The Name of the God of Moses

Author(s): David Noel Freedman

Source: Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 79, No. 2 (Jun., 1960), pp. 151-156
Published by: The Society of Biblical Literature
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3264465
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 THE NAME OF THE GOD OF MOSES

DAVID NOEL FREEDMAN

PITTSBURGH THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

AN IMPORTANT biblical tradition associates the revelation of the

personal name of God, the Tetragrammaton, with Moses. This is
explicitly affirmed in Exod 6 2-3 (commonly attributed to the Priestly
stratum of the Pentateuch): "And God said to Moses... 'I am Yahweh.
And I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as El Shaddai; but
(by) my name Yahweh I was not known to them.' " Exod 3 13-15 (usually
regarded as E) supports this view with an account of the revelation of
the name of God, which had not previously been known. Even in the J
stratum, the name which otherwise is traced back to the earliest times, is
given special emphasis in the divine communications to Moses (cf.
Exod 34 5-6 and 14). At the very least, in the biblical record, a new and
extraordinary significance is attached to the name of God in the Mosaic
era.'

In the light of the tradition, we may pose three questions, and th

attempt to answer them: 1) What was the name of the God of Mo
2) What is the meaning of the name? 3) What is its significance in th
context of the Book of Exodus?
The simplest form of the name is provided by the Priestly writer(s)
in Exod 6 -3: the Tetragrammaton alone, YHWH. Admittedly there
is no scholarly consensus about the form or meaning of this word. And
the question of its ultimate origin has not been resolved to the satis-
faction of all. The position advanced in this paper is based upon the
following points, which appear to the writer to be most in accord with the

' The general validity of this tradition of the name of God is further attested by the
close association of the revelation of the name with the Sinai-Horeb events. YHWH
is peculiarly the name of the God of the Sinai covenant; the inescapable association of
the latter with Moses supports the view that the revelation of the name forms part of
the covenant-making process. The preamble to the Decalogue (Exod 20 2) opens with
the same words: "I am Yahweh . . ." as does the P account of the revelation of the name
(Exod 6 2, with the alternative 1st person pronoun). The third commandment deals
explicitly with the profanation of the (newly revealed) name. And in Exod 34, the
proclamation of the name precedes directly the (re)making of the covenant. The inter-
relationship of name and covenant is best preserved in the J stratum of Exod 34, which
in other respects as well retains a more archaic tradition: e. g., the form of the first
commandment in 34 14, InN flr mninnn th ',, is clearly more original than the prosaic
'3"0'y D'l-nm D',nIK t1? n,, , with its necessary addition, oa-yn hl nrh nlnrivn' m (Exod
20 3 and 5).
151

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152 JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE

available data: 1) that the Tetragrammaton was pronounced yahweh;

2) that it is a verb derived from the root *hwy > *hwh, which in accord-
ance with recognized linguistic laws appears in biblical Hebrew as hyh;2
3) that it is a Hifil impf. 3rd masc. sing. form of the verb; and 4) that
it is to be translated, "He causes to be, he brings into existence; he
brings to pass, he creates."3
Elsewhere in the Book of Exodus the name of God is given in a
variety of expanded forms (cf. 3 13-15, 34 6-7, 14), while in I and II Samuel
a different expansion is presented as the name inscribed upon the Ark
of the Covenant. In attempting to determine which is the more original
form, the simple Tetragrammaton, or one or more of the expanded
formulas, two observations are in order: 1) the term "name" itself is
not a decisive criterion, since it is applied equally to names as we under-
stand them, and to titles or descriptive formulas. 2) If, as we contend,
yakweh is a verb form, then it must have formed part of a longer expres-
sion. The evidence of the onomastica of the Near East in the 2nd mil-
lennium B. C. points unmistakably in this direction.4 The conclusion,
already suggested by W. F. Albright, is that these names are derived
from a formulary or litany describing the covenant God in a series of
affirmations beginning with the word yahweh.5 As both the first and
common element in the series, yahweh was the logical and inevitable
abbreviation, and thus emerged as the "name" of God.

We may now turn to the Mosaic formulas in the Book of Exodus.

