Bearing God's Name

by Carmen Joy Imes

  4.Many people think of religion as a private matter. How does the concept of bearing Yahweh’s name or bearing Jesus’ name challenge that notion?

  5.Which of the practical applications from Peter’s letter listed in this chapter do you find most challenging?

  6.Choose a law given at Sinai and discuss how you could express its wisdom in your current cultural context (e.g., Exodus 21:33; 22:29; or 23:4-5).

  CONCLUSION

  1.The author claims, “Faith is not just private and salvation is not just personal.” What evidence can you give for this from your experience?

  2.Can you think of a recent example of when Christianity got a bad name because of the way that a single Christian behaved?

  3.What area of your life needs to change because you bear the name of Yahweh?

  4.How can you take more seriously your identity as a member of a whole community of those who belong to Jesus? What would it look like to participate more fully?

  5.What truths from Part Two of the book have been most thought provoking for you?

  NOTES

  INTRODUCTION

  1.“Aftermath, Part 3: Not Difficult,” YouTube, 39:44, “Andy Stanley,” April 30, 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=pShxFTNRCWI.

  2.“Dr. Brown Interviews Pastor Andy Stanley,” YouTube, 50:19, “ASK DrBrown,” July 2, 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7Jcu03lJso.

  1 LEAVING EGYPT

  1.This momentous event has similarities with the salvation we have in Jesus. We are invited to dine with him at the Lord’s table, with his blood as a sign that we are part of the renewed covenant and enjoy God’s protection. When plagues of judgment fall on all those who have rejected his rule, we will be kept safe to enter God’s kingdom in the new creation.

  2.David J. A. Clines, ed., The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1993), 6:723.

  3.With gratitude to Karl Kutz for this insight, from class notes to his Pentateuch class at Multnomah University.

  4.For a helpful discussion of chiasm or ring structure with examples, see J. P. Fokkelman, Reading Biblical Narrative: An Introductory Guide (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1999), 97-122.

  5.Gordon J. Wenham, Genesis 1–15, WBC (Dallas: Word, 1987), 1:156-58.

  6.This instance of literary symmetry and those that follow are taken from Frank Moore Cross, Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic: Essays in the History of the Religion of Israel (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1973), 308-16; Robert L. Cohn, The Shape of Sacred Space: Four Biblical Studies, AAR Studies in Religion 23 (Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1981), 18; Mark S. Smith, The Pilgrimage Pattern in Exodus, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series 239 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1997), 289.

  7.Victor Turner, “Liminality and communitas,” 74-84 in Paul Bradshaw and John Melloh, eds., Foundations in Ritual Studies: A Reader for Students of Christian Worship (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007).

  8.Information about Maslow’s work can be found in many sources. See, for example, Calvin S. Hall, Gardner Lindzey, and John B. Campbell, Theories of Personality, 4th ed. (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1998), 444-54.

  9.Terence E. Fretheim, “The Plagues as Ecological Signs of Historical Disaster,” in What Kind of God? Collected Essays of Terence E. Fretheim, ed. Michael J. Chan and Brent A. Strawn, Siphrut 14 (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2015), 225-35.

  10.Terence E. Fretheim, Exodus, Interpretation (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2010), 175.

  11.Fretheim, Exodus, 175.

  2 SURPRISED AT SINAI

  1.“Legend of Isis and the Name of Re,” translated by Robert K. Ritner in William Hallo and K. Lawson Younger, eds., Context of Scripture (Leiden: Brill, 2003), I.22:33-34. “Re” is an alternative spelling of Egyptian sun god, Ra.

  2.Herbert Huffmon and Simon Parker, “A Further Note on the Treaty Background of Hebrew Yada’,” BASOR 184 (1966): 37n12; Moshe Weinfeld, Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic School (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972), 69n1, 226n2; Moshe Greenberg, “Hebrew Seǥullā : Akkadian Sikiltu,” JAOS.71 (1951): 172–74. For more bibliography and fuller discussion see Carmen Joy Imes, “Treasured Possession”: Peter’s Use of the Old Testament in 1 Peter 2:9-10 (MA thesis, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, 2011), 37-40.

  3.Bernard Grossfeld, trans., Targum Onqelos to Exodus, Aramaic Bible 7 (Wilmington, DE: Glazier, 1988), 52-53.

