There are a number of Christian teachers today who claim that God’s name, spelled YHWH in Hebrew Scriptures, is being deliberately kept secret. In what seems to be an anti-Semitic attack, much of the blame for this “conspiracy” is laid at the feet of the Masoretes, the Jewish scholars of the sixth-ninth centuries A.D. who created vowel signs with which to vocalize the text of the Bible.
These teachers argue that it is wrong to translate God’s name “LORD,” and that English Bible translators should use “Yahweh” instead. To assist in disseminating their point of view, they have published a spate of “Sacred Name” or “Holy Name” versions of the Bible in which “Yahweh” is printed wherever YHVH appears in the Hebrew text.
Overly Literal Translation
Much of their reasoning is based on overly literal, word-for-word translation of Hebrew passages from the Bible. For example, they assert that a person’s salvation is dependent on his or her using and correctly pronouncing the Divine Name. This is based on the statement, “Everyone who calls on the name of YHVH will be saved” in Joel 2:32 (quoted in Acts 2:21). Thus, according to their interpretation, one cannot call out to God and be saved without the knowledge of that name. Actually, however, “the name of YHVH” is probably just a synonym for “YHVH,” a way of avoiding speaking of God too familiarly or directly.
Another “sacred name” proof-text is Psalms 9:10, “Those who know your name will trust in you.” This
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