'...Hallowed Be Thy Name...'
Religious Jews have always deeply respected and reverenced God’s holy name. So much so that they often use substitute words or phrases for it. For example Matthew, in his Gospel account used the phrase ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ instead of ‘Kingdom of God’ used by Gospel writers Mark and Luke. Others use the Hebrew word ‘hashem’ – meaning ‘the Name’ - as a replacement; again out of deep reverence and awe for the name of God. They believe it is so holy that they shouldn’t speak it out loud.
When they had to write God’s name, such as when scribes were making copies of the Bible, they showed the same great respect. Henri Daniel-Rops, in his book ‘Daily Life in the Time of Jesus’ states, “The holy name of God was to be left blank, so that it might be written in another and absolutely pure ink, by a scribe who had performed ritual ablutions (the religious rite of washing one’s body for purification) for the purpose." In the ‘Lord’s Prayer’ Jesus tells us that our Father’s name is holy. And the 3rd Commandment admonishes us to not take His name in vain (worthy of a separate blog entry).
In America today the use of the actual phrase and acronym ‘omg’ is read or heard everywhere. And many, of course, routinely use God and Jesus’ name in more profane ways. I think as Christians we would greatly benefit from adopting the religious Jew’s attitude towards reverencing ‘the Name’.
Baruch HaShem! (Blessed be ‘the Name!’).
Post a Comment
Comments for this post have been disabled.