How do the ancient theologies of Two Powers, Name, and Servant, change and then ground our understanding of what it ought to mean to us when we pray and say phrases like, "in the name of Jesus"? Getting to this understanding and grounding is the subject of this presentation.
We'll begin by looking at a passage written by Paul in Ephesians 5:20, which reads: "Give thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." While we could have looked at many passages, this one will demonstrate what we want to see.
Let me inject here a point that I will be making repeatedly through out this presentation. The idea will take a little getting used to, but this passage is going to introduce us to a reality of scripture: What we see in the text at face-value is not necessarily the theological message in the mind of the writer. This applies to both the translated text and even the original text.
In the case of our Ephesians passage, my goal is to demonstrate the reality of this to you. Namely, that the theological message of the phrase, "in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" does not immediately reveal the theological point or message found in the mind of the writer; in this case, Paul.
To begin to get a glimmer of Paul's mind and message, we can translate the Greek into Hebrew rather than into English, and then parse the Hebrew to start unpacking the first shadows of the deeper message and theology in Paul's mind. Let's have a look at the Hebrew.
The first word, which is pronounced bah-shem, can be translated to either "in the name", or more literally just, "in name". The second word is pronounced as "Hah, Meh-lek-i-nu", which might be better understood as a literal English thought like "The King of kings, who is ours". The next word is pronounced as "Hah, Moe-shy-ack", which can be understood as, "The Messiah", that is, not just any, run-of-the-mill "messiah", but the Messiah, promised by God. Finally, we have the word "Yeh-hosh-u-ah", which literally means, "God is our salvation", or just, "God is salvation".
Taken together, the Hebrew could be rendered in the following way: "The Name, who is our King above all lesser kings, the Messiah, promised by God, who is our Salvation". Another way to say it would be, "The Name, who is our Lord above all lesser lords, the Messiah, promised by God, who is our Salvation".
Be very careful to note how the ideas of Lord and King, as well as Messiah and Salvation are all pointing back to the primary subject of the sentence, which is The Name. Moreover, whatever this Name thing is, it occupies the supreme place in the theology in Paul's mind, and his message.
Note that the original English found in our translation can certainly be understood this way. However, we ought to see how first knowing the theology gives way to the ability to unpack the text. If we do not know the theology, and depend only on the words, doing a mere casual read of the translation, we then have no guarantee to ourselves that we will get the theology correct, from the text. This reality of how scripture works is going to be a constant theme in our presentation.
To back this point up, it is helpful for us to understand how Paul was not writing to people who did not already know his theology and message. In fact, it was at the church of Ephesus that Paul established, and briefly but personally operated a theology school. For its day, Ephesus was a very modern city, full of schools of all types.
Therefore, having a Christian theological school, for training Christian disciples fits right in to Ephesus, at the time of Paul. This means that the people Paul is writing to, in Ephesus already know his theology. Furthermore, it means that the Ephesians, by their training, will properly unpack Paul's Greek words from the storehouses of their own minds. As a result, the Ephesians will get the theology correct.
However, for us who are disconnected by 2,000 years from Paul's training, we will have to work to reacquire the training they had, which connected Paul's theology to the Greek words. This reality of our need, to reacquire that which has been lost through time, is a need we will see all through this presentation. Therefore, be on the lookout for it.
We have already seen that the phrase, "in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ", found in Ephesians 5:20, is fixated on some theological notion called "The Name". What we now want to do is start our reacquiring of what Paul, and the other apostles understood as what I am calling, Name theology, or just, The Name. Let's start looking at that now, shall we?
The Death of the Two Powers theology
Before we can start learning about ancient Jewish Name theology, we have to build a foundation by learning about another primitive ancient Jewish theology called the Two Powers. It turns out that the idea of the Name is literally the person of the second power in the godhead, which ancient Jews saw as two, co-equal but separate, entities or persons within one God, that they called, Yahweh.
