The Mysteries Inferred About This Name

Indeed, many mysteries about this name are recounted—or rather invented—in part by the Hebrews and in part by certain of our own men. Let he who wishes to do so read some of them in Galatino ([De arcanis,] bk. 2, ch. 10) and others in Reuchlin ([The Mirific Word,] bk. 2, chs. 19–21). In the first place, Galatino—with the added authority of Rabbenu Heccados[1]—tries to deduce the mystery of the Trinity on the basis of this name in a variety of different ways.[2] But they are very strained, silly, and childish.

Those to which Fagius refers on the basis of the rabbis in Exodus 6 are more convincing. First, he designates it a mystery that this name is derived from the verb היה in order to indicate that God is an essence subsisting from eternity of itself and by means of itself. Next, the Hebrews call those very letters letters of breath [flatus literae] in order to indicate that, in addition to the fact that God actually is Spirit, He alone supplies spirit and breath, giving life to all things. Likewise, those same letters are called letters of rest [literae quietis] to nod at the fact that true and lasting rest (that is, happiness) exists only in God Himself. This is the summary of what is in Fagius.

To be sure, as I noted previously, God’s eternality is clearly deduced from this name, and we must hold fast to this. For the name manifestly contains the past tense (that is, the verb היה), the present tense (היה), and the future (יהיה).

This suffices with regard to the mysteries contained in the name יהוה. If someone wants more, as I said, let him read Reuchlin’s The Mirific Word, book 2, chapters 19–21, where he philosophizes astonishing things about this name of four letters and about each one of the four letters on the basis of the Greeks and the rabbis. Nor should we condemn what Rabbi Moses Egyptus [that is, Moses Maimonides] discusses with regard to the name Jehovah in [The Guide to the Perplexed] (bk. 1, ch. 60 [that is, ch. 61 in modern editions]), for that work primarily explains in what way this is God’s essential name, signifying the divine essence.

The Use of the Name יהוה

Now, I come to the use of this name. For what we have just proposed about the name Jehovah actually pertains to its use, or rather to its many and various abuses. For the Jews misuse it in many superstitious ways and superstitious Christians misuse it in even more ways, which need not be surveyed, and doing so is not worth the effort. Nor do we lack those who wrote that the power of performing miracles belonged to this name. If only someone knew how to make use of it! And indeed, [they say that] Moses performed all of the miracles that he performed by the power of this name, and so did our Lord Jesus Christ.

But since all these things are not only superstitions but also blasphemous, we omit them and will speak instead of the true use of this most holy name, for the sake of our comfort and salvation and the glory of God’s name.

The apostle taught the true use of the law by means of the purpose for which it was given. And he did this, among other places, in 1 Timothy 1:8, where he said: We know that the law is good, if one makes use of it legitimately. But who uses the law legitimately? The one who uses it for the purpose unto which it was actually given. Unto what purpose and use was it given? Not so that men might be justified by means of it but rather so that, by means of it, our sins might be recognized and restrained. This is why the apostle adds: Knowing this: that the law is not laid down for the righteous one but for the lawless and disobedient[3] [v. 9].

Accordingly, whoever endeavors to use the law to be justified is abusing it, and in that case the law would be pernicious rather than good. But whoever uses the law to reveal and restrain sin and, so, also to preserve man in his duty, uses it legitimately, and in that case the law would be beneficial. Why so? Because it is used for the purpose for which it was received. From this we learn that the true and legitimate (and, so, the salutary) use of a thing is when we use it for the purpose and usage for which it was created and given to us.