YHWH Elohim (Gen 2:4)

The Hinge

We return, in our last post before beginning Version 2 of the story of creation, to a consideration of the new aspect in the main character’s name that is introduced in v. 4b, the second half of the hinge verse between the two stories. The previous post will send you to some essays about what the name YHWH might actually mean — though it’s good to remember that we rarely think of the meaning of a name when we use it.

This time, what I want to do is to talk about why this version of the creation story uses this different name. First, I remind you that “God” (אלהים elohim) is not a name but a job description; second, that in Exod 3:14 God identifies his own name as Ehyeh (אהיה), short for Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh. The presumption is that he calls himself by the 1^st-person verb “I am,” while the Y of YHWH indicates a 3^rd-person subject, “he,” for everyone else to call him.

Let’s take a closer look at the two biblical sources that combine with Gen 2:4 to push university scholars of the Bible towar…