The locus classicus is Exod 3 14: 'sehyxh 'aSer 'ahyah. The interpretation
remains problematical in spite of the concentrated efforts of scholars.
The form 'zhyxh is to be understood as the first person equivalent of the
Tetragrammaton (as the writer clearly intends, cf. 'ashyseh s?ldazani in
vs. 14). While it is now vocalized as a Qal form in MT (based upon a
tradition that lies behind the LXX, and may be even older), this must

2 This is in accord with the view of the biblical writer in Exod 3 13-15, who directly
associates the Tetragrammaton with the root hyh, though in MT the form is vocalized
as a Qal instead of a Hifil.
3 The chief contemporary exponent of this view, which has a long scholarly pre-
history, is W. F. Albright, following the lead of P. Haupt: cf. "Contributions to Biblical
Archaeology and Philology," JBL, XLIII (1924), No. 2, "The Name Yahweh," 370-78,
with a variety of additional material since then, most recently in the Introduction to the
Anchor Edition of From the Stone Age to Christianity (New York, 1957), pp. 15-16. There
is no need to repeat the case presented by Albright, which is entirely convincing to the
writer for the analysis of the form yahweh; see e. g., his explanation of the expression
nlmx mrn in JBL, LXVII (1948), 377-81.
4 Cf. Albright's discussion of hypocoristica in JBL, XLIII, 371-72; there can be no
doubt that yahweh belongs to this class of name. For other examples see From the Stone
Age to Christianity, pp. 260-61.
s Ibid., pp. 16 and 260.

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 FREEDMAN: THE NAME OF THE GOD OF MOSES 153

be regarded as a secondary development.6 The original form w

and the meaning is, "I bring into being." In dealing with
expression, P. Haupt emended the second 'aehyzh and read:
yihyah, "I cause to be what comes into existence."7 Though
eminently satisfactory solution to the problem of Exod 3 14, i
to improve upon it by avoiding even the relatively slight textu
tion, and also by relating the "name" more significantly to th
of the Book of Exodus. While the Creator God figures promin
biblical as well as Near Eastern religion from patriarchal time
is, of course, not out of place in the Mosaic age, nevertheless t
emphases in the Book of Exodus are upon the merciful interv
the saving action of the God of the Fathers in behalf of his o
people.
Unemended, the formula in Exod 3 14 falls into the category of idem
per idem constructions, which are common to both Hebrew and Arabic.
S. R. Driver (basing himself on the prior work of Lagarde) discusses this
construction in his Notes on the Hebrew Text of the Books of Samuel,8 and
his commentary on The Book of Exodus in the Cambridge Bible.9 He
connects, rightly in our judgment, Exod 3 14 with 33 19, where the idem
per idem construction also occurs, and affirms that this idiomatic repeti-
tion is "employed where the means or desire to be more explicit does not
exist."I? The second verb serves as a predicate, and thus, like a cognate
accusative, emphasizes the verbal action: e. g., Exod 16 23, 1fln'ntW n
wn, "What you bake, bake": and iwn limn-n' e nm "What you boil,
boil.'",
Exod 33 19 is related to Exod 3 14 not only in grammatical construc-
tion, but also with regard to the revelation of the name of God: "And He
said, 'I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will pronounce
the name, YHWH, before you.... ' "2 What follows is a first-person
6 Since the original meaning of yakweh had long since been forgotten this inter-
pretation as a Qal form was the only one possible within the structure of the language as
it was constituted in post-Exilic times.
7 P. Haupt, "Der Name Jahwe," OLZ, 1909, cols. 211-14, quoted and discussed by
Albright, JBL, XLIII, 375-76. Albright adduces Egyptian parallels to this formula,
pp. 377-78.
8 (2nd ed.; Oxford, 1913), pp. 185-86.
9 (Cambridge, 1911), pp. 362-63, etc. IO bid., p. 363.
I Other passages with the same construction are Exod 4 13, I Sam 23 13, II Sam
15 20, II Kings 8 1, and Ezek 12 25. Each needs to be examined separately, but in every
case the emphasis is on the verbal idea; the element of arbitrary choice, or wilfulness,
which crops up in the English translations, is not inherent in the Hebrew expression.
See below.
12 The material in Exod 33 12-23 is usually attributed to J, but the analysis is by no
means certain. Scholars resort to desperate measures to secure continuity. It is much
more likely that a mixture of J and E strands is involved here. For the purpose of this
paper it is not directly significant, except that the ist-person expressions which follow
in vs. 19 logically connect with 3 14, and may therefore come from the E source.

