Traditional Catholic Prayers: December 26 - the Feast of St. Stephen, Proto-martyr

Traditional Catholic Prayers: December 26 - the Feast of St. Stephen, Proto-martyr

Traditional Catholic Prayers: Jews called in Christ: The I AM in the Old and New Testaments and the seven names of God in the Old Testament

Jews called in Christ: The I AM in the Old and New Testaments and the seven names of God in the Old Testament

The seven names of God in the Old Testament – all other names therein are variations for the most part.

In addition the Holy Spirit is named. In Hebrew the Holy Spirit is Ruach or Ruach Elohim (the Holy Spirit of the Triune God).

Jesus Christ, the Son of God and His leading the Patriarchs and Israel is shown in the Old Testament. And Jesus is named in Greek in the Septuagint prophetically.

One example: Hb:3:18 But I will rejoice in the Lord: and I will joy in God my Jesus. (DRV)

The Seven Names of God {Reference source: The Catholic Dictionary 1950} ADONAI YAHWEH ELOHIM EL SHADDAI ELYOWN QADOSH which can be translated in order directly and it is correct. It translates, literally as: Lord Yahweh (I Am) God (Majestic plural "We" as in French where it is literally plural, i.e. the Trinity) God Mighty (as in Almighty) Most High Holy (as in All Holy, the Holy one, not meaning plainly absolutely singular but the One who is Holy). Therefore: Lord Yahweh Triune God, God Mighty, Most High, Holy. ADONAI = Lord, YAHWEH = I Am - meaning the only One and True God who has Aseity which is self existence, ELOHIM = God Trinity, EL = God, SHADDAI = Mighty, ELYOWN = Most High, QADOSH = Holy

Dt:6:4:4 Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. (DRV) In Hebrew, that is: Shemah Y’srael Yahweh Eloheinu Yahweh echad. This English translation is as deficient as most are. Not on purpose, because translation is many times very difficult. The Hebrew text is taken to be the Masoretic by most translators (which is not what St. Jerome worked from) and therefore Yahweh is rendered Adonai which is Lord in English. Concerning the Most Holy Trinity, one name of God here and it’s modifier are important. Eloheinu is a form of Elohim and both are plural. El in the above seven names of God is singular and in the Old Testament almost always refers to God the Father. Echad is plural but in a sense of unity of the plurality concerning Eloheinu – Who is Yahweh, which is the most sacred name of God in the Old Testament Hebrew. The Jew, Maimonides, the Anti-Christian Talmudist, in the later Middle Ages attempted to make God in the Shemah singular by lying and substituting iahid (which is absolutely singular) for echad. St. Jerome’s vulgate renders the Shemah as “audi Israhel Dominus Deum noster Dominus unus est” simply because Latin has no equivalent for echad. Hence St. Jerome used ‘unus.’ Moses certainly did know that God is Triune. In the above seven names of God, Adonai or Lord refers to any one of the Holy Trinity. Yahweh is the actual name of God in His very nature which is His essence or substance. Essence is houmoosia in Greek and substance is substantia in Latin. Yahweh therefore is the name equally of all three persons of the Holy Trinity. Elohim is the Trinity. El is God the Father and Shaddai (almighty power of God) is the Almighty Son who is the only Mediator between God and men and Qadosh or Holy One, as it is usually rendered, can refer to the Holy Spirit and most especially does in Miqqadosh meaning literally Sanctifier. Hence the Shemah is Moses confession given him by God of the Triune three persons of the Godhead.

A further extension of Yahweh’s name given Moses is Ahiyah asher Ahiyah where Yah is directly Yahweh. In this name the very nature of God is Yah of Yah so that Christ only – begotten of the Father before all time and creation is meant. Also, the Church Fathers tell us that Yeshua is Hebrew for Jesus, especially in St. Matthew’s Gospel in it’s original Hebrew. Yeshua is exactly from Yahweh in a form that indicates that Yeshua is of the nature of Yahweh (in this case God the Father – El) and is furthermore distinct in a sense, in other words, God the Son. This is the verse it occurs in. Ex:3:14:14 God said to Moses: I AM WHO AM. He said: Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel: HE WHO IS, hath sent me to you. (DRV) This is the verse that the Jews call the tetragrammaton, but in fact, it is the most explicit Old Testament reference to the eternal begetting from the Father of the Son. That is, the Son of God Who will be sent for the salvation of those who believe in Him. It was Christ pre-incarnate on the mount that gave Moses the law and Who during Moses’ sojourn with Him gave Moses the prophecies of His own future Incarnation. Another such prophecy of Christ’s future incarnation is the following: Dt:18:15:15 The Lord thy God will raise up to thee a PROPHET of thy nation and of thy brethren like unto me: him thou shalt hear: (DRV) These are in the Old Testament. Two of the New Testament references to the same meanings are the below: Jn:8:58:58 Jesus said to them: Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham was made, I AM. (DRV) St. Paul referring to the Exodus: 1Cor:10:4:4 And all drank the same spiritual drink: (And they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them: and the rock was Christ.) (DRV)

