– Word that comes from the Hebrew Yahweh ( yhwh ); my Lord is the appellation given to God by the OT monarchical writers.
– There is a difference in meaning between Yahweh and Elohim, but it is customary to use in the Bible, in Portuguese, God and Lord without distinction, as can be seen in:
Ex 3,14-15 : God replied to Moses: “I am who I am”.
– See also:
Deut 32:39 : Recognize now: I alone, I alone am God, and there is no other besides me.
Is 42,8 : I am the Lord, that is my name, I will give my glory to no one, nor my honor to idols.
Is 43,11 : I am, I am the Lord, there is no other savior but me.
Hos 13:4 : Yet I am the Lord your God from the outset of Egypt. You know no other God besides me.
– Jesus used the same expression I am to designate his divine origin. Being here means existing by itself, not receiving existence from others, like creatures:
Jn 8:58 : Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”
– By such a name, it could seem that Yahweh is a distant being and turned only to his own life. Several passages in the Bible, however, even in the AT, denote the opposite. Yahweh walks with his people and gives them strength and life:
Gen 9:13 : I set my bow in the clouds, that it may be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
Ex 13:21 : The Lord went before them: by day in a pillar of cloud to guide them along the way.
Ex 16:10 : Aaron spoke to the entire assembly of the Israelites […] and, behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud!
Ex 24:18 : Moses entered the cloud and went up the mountain. He stayed there forty days and forty nights.
Ex 40:34 : Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
– Here is a foreshadowing and figure of the presence of Jesus in the midst of the faithful:
Mt 18:20 : For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in their midst.
– Which would culminate in the institution of the Eucharist, through which he gives strength and life to his new people on their way to the Father’s house:
Mt 26,26-29 : Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it to the disciples, saying: “Take and eat, this is my body”.
Mk 14,12-15 : His disciples asked him: “Where do you want us to prepare the Passover meal?”.
Lc 22,7-23 : The day of unleavened bread dawned, on which the Passover had to be sacrificed.
Jn 6,32-65 : Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my Father is the one who gives you the true bread from heaven.
Jn 13,1-30 : Knowing Jesus that his hour had come […] as he loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
