Christianity creates unnecessary confusion because of the doctrine of the Trinity, three gods in one, so when Christians speak of god, it is not clear which member of the Trinity they are referring to. Isaac Newton felt that this doctrine was a heresy introduced into Christianity by Catholics early in church history and spent considerable time researching this question and arguing against it.



As long time readers know, I have long advocated that it would clarify matters to some extent if they at least gave different names for each member of the Trinity and suggested that they name their father god Melvin, retain Jesus for their son god, and name their Holy Spirit god Harvey. I am still waiting to hear from the Vatican about my proposal.

A complication arises when you throw the Jewish god into the mix because the relationship between the Jewish god and the Christian Trinity is ambiguous. Further complicating matters is that Jews tend to have rules about not using their god’s name explicitly and when they do, leaving out vowels, thus making the full name of their god ambiguous. But the recent discovery of old manuscripts apparently gives the full name, vowels and all.

For two hundred years, scholars have believed based on Greek sources and conjecture that the Hebrew name of God was originally pronounced “Yahweh.” In late 2016, Gordon found never-translated traditional Jewish sources that explicitly identified the vowels of God’s name in Hebrew as “Yehovah.” This is similar to the English Jehovah, but with a “Y” and the emphasis on the final syllable. God’s name, known as the Tetragrammaton, is written in most Hebrew Bible manuscripts with one of its vowels missing, making it unreadable in accordance with an ancient Jewish ban on speaking the name. Despite this, Gordon had previously discovered five Bible manuscripts with a full set of Hebrew vowels proving the pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton was known to Jewish scribes as “Yehovah.”

So the name of the Jewish god is Yehovah. But I think that we need further clarity on this. Is Melvin the same god as Yehovah? If not, are they siblings? Parent-child? Or is there some other relationship?

You would think that religious authorities from the worlds of Christianity and Judaism would meet and settle such an important issue once and for all.