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154 JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE

utterance by God to Moses, in the idem per idem construction, precisely

parallel to Exod 3 14: mnn nw '-nr nnnm nr nIwr-nn ,rm, "And I will be
gracious to whom I will be gracious; and I will show mercy on whom I
will show mercy." The stress in this passage is upon the verbal action:
showing grace and mercy. There appears to be no suggestion of wilful-
ness or arbitrary free choice in the Hebrew, in spite of the theological
deductions commonly drawn by commentators. To quote Driver once
more: "All that is said here is that God is gracious to those to whom he
is gracious." And further on, "The second 'will' in each sentence is a
simple future: it must not be emphasized as though it meant 'wish
to' ... "'3 We are now in a position to render the enigmatic expression
in Exod 3 14: "I create what I create," or more simply, "I am the creator."
Similarly in 33 o9: "I am the gracious one, I am the compassionate one."
A related name formula is found in Exod 34 6-7 (J), which is a continu-
ation of the Exod 33 passage just discussed. It begins with a repetition
of the Tetragrammaton (YHWH YHWH), itself remarkable, and so far
as I can determine, unique in the OT. It is strikingly parallel to the 1st
person repetition in Exod 3 14 (with the exception of nlt, which belongs
rather to the prose adaptation of the original poetic formula). There
follows in 34 6 the expression lp3m irm n , "God compassionate and
gracious," which in turn is parallel to the material in Exod 33 19, where
the same verbal roots are used. On the basis of these three "name"
passages we are now in a position to reconstruct the parallel 1st and 3rd
person forms of the name of the God of Moses. The name itself, properly
speaking, is to be found in the 3rd person formula in 34 6: "The com-
passionate and gracious God creates what he creates." The parallel
1st person formula adapted for divine utterance comes from 3 14 and
33 19: "I create what I create, and I am gracious to whom I am gracious,
and I show mercy to whom I show mercy." In both forms the creative
action of the gracious and merciful God is stressed.
The formula in 34 6-7 continues at some length, with a series of
adjectival modifiers describing in greater detail the nature of the Mosaic
God. It is difficult to say how much of this material belonged originally
to the "name," though it doubtless derives from various litanic formula-
tions of the earliest period.14
Still another name formula is found in Exod 34 14: Rp %[ "the zealous
or passionate God." It occurs also in the Decalogue in the comment on

3 Driver, The Book of Exodus, p. 363. That God is free to bestow or withhold favor
follows from the biblical view of his authority as creator and judge. Mercy and grace
are consistently emphasized as paramount qualities of his nature, however, and in this
passage, it is specifically asserted that the name formula reveals God's "goodness (tub)."
14 Cf. D. N. Freedman, "God Compassionate and Gracious," Western Watch, VI
(1955), 6-24. Some of these formulas go back to patriarchal times, but much is dis-
tinctively Mosaic, as the biblical tradition itself makes clear.

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 FREEDMAN: THE NAME OF THE GOD OF MOSES 155

