Chapter 8 - Lord For Yahweh your God is God of the gods and Lord of the lords, the great and mighty Deuteronomy 10:17 In the previous chapter we looked at the word “LORD,” in all upper case letters as found in most English translations. In this chapter we will look at the same word when used in lower case letters. In most cases, the Hebrew word “!da” (adon) lies behind the English word “lord.” It is used throughout the Bible and is used commonly in prayer, but the actual meaning of the word is through the translation having robbed it of its cultural meaning.
Again we will begin our search for the Biblical meaning of “!da” (adon) by looking at its parent root “!d” (dan). In the ancient pictographic script, this word would have appeared as “nd.” Both of these letters have been discussed previously, the letter “d” (d), is a door meaning “to enter” and the letter “n” (n), is a seed meaning “perpetual life.” When these letters are combined we find the Hebraic definition, “the door of life” or “to enter a perpetual life.”
One child root derived from this parent is “!yd” (diyn), meaning to “judge.” This word is used as a legal term, but not in the modern Western sense of seeking guilt or condemnation, rather it is seeking innocence or life from an Eastern Hebraic sense. We can see this search for innocence in Genesis 15:4 where God punishes the guilty in order to bring life to the descendents of Abraham who were unjustly treated as slaves.
“But I will punish the nation they [the descendents of Abraham] serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.”
(NIV) In the next two passages, the word “!yd” (diyn) is paralleled with “save,” meaning to deliver from a trouble or burden and “compassion.” Just as a deliverer saves ones life from an enemy, a judge also brings life (diyn).
“God, in your name save me, and in your might judge me.”
Psalms 54:1 “For Yahweh will judge his people, and on his servants he will have compassion.”
Psalms 135:14
We have seen that the parent root “!d” (dan) means “to enter life” and the child root “!yd” (diyn) is “to bring life to another.” We now come to the child root “!da” (adon - lord) which means “one who brings life” or “one who opens the door to perpetual life,” the judge or deliverer. In the ancient Hebraic culture each family was a kingdom unto itself, the head of the family, the patriarch, was the king. Within the hands of this king was the power to take or grant life and for this reason he is seen as the “!da” (adon). After Jacob flees from his family, Esau becomes the head of the family, he is the “!da.” When Jacob returns he is afraid for his life and approaches Esau as a servant in the hopes that Esau will spare his life.
“And you are to say, it is an offering from your servant Jacob sent to my lord (!da) Esau and he is coming after us.”
Genesis 32:18 Moses is also called “!da,” the deliverer and judge of Israel.
“And Joshua son of Nun, attendant of Moses from his youth, answered saying, my lord (!da) Moses stop them.”
Numbers 11:28 As Genesis 1:1 states:
“In the beginning God created.”
All life is granted by God which makes him “!da” over all creation.
“And the angel answered saying, these are the four spirits of heaven going out from the standing over the lord (!da) of all the earth.”
Zechariah 6:5 The Lord gives names In the ancient world it was custom for the lord to name those who are under him. Such is the case in Daniel chapter one where the chief official of King Nebuchadnezzar (identified as lord in 1:10) changes the names of four Hebrew slaves.
“Among these were some from Judah:
Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. The chief official gave them new names: to Daniel, the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abednego.”
Daniel 1:6-7 (NIV)
Several other times names are changed such as, Abram and Sarai to Abraham and Sarah (Genesis 17:5; Genesis 17:15) and Jacob to Israel (Genesis 32:28). The most common reason given for the change in a name is a change in character of the individual, since, as we have seen, ones character is reflected in his name. In the case of Abraham, this is not true for reasons that I will detail here. Abraham‘s original name is’ “~rba” (Abram) formed by combining the two words, “ba” (abh) and “~r” (ram). God then changed this name to “~hrba” (Abraham), also formed by combining two words, “ba” (abh) and “~hr” (raham). The word “ba” (abh) means “father” and is the first part of both names. The difference between the two names is the second syllable, from “~r” (ram) to “~hr” (raham). The word “~r” (ram) means “high,” “lifted up” or “exalted.” The word “~hr” (raham) is not found in the Bible except in this name only.
While no one is certain of the meaning of the second part to the name “~hrba” (Abraham), scholars have proposed the meaning of “father of a great multitude” supposedly from combining the two words “br” (rabh), meaning “many” or “great,” and “~h” (ham), meaning “multitude.” To shorten “~h br” (rabh ham) into the word “~hr” (raham) is very unlikely as dropping a consonant such as the “b” (b) completely removes the original meaning of the word and is not a practice in Hebrew word construction. A more plausible explanation is that the word “~hr” (raham) is the original word, being a child root from the word “~r” (ram), meaning “high” or “lifted,” as found in the original name of “~rba” (Abram). Several other child roots are derived from “~r” including; “~ra” (aram), “~ar” (ra’am), “~rh” (haram), “~wr” (rum) and “~ry” (yaram), all of which also mean “high” or “lifted up.” From this we can conclude that the child root “~hr” (raham) would have the same meaning of “high” or “lifted up.”
If “~rba” (Abram) and “~hrba” (Abraham) both mean “father lifted up,” the reason for the change in the name is not due to a change in the character of Abraham. What then would be the reason for the change in name? In Genesis chapter one, God, the lord over all creation gives the names to the creation including: the day and night (Genesis 1:5), the sky (Genesis 1:8) and the land and seas (Genesis 1:10). In Genesis 2:1-25, Adam (A Hebrew word meaning man) gives names to all of the animals, birds and beasts (Genesis 2:21-22) and we are told that Adam will rule over these animals, birds and beasts (Genesis 1:26; Genesis 1:28). Adam also names his wife (Genesis 2:23) and we are told that he is to rule over her as well (Genesis 3:16). From this we discover that in the Hebraic mind, the one who gives the name is the lord over the one has been given the name. This same scenario is repeated throughout the scriptures. The founder, or lord, of a city gives the name of the city, the father, lord of the family, gives names to his children, even the gods created by men are named by the men in the hopes of having lordship over the gods. We also see this in our original discussion of the change of the Hebrew slaves named by the chief official of King Nebuchadnezzar who now has lordship over them.
Abram was given his name by Terah, his father and lord. It is not until after the death of Terah that God changes Abram‘s name to Abraham, not because of a change of character in Abram, but because of a change in lordship. God is now claiming lordship over Abraham. Abraham does not name his son, but God himself (Genesis 17:19) does, showing that God was the lord of Isaac from birth. Interestingly, out of the three patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Isaac is the only one named by God from birth and whose lifespan is the longest. Jacob was named by his father Isaac, but changed by God (Genesis 32:28 and Genesis 35:10), to Israel after the death of his father. Both John the Baptist (Luke 1:13) and Jesus (Matthew 1:21 and Luke 1:31) were named by God through an angel (see the next chapter for more on “the angel of the Lord”) rather than by their parents.
