Carmen Joy Imes
It happened early in my doctoral program at Wheaton College. My husband and I had worked out a detailed schedule to ensure that both of us could fulfill our full-time occupational duties while caring for our children and running our household. It was my turn in the kitchen, making last minute preparations for dinner and supervising the kids as they did their chores. Normally this included a fair bit of intervention on my part, but on this particular day, I was lost in my own train of thought when I overheard my daughters whispering: “Has she noticed yet?” “No, I don’t think so.” That’s when I realized that I hadn’t heard any bickering. The house was unusually peaceful.
I wheeled around, wondering what I’d missed. There they stood, each with a big grin and a piece of masking tape on their forehead. On it they had written the divine name, “YHWH.” My eyes widened. Before I could ask for an explanation, the oldest volunteered, “We figured since we bear the name of YHWH, we should do our chores cheerfully.”
I was floored. They were not even out of elementary school, but they already had a solid grasp of the implications of my doctoral project for the Christian life.
The Ten Commandments are among the most famous of Bible passages, but misunderstandings abound regarding their purpose and meaning. One command in particular has garnered a wide variety of interpretations: the command not to “take the LORD’s name in vain” (Exodus 20:7). This was the focus of my doctoral studies. I soon realized that interpreting it rightly has the potential to revolutionize our understanding of what it means to be a Christian. It was simple enough for children, but had been missed by most Bible readers for centuries.
How has Exodus 20:7 been interpreted?
By my count, at least 23 distinct interpretations of Exodus 20:7 have been proposed over the centuries, ranging from a prohibition of false oaths to a prohibition of using the LORD’s name in magic to worship without sacrifice. The majority of these interpretations assumes that the command has something to do with speaking the name of God. However, it contains no explicitly speech-related terms. The simplicity of the Hebrew is striking: “You shall not bear [or carry] the name of YHWH your God in vain, for YHWH will not hold guiltless one who bears [or carries] his name in vain.”
No doubt interpreters have wrestled with how to make sense of this command (hereafter called the Name Command, since there are multiple ways to count them)1 because we don’t generally talk about “carrying” names. Some interpreters have turned to texts from other ancient cultures or other parts of the Hebrew Scriptures to find verbal parallels, hoping to illuminate its meaning. However, I contend the book of Exodus itself contains the interpretive key to this command.
What interpretive clues does the book of Exodus offer?
In Exodus 28, the garments of Israel’s high priest are prescribed. His most elaborate and costly garment is his breastpiece, woven of purple, blue, and red, and interlaced with threads of solid gold. On the front, twelve precious stones are embedded in gold settings. Each stone is engraved with the name of one of Israel’s tribes. Moses is told, “So Aaron will bear the names of the sons of Israel on the breastpiece of decision over his heart when he enters the holy place as a remembrance before the face of YHWH continually” (Exod 28:29). Here the verb and object used are the same as in the Name Command: nāśā + šēm (“bear the names”). The meaning in this context is quite literal—Aaron will carry names on his person. He represents them before YHWH. Each tribe contributes a precious stone to Aaron’s regalia, indicating their share in his ministry (Exod 35:27).
How might this help us with the Name Command? It doesn’t, unless the Israelites carry YHWH’s name in some way. But as a matter of fact, they do. To find out how, we’ll take another look at Israel’s high priest. In addition to the names on his breastpiece (and shoulders), Aaron bears another name on his forehead: the name of YHWH. A gold medallion attached to his turban reads “qōdeš layhwh,” or “Holy, Belonging to YHWH” (Exodus 28:36). The letter “L” in front of YHWH is the typical method of indicating ownership in ancient times. If I were an ancient Israelite and wanted to indicate that a jar belonged to me, I could write “l’Carmen” on it. Ancient signet rings, when they were inscribed with writing, usually indicated the name of the ring’s owner using the same format: L + personal name. The high priest’s medallion made obvious that he had been claimed by YHWH; he served YHWH and no other. He was set apart. And his priestly ministry is inextricably linked with the nation’s covenant status. Here’s how:
Aaron was the first man chosen to fill the role of high priest, and he could not do his job without wearing his uniform. During his ordination ceremony, described in Leviticus 8–9, Moses washed and dressed him, sprinkling him with the blood of animal sacrifice to consecrate him for the task of representing YHWH to the people and the people to YHWH. He was the appointed mediator between the two parties of the covenant. Aaron’s uniform qualified him for the role of high priest, maintaining proper worship in Israel’s tabernacle. In the very heart of Israel’s sacred tent was the ark of the covenant, which contained duplicate copies of the Ten Commandments inscribed in stone. The placement of those tablets reinforced the covenantal foundation of Israel’s worship. Aaron was the only person authorized to approach the ark of the covenant.
