Did Jesus observe the Rabbinic prohibition?

[Elijah John]

There is an ancient Rabbinic prohibition against pronouncing the name of God "YHVH". That prohibition is not Biblical, per se, but rather was established to "put a fence around the Torah".

The thinking went something like this. "If one never pronounces the name of God one will never misuse or profane the name of God".

King David (and other Bible characters) seems not to have ever "gotten the memo", as he seems to have pronounced the name of God "YHVH" (rendered as "LORD" all caps, in English) over and over again in the Psalms and encouraged others to do so as well, reverently.*


For debate, Did Jesus (unlike King David) observe the Rabbinic prohibition against pronouncing the name of God?

And unlike David, Jesus did not seem to emphasize the Name. He did allude to the Name in the LORD's prayer, and in John 17, but did he pronounce it?

Also, for debate, this similar question regarding Paul. Did Paul preach and pronounce the name of God YHVH? Or only the name of Jesus?

If not, was Paul's restraint to due to respect for the Rabbinic prohibition? OR did he simply consider the name of "Christ" more relevant?

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* I am not sure exactly when the prohibition went into effect, so it may not have even been an issue in David's time.

[brianbbs67]

I believe its impossible to know your questions for sure EJ. Like you said, Yeshau has not provide any writings of his own.

I will say this, I am discovering many/most of his saying come from scripture, Talmud and current(to Jesus) leaders like Hillel of the pharisees. The "golden rule" and Love the God and Love your neighbor as yourself encompassing all of the Law, come right from Hillel. Christ may have been a student or just used the good from them to get his message out. I am hunting down a complete Talmud set to find more. They are pricey, let me say.

[Elijah John]

I believe its impossible to know your questions for sure EJ. Like you said, Yeshau has not provide any writings of his own.

I will say this, I am discovering many/most of his saying come from scripture, Talmud and current(to Jesus) leaders like Hillel of the pharisees. The "golden rule" and Love the God and Love your neighbor as yourself encompassing all of the Law, come right from Hillel. Christ may have been a student or just used the good from them to get his message out. I am hunting down a complete Talmud set to find more. They are pricey, let me say.

Hi Brian. You are right about that. Seems the NT writers were the one's observing the prohibition for whatever reason, if not Jesus.

I would not be surprised if Jesus learned from Hillel, directly or indirectly. And also from the Tanakh, which was of course, Jesus' own Bible as well. There is a passage in Pslams, for instance, that speaks of the meek inheriting the earth.

It would be interesting to have a topic on our site where folks could provide other examples of just how much Jesus did draw from the Hebrew Bible. Specific verse references where Jesus quoted verbatim, or re-stated OT passages in his own words.

[brianbbs67]

I believe its impossible to know your questions for sure EJ. Like you said, Yeshau has not provide any writings of his own.

I will say this, I am discovering many/most of his saying come from scripture, Talmud and current(to Jesus) leaders like Hillel of the pharisees. The "golden rule" and Love the God and Love your neighbor as yourself encompassing all of the Law, come right from Hillel. Christ may have been a student or just used the good from them to get his message out. I am hunting down a complete Talmud set to find more. They are pricey, let me say.

Hi Brian. You are right about that. Seems the NT writers were the one's observing the prohibition for whatever reason, if not Jesus.

I would not be surprised if Jesus learned from Hillel, directly or indirectly. And also from the Tanakh, which was of course, Jesus' own Bible as well. There is a passage in Pslams, for instance, that speaks of the meek inheriting the earth.

It would be interesting to have a topic on our site where folks could provide other examples of just how much Jesus did draw from the Hebrew Bible. Specific verse references where Jesus quoted verbatim, or re-stated OT passages in his own words.

I don't know if we need a new topic, but maybe we do. Jesus embraced prophecy and verbatim from the Tanakh and now I am learning from highly held people of the time. So, what he said was not so strange to them. They had already heard it. That is why I contemplate that he was a Pharisee that went further. This would explain the choice of Saul later. As he was, as he explained, a Pharisee of Pharisees.