Banning Yahweh

This kind of stuff is maddening to me. The Vatican bans the use of the personal, covenantal name that God himself revealed to his people as his "memorial" name. What? God gave the name Yahweh to his people to use in memorial prayer and sacrifice. They were supposed to speak it to remind God of his covenantal promises. The superstitious avoidance of the name Yahweh by intertestimental Jews was shameful and evidence of their departure from the biblical faith. Substituting LORD or some other title for the name Yahweh renders unintelligible so many key texts in the Hebrew Scriptures. Here's the first part of the Christianity Today essay and the link to the rest:

Observant Jews have traditionally not used the name Yahweh, refusing to pronounce the so-called proper name of God out of respect, or to be sure they do not misuse it. Now neither will Roman Catholics, at least in their worship services."In recent years the practice has crept in of pronouncing the God of Israel's proper name," said a June letter from the Vatican. "As an expression of the infinite greatness and majesty of God, it was held to be unpronounceable and hence was replaced during the reading of sacred Scripture by means of the use of an alternate name: Adonai, which means 'Lord.'" In August, U.S. bishops were directed to remove Yahweh from songs and prayers.

Protestants should be following their lead, said Carol Bechtel, professor of Old Testament at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan. "It's always left me baffled and perplexed and embarrassed that we sprinkle our hymns with that name," she said. "Whether or not there are Jewish brothers and sisters in earshot, the most obvious reason to avoid using the proper and more personal name of God in the Old Testament is simply respect for God."

Read the rest of the article here.

I have dealt with this issue at length. Perhaps I should serialize that essay on my blog. I'll do just that and begin another post in few minutes.

At the end of the CT essay Witvliet has some crazy comment: "Some people said using Yahweh emphasized for them the transcendence of God, which you might say is precisely the goal of not saying the term." Whatever people think, Yahweh is not a "term." Yahweh is a name! Yahweh is not "an expression of the infinite greatness and majesty of God." It's a memorial NAME! It makes no difference what people feel like it's emphasizing "for them." It's about being faithful to the Word of God as revealed to us.