⁶ “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.”

The Name of God is the most significant word in all of Scripture. What is it that Jesus manifested on earth? Contrary to popular belief, God’s name is not “God,” although we usually refer to Him as “God.” That is really a generic term for deity (translated from “elohim” in the OT and “theos” in the NT) and is used for both God and gods in general. Only in English do we use the capital form to refer to God as we worship Him, (the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob), for capitalization was not used in either the original Hebrew or Greek to distinguish when the words were used of the true God or false gods.

Of course the earthly name given to the Son of God is Jesus. The term “Christ” properly speaking is not a name, but a title, which is a transliteration of a Greek word corresponding to the OT title of Messiah. Christian tradition has come to call Him Jesus Christ or in some cases reversing the order, Christ Jesus. But, that is not the name Jesus refers to in our verse today.

To the first century audience the reference would be clearer than to us today. The Jews held God’s actual name in such high regard, they would not even speak it out of extreme reverence, border-lining on superstition. That name is usually pronounced in English as either Jehovah or Yahweh. The spelling or pronunciation has been lost (the explanation of why this happened is beyond the scope of this essay), but was first elucidated in Exodus 3:14, where Moses encountered the Lord in the burning bush incident:

God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” God, furthermore, said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘The LORD, 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 forever, and this is My memorial-name to all generations. (Ex 3:15)

In the Hebrew, in which this was written, the play on words is unmistakable, with the phrase “I am” corresponding to the “LORD.” In most English Bibles, the translators use “LORD” (in all caps or small caps) to indicate the name of God, which we usually pronounce Yahweh or Jehovah. That is His personal name at the most fundamental level. It is His name forever, His “memorial-name.” This is the name Jesus manifested on the earth.

Lord, I want to know You better by understanding Your name.