If the Father is Elohim and Jesus is Jehovah (as the Mormons teach), how does a Mormon explain Deuteronomy 6:4, which in the Hebrew says, “Hear, O Israel: Jehovah our Elohim is one Jehovah”?
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Now Grateful
ANSWERS: 6
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First, it's important to remember that the Old Testament was written in Hebrew, which uses a different alphabet. The most common and most important name for God in the Torah translates to the English alphabet as YHWH ("He is" in Hebrew). In English we say Yahweh. Religious Jews do not speak God's name, so when they see YHWH they read Adonai (Lord) instead. To remind people to say "Adonai" instead, the vowels of Adonai are written with the consonants YHWH, to make YAHOWAH. Early Christians did not understand this, so when they translated the Torah into Latin they translated YAHOWAH like any other word. In Latin Y's are I's or J's. V's and W's are the same. So the word becomes Iahovah or Jahovah. This later became Jehovah. So Jehovah is an English word, and it is not used in the scriptures at all. Like Adonai, Elohim is an epitet for God, a way to say "God" without speaking God's name. So, another translation would be, "Adonai our Elohim is on Adonai."
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Another word-for-word duplicate question: http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/838413
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Can any Morman's validate that this is a Morman belief?
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The actual text is, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our G-d, the Lord is one..."
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Originally, Elohim and Yahweh were not the same thing. Elohim is plural (often meaning the "family of El", the Caananite patriarch deity), and Yahweh was the national god of Israel. In fact, some old inscriptions denote Yahweh as the consort (or son I forget which) of Asherah. Hence the antagonism on the part of the Yahwists with regards to Ashera in the Old Testament. So, if you want to be perfectly literal about it, it is entirely within the context of early Caananite religion, just not within the context of modern Judaism and Christianity.
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It is quite clear that many will try to ask questions that attempt to confuse the members of the Church of Jesus Christ. But in the end, it all boils down to what we ourselves believe and know to be true, that really matters. Whether the Old Testament God was known as Jehovah or Adonai, or Yahweh, makes very little difference. The Apostle Paul tells us that the Old Testament God was none other than Jesus Christ... I Cor.10;1-4.."Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; 2 And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 3 And did all eat the same spiritual meat; 4 And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ." And does not Jesus himself tell us that he is the SON of God, meaning Eloheim? Later
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