On the Facebook page for my parish (which I help manage), we received this recent post:
Please read and answer the verse in the Holy Bible Exodus 23;20-21, John 5;43, Proverbs 30;4 and Micah 6;9, Isaiah 24;15, Malachi 1;11 KJV.
I will admit that I’m not entirely sure what the poster is after, but I will do my best.
Here is the first passage, from the KJV:
20 Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.
21 Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him.
Of course, the Orthodox Church doesn’t follow the Masoretic text for the Old Testament, which is the basis of the KJV Old Testament (although the KJV as an overall translation is used). Instead, we use the Old Testament of the ancient Church, which is based on the Septuagint. However, for the sake of this first passage, the translation is largely the same, so we can work with it. The biggest difference is that the word “place” is actually “land” which makes more sense in the context. The “Angel” from the Greek Αγγελοσ, means messenger, so, of course, this passage refers to Christ, who is the messenger who is to bring us into the land God has prepared, and, at the same time, is able for forgive our transgressions.
The next passage is from the Gospel according to St John,
I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.
This passage is from Christ speaking to the Jews, and essentially chastising them for not receiving the messenger (referred to in the Exodus passage above). Blessed Theophylact provides us with this:
The Lord continuously exalts the Father, saying that the Father has sent Him, and that He can do nothing without the Father. He does so to disprove every allegation that He is arrogant. But another shall come, the Antichrist, who will attempt to show that he alone is God.
Proverbs 30:4, again, is one of the Old Testament prophecies of Christ. As the OSB notes, this verse asks six questions. The answer to the first five is Christ, and the answer to the sixth is Christian. The verse in the LXX is, “Who ascends into heaven and descends? Who gathers the winds in His bosom? Who wraps up the water in a garment? Who rules over all the ends of the earth? What is His name, and what is the name of His children, that you might acknowledge it?”
The Masoretic text of Micah varies a bit more extensively from the LXX for this verse, with the Masoretes having, “The Lord‘s voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see thy name: hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it.” and the LXX having “The Lord’s voice shall be proclaimed in the city, and He shall save those who fear His name. “Hear, O tribe, who will put the city in order?”” Regardless of the translation, the answer to the question is, again, Christ.
Isaiah, similarly, diverges a bit from the LXX, with the LXX reading, “Therefore the glory of the Lord will be in the islands of the sea: the name of the Lord, the god of Israel, will be glorious.” The islands are the churches that will be established in the sea of lost humanity, with the name of the Lord being proclaimed by them.
Finally, we have Malachi, 1:11, “For from the rising of the sun even to its going down, My name has been glorified among the Gentiles, and in every place incense shall be offered to My name, and a pure offering, for My name shall be great among the Gentiles, ” says the Lord Almighty.” This, of course, speaks of the time when Christ’s Church will be established, where incense will always be offered (as it continues today in the Orthodox Church).
I suspect that the individual posting the question was after the “name of God”, in the sense of the tetragrammaton of YHWH. The actual pronunciation of this name, of course, is lost to history, although Greek texts, where the pronunciation was indicated, seem to lean toward Yahweh. Later, during the development of the Masoretic text, scribes added the vowel points for the “Adonai”, which made the name render more like the Jehovah that the Jehovah’s Witnesses prefer. Of note is that the translators of the LXX opted, instead of transmitting the tetragrammaton to use the Greek word “Kyrios” or Lord. Rather than just a title, it became used as the name of God. The New Testament authors continued to follow this pattern. Of course, with the incarnation, we have a very specific known name for God, which is Jesus Christ.
Of course, the other aspect of the word “name” is that it implies a personal knowledge of the person because you know their name. This comports well with the Christian understanding that we are to develop an actual relationship with Christ. The Orthodox Church continues to hold the name of God in high honor, as well. Of particular note is that the Church prays without ceasing (per St. Paul’s instructions) by invoking the name of God, “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.”