Oded Bustenay, ibid. p.71. [Note again that "iau" or "Yahu" was the Hebrew Divine Name of God.]
The El-Amarna Tablets of 1400 B.C. dictated by Egyptian Pharaoh Amenophis IV have a "curious mention of ameluti Ia-u-du, 'Judean men' ...in letter number 39 of the Berlin collection (Winkler and Abel, vol. ii, p.46). The name Ia-u-du is spelled here in precisely the same way as in the inscriptions of the Assyrian kings -- a point which materially strengthens the argument for identifying Ia-u-du with Judah." -Professor Morris Jastrow, Jr., University of Pennsylvania, "The Men of Judah in the El-Amarna Tablets," Journal of Biblical Literature vol. 12, p.61-62.
[Note that the theophoric Name appears in the Hebrew spelling of "Judah," that is, "Ia-u" or "Yahu."]
"Ia-u-du is, in fact, the equivalent of Yahud, the form under which the name of Judea appears in the Aramaic portions of the Old Testament (Daniel 2:25; 5:13; 6:14; Ezra 1:5, 8; 7:14)." -Professor Morris Jastrow, Jr., University of Pennsylvania, "The Men of Judah in the El-Amarna Tablets," Journal of Biblical Literature vol. 12, p.68.
"The name of the Lord was omitted by a late scribe [in 1 Samuel 4:10], similar to what the Jewish sages dubbed 'tikun sofrim' meaning: scribe's emendation. Cf. vv. 25-26, 36. Only in verse 45 it is clear from David's reference that Goliath aimed his words as a challenge to the Lord." -Moshe Garsiel, Bar-Ilan University, "The Valley of Elah Battle and the Duel of David With Goliath," p.415, n.59. In "Homeland And Exile," Brill, 2009. [Note: The reason the Name of the Father is not well known is because the true Divine Name was popularly changed or "omitted" from Scripture and history, replaced by the word, "Yahweh."]
yahShuah!
"…a wondrous, mystic relationship existed between Yahweh and His Messenger, perhaps that 'Yahweh's Name' was in the Messenger of Yahweh (Exo. 23:21)." –"Genesis" by Prof. Herman Gunkel, Mercer Univ. Press, 1997, p.186. [This is a Scriptural truth as will be seen further below; the Father's "Name was in" the Hebrew Name of the Messiah: Yahuah ---> YahShuah]
Exodus 23:20-21, "Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him." [A prophecy of the coming Messiah, who would bear the Father's Name.]
Joh 17:6 I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. [Note that the Name of the Messiah, Yahshuah, "manifested" the Father's Name, Yahuah.]
Joh 5:43 I am come in my Father's name… [Note: The Savior came bearing the Name of the Father! Yahuah --> YahShuah]
"Jesus, whose name means 'Yahweh saves'..." -R. Kendall Soulen, "The Sign of Jonah," Theology Today 65 (2008), p.338 [i.e., the proper spelling matches the proper meaning: Yah-shua ("Yah Saves"), not Yeshua ("Salvation"). Messiah's Name incorporates His Father's Name, as other scholars point out, and as Messiah Himself points out in the Scripture verses above.]
"...the prophetic tradition, according to which the day of the Lord is near, or coming speedily...and in the belief that on that day the name of the Lord will be exalted and sanctified (Ezekiel 38:18-23). These hopes for revelation/salvation can be found in texts from all sorts of biblical literature, and refer to events spanning all of biblical history." -Scripta Hierosolymitana, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Vol. xxxi (1986), p.343
"There seems little doubt that the early church identified Yahweh and Jesus, cf. Justin Dial. ch. cxxvii; cf. also Thomas' statement of faith (John 20:28) 'My Lord and My God' (while it is true one did not say 'my Yahweh', one did say 'My Lord' and mean Yahweh." -John Bowman, "The Identity and Date of the Unnamed Feast of John 5:1", in "Near Eastern Studies" 1971, p.44 [Remember that Jesus came in the name of His Father: Yahshua --> Yahua]
Importance of the Sacred Name:
Gen_24:3-4: "The appeal is to God as 'Yahweh, God of heaven and God of the earth.' Yahweh is the personal name of God, which is properly used by those who are in fellowship with him." –Barnes Notes on the Old Testament
Conclusion: Are You In Fellowship With Him??? Do you call Him by Name or only by title???
More Interesting Sacred Name Information To Be Added In The Future!
The information in this study should be read in conjunction with our separate study, "What is His Name and what is His Son's Name," found on the articles page.