I don't know why I called this page Elijah. You see, way back in 2004, I decided I needed a website, so I registered ericaitken.com. Now most folks would have started a website right away. And I did get all the facts and figures, but... Well I'm a champion procrastinator. I feel I am world-class. So I waited ten years, prepared some material, and then decided I was rushing things, and waited another year.

That is when I chose the name Elijah. But I don't know why. I don't think it was supposed to be religious. I will try to avoid both religion and politics on this website, unless I decided to talk about something.

What's in a name?

Elijah is an interesting name. The first part Eli means God, in Hebrew. The last part Jah is a contraction of the name of God, in Hebrew. The name of God, which appears almost seven thousand times in the Bible, is transliterated into our alphabet as YHWH, or sometimes JHVH. The reason for the difference is that the letters J and Y are derived from I, and the letters W and U are derived from V. Long ago, people sometimes pronounced I with the sound of J or Y. Later they decided the sounds should have their own letter.

That's why, when the Authorized King James Bible was published in 1611, there was no letter J in it. Jacob, Joshua, Judah, Jonah, John, James, and other names we spell with a J, were Iacob, Ioshua, Iudah, Ionah, Iohn, and Iames. If you look to the left, I have inserted two little images. The top one shows how the divine name was spelled with an I, and because the I in black letter looks like a J to some people, I have inserted the bottom image where the psalmist repeatedly says I, so you can see that the letter in Psalm 83:18 is indeed spelled with an I.

Today, in languages other than English it is for this reason spelled in different ways, and also pronounced in different ways. Back in the 1800s Christian missionaries of a number of different denominations were very enthusiastic. Filled with Christian religious zeal, they went to many lands, some of which were hot, sticky, disease ridden, and filled with things that could eat you, bite you, sting you, and do many unpleasant things to you. They were clearly inspired and filled with faith. When it came to translating the Bible into the local languages, they translated the Divine Name. Persons of such faith were not going to censor God's Holy Name out of the Bible. And that is why we have so many different spellings and pronunciations of the name in so very many different languages.

In the late 1800s, some thirty of the very best religious scholars in the United States, representing all the major denominations got together and produced the American Standard Version of the Bible. It was published in 1901. In keeping with the practice of the Christian missionaries of the time, the translators unanimously restored God's name to the American Standard Version.

After that, the United States became the most powerful and richest nation on Earth. Younger folks cannot appreciate how rich the United States was. At the end of World War II, the major nations were largely bankrupt. But the United States, after pouring a vast amount of money into the war, came out richer than ever. The United States was so rich that it was able to bail out all those other nations, in fact, it poured money into most of the world's nations to an amazing degree. America was rich and powerful, and then...

And then, in 1952, the owners of the copyright of the American Standard Version came out with a new Bible, the Revised Standard Version in which they had totally removed the Divine Name. Soon after, the armistice was signed in Korea. The United States of America, that had conquered the Empire of Japan, and the Mighty Nazi Empire, was unable to stop a petty dictator of a small Southeast Asian nation. It was a stunning fall for America. But it continued as the U.S. was unable to win in Viet Nam. In fact, as far as I can recall, the United States has never really won a war since that fateful day in 1952 when they took God's name from the Bible. But was that the reason for the fall? I have no way of knowing, but I wonder.

I have included a link to the national anthem of New Zealand "God Defend New Zealand," which is the only national anthem I know of that invokes the Divine Name, in its first line E Ihowa Atua. That is the Divine Name in that line, not Lord, as some translations wrongly translate it. It is a beautiful song and this is a link to it. If the link doesn't work, let me know.

Email: contact@ericaitken.com

© Copyright 2015 Eric Aitken           All rights reserved.