Who named God?

Answer 1

The people of the southern Hebrew kingdom of Judah seem to have known God originally as Yahweh (YHWH), as the source now known as the Yahwist represented the Judahite point of view in his contributions to the Pentateuch and used that name for God.

The people of the northern Hebrew kingdom of Israel seem to have known God originally as El or, more usually, Elohim, as the source now known as the Elohist represented the Israelite point of view in his contributions to the Pentateuch and used that name for God.

The name for God has evolved over the centuries. By the time of the Babylonian Exile, The Priestly Source preferred to use the name El Shaddai, "God Almighty" for God.

In the nineteenth century, German scholars were at the forefront of biblical analysis. They translated the Hebrew name "Yahweh" into German as Jehovah, a name which has since entered the English language as a popular name for God.

In addition

The name of God - known as the 'Tetragrammaton' is simply four letters in the original Hebrew YHWH (usually pronounced 'YahWeh' but as ancient Hebrew script had no vowles it could have equally been 'YahWah' or 'YuhWeh'). The name comes from the encounter Moses had with God who appeared to speak from a burning bush, and when Moses was given his directive to lead the Hebrew people out of Egypt. When concerned about whether the Hebrews would believe him, Moses asked God his name "Who shall I say has sent me?" he asked.

God replied "I AM who I AM". Tell the Israelites that I AM has sent you". The Hebrew word I AM is written YHWH. So God's name, given by God himself, is 'I AM'.

This name for God was seen as too holy to be uttered by the Jewish people, despite it being written in their scripture throughout the history books, the Laws and the books of the Prophets. The only time that YHWH was uttered aloud was on the Day of Atonement, and then only once by the Temple's High Priest. Otherwise, when scripture was read out loud in the Temple or synagogues, a substitute was read out in place of YHWH - the "unutterable holy name of God" as the Jews referred to it.

As stated above, in some parts of the Iraelite lands Elohim or El Shaddai were used as replacements for YHWH. In others Addonai. These words, simply translated, mean 'Lord' (ie Lord of all/God of all/God almighty) So in modern English translations of The Bible, YHWH (or its modern equivalent Jehovah) is never used out of respect for the "unutterable holy name of God". In its place is used the word 'Lord', but when replacing YHWH the word 'Lord' has a large upper case 'L' and small upper case 'ORD' to distinguish it from the normal meaning of the word 'lord' which is written conventionally.

Incidentally, the same root word of 'Lord' was also used of Jesus Christ, and also used by him, suggesting strongly that others believed Jesus to be divine - and, more to the point, Jesus, by using it of himself, also claimed to be divine as a result of using it.