Names of God - Abrahamic Religions

Abrahamic Religions

According to the Bible, the name of God was used during the lifetime of Adam and Eve, but by the time Moses was born, the scriptures imply that none of mankind still knew the name. In the Book of Exodus, God commands Moses to tell the people that 'I AM' sent him, and this is revered as one of the most important names of God according to Mosaic tradition.

Then Moses said to God, "If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?" God said to Moses, "I AM who I AM." And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel, YHWH (possibly "the One who is, was and will be"(and a 3rd person form of "I Am"i.e. "the One Who (Eternally) Is")) has sent me to you.'" God also said to Moses, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'I Am, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you': this is my name for ever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.

—Exodus 3:13-15

According to Islam, the earliest mention of the name of God is found in the Koran sura 2, The Cow: "When your Lord said to the angels: 'I am placing on the earth one that shall rule as My deputy,' they replied: 'Will You put there one that will do evil and shed blood, when we have for so long sung Your praises and sanctified Your Name?"

In Exodus 6:3, when Moses first spoke with God, God said, 'I used to appear to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as El Shaddai, but I did not make myself known to them by My Name YHWH.' When Moses heard the name of God he realized that since he had a speech impediment as a result of what he called "uncircumcised lips" (Ex 6:12), he was unable to pronounce it accurately.

The Torah further describes the role of Aaron who acted as Moses' mouthpiece and conveyed the name of God distinctly to the Israelites (transcribed as 'YHWH' in Biblical Hebrew), and conveyed the name of God distinctly as 'YHWH' to the Israelites. The pronunciation of YHWH is described in Psalms 8.2 by the prophet who wrote, 'Thou hast made babes, infants at the breast sound aloud Thy praise.' Several thousands of years later commentaries additionally suggested that the true pronunciation of this name is composed entirely of vowels, such as the Greek Ιαουε, as they allow the creation of language, thus conveying the absolute infinite potential of God's character. However, this is put into question by the fact that vowels were only distinguished in the time-period by their very absence due to the lack of explicit vowels in the Hebrew script. The resulting substitute made from semivowels and glottals, known as the tetragrammaton, is considered the proper name of God in Judaism, and is not ordinarily permitted to pronounce it aloud, even in prayer. The prohibition on misuse (not use) of this name is the primary subject of the command not to take the name of the Lord in vain. See also Taboos below.