Commentaria in Exodum
It is proved fourthly, because from this revelation Moses became so desirous of knowing, or even seeing, the Godhead, as we shall see chap. 33, verse 18. Hence also, from this peculiar revelation of this name made to Moses, this name has always been held most august and most holy, so that in Scripture it is given to none but the true God, or one esteemed such. Whence this name is everywhere in Scripture given to God alone, while the other names of God are also given to angels and to men who are princes.
It is proved fifthly, because this is the simplest and plainest interpretation; whence the Fathers also explain this place of a clearer revelation of the divinity and of the divine essence, whether open or in a riddle, made to Moses. So St. Gregory, hom. 16 on Ezech., Procopius, Theodoret, Cyril, Philo, Abulensis, Cajetan, Pereira and others here.
You will say, an objection: Long before Moses this name was revealed to the fathers; for in Genesis it is very often repeated, and the fathers invoked God by this name, as Henoch did, Genesis 4:26, and Abraham, Genesis chap. 15, verse 8.
Some answer, as Cajetan, Lyranus and Pereira, that this name indeed as to its sound and letters was revealed to the fathers, but as to its clear and full signification was first revealed to Moses. But Scripture here plainly signifies that this name was first revealed to Moses not only as to its signification but also as to the very sound and name, and the Hebrew signifies this more clearly, which reads thus: And by my name Jeheva I was not known to them.
I answer, then, that the fathers before Moses did not know, nor use, the name Jeheva, but named God Adonai, Elohim, Saddai, just as the Jews even now everywhere read Adonai or Elohim for Jeheva: but Moses, who wrote Genesis, having received this name, used it in Genesis, because it signifies the same God and is as it were proper to God; for Moses rendered not the words but the sense of the prayers of Henoch and Abraham. So the city Bala is called Segor, which was not then but afterwards called Segor; and Dan is called a city which was afterwards called Dan, though it was then called otherwise. The sense is that the name Jeheva was unknown to the fathers, not simply, nor according to the letter, but by reason of fulfilment, especially of the promises, namely the illustrious deliverance from Egypt, in performing which God shows Himself to be Jehova.
Question. It is asked fifthly, what does this name Jeheva symbolically signify, and so why is it of four letters? The Hebrews answer that by this name are signified the most holy Trinity, and at the same time the Incarnation of the Word. For the first letter, jod, which is the index and beginning of the number ten, signifies the first person, namely the Father. The second, he, signifies the second, namely the Son; for he signifies essence and substance (from the root haya, which signifies to be), which the Son has in common with the Father; for He is consubstantial with the Father. Again, through the Son all created things were made and received their essence. The third, vau, signifies the third, namely the Holy Ghost; for vau among the Hebrews is a copula signifying “and,” “also”: as the Holy Ghost is the copula, union and notional love of the Father and the Son. Whence the Greek Scholiast, for what we have, “And my name Adonai I did not shew them,” renders: I did not make known to them the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Hence also the Hebrews write the tetragrammaton name with a triple jod, under which they put kamets within a circle: for since jod signifies beginning, and the whole Trinity is one beginning of things outside itself, in one essence and nature, the trinity of persons is represented by the triple jod; the unity of essence is represented both by the one and same jod and by the single vowel kamets. Again, the second letter he, doubled in this name, signifies the two natures in the Son, divine and human; whence the letter he, which is the index of the Son in the tetragrammaton name, was added to Abram and Sarai, when he who was called Abram was called Abraham, and she who was called Sarai, Sarah: because from Abraham and Sara Christ was born and made incarnate. But why is this name of four letters? I answer, the grammatical and proper reason is that perfect Hebrew names are of four letters; for they have three letters of the theme, to which they add a fourth heemantic, or formative of the name. The symbolic reason is that four is the first perfect even number, consisting of beginning, middle and end. Secondly, this number makes the square and the geometrical quadrate, which is a most solid figure: whence of the heavenly city St. John says, Apoc. 21:16, that it lieth in a foursquare. Thirdly, this number in power is all things, namely all number, all music, all quantity, all elements, all virtue; hence it is sacred in Scripture, as is plain in the four Cherubim, Ezech. 1, and the four living creatures, Apoc. 4. These and more things Philo has in On the Planting of Noe, book 2, after the middle, and book 3 On the Life of Moses, after the beginning. Nor does Souciet much depart from this interpretation in his Collection of Critical Dissertations, where in a long and laborious dissertation running to more than 130 pages he sought to confirm and commend this sense; and Macrobius, book 1 On the Dream of Scipio, chap. 6, where among other things he says: The Pythagoreans so held the number four among their secrets for the perfection of the soul, namely this oath:
I swear by him who handed down to our soul the number four.
