I Am, the Eternal

Occurrence(s) in the Bible :
In the Old Testament Yahweh is used 6519 times. This name is used more than any other name of God. Yahweh first appears in the book of Genesis 2 "These are the origins of the heavens and the earth, when they were created; when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, Genesis 2:4".

Spelling variant(s) : YHWH, Yahweh

Septuagint (Hebrew Bible in Greek): kurios - Eternal, Master. despotês - Eternal Masterdesignating God's omnipotence, Absolute master.

Meaning:

Yahweh is the promised name of God. This name of God, which according to Jewish tradition is far too holy to be pronounced, is in fact spelled "YHWH" without vowels. YHWH, which is also called the Tetragrammaton (meaning "the four letters") comes from the Hebrew letters : Yod, Hay, Vav, Hay. It's true that YHWH appears for the first time in Genesis 2, but God himself revealed him for the first time in Exodus 3.

Current spelling "Yahweh includes vowels inserted to aid pronunciation. There are several spelling forms of this Name, which lost its real pronunciation because during the third century CE, the Jewish people stopped pronouncing it for fear of going against the commandment "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain" (Exodus 20:07). Subsequently, the name "Adonai" has sometimes been used as a substitute for "YHWH".

The Lord God made the earth and the heavens. He said, "Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness; let him have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

The Lord God blessed them, and the Lord God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air and every living thing that moves on the earth." The Lord God commanded the man, "You may freely eat of every tree in the garden, but you shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall die." - Genesis 1:1-3, 26-28

P. Clémentine