Did Abraham know the name YHWH?

[tonychanyt]

Yes, Genesis 21:

33 And Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called upon the name of the LORD [H3068], the Eternal God.

Strong's Hebrew: 3068. יְהֹוָה (Yhvh) — 6220 Occurrences

Abraham knew the name YHWH. But then, centuries later, God said to Moses in Exodus 6:

3 "I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the LORD [H3068] I did not make myself known to them."

I do not interpret the verse absolutely but as a limited negative. The patriarchs knew the name YHWH but the LORD would reveal himself to the Israelites more completely by demonstrating what he was about to do:

6 Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. 7 I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. 8 I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the LORD.’

Moses wrote Genesis 21:33 and Exodus 6:3. He would not so blatantly contradict himself. The Israelites knew the name of the LORD or the power of the LORD more thoroughly than Abraham. They all knew the name YHWH. Genesis 4:

1 Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man.”