Lesson 6

Question 1

How does the exodus of God’s people from Egypt bring understanding of God’s proper name?

Answer 1

1. Pharaoh’s question (Exod 5:2), and his ensuing opposition to YHWH’s purpose through
   Moses, “sets the stage” for the public revelation of YHWH’s name “in all the earth” (Exod
   9:6).
2. In Exodus 7-14, YHWH performs various actions x before various audiences y in order that they may know attribute z (e.g., unrivalled power, incomparability, etc.) about YHWH.
3. The conclusion summed up in praise: Exod 15:11 (similarly Deut 4:35)
4. YHWH’s independence and infinity exhibited in unrivalled power: To be YHWH, according
   to Exodus 7-14, is to be the fullness of power, whose exercise in the sovereign rule of history is determined by himself alone (sovereign self-determination).

Question 2

How does God demonstrate his being and power through his proper name, YHWH?

Answer 2

In His proper name, God shows us His absolute being in and of Himself. As His name is self-referencial and self-interpreting, so His being is self existent. In His indepence and infinity, we see His unrivaled power. To be YHWH is to be all powerful.

Question 3

What are the other divine names/titles of God besides the Tetragrammaton? Briefly describe the meaning of each.

Answer 3

1. God (Gen 1:1)
   a. Elohim (plural of El); theos
2. God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth (Gen 14:22 )
3. God Almighty
   a. Options for translating El Shaddai: “one who is sufficient,” “almighty,” etc.
   b. Gen 17:1; 49:25-26; 50:20 (so 45:5, 7)
4. Lord - A relative name applied to God and human beings
   a. Adonai
   b. Kyrios as translation of Adonai and as surrogate for YHWH
5. The first and the last (Isa 41:4; 44:6; 48:12; Rev 22:13; similarly Rom 11:36)
   a. Points to God’s eternality

Question 4

How do the relative names of God signify a specific sort of relationship between God and creature?

Answer 4

In contrast with absolute names, wich do not name a specific reelationship (i.e YHWH, God, Almighty), relative names point to a relationship. Specifically our relationship to God, this does not signify a change in his nature, but instead a change in our nature. To call God “our refuge” does not mean that God became a refuge when we turned to him, but instead that was already true about Him.

Question 5

What does the threefold way of naming God provide to the one seeking to understand the personal names of the Trinity?

Answer 5

The threefold way of naming God provides the appropriate metaphysical framework for describing the categorically distinctive relationship that obtains between the Father and the Son.

• The way of eminence teaches us that the eternal generation of the Son from the Father is “the truer and more perfect” form of generation, transcending all creaturely forms of generation.
• The way of negation teaches that, unlike the generation of creaturly sons from creaturely fathers, the eternal generation of the Son from the Father is timeless, unchanging, and immaterial.
• Finally, the way of causality teaches us that the eternal generation of the Son from the Father is the paradigm and source of the temporal generation of creatures by creatures.