Exodus 20:7 (HRV) - “You shall not take the name of YHWH
your Elohim in vain; for YHWH will not hold him guiltless that takes His name
in vain.”
Exodus 20:7 (KJV) – “Thou shalt not take the name of the
LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his
name in vain.”
Well, it’s pretty obvious what the difference is between
the King James Version and the Hebraic Roots Version. The KJV has replaced the name YHWH with LORD
in all caps. This does change the
meaning of the verse and helps to insinuate that “God” is His name instead of
His title. But, I covered this in my
July 16, 2013 blog “Deep Calling Deep 2: YHWH” and went into greater detail in
the following two “Deep” blogs, so I’m not going to rehash that here.
(And, since we’re talking about the name of God, I’d like
to mention that it has not been the convention to capitalize pronouns referring
to God from the inception of the English language. It’s a comparatively new rule and did not
exist in the days of King James. Some
people have asked why I do not capitalize “He” and “Him” all of the time when
referring to God. When I’m quoting a
bible verse, I don’t do it because they didn’t do it. If I don’t do it in my own text, it’s considered a
grammatical mistake currently, but I probably made the mistake because I’m
reading and analyzing scripture that does not follow that convention as I’m typing, so my mind is in that
place. I apologize for any confusion.)
(Additional side note:
The letter “J” was added to the English language in the 1400’s replacing
the letter “Y” in many words. This is
one of the reasons why English bibles use the name “Jesus” instead of “Yeshua”. Also, the feminine pronouns “her” and “she”
and the like did not always exist. Originally, both
sexes were referred to as “he” and “him” and so on. This is one of the reasons why the Holy
Spirit, which is always treated as feminine in the original Hebraic texts, is
erroneously treated as masculine in English texts. So, if nothing else, you got a little extra
history concerning the English language.)
Using the name of God as a swear word is
not what this verse is talking about. It
is no coincidence that the ten commandments come after the marriage covenant
began. The ten commandment are, essentially, our
wedding vows. And the first four commandments in particular, deal with our relationship with
God.
We need to understand this in the context of marriage in
order to properly understand what this commandment is telling us. This verse has to do with our union, or
rather our not entering into a false union, with Him. Imagine it this way. If my wife married me, or in other words took
my name, with no intention of fulfilling her marriage commitment to me, her
marriage vows would have been hollow and worthless. If she only wanted what she could get from me
but slept with other men and didn’t care at all about her responsibilities as
my wife in any way, the marriage would be a sham. If she didn’t love me and didn’t really want
to be with me, then she would have taken my name in vain. She would be known by my last name and not
her maiden name, but she would not really be mine.
When we claim to be His, when we take His name, call
ourselves “Christian” and make the claim that we are one with Him, and then
live for ourselves and do not fulfill our part in this relationship, we take
His name in vain. It’s an empty, hollow
thing. It’s selfishly based and means
nothing.
“The
greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge
Jesus with their lips then walk out the door and deny him by their
lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world
simply finds unbelievable.” -- Brennan Manning (The quote can be found at the beginning of
DC Talk’s song, “What If I Stumble?”)
Scott Snyder
