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[Zanno]

What do you consider the meaning of the name "Jehovah?"

Does "Jehovah" only refer to God the Father? Or can it also be used to refer to God the Son?

[jimwalton]

"Jehovah" is an Anglicized version of YHWH (or JHVH). It's my understanding that someone took the vowels of Adonai (the name Jews for God to avoid saying YHWH, generally pronounced as Yahweh) and placed it in the Tetragrammaton (YHWH/JHVH) and ended up with "Jahovah." It has since changed to "Jehovah."

The name first appears in Gen. 2.4. It's a form of the verb "to be," and is often "translated" (though most of the time no one translates it) as "I AM." It means "to be actively present; He who is." He is the self-determining, self-existent God.

It is a consistent name for God through the Old Testament, though God has many names in the OT. (In the ancient Near East, the more names and titles a king had, the more status and authority he had.) The OT uses YHWH for God some 6500 times.

> Or can it also be used to refer to God the Son?

Jesus also claimed the name "I AM" for himself. There are seven "I AM" statements in the Gospel of John that Jesus uses for himself (6.35; 8.12; 10.11, 19; 11.25; 14.6; 15.5). There is also a particular place where Jesus says, "Before Abraham was, I AM" (Jn. 8.58).

The clearest statement Jesus ever made of His divinity is in John 10.30, where He claims that He and the Father are one (one in essence and nature). He had just mentioned the Father (referring to YHWH), and then He says that He and YHWH share the same nature. The people picked up stones to kill Him for blasphemy, and it's important to note that Jesus doesn't say, "Hey, you misunderstood what I was saying about myself."

[Zanno]

Very informative, thank you!