We know the Jews or more accurately the Israelite consider the tetragrammaton YHWH to be the actual name of God. So much so they do not use it in conversation replacing it with words such as Adonai and HaShem. This practise inevitability cause the actual pronunciation of the word to be lost. Today the words Yahweh & Jehovah derived from YHWH are just approximation of the actual pronunciation.
While it's a interesting topic in and of itself, my main question lies in who is Yahweh? Firstly I'm no theologian so if I misunderstood anything please correct me.
So who is Yahweh? Is he the self-existence God that proceeded all and the later usage of His name by the Canaanite for their weather deity is co-opted from the Israelite. Or is it the other way around where the Israelite co-opted the name Yahweh from the Canaanite to reference God as they know not what to call God?
If Yahweh is the God of the Israelite why doesn't Moses know Yahweh's name? Even if Moses is not raised amongst the Israelite the name of their God should be well known enough. And why when asked God only say tell Moses "I'm who I'm" (Ayer Asher Ayer) and not just say "Yahweh"?
If Yahweh like El is but of a title/label from the regional language and not a name then YHWH is nothing but a normal word. It holds not significant like the modern word of Lord. By extension the Jews and some Christians veneration of YHWH(Yahweh/Jehovah) as the name of God to be wrong and meaningless as well.
Can someone with better understanding in this matter help me?
While it's a interesting topic in and of itself, my main question lies in who is Yahweh? Firstly I'm no theologian so if I misunderstood anything please correct me.
So who is Yahweh? Is he the self-existence God that proceeded all and the later usage of His name by the Canaanite for their weather deity is co-opted from the Israelite. Or is it the other way around where the Israelite co-opted the name Yahweh from the Canaanite to reference God as they know not what to call God?
If Yahweh is the God of the Israelite why doesn't Moses know Yahweh's name? Even if Moses is not raised amongst the Israelite the name of their God should be well known enough. And why when asked God only say tell Moses "I'm who I'm" (Ayer Asher Ayer) and not just say "Yahweh"?
If Yahweh like El is but of a title/label from the regional language and not a name then YHWH is nothing but a normal word. It holds not significant like the modern word of Lord. By extension the Jews and some Christians veneration of YHWH(Yahweh/Jehovah) as the name of God to be wrong and meaningless as well.
Can someone with better understanding in this matter help me?