Our Current Reality is the Product of Past Realities
Recently, I encountered a new interpretation of the Number of the Beast in Revelation 13:18. The view said that the Greek letters χξϚ, when pronounced, sound similar to “Jesus.” I reached out to some pastor friends, and this was a new view for them concerning the name, mark, and number of the beast being understood as “Jesus.” This video’s claim launched me into what is now weeks of research and I know many more months of investigation to come for it the view is tied to two loosely organized movements that began before I was even born.
You see, even though this explanation of Revelation 13:18 was new to my ears and the ears of faithful peers, this present belief is built on some existing doctrinal foundation laid in the past. What I didn’t expect was the complexity of the movements, their cunning deception, and the variation of held beliefs within the movements that resulted in this interpretation of Revelation 13:18.
I will deal with Jesus and the Mark of the Beast in a later post, but for now, we will focus on the movement that helped shape this understanding of Revelation 13:18 and why the name we have in our English Bibles for God’s personal name is the LORD instead of Yahweh. The information in this post will help us understand and identify content related to movements prevalent on online media platforms that claim our Bible translations are corrupted because of how they translate the names of God and His Son.
The Birth of the Sacred Name Movement
In the 1930s, Clarence O. Dodd began the Sacred Name Movement. Like the Hebrew Roots Movement, Dodd taught the strict observance of the Torah—mainly the Sabbath observance, festivals, and dietary laws concerning pure and impure foods. Yet, adherents of the Sacred Name Movement also believe that the New Testament was originally written in Hebrew and Aramaic, not Greek.
Since there are no Hebraic autographs, SNM supporters like Jacob O. Meyer believe we have Greek translations of the original autographs by uninspired men into Greek and then into English along with many other languages. As a result, we must base all doctrine on the Old Testament until the originals are discovered. As a result of this stance, the Assemblies of Yahweh insist that Yahweh and Yahshua are “the most accurate transliteration of these Names from the Hebrew into the English.”
Acceptance of Inspiration, Rejection of Preservation
The Sacred Name Movement and others loosely related to the movement hold to the inspiration of Scripture when it comes to the original autographs of the works (believed to be written in Hebrew or Aramaic) recognized as Scripture but reject the belief that God has been able to preserve His inspired Word throughout time. The Scriptures have been corrupted because the Sacred names of Yahweh and Yahshua have been replaced with God, LORD, and Jesus. They also believe that our English translations of the Bible are polluted because they lead us to think that we are no longer obligated to obey the Torah, specifically the Ten Commandments.
One example of how members of these movements doubt the preservation of God’s Word can be found on the FAQ page of the Cephar Publishing Group, which claims to have a comprehensive restoration of Sacred Scripture. The organization answers, “What criteria was used to canonize anyway?” With, “Who knows? The most obvious answer is: We think these are the books that fit.” Yet, we know that the Jews had tests for writings to pass for them to be recognized as inspired and the early Church followed their practice in developing the New Testament canon.
For more information on the tests a document had to pass to be recognized as Scripture, check out “Why these 66 books?”
The Sacred Name Movement, The Name of God, and the Ten Commandments
The Name in Which Salvation is Found (Acts 4:12)
The Hebrew Roots Movement and the Sacred Name Movement are related at various levels, but both are loosely organized movements resulting in fluid beliefs and tiers of those beliefs. For example, some groups believe that unless you call on Yahshua, you are calling on a false god and remain lost in your sin, while others will say that Yahweh graciously looks past our ignorance and saves us because of our faith in His Son though we call Him by a different name in our common tongue.
Do Not Use The The LORD’s Name in Vain (Exodus 20:7)
One point of contention for Sacred Namers (not a term that I use disrespectfully) in the Ten Commandments or words with protestant denominations and the Roman Catholic Church pertains to one of the Ten Commandments. They believe that using the LORD’s name in vain includes not only using it flippantly or misrepresenting His character but not using Yahweh at all. By allowing Yahweh to disappear from our vocabulary, teaching, prayer life, and culture, or addressing Him or the Messiah in our native tongue (in English, God, the LORD, Jesus, Christ), we break commandment three habitually.
The Focus of this Post
In this post, we will journey through Scripture and history to see why we use the Personal name of God translated as LORD in our English translations. While addressing God or Jesus using their Hebrew names and titles is okay and acceptable (though unnecessary), the emphasis on that being the only proper way to address them is unbiblical and could lead down a gradual but dangerous slope leading to a life Christ didn’t come to make possible (John 10:10; Galatians 2:4-5) and a Gospel the apostles didn’t preach (Galatians 1:6-10).
The Name of God Revealed
Yahweh is the most frequently used name for God in the Old Testament, appearing more than 6,800 times. This name comes from the tetragrammaton (the four Hebrew consonants transliterated into English as YHWH). God first revealed it as “His name” and “My name forever” at the burning bush (Exodus 3:13–15), emphasizing His eternal and unchanging nature. When Moses asked for God’s name, God responded, “I AM WHO I AM” and “I AM” (Exodus 3:14), further identifying Yahweh (LORD) as “My name forever” (Exodus 3:15).
Although Yahweh was known before the time of Moses (Genesis 4:26; 5:29; 9:26; 14:22), Exodus 6:3 states that God told Moses, “By my name the LORD I did not make myself known to them.” This does not contradict earlier references to Yahweh in Genesis. The Hebrew verb for “known” in Exodus 6:3 likely refers to relational knowledge, meaning that the patriarchs did not fully grasp the significance of Yahweh as His personal name. Another interpretation suggests that “known” refers to experiential knowledge, meaning Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had not yet experienced the full revelation of what the name Yahweh entails.
Reverence for the Name of Yahweh
After the Babylonian exile, the Israelites avoided pronouncing Yahweh’s name out of reverence and fear of blaspheming it. Instead, they substituted it with Adonai (“Lord”) in speech. When Yahweh appeared alongside Adonai in the text, they would substitute it with Elohim (“God”).
The Greek Septuagint translators and the New Testament writers, under the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, followed this Jewish tradition by rendering YHWH as Kyrios (“Lord”) in Greek. Later, the Masoretes (Jewish scribes who preserved the Hebrew Bible) introduced a vowel system and pointed YHWH with the vowels of Adonai, signaling that it should be read as Adonai rather than pronounced as Yahweh.
The Development of “Jehovah”
The combination of the consonants YHWH and the vowels of Adonai led Latin-speaking Christians to transliterate the name as “Iehovah.” Some credit Petrus Galatinus (ca. 1460–1539) with coining this form in 1518, but it appeared in Latin Christian writings as early as the 12th century. The medieval church combined the IHVH consonants with Adonai’s vowels to produce the name Jehovah.
The Reformers embraced this transliteration, and William Tyndale used it in his 1530 Old Testament translation. The 1611 King James Version (KJV) included Jehovah in a few passages (Exodus 6:3), a practice continued by the American Standard Version (1901). However, most modern English Bible translations follow the tradition of replacing YHWH with “LORD” (in small caps) to maintain reverence for the divine name.
In Conclusion
We are free and can call God or Jesus by their Hebrew names and titles, but nothing is compromising if we address God as the LORD or His Son as Jesus in place of their Hebrew or Aramaic names. God is the one who established languages (Genesis 11:1, 6-7), is the God of all people (John 3:16; Romans 3:29-30), and who will have people of all tongues in glory with Him for eternity (Acts 2:1-13; Acts 2:41; Revelation 7:9). He has providentially preserved His Word for us today in many languages. Each translation is sufficient to lead people to salvation and equip them to walk in relationship with the Triune God (2 Timothy 3:14-17).
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