From a purely historical context, it is interesting for us as Christians, to note how ancient Jews held to the Two Powers theology for just about twenty-one hundred years. The theology was held as true beginning with Abraham, and ending in about 100 AD, which was just before the Bar Kokhba revolt of Simon Bar Kokhba. It was a group of Pharisees and their Rabbi, Akiba, who are responsible for ending the reign of the Two Powers theology by summarily declaring it heresy. Not only did they declare some of their own long-held theologies and beliefs as literal heresy, but they started changing, rewriting, and deleting the text of the bible as well.
By 100 AD, Messianic Christians had gained a strong foothold among Jews. Christian Jews were growing in number, while traditional Jews were declining. For example, in the Book of Acts, we learn of two impressive events, where 3,000 people, and then 5,000 men, perhaps as many as twenty-five to thirty thousand total, became Jewish Christians. For the Pharisees, this was a massive gut punch. It left them with no good options for stopping the church of Jesus from penetrating into traditional-Jews throughout Judea, and the nations. Literally, Pharisaic-Judaism was bleeding converts, and they had to stop it.
Remember, by 100 AD the Jewish temple was utterly destroyed in 70 AD. More than this, a Jewish revolt shortly thereafter, had ended in an utter Roman victory, with the fall of Masada in 73 AD. To cap all of this off, the Jews held a council in 75 AD that ended all animal sacrifice, which has lasted to this very day in 2024 AD. So, in about 100 AD, the Jews did the only thing they had left. They reinvented Jewish theology, redacted their own scriptures, and closed theological ranks in order to blunt the Christian church. All of this was an effort to preserve Pharisaic tradition and power over Judaism. That reign of power continues in Jews to this very day, especially Orthodox and Ultra-orthodox Jews, both in the nations and in Israel, itself!
The Ancient Jewish Two Powers theology
Ancient Jews believed in the Two Powers of heaven for thousands of years. And while modern Pharisaic Jews called it heresy and did their best to erase it from their holy scripture, the Two Powers of heaven instances in scripture persist. It is impossible to erase something so critical to the story that God is telling. To see this, one has only to adopt the mind, theology, and expectation of an ancient Jewish reader, and the reality of the Two Powers of heaven will suddenly appear in many places.
In Genesis 19:24, we can see an example of the Two Powers of heaven in action. If one is not trained to take on the mind of an ancient Jew, one might easily miss the Two Powers. It is good to note how a close and careful reader of the scripture might notice the Two Powers, but even so, having a mind trained like an ancient Jew means that we get a solid footing for our understanding, which takes our reading beyond a mere casualness, and onward into an understanding that this is an instance of a wide-ranging, and foundational belief; one that we ought to be always on the lookout for as we read the Old Testament. Let's read the passage, and then parse it out.
Genesis 19:24 reads: "Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven."
The backstory to this passage is that the angel of the Lord, and two angels accompanying him, have left off from talking with Abraham. In Genesis 18:1, we learn that the LORD appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre. Clearly, this is second of the Two Powers of heaven. Yet, Abraham sees two other men with the LORD for a total of three. It is this same LORD that remains with Abraham after the two angels depart, leaving just Abraham and the LORD alone. There, Abraham asks the LORD to spare his nephew Lot, and his family.
In Genesis 18:33 we learn that the LORD departs and goes on his way, which is to say, he goes to Sodom and Gomorrah. We know this because he tells us that this is his plan in Genesis 18:20-21. He states clearly, "I will go down to see", which is targeted at both Sodom and Gomorrah. Because of this, we know that the LORD is going to Sodom and Gomorrah, and this is where the LORD is located in our example passage of Genesis 19:24.
Now, in Genesis 19:24 we can clearly understand that the first instance of LORD in the passage is the same LORD that is on earth, and who has just left off from speaking with Abraham. He is now standing before the two cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. In verses one to twenty-two, we read the story of the LORD's two angelic companions rescuing Lot and his family. So, now, it is just the LORD left in a face-off with the two cities he is about to destroy.
With the scene fully formed up, we can now clearly see that the LORD, who is on earth, calls for fire, and the LORD who is in heaven answers his call by raining sulfur and fire down from heaven, which destroys both cities in a matter of hours or even minutes. What we want to see, as a part of this presentation is the clear presence of the Two Powers of heaven being portrayed in the scripture.
