Is Yahweh God's eternal covenant name, and how far back in history does it go?
A viewer asks whether Yahweh is God's eternal covenant name, whether it will remain forever, and how far back it goes, since it seems Abraham already knew it.
Answer
The name Yahweh did not start with Abraham. It first appears in Genesis 2:4, in the account of creation, connected with Elohim, the word translated 'God' in 'In the beginning God created'; so Genesis 2:4 has Yahweh Elohim, which your Bible renders 'Lord God.' Yahweh appears in almost every chapter of Genesis and about 6,700 times in the Bible, so it is not rare. It is a proper noun for God that comes from the Hebrew verb hayah, 'to be' or 'to become.' In Exodus 3:14 we get a development of it when God tells Moses, 'I am who I am.' Hebrew has two tenses, the past and the imperfect, and the imperfect can be present or future, so 'I am who I am' could also be read 'I am who I will be' or 'I will be who I will be.' We say Yahweh because the first Hebrew consonant is a yod; some say Jehovah because much of the early scholarship was German, and Germans blend the J and Y sounds, and because ancient Hebrew had no vowels, we do not know for certain whether it is a 'yah' or a 'yeh.' I prefer Yahweh. This is the name the Jews will not pronounce, which is why they write 'G-d,' so do not ask them how to pronounce it. And notice something interesting: just as Yahweh is a verbal form turned into a proper noun, so in Luke 1:28 the word for Mary, kecharitomene, 'full of grace,' is a perfect passive participle, essentially a verb given to Mary as a name; from that phrase Catholic teaching draws the Immaculate Conception, since if she is full of grace she was always full of grace and therefore without sin.