  4.Christopher J. H. Wright, The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2006), 256.

  5.As translated by Benjamin R. Foster, Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature, 3rd ed. (Bethesda, MD: CDL Press, 2005), III.56, 763. Used by permission.

  6.Foster, Before the Muses, 763-65. Emphasis mine.

  7.Raymond Westbrook, ed., A History of Ancient Near Eastern Law, 2 vols. (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 1:17, 20, 98; John H. Walton, Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament: Introducing the Conceptual World of the Hebrew Bible (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006), 287-302; Michael LeFebvre, Collections, Codes, and Torah: The Re-Characterization of Israel’s Written Law, LHB/OTS 451 (New York: T&T Clark, 2006), 36, 90-91, 259, 261.

  8.By the time we get to the New Testament, the Pharisees are quite fastidious about law enforcement, but they reflect a Hellenistic understanding of the function of law which is quite different than the approach of their Jewish ancestors. For a full defense of this claim, see LeFebvre, Collections, Codes, and Torah.

  3 MAJOR DEAL

  1.The Akkadian word is ade. Simo Parpola and Kazuko Watanabe, Neo-Assyrian Treaties and Loyalty Oaths, State Archives of Assyria 2 (Helsinki: Helsinki University Press, 1988), xv; Paul Kalluveettil, Declaration and Covenant: A Comprehensive Review of Covenant Formulae from the Old Testament and the Ancient Near East, Analecta Biblica 88 (Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1982), 31. For a more recent discussion, see Daniel I. Block, “For Whose Eyes? The Divine Origins and Function of the Two Tablets of the Israelite Covenant,” in Write That They May Read: Studies in Literacy and Textualization in the Ancient Near East and in the Hebrew Scriptures: Essays in Honour of Professor Alan R. Millard, edited by Daniel I. Block, C. John Collins, David C. Deuel, and Paul J. Lawrence (forthcoming).

  2.Jacob Lauinger, “Some Preliminary Thoughts on the Tablet Collection in Building XVI from Tell Tayinat,” Journal of the Canadian Society for Mesopotamian Studies 6 (2011), 10–11.

  3.“No. 56A Shattiwaza of Mitanni & Suppiluliuma I of Hatti,” in Kenneth A. Kitchen and Paul J. N. Lawrence, Treaty, Law and Covenant in the Ancient Near East (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2012), 1:391. Words in brackets are either assumed in the original text or are damaged or missing. Ancient tablets of clay or stone were susceptible to chips or wear over time.

  4.“Heidelberg Catechism: Lord’s Day 34,” Resources, Reformed Church of America, www.rca.org/resources/heidelbergcatechism.

  5.We’ll talk later about how (or if) they relate to us today.

  6.For a discussion of the difficulty of counting the commands of the Decalogue, see Mordechai Breuer, “Dividing the Decalogue into Verses and Commandments,” in The Ten Commandments in History and Tradition, ed. Ben-Zion Segal, trans. Gerson Levi (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1990), 291-330; Daniel I. Block, How I Love Your Torah, O LORD!: Studies in the Book of Deuteronomy (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2011), 56-60; DeRouchie, “Counting the Ten: An Investigation into the Numbering of the Decalogue,” in For Our Good Always: Studies on the Message and Influence of Deuteronomy in Honor of Daniel I. Block, ed. Jason S. DeRouchie, Jason Gile, and Kenneth J. Turner (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2013), 93-125; Carmen Joy Imes, Bearing YHWH’s Name at Sinai, 132-35.

  7.Edward L. Greenstein, “The Rhetoric of the Ten Commandments,” in The Decalogue in Jewish and Christian Tradition, ed. Henning Graf Reventlow and Yair Hoffman, Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies 509 (New York: T&T Clark, 2011), 9; Carmen Joy Imes, Bearing YHWH’s Name at Sinai: A Reexamination of the Name Command of the Decalogue, Bulletin for Biblical Research, Supplements
19 (University Park, PA: Eisenbrauns, 2018), 133.

  8.Jeremiah 7:23; 11:4; 13:11; 24:7; 30:22; 31:1, 33; 32:38; Ezekiel 11:20; 14:11; 36:28; 37:23, 27.

  9.Block, How I Love Your Torah, 32-33.

