Is it me, or is something lost in translation here?

The Tetragrammaton (YHWH) is the third person singular masculine imperfective of the causative construction of the verb "to be" and means "He causes/has been causing/will cause to be."

You seem to be confusing that with the phrase "Ehyeh-asher-ehyey," which is likewise treated as a proper name in the book of Exodus. This is notoriously difficult to translate. "Ehyeh" is the first person singular imperfective of the basic construction of the verb "to be" and mean "I am" or "I will be" or "I will become" etc. "Asher" is the relative particle that transforms the clause of the verb that follows into a modifier of the noun or pronoun or implied subject that precedes it. "I am who am" (I am the One that exists, I am the One for Whom existence is a necessary and not a tangential quality). Other possibilities are "I am who I am" or "I will be what I will be" and so forth.

Arabic al-Hayu 'l-qayyum is exactly cognate to Hebrew he-Hay haqqayyam, "the Living and Enduring One."

What all of this has to do with Jesus -- and what Jesus's alleged parentage has to do with names of God or Judaism -- completely escapes me.

" The greatest name for God in Hebrew is YHWH"

I'm not seeing how that is developed. Not only are the english letters poor connections to the Hebrew, and not only is the pronunciation unknown to us (and, by tradition, would have been something that only the high priest would say), but saying that one name is "greater" than any other makes no sense. That's like setting up 10 arrows all pointing to the same picture and saying that one arrow is greater than the others. How is that measured?

Jan 27, 2010 -- 8:49PM, ffb wrote:

" The greatest name for God in Hebrew is YHWH"

I'm not seeing how that is developed. Not only are the english letters poor connections to the Hebrew, and not only is the pronunciation unknown to us (and, by tradition, would have been something that only the high priest would say), but saying that one name is "greater" than any other makes no sense. That's like setting up 10 arrows all pointing to the same picture and saying that one arrow is greater than the others. How is that measured?

Perhaps it can be measured by the degree of caution and respect with which it is treated? The Tetragrammaton is "greater" than other names because it is the Deity's specific personal name for Itself. There is a reason why its pronunciation was gradually restricted only to the Temple liturgy and then eventually only to the purification of the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur. It is also the only name which came to be replaced with euphemisms until the original pronunciation was lost to living tradition. There are even people who refuse to even say or write "Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh" and use "Yud-Keh-Vav-Keh" instead.