After the pattern of this tetragrammaton name, many other nations gave God a name of four letters; thus the Egyptians call God Theos, the Persians Syre, the Etruscans Esar, the Arabs Alla, the Assyrians Adad, the Turks Addi, the Greeks Theos, the Latins Deus, the Germans Gott, the French Dieu, the Spaniards Dios, etc. So Gyraldus, On the Gods of the Gentiles, syntagma 1. More on this name see in Angelus Caninius, and Galatinus, book 2, chap. 10, and book 3 at length.
Finally, all these four letters of the tetragrammaton name are, to the Hebrews, resting letters, to hint that in God alone true and solid rest, and eternal felicity and beatitude itself, consists and finds repose. For He is the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end; He is the centre of our heart; He is the fulness and joy of all angels and of the Blessed.
Allegorically, Jeheva the redeemer of Israel out of Egypt was a type of Jesus, who was the redeemer of the world from the captivity and tyranny of the devil; hence the name of Jesus was contained and represented in Jeheva, and this was as it were its enigma, and the name of Jesus is as it were the declaration of the name Jeheva: hence again the name of Jesus is holier and more venerable than the name Jeheva, as I showed from Abulensis on Philip. 2:10. Nay, our Prado on Ezech. contends that the name Jehova refers chiefly to the mystery of the incarnation and human redemption, and asserts that it is derived from the future deed of the Word. For Jehova, he says, is the same as I shall be who shall be, namely man and redeemer of the world, that is Jesus, that is Saviour of men. This is true, but allegorical, not literal, as is plain from what has been said.
6. I AM THE LORD WHO WILL BRING YOU OUT FROM THE WORK-PRISON OF THE EGYPTIANS.—Verse 6. In Hebrew, from under the burdens of the Egyptians: our Interpreter therefore renders well and clearly, from the work-prison; for the work-prison is a place in which captives or slaves are forced to labour; it is called ergastulum from ergazesthai, that is, from working and labouring.
AND REDEEM YOU IN A HIGH ARM.—In Hebrew, in a stretched out arm, namely for striking and subduing your enemies the Egyptians. By anthropopathy an arm is attributed to God, and signifies the power and strength of God; for man is wont to show this by the arm.
Mystically, the arm which proceeds from the body is the Son proceeding from the Father, as the finger proceeding from the body and arm is the Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the Son. So St. Jerome on Isaias chap. 52. The finger is the Holy Spirit.
AND IN GREAT JUDGMENTS,—great plagues, great vengeances. For judgment is taken by metonymy for the effect of judgment, namely for the just punishment and plague inflicted by judgment and by the judge.
7. AND I WILL BE YOUR GOD.—Hebrew: I will be your Elohim, that is, your provider, governor, protector, leader.
8. CONCERNING WHICH I LIFTED UP MY HAND,—which I swore I would give you; for those who swear are wont to swear with the hand lifted on high; the same phrase is in Genesis 14:22, and 2 Esdras 9:15. Elsewhere “to lift up the hand” is the gesture of one praying, elsewhere of one striking, elsewhere of one working.
TO GIVE IT TO ABRAHAM, ISAAC AND JACOB,—to give it to the posterity of Abraham, who descend through Isaac and Jacob, and not to those who descend through Ismael and Esau.
9. WHO DID NOT HEARKEN TO HIM FOR ANGUISH OF SPIRIT.—The Septuagint renders it, for faintness of spirit. For they were so oppressed with burdens that they could scarcely breathe, so that their breath seemed shut off; and therefore it was neither allowed nor pleasing to them to think, hope or devise anything else.