  10.He has written about his adventure in Charlie Trimm, “Honor Your Parents: A Command for Adults,” JETS 60 (2017): 247-63.

  11.Peter Enns, Exodus, NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000), 426.

  4 NOW WHAT?

  1.For example, at Sinai, the Israelites are commanded not to make altars of cut stone, but rather altars of earth or uncut stone “wherever” God authorizes them to honor him (Exodus 20:24). However, in Deuteronomy 27:5, earthen altars are not even mentioned, and in Deuteronomy 12 the centralization of worship in one place on one altar is explicitly commanded. See Michael Fishbane, Biblical Interpretation in Ancient Israel (Oxford: Clarendon, 1988), 252, 263. The centralization of worship motivated a new set of instructions regarding meat-eating that is unconnected with tabernacle worship. When the tribes of Israel were spread throughout the land God promised them, it was no longer feasible for meat consumption to be linked solely to religious activities. See Daniel I. Block, Deuteronomy, NIVAC (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2012), 316.

  2.See Block, “Reading the Decalogue Right to Left,” 26-36. Also Kenneth A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003), 243. Hittite treaties are the most similar to Israel’s covenant; later neo-Assyrian treaties lack a historical prologue and blessings.

  3.The commands are addressed by default to male heads of households (“Do not covet your neighbor’s wife”), but with implications for each member of the family.

  4.Ronald S. Hendel, “Sacrifice as a Cultural System: The Ritual Symbolism of Exodus 24,3-8,” Zeitschrift für die alttestementliche Wissenschaft 101 (1989): 385-88.

  5.Hendel, “Sacrifice as a Cultural System,” 379.

  6.Cornelis Houtman, Exodus, trans. Sierd Woudstra, Historical Commentary on the Old Testament (Leuven, Belgium: Peeters, 2000), 3:643.

  7.Credit for this illustration goes to Tim Mackie and Jon Collins; see “The Book of Leviticus,” YouTube, 7:21, “The Bible Project,” May 6, 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmvyrLXoQio&t=16s.

  8.The logic behind the clean and unclean food laws is difficult to discern, but Daniel Block makes a very plausible suggestion that the Israelites are invited to eat those things that Yahweh also accepts as sacrifices while they are prohibited from eating exotic or wild animals that have no part in tabernacle worship. Daniel I. Block, Deuteronomy, NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2012), 345-50.

  9.For an explanation of how ritual works, see Victor Turner, “Liminality and cummunitas,” 74-84 in Bradshaw and Melloh, Foundations in Ritual Studies.

  10.William H. C. Propp, Exodus 19–40, Anchor Bible 2A (New York: Doubleday, 2006), 528.

  11.Menahem Haran, Temples and Temple-Service in Ancient Israel: An Inquiry into Biblical Cult Phenomena and the Historical Setting of the Priestly School (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1985), 164-65. See also Imes, Bearing YHWH’s Name at Sinai, 157.

  5 READY TO ROLL

  1.A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1961), 1.

  2.Duncan P. Westwood, “Risk and Resilience in Our God Image,” paper presented at the Member Care Conference at Providence University and Seminary, May 28, 2016.

  3.Duncan P. Westwood, “God-Image as a Component of MHI/IHM’s Health Screening and Diagnostic Protocols,” Window on God Exercise presented at the Missionary Health Institute / International Health Management Staff Development meetings, June 21, 2013.

  4.Austin Surls argues that rather than trying to figure out the meaning of the name Yahweh at the burning bush, we should direct our attention to Exodus 34:6-7, where God’s character is expressed. Austin D. Surls, Making Sense of the Divine Name in the Book of Exodus: From Etymology to Literary Onomastics, Bulletin for Biblical Research, Supplements 17 (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2017).

  5.See Muhammad A. Dandamaev, Slavery in Babylonia: From Nabopolassar to Alexander the Great (626–331 B.C.), ed. M. A. Powell and D. B. Weisberg, trans. V. A. Powell (DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 1984), 229-34, 488-89; Nili S. Fox, “Marked for Servitude: Mesopotamia and the Bible,” in A Common Cultural Heritage: Studies on Mesopotamia and the Biblical World in Honor of Barry L. Eichler, ed. Grant Frame et al. (Bethesda, MD: CDL Press, 2011), 268; Sandra Jacobs, The Body as Property: Physical Disfigurement in Biblical Law, Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies 582 (London: Bloomsbury, 2014), 205-14.