There is an interesting aside from our Genesis 19:24 passage that is relevant to our on-going point of how what we read in the text does not necessarily reveal the theology compressed into the text. In this case, we need to focus on the Hebrew word used for sulfur, as well as the Greek word used to translate that word in the Septuagint, or LXX. Remember, the words you read on the page, especially in English do not always reveal the theology in the mind of the writer.
The Hebrew word for sulfur or brimstone is gophrith. The Jewish translator, who translated the Hebrew text into Greek for the Septuagint, chose the Greek word theion. What we want to notice is how this Greek word is related to theos.
The word theion is derived from theos, which means "God" in Greek. In certain contexts, theion can mean "divine" or "godly". So, what does this have to do with brimstone and Sodom and Gomorrah? Before answering this question, we need to understand what the LORD was doing to the earth in light of the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah, which is: He was cleansing and purifying it. So, how does this tie in to the answer to our question?
To all ancient near easterners, both pagans and Jews, sulfur or brimstone was used in all forms of purification rites and rituals. In the context of Gentile pagan rituals, the use of sulfur or brimstone is prevalent. In ancient Greek and Roman religious practices, sulfur was often used in purification rituals. It was believed that burning sulfur could cleanse a place or person of evil spirits, or negative energy. This practice was also common in other ancient cultures, including Egypt and Persia.
The Jews were not strangers to such beliefs. The writer of Genesis is Moses, who was raised as an Egyptian prince, before he fled after murdering the Egyptian task master. Thus, in the mind and theology of Moses, and that of all Jews coming after him, who were reading his words, the theological implications are starkly clear. By raining down sulfur that was on fire, the LORD on the earth was calling for cleansing and purifying from the LORD in heaven. The Two Powers of heaven were working in perfect concert to demonstrate their thoughts, feelings, and purpose with regard to the sin of Sodom, and the sin of Gomorrah.
Our second scripture example, where we can see the Two Powers of heaven in the text is Daniel 7:9-14. We won't read the entire passage. Instead, we simply want to point out that in the passage the, Ancient of Days, is the first power, who is always in heaven. He never leaves the highest, uncreated heaven as it is his home. For Christians, this is the father. The second power is described as the Son of Man, which for Christians is obviously Jesus. I encourage you to read this passage from Daniel closely and carefully.
A final thought about the passage is to point out to you that the text is describing the ascension of Jesus into the highest heaven, where his father is, after his resurrection. In the case of Daniel 7, the theology of the scripture is quite clear. Yet, linking in our mind like an ancient near eastern Jew as an instance of the Two Powers of heaven makes the passage even more compelling and foundational.
Introducing, The Name theology
Now that we have a solid foothold in the Two Powers of heaven theology, and have seen and discussed examples from scripture, we are now ready to introduce the ancient Jewish theology of: The Name.
Our recurring idea that the text on the page in front of us does not reveal the theology and message living in the mind of the writer of the text is going to be very important at this point. Allow me to start emphasizing that point by being more precise about what I mean when I use the word "name". More precisely, allow me to start by defining what I do not mean when I use the word "name".
For most people in the 21st century what we mean when we use the word "name" is something like the word "moniker". Our modern notion of name is something like a sign post that we pass on the highway into a town. The name of the town is not the town itself, but a pointer and word we use to conveniently refer to the actual town. Thus, the name or words, "New York City" is a pointer for a physical place with definite boundaries and location on the earth. For people, we can use names like Fred or Barney, Sally or Jane. Again, the name is a word or string of words used to point to a particular person, like "Uncle Fred" or "Aunt Sally".
The use of the term "name" in the ancient near east is something like this, but it is not limited to just this notion of a moniker that points. Rather, to an ancient near eastern person, the notion of "name" has additional features. In context of ancient pagan gods, these additional features have to do with literal idols and idolatry.
For an ancient near eastern pagan Gentile, the idol they built with their hands and skill as a craftsman was more than just wood, stone, or precious metals like gold. The physical idol was an object crafted specifically to house the spirit of the god for which it was being constructed.
