Messiah and the Sacred Name

What was the stance of Yahushua the messiah regarding the use of the sacred name Yahweh?

We know that during the 1st century C.E. the people of Judaea and Galilee were strictly prohibited from speaking the name Yahweh by the religious leaders.

Was Yahushua in agreement with this prohibition, or did he see the situation quite differently?

If you’re interested in discovering the truth of the matter, then it might be a good idea for you to continue on with our investigation.

The doctrine of the sacred name, as expounded by Yahushua, is demonstrated by the format for prayer given to his disciples. The opening line reads:

Our father who is in heaven, sacred be your name. (Matthew 6:9; Luke 11:2)

Yahushua not only knew the sacred name, but he also came to the Jewish people in that name. He told the Jews who sought his life:

I have come in the name of my father, and you receive me not; if another should come in his own name, him you will receive. (John 5:43)

Yahushua came in the name of father Yahweh, not his earthly name Yahushua (or the Greek substitute Ἰησους; English “Jesus”), and few received him.

In a messianic prophecy found in Psalms 89:19-37, we read that Yahweh would make the messiah his “firstborn,” a claim substantiated in the New Testament (Rom. 8:29; Col. 1:9-20) and that “in my name (i.e., Yahweh) his horn (glory, power) shall be exalted (Ps. 89:24).”

The prophecy given by Moses in Deuteronomy 18:15-19 (cited by Peter in Acts 3:22-23, as proof that Yahushua was the expected messiah) further supports the fact that Yahushua spoke in the sacred name. This passage in part states:

And Yahweh said to me (Moses), They have done well in what they have said, a prophet I shall raise up for them from among their brothers like you (Moses); and I shall put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak to them all that I shall order him. And it shall be, whosoever will not listen to my words WHICH HE SHALL SPEAK IN MY NAME, I will require it of him.

Neither did Yahushua keep his father’s name a secret. In Hebrews 2:11-12 the messianic prophecy from Psalms 22:22 is cited as proof that Yahushua was the expected messiah. This passage states:

For both he who sanctifies and those sanctified are all out of one; for which cause he (Yahushua) is not ashamed to call them (his disciples) brothers, saying, “I will declare your name (Yahweh) to my brothers; among the assembly I will praise you.”

The very night that Yahushua was betrayed by Judas and taken by the Jewish religious leaders to be tried and executed, he prayed to our heavenly father. Then, realizing that his work on earth was now completed, he said:

I glorified you on the earth; I completed the work which you gave me that I should do; and now you glorify me, father, with yourself, with the glory which I had with you before the world was. I MANIFESTED YOUR NAME to the men whom you have given me out of the world. Yours they were, and to me you have given them, and your word they have kept. (John 17:4-6)

Later on in this prayer, Yahushua reiterates:

I made known to them your name. (John 17:26)

If the messiah did not see the sacred name as an important issue, why did he find it necessary to reveal this name to his disciples—in a time when the knowledge of the sacred name was being concealed from the general populace—and then report the accomplishment of this task back to the father?

But Yahushua’s prayer goes even further. He asked father Yahweh:

Sacred father, keep them IN YOUR NAME whom you have given me, that they may be one, as we are. When I was with them in the world I was keeping them IN YOUR NAME: whom you have given me I guarded, and not one of them perished, except the son of perdition (i.e. Judas), that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. (John 17:11-12)

Therefore, Yahushua not only taught the father’s sacred name to his disci­ples, but he kept them protected in that name. Yahushua then asked his father to further that protection after his death by continuing to keep his followers in the father’s name!

We can only conclude, as C. H. Dodd did, “According to John xvii. 6, 26, the mission of Christ in the world was to make known the Name of God.” (The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel. Cambridge University Press, 1953)

There is more on the way. So stay tuned for the next post, as we will address the motive for the murder of Yahushua by the religious leaders of Judaea.

Also, be sure to check out the The Sacred Name Yahweh by Qadesh La Yahweh Press.