Page 68 - Yahwehs Book

recounted. The first encounter between Abraham (Abram) and Yahweh is recorded in the 12 th
chapter of Genesis.

Genesis 12:1
Now the Lord (Yahweh) had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred,
and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
KJV

Genesis 12:4
So Abram departed, as the Lord (Yahweh) had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram
was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.
KJV

Genesis 12:7-8
And the Lord (Yahweh) appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and
there builded he an altar unto the Lord (Yahweh), who appeared unto him. And he removed from
thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and
Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the Lord (Yahweh), and called upon the name of
the Lord (Yahweh).
KJV

In these four verses we find that the tetragrammaton occurs six times. In each instance the KJV Bible
renders the divine name as “Lord,” but this is a substitution, rather than a translation. The Hebrew
text actually includes the four letters of the tetragrammaton in each instance and Yahweh would be
a more accurate translation of the memorial name of God.

What are we to make of the claim in Exodus 6:3 that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did not know God
Almighty by this name? We might reason that perhaps they did not know the name of Yahweh, but
that Moses in writing the book of Genesis used this name because God had revealed it to him. This
is a possibility, but it becomes untenable in light of a number of verses, such as Genesis 12:8 where
we are told that Abraham “builded an altar unto Yahweh, and called upon the name of Yahweh.”

Still, some may argue that this is inconclusive. Maybe Moses was just using a figure of speech here,
but Abraham did not actually know the name Yahweh. The matter could be settled if we could find
any occurrence in Genesis where Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob used the name Yahweh when speaking
to other men, or while in prayer to God. Examples of this are to be found.

Genesis 14:22-23
And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the Lord (Yahweh), the most
high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet,
and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich:
KJV

Here is a very clear testimony that Abraham knew God by the name Yahweh. We find that Abraham
not only uses the name Yahweh here, but he describes Yahweh as “the most high God” (El Elyon).