the second commandment, where it is associated with the

punishment upon the third and fourth generations, an el
in the name formula of Exod 34 7.'5 The expression in 34 14
render. MT reads: fmn ip be iNx p mnil' z, which is co
lated, "For Yahweh, whose name is Jealous, is the Jealous God." This
is awkward, however, and in view of the previous discussion, the "name"
here must be yahweh qannd', "the Zealous One Creates." LXX offers
a variant reading, with the addition of 'el (o Eb6s) after the Tetra-
grammaton; this plus is not unexpected since qannd' (or qanno') occurs
elsewhere in the OT only in combination with 'el.I6 It is not necessary
to emend MT, however. The omission of 'el before the qualifying noun
is attested in a series of similar name formulas: e. g., El Shaddai and
Shaddai, El Elyon and Elyon, and probably El Olam and Olam (Deut
33 27).I7 Another possibility is to read qin'd for the first qannd' in MT;
we may render the expression: "For 'He Creates Zeal' is his name." The
formula would be parallel in structure to several others in the early
sources, in particular yahweh yir'd (Gen 22 14), "He creates reverence,"
as reconstructed by Albright.'8
We can sketch our conclusions regarding the name formulas in the
Book of Exodus: 1) The initial and common element is the word yahweh,
which describes the activity of the Creator God, a concept common to
the high religions of the ancient Near East, basic to all the strata of the
Bible, and certainly reaching back to the Patriarchs. The term itself,
as the J source affirms, is doubtless pre-Mosaic. 2) What emerge as
distinctively Mosaic in the name formulas are the qualities and attributes
of the Creator God of the Fathers revealed in the unique historical setting
of the Sinai covenant, between the past event of the Exodus, and the
future prospect of the Conquest. These are grace and mercy, patience,
great kindness and devotion, all of which mark the action by which he
delivers his afflicted people, creates a new community, - and not least
the passionate zeal by which he binds Israel to himself in an exclusive
relationship of privilege and obligation, of promise and threat, of
judgment and mercy.

's Ibid., pp. 14 ff. The essential meaning of qn' is "ardor, passion," which finds
expression either in judgment or kindness (cf. Exod 20 5-6); it is parallel to "love" in
Cant 8 6, and perhaps is best translated, "zeal, zealous." Because of its modern
connotations, "jealousy" is a misleading translation, especially when the term is used of
God.
I6 The form 'hlohim, as suggested by BHa, is thus mistaken. The interpretation of
the passage would be the same: "For 'El Qanna (the Zealous God) Creates' is his name."
I7 The term qanna' and what it signifies regarding the exclusive relationship between
Yahweh and Israel seem to the writer uniquely and distinctively Mosaic. The per-
sistence of the poetic form 'el in connection with it even in later prose contexts (e. g.,
Deut 4 24, 6 15) is sufficient evidence of its antiquity.
i8 From the Stone Age to Christianity, p. 16.

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156 JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE

We append two notes, which follow upon the main argument:

1. An important early name formula is mfnr mrr which in various

forms was inscribed upon the Ark of the Covenant.'9 The original verbal
force of yahweh is strikingly evident here: "The One Enthroned upon the
Cherubim creates the hosts (of Israel)." According to the biblical tradi-
tion, however, this formula comes from the period of the Judges, and is
not to be found in the Mosaic material. Since the Ark served as the
sacred emblem of the cult center, its "name" doubtless served as the
amphictyonic motto, and in this period was the name of God par excel-
lence. In spite of the fact that the Ark itself is traced back to the wilder-
ness wanderings, and even the cherubim are read back into Mosaic times
by the Priestly writer(s), the formula itself is lacking in the Pentateuch.
Priority would appear to belong to the Exodus formulas.
2. From Exod 34 6 and 14, it is clear that the proper subject of the
verb yahweh is 'el. Thus the name is structurally identical with the
numerous 'el names of the 2nd millennium, which often appear as
hypocoristica like yahweh itself.20 The continued use of the designation
El throughout the Bible (though limited largely to poetry), despite its
obvious Canaanite associations, shows that the name was deeply rooted
in Israelite tradition. The patriarchal names for their deity are built
around this element: e. g., El Shaddai, El Elyon (specifically the Creator
God, Gen 14 19), El Olam; comparable in form therefore are the El Qanna
and the El Rahum weHannun of the Mosaic age. The anomalous com-
bination yahweh 'lohim, usually regarded as the result of a mixture of
sources, or an artificial construction, may simply be the survival in
occasional passages of the prose equivalent of the poetic or formulaic
yahweh 'el, etc., under discussion, with the same original meaning, "God
creates." It survives merely as a title in the passages in which it occurs.

I9 Albright, JBL, LXVII, 377-81.

20 Cf. Exod 34 6 and 14; once it is recognized that the use of the term yahweh goes
back to patriarchal times, the 'el element becomes virtually certain. For a comprehensive
study of the relationship of yahweh to the God of the Fathers, see the paper by F. M.
Cross, Jr., which was read at the Oxford Congress of the International Organization for
the Study of the OT (1959), and will appear in the forthcoming Congress Volume.

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