The very first appearance of the Sacred Name is found in Genesis:
These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that Yahweh Elohim made the earth and the heavens.
Genesis 2:4
And the very first appearance of anyone calling upon the Sacred Name is found in Genesis 12:8, where Abram calls upon the Name of Yahweh:
7. And Yahweh appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto Yahweh, who appeared unto him.
8. And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto Yahweh, and called upon the name of Yahweh.
Genesis 12:7-8
Later, in Exodus 3:15, the second book of the Torah, Elohim Himself declares His Name to Moses and instructs us that it is to be remembered by all generations; forever:
And Elohim said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, Yahweh Elohim of your Fathers, the Elohim of Abraham, the Elohim of Isaac, the Elohim of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.
Exodus 3:15
Note that Yahweh says this is my name forever -- it's the Hebrew word olam that is translated into English as forever, and olam means time out of mind or eternity ... one might very well translate that as saying this is my name from outside of time itself; from before the beginning of time as well as after the end of time. Certainly, no one can rightly say that there is anything temporary about His Hallowed Name.
We have clear evidence that Adam and Eve were familiar with the Name in Genesis 4:1 where Eve gives birth to Cain:
And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from Yahweh.
Genesis 4:1
Even though the above Scriptures prove otherwise, there are some who argue that the sacred Name was not revealed to anyone prior to Moses. This is all based on Exodus 6:3, where translators made the blatant error of placing a period at the end of the sentence rather than a question mark, as it was in the original Hebrew-Aramaic.
And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of El Shaddai, but by my name Yahweh was I not known to them?
Exodus 6:3
And there are still others who claim that they need not use the sacred Name (as if they need some reason not to) because, as they put it, since Elohim sent Moses to the Israelites in Egypt with this Name (see Exodus 3:13-16), the Name was only intended for the Israelites and not for anyone else. This just proves how some people can conjure up the most ridiculous excuses for creating their own false doctrines ... which are always built on one singular statement taken from Scriptures. Beware of such practices! Sound doctrine is always backed up by the whole of the Scriptures; Yahweh's mark of integrity and of the Holy Spirit is to reveal His truth in numerous places from Genesis through Revelation.
All this confusion and deception regarding His sacred Name originates from a seed that was planted around 200 B.C. by the Jewish religious leaders who, by their own authority, decided to create what is known as the Ineffable Name Doctrine. To insure that the Father's Name would not be profaned, they decided to enforce a law stating that any common man, including devout Jews, who spoke the sacred Name would be put to death ... and in the interest of instituting a universal deity in place of a tribal deity, they replaced His Name with Adonai which translates into Greek as Kyrios (Sovereign or Lord in English) or Theos (Deity in English).
The Encyclopaedia Judaica, states that Yahweh was regularly spoken and written by Jews, at least until 586 B.C.:
At least until the destruction of the First Temple in 586 B.C.E this name [Yahweh] was regularly pronounced with its proper vowels, as is clear from the Lachise Letters, written shortly before that date.
EJ, 7, p. 680
In 167 B.C. Antiochus Epiphanes led a massive attempt at Hellenization (see the book of 2 Maccabees 6:1-2), enforcing under the penalty of death that all Jews depart from the laws of Elohim and that the sanctuary in Jerusalem was to be polluted and named after Zeus, the god of the Greeks. This was the first Abomination of Desolation committed in the Temple -- see Daniel 11:31 -- and which will be commited again when the antichrist comes into power -- see Mark 13:14. This led to a major revolt and, subsequently, brought the emergence of the Pharisees, Sadducees and the Essenes, all supporting a firmer establishment of the Ineffable Name Doctrine and death penalty.
In Luke 11:52, Jesus warns the Pharisees about having taken away the key of knowledge ... it's just possible that He may have been referring to the sacred Name of Yahweh as the key of knowledge:
Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.
Luke 11:52
Is He referring to the Ineffable Name Doctrine, saying that they took away the Father's Name? Is the Father's Name the key of knowledge?
Some 200 years after Christ left this earth to be seated at the right hand of the Father, Constantine further reenforced the Ineffable Name Doctrine in continued support of giving Christianity a more universal appeal. Many Christian leaders also felt that Yahweh was strictly a Jewish Name and to use it would be Judaising.
Much later still, Latin versions of the Bible, such as the Vulgate, joined in the confusion by replacing Yahweh with Dominus which translates into English as Lord.
How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart; which think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbor, as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal.
Jeremiah 23:26-27
Note: Baal translates into English as Lord.
From the Catholic Encyclopedia: Baal, Baalim A word which belongs to the oldest stock of the Semite vocabulary and primarily means "lord."
From Wikipedia: Baal is a Semitic title and honorific meaning lord that is used for various gods, spirits and demons particularly of the Levant.
Strange as it may be, the Ineffable Name Doctrine seems to go mostly unnoticed and unrecognized by most Christian theologians today.
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