On his first day in office, Aaron offered sacrifices on behalf of the nation to atone for their sin. After he came out of the sanctuary, his sacrificial task complete, his first act as high priest was to lift his hands and pronounce a blessing over the people (Leviticus 9:22). The prescribed blessing the priests were to use is recorded in Numbers 6:24-26:
“May YHWH bless you and protect you,
May YHWH cause his face to shine on you and favor you,
May YHWH lift his face to you and set on you peace.”
This passage is often used in Protestant worship services today as a benediction, but the following verse is rarely included: “So they shall set my name on them and I will bless them” (Numbers 6:27).
Three times the divine name is repeated, each time with a double blessing. The message is unmistakable: YHWH has chosen to affix his name to Israel as a sign of his intention to bless them. Read together with the Name Command and the high priestly instructions, a striking picture emerges: Israel as a nation bears the name of YHWH, which indicates that they belong to him.
What does it mean to bear YHWH’s name?
In Exodus 19, YHWH had announced to the people that they were his “treasured possession” (səgullâ), a “kingdom of priests” and a “holy nation” (Exodus 19:5-6). Səgullâ is a technical term used in ancient Near Eastern treaty contexts to refer to a vassal, or treaty partner, who is especially esteemed and therefore serves as a representative of the great king, or suzerain. Most nations had a class of priests who served as temple functionaries. Israel did, too, but corporately, the Israelites also functioned as a priest, set apart to represent YHWH to the nations. Aaron’s special duties as high priest made him a visual model of the vocation of the entire nation—set apart for YHWH’s service. In Deuteronomy, the nation was said to be “a people holy, belonging to YHWH,” using the same phrase inscribed on the high priest’s forehead medallion (Deuteronomy 7:6).
The Ten Commandments functioned as covenant stipulations, outlining the expectations for Israel as YHWH’s vassal, or esteemed treaty partner. Their loyalty must be absolute: no other gods may be worshipped, and they must not bear YHWH’s name in vain. Because they represent YHWH, their behavior testifies to surrounding nations what YHWH is like. If they fail to act consistently with his character as expressed in his commands, they will have borne his name in vain.
This command stands alongside the command against worship of other gods at the head of the Ten Commandments, encompassing both key dimensions of the covenant relationship: “I will be your God, and you will be my people” (see Exodus 6:6-8).
What’s at stake in interpreting this command?
Most of the traditional interpretations of this command connect it to speech. And while our words about God and our use of his name are important, the scope of the Name Command is much broader. Read in its covenant context, this command points to our very identity and vocation as God’s covenant partners. As the people who bear his name, our behavior matters. The apostle Peter applies the covenant titles given in Exodus 19:5-6 to Gentile believers in 1 Peter 2:9, saying, “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (NIV). Christian faith is not private or passive. My beliefs or behavior are not just between me and Jesus. Neither are yours. Like it or not, we are partly responsible for God’s reputation in the world. The way we live ought to reflect his character. When it doesn’t, we are guilty of breaking this command and throwing his name into disrepute. We have an immensely important job to do.
As my children discovered years ago, we bear the name of YHWH, and that changes everything. Let’s bear his name with honor!
Carmen Joy Imes (PhD, Wheaton College; MA, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary) is Associate Professor of Old Testament at Prairie College in Three Hills, Alberta. Her published dissertation, Bearing YHWH’s Name at Sinai: A Reexamination of the Name Command of the Decalogue (Eisenbrauns, 2018), is the winner of the 2019 R. B. Y. Scott Award from the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies. She is also the author of a book making her research accessible for laypeople entitled Bearing God’s Name: Why Sinai Still Matters (IVP, 2019) as well as an Illustrated Exodus in Hebrew (GlossaHouse, 2017). She blogs regularly for The Well, InterVarsity’s blog for Women in the Academy and Professions, as well as at www.carmenjoyimes.blogspot.com. Her passion is to help Christians rediscover the relevance of the Old Testament.
Image: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Cover for “Au pied du Sinai”
- I count Exodus 20:2-6 as a single prohibition, for reasons more fully explored in my published dissertation, Bearing YHWH’s Name at Sinai: A Reexamination of the Name Command of the Decalogue (University Park, PA: Eisenbrauns, 2018), 130-35. Structurally, those verses form a chiasm that unites them as one. Practically, the worship of other gods is impossible without a carved image, and the making of a carved image is always for the purpose of worship. This makes Exodus 20:7 the second command.[↩]