Once the idol was finished, the ancient near eastern pagan would invoke religious rituals, designed to invite the spirit of the god to inhabit the idol, or to be embodied in the idol. This would provide the pagan worshiper of the god, a place where the spirit of the god was localized, and accessible. It would be a place, where the pagan would go to not only worship and offer sacrifice, but to communicate with the spirit of the god, in the idol. Therefore, a word like name took on very elaborate, and a special range of meaning and reality that went beyond simple monikers like "Fred" or "Barney".
Right here is a good place to point out that it really doesn't matter what we think of the thinking and reasoning of the ancient near eastern pagan idol worshiper. Whether we believe in gods, spirits, and their capacity to, or reality of taking up literal residence in a human-crafted idol is irrelevant. What is relevant is that the pagan idol maker believed it, whole heartedly!
Thus, this is the theology that was in the mind of ancient near eastern people, which included Jews. The Jews clearly understood the beliefs of their pagan neighbors. In fact, from time to time, they would rebel against God, and take up those very pagan idolatry practices themselves, which is what got them into trouble with God. If the matter wasn't relevant, true, or meaningful, then God would have simply looked the other way and ignored it. Instead, the Lord took action, which we can see over and over in the Old Testament scripture text.
If God is taking such things seriously, then so must we. Therefore, we must resist the lazy urge to just casually read words on a page, and we must do our best to reacquire the mind, thinking, and relevant theology of both ancient near eastern pagans and Jews in order to fill out our mental worldview, and context for reading and understanding scripture. This applies to the New Testament as well, which we shall soon see!
Let's take a look at the story from scripture where the idea of name theology begins. The story we want to see is found in Genesis 3:13-14. The story that Moses is telling is about his encounter with the angel of the Lord in the burning bush on Mount Horeb. In these two verses, we find both a question coming from Moses and the Lord answering that question. It is the question and the answer that provide us with the ancient Jewish context of what name theology means, and what it is about.
The primary question asked by Moses is a question that Moses thinks the people of God will ask him when he tells them that he has come representing the God of their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, or Israel. Moses guesses that the primary question of the people of God will be, "What is his name?", meaning the God that Moses is encountering on Horeb.
The most relevant matter to point out is that Moses does not think the Israelites will be asking if God's name is "Fred" or "Barney". Remember, think like an ancient near eastern Jew, who has been living in captivity for four centuries among pagan god worshiping Egyptians. This training and experience has left them with Egyptian paganism and ways permeating their minds.
What Moses is anticipating of the Jews is that they will point at the literally hundreds of idols with their embodied spirits of the gods and ask the question: "Which name or idol is the god who has sent you?" It is this question that Moses is now posing to the living angel of the Lord, who is walking in the midst of the burning bush before his eyes.
God knows precisely what Moses is asking, and then deflects, giving Moses the best answer ever. In simple terms, the angel of the Lord, who is the second power of the Two Powers of heaven, is telling Moses that he is none of those idols, and that he doesn't need an idol. Instead, the angel of the Lord points out that he eternally exists. Thus, Moses gets the point, loud and clear.
This God before him is the uncreated and supreme Elohim Spirit. While the lesser elohim spirits have convinced pagan peoples of their need for human-made idols, as points of worship, this uncreated and eternal Elohim is the Name that is above them. He is the Name that is above all the other names. Therefore, the Name that is God becomes forever linked in the ancient Jewish mind with the great I AM.
What ought to be clearer and clearer is how the English text, and even the Hebrew or Greek text, is not capable of communicating the theology packed within it. The writer chose the words he did based on the theology in his mind. He shared this theology with the people around him and trust that the theology would continue into the generations beyond such that they would always read his words, and get or understand his theology from them. For us, in the 21st century, a lot of this theology had been lost.
This is a critical reality for us to understand. It has happened for various reasons, but the simple fact is that we need to recover as much of it as we can, so we can enlarge our understanding of the story of God. More importantly, the loss of such theological understandings over the last two thousand years has resulted in distortions, which means our modern theologies are gravely, and perhaps dangerously distorted. Therefore, our best option is to hold what we believe with a little suspicion, and work to recover ancient understanding, and theology as best as we can, to clear up the distortions and get us back on track.