  6.See John E. Hartley, Leviticus, Word Biblical Commentary 4 (Dallas: Word, 1992), 362. Jacob Milgrom sees vv. 31-33 as applying to the entire chapter, because of the inclusio in v. 2, or even to the entirety of God’s commands. Milgrom, Leviticus 17–22, AB 3A (New York: Doubleday, 2000), 1887.

  7.Steven B. Sample, The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2002), 145.

  INTERMISSION

  1.For more on this painting, see Flavio Febbraro and Burkhard Schwetje, How to Read World History in Art: From the Code of Hammurabit to September 11 (New York: Abrams, 2010).

  6 STRIKING OUT

  1.See Daniel I. Block, Deuteronomy, NIVAC (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2012), 624-29.

  2.For a full-scale study of the altar on Mount Ebal, see Ralph K. Hawkins, The Iron Age I Structure on Mt. Ebal, Bulletin for Biblical Research, Supplements 6 (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2012).

  3.Sandra L. Richter, The Deuteronomistic History and the Name Theology: Lešakkēn Šemô Šām in the Bible and the Ancient Near East. Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestementliche Wissenschaft 318 (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2002).

  4.A unique form of amar in the hiphil stem, occurring only here, functions as a declarative speech act. In the language of speech-act theory, the statement’s perlocutionary effect is the enacting of a new level of covenant commitment. For a full defense of this translation, see Stephen Guest, Deuteronomy 26:16-19 as the Central Focus of the Covenantal Framework of Deuteronomy (PhD diss., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2009).

  5.David M. Howard, Joshua, New American Commentary 5 (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1998), 103. Rahab also roughly mimics Exodus 15:14-16, when she speaks of “dread,” “rulers,” and “melting away.” In short, her confession embodies classic Deuteronomic theology, despite the lack of a comparable expression from the Israelites in Joshua. See Robert G. Boling, Joshua: A New Translation with Notes and Commentary, Anchor Bible 6 (New York: Doubleday, 1982), 146-47.

  6.John Goldingay, Israel’s Gospel, vol. 1 of Old Testament Theology (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2003), 464-65, 510-11. The parallels between these accounts are noted by Richard S. Hess, Joshua: An Introduction and Commentary, Tyndale Old Testament Commentary (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996), 177; Richard D. Nelson, Joshua, Old Testament Library (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1997), 131-32.

  7.See David G. Firth, 1 & 2 Samuel, AOTC (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2009), 115-16.

  8.A recently discovered Ugaritic text speaks of the goddess ʿAthtartu as the “name of Baʿalu” who also wielded his name as a mighty weapon. See Theodore J. Lewis, “ʿAthtartu’s Incantations and the Use of Divine Names as Weapons,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 70 (2011): 207-27.

  9.2 Samuel 7 has attracted much scholarly attention as to its source(s) and perspective on Davidic kingship and the temple. For a thorough discussion, see P. Kyle McCarter Jr., II Samuel, Anchor Bible 9 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984), 209-31. However the textual history is construed, the canonical text affirms that David’s “name” is a gift from Yahweh and that David understands his task as that of magnifying Yahweh’s name among the nations.

  10.1 Kings 3:2; 5:3, 5; 8:16-21, 29, 33, 35, 44, 48.

  11.Noted by Jeffrey Niehaus, God at Sinai: Covenant and Theophany in the Bible and Ancient Near East, Studies in Old Testament Biblical Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan,
1995), 243.

  7 WHAT YAHWEH SEES

  1.One of my students, Joel Schultz, deserves special recognition for the insights in this paragraph. He gave an excellent presentation to our class on 1 Kings 18.

  2.“The ‘Aqhatu Legend,” trans. Dennis Pardee (Context of Scripture 1.103:351).

  3.Peter Leithart, 1 & 2 Kings, Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible (Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2006), 141.

  4.The NIV reads “den of robbers,” which distances the hearers from the problem. The temple is not a den full of other robbers; it has become a den for the people themselves, who are robbing God and one another.

  5.See Daniel I. Block, Beyond the River Chebar: Studies in Kingship and Eschatology in Ezekiel (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2013), 154-55. Block points to Isaiah 40:1-5 as a clear example that the covenant renewal is related to the outpouring of the spirit.