Especially regarding the importance of the New Testament verse Jn:8:58:58 Jesus said to them: Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham was made, I AM. We must absolutely take note of the fact that Christ here professes Himself as pre-existent, which only God can be by His nature pre-existent. Patristically, the Greek here is most important and very exact, "I AM" is in the Greek, "egoo eimi." It is linguistically, and especially in terms of the Septuagint-Koine Greek it philologically extends from, "o oon" which exactly sums up the core meaning of Homoousion from Houmoosia, which is extended exactly from "o oon." (Homo = same and ousion from ousia from oon meaning essence, which the Church Fathers used creedally from this exact verse to exegete the Most Holy Trinity; with "Yahweh" which is "egoo eimi" i.e. "o oon" which is "I AM" as the core essential BEING of GOD self existent and Immortal, having always existed and always existing forever, which nature is shared equally by all three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity - i.e. all three having the same essence.)

Rev. 1:4 – 6 John to the seven churches which are in Asia. Grace be unto you and peace, from him that is and that was and that is to come: and from the seven spirits which are before his throne:
And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the first begotten of the dead and the prince of the kings of the earth, who hath loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood (when He became Incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the blessed virgin Mary and went to the Cross for our salvation)
And hath made us a kingdom, and priests to God and his Father. To him be glory and empire for ever and ever. Amen.(DRV)

Rev.:21:6:
6 And he said to me: It is done. I am Alpha and Omega: the Beginning and the End. To him that thirsteth, I will give of the fountain of the water of life, freely. (DRV)
These two phrases that is and that was and that is to come (Greek “‘o oon kai ‘o en kai ‘o erchoumenos”) and I am Alpha and Omega (Greek: “egoo eimi to Alpha kai to Omega”) are emphatic declarations of Christ’s Divinity and Immortality for it is the Thrice Holy Trinity – Rv:4:8 And the four living creatures had each of them six wings: and round about and within they are full of eyes. And they rested not day and night, saying: Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come. (Greek “‘agious ‘agious ‘agious kurios ‘o theos ‘o pantocrator”) – alone Who possesses Aseity (self existence and Who is therefore alone uncreated) and Who is Immortal of the same Essence/Substance – Nature.

In the above: the “who [that] is”, in Greek “‘o oon”, is the declaration of Aseity. The “who [that] was” and the “who [that] is to come” with the “‘o oon”, self existence, is the declaration of Immortality (having no beginning and no end – always existing). The phrase I am Alpha and Omega has exactly the same meaning. “I am” – “egoo eimi” is the equivalent of Yahweh (God’s proper name) in Hebrew meaning “I am” in the same sense as the above “‘o oon”. Alpha and Omega has the same meaning as Immortality in the above. Pantocrator (translated as Almighty) is the declaration of the Thrice Holy Lord God’s All ruling absolute Sovereignty and includes emphatically the meaning that He is alone uncreated and Creator, ex nihilo, of all of creation. This relates directly to the beginning of the Gospel of St. John and the beginning of the first book of the Torah (the Pentateuch) which is Genesis. See: Genesis 1:1 through 2:4 and St. John’s Gospel 1:1 through vs. 18. All of this and the exact seventy human generations recounted in St. Luke’s Gospel 3:1 – 38 from Adam to Christ (see also the parallel in St. Matthew’s Gospel 1:1 – 25 from Abraham to Christ) and the testimony of the Church Fathers does not allow any pagan evolutionary gods nor even sophist pantheistic idolatrous creationism but only creation by the Creator as He said He did it, and only Redemption in God and His Christ (the Messiah, al-Maseeh) as He said that it is; the false gods or pagan idolatrous religions that willfully reject God and Jesus Christ (those who do not willfully reject Him but seek God in their hearts are judged by God alone) are without grace and they and their followers will be damned forever, who do not repent in this life from those false gods and religions and come to God and His Christ and make confession in Him and be baptized by God’s Spirit {believers in monotheistic Islam and all men of good will (in the full consensus of the Church Fathers) are included as true believers in the true God and therefore saved by their confession of belief in and fulfilling the will of God, Allah (SWT)}. Allah is from biblical Hebrew ‘Eloah’ and means the true God, All middle Eastern Christians, including Catholics, who are Arabic speakers call on Allah as the name of the true God. Amen.