Latest revision as of 08:27, 21 June 2020

What is the difference betweewn Elohim in Ge 1:1 and Yahweh Elohim in Ge 2:4?

The question concerns the order of revelation of the names of God. First we will examine the names of God used before Elohim. Then the names 'Elohim' and 'Yahweh'.

Names used of God before 'Elohim'

The invisible aleph [1]

The invisible aleph preceding bereshith in Ge 1:1 contains the personal name of God; the name he gave himself. It is hidden in the strokes of the letter; yod-vav-yod יוי. It is his unpronoucible name meaning that noone can take dominion over him. When it is spelled out as yod-vav-yod it can be pronounced as "ee-oo-ee", but as the silent letter aleph, it remains silent.

His name א sounds very much like Yahweh. When we have two things, one is spirtual and one is of the flesh. His spiritual name remains unpronouncible. 'Yahweh' was given to men to use to refer to him personally.

See the names Joiarib vs. Arib, Joiada vs. Ada and Joiakim vs. Akim. The yod-vav-yod is transalted 'Jehovah' and the aleph is translated 'I', reflective of the 'I am' of Yahweh.

Father ab אב

The first two letters of bereshith, when using the invisible aleph, spell 'Father'. We discern from this that "from the beginning, no man has seen the Father". The word ab cannot be seen because of the invisible aleph. It is an intentional allegory to teach the doctrine. The nature of a Father is that he gives life. We discern this from the other words which are spelled the same as 'Father'. A green shoot is called ab as evidence of the first life that the Father gave. It is like pointing to the unique footprint of the Father in the sand and saying "Father" to acknowledge that he passed this way. The fruit on a tree is also the word ab referring to evidence of the Father giving the second life.

His name means: 'After he created the heavens and the earth, he revealed himself to men.' But since ab is invisible, he revealed himself through the Son, the first two visible letters in bereshit.

Son bar בר

The first two visible letters of bereshith spell 'son'. The first and only thing we see of God.

'Son' means "The revelation to man is the Word (revelation)";paraphrasing: the only one who can make the Father known, is the Son. This is recapitualted by the title "Son of God".

The word bar also means pure, indicating that his divine nature was never tainted by sin. The word ben for 'son' also means 'builder' and is recapitualted as the 'Son of Man' title. When Jesus was 'made to be sin', he bore our sin in the flesh.

Elohim אלהים

The fundamental meaning of elohim is 'God separated from man by ignorance'. It is easy to see how, as secondary metaphor, it is used of men who are rulers, since they do not acknowledge God as ruler, or as false gods, as the objects of man's ignorance of God.

Elohim has the puns for 'light', life' and 'bread'. John uses the puns of Elohim as the source for his doctrine of Christ in John 1:1-4.

Lord Yahweh יהןה

Ex 6:3 And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by [the name of] God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH [Yahweh] was I not known to them.

The skeptic uses this verse erroneously to demonstrate a contradiction. In his rebellious mind, if he can show one error, then he has proven the whole Bible to be in error. But he fails in this instance.

The word Yahweh is translated 'Lord' with the implication that he is to be respected, though why he should be respected is not reflected in the translation. It is used in every chapter of Genesis beginning with chapter 2 before the introduction of Abraham. The apparent contradiction apparently grows stronger when we assert that God wrote Genesis 1 on a tablet and handed it to Adam. And then the subsequent tablets were written by eye-witnesses who passed the tablets from father to son. We eliminate the common apologetic excuse that Moses inserted 'Yahweh' in the record from oral tradition, and God is correcting the mistake concerning the knowledge of his name.

However, 'name' also means 'reputation'. When you are called by a name, you are given a reputation. Our new name, is that of Christ. We have his reputation before God. By formation, Yahweh means 'Creator of calamity. When God explained the calamity he would bring upon Egypt, he explains that by the reputation of the creator of calamity, he has not been previously known.

Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil [calamity]: I the LORD do all these [things].

We are troubled by the the thought that God creates calamity, but we shouldn't be. He created a universe where you reap what you sow, and then said he would give you what you want, and allow you to wallow in the consequences. He created a system where sin creates pain, suffering and death, and then allows you to choose it. If putting your hand in a flame did not hurt, you would destroy yourself by continuing to do it. Likewise, suffering in the flesh drives us to our knees in humility declaring that God alone is God. Suffering is the schoolaster to the flesh.

From this verse we know that when God uses Yahweh in Gen 2:4 he is not using the meaning of 'creator י of calamity הוה', but of some other formtion, because he was not known by the reputation yet.

Another formation is 'The one who created י by the word which men did not understand ה clarifies ו the misunderstanding ה. It is another way to say that he teaches. He was known by Adam to be a teacher. The teacher is given respect, not only because of superior knowledge, but also because he loves the student enough to share his heart concerning the subject matter.

What is the difference between Gen 1:1 and Gen 2:4?

The answer is now obvious. In Gen 1:1 there was no one to teach, so there was no one to call him Lord. Adam mand Eve were created on Day 6 so the could know him as 'teacher'.

Genesis 1 is also a teaching of Christ where every day is a vignette , or picture of Christ fulfilling the will of the Father.