The Bible In A Year – Torah – week 5 of 8
Readings for the Week
August 6-11, 2018
Theme of the week: The stories and laws in final chapters of Exodus overlap many of the stories and laws in the books of Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In the coming week the chapters will be woven together in thematic ways as much as possible.
- Monday Exodus chapters 30, 31 & 32
- Tuesday Exodus chapters 33 & 34
- Wednesday Exodus chapters 35-37
- Thursday Exodus chapters 38-40
- Friday Psalms 1, 2, 19
The wonders of God & the power of the law to help us. - Saturday Numbers chapters 9, 10, 11 &12
The Bible In A Year – Torah – week 5 of 8
A Framework for Understanding
The Names of God
There are three primary words used in the Hebrew scriptures to denote God: Adonai, Elohim, Yahweh. (written of course using Hebrew letters). This has raised up some interesting challenges for modern translators.
Adonai – is usually translated “my Lord” The interesting twist is that this word is technically plural, yet clearly indicating a single God.
Elohim – is usually translated “God”. This word is also technically plural, and has the distinction of being the only word used in association with the Hebrew God that is also used in association with gods of other religions.
Yahweh – is understood to be the actual name of God. It is usually translated as “the LORD” (lord being in small capitol letters). Its meaning and pronunciation are unclear.
• The Hebrew root word means “I am” or it can mean “I will be”
• Original Hebrew does not have vowels in it. So, the exact vowel sounds for this word are not known
• It is clear that originally people spoke the name of God with comfort. Over time, however, it became the custom NOT to say the actual name of God, out of respect. So, currently there is disagreement over how the name was actually pronounced.
• Over time, a system of dots was added into Hebrew writing to denote vowel sounds. However, by the time this happened people were no longer speaking God’s name aloud. SO, in an effort to prevent someone from accidentally speaking God’s name aloud when reading scripture, the vowels for the word “adonai” were added to the consonants of the word Yahweh.
• Early Christian translators, unaware of the “courtesy” regarding combining the vowels and consonants of two different words, translated the sacred name of God as “Jehovah”.