“Jehovah,” or, as most scholars now believe, “Jahveh,” is his name. (3)
Concerning the meaning of that sacred name, the opinions are divided. Some derive it from a form of the Hebrew verb “hajah,” which would mean, “One who calls things into being,” i. e., the Creator. The objection to this interpretation is chiefly that the form suggested does not appear anywhere but is merely assumed. Others point out that the verb “hajah,” which is generally rendered “to be,” “to exist,” really means, “to become,” “to come forth,” and that the name therefore signifies, “One through whom God is coming forth,” i. e. “revealing” himself. (See Gesenius, Hebr. und Aram. Handwöerbuch. This agrees with 1 Tim. 6:16.)
Some have understood 16,Moses said: “Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?”
The Lord answered this question thus:
“I am that I am: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me.”
Further:
“The Lord God [Jehovah Elohim] of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob, appeared unto me,” etc.
This shows clearly that the Israelites in Egypt knew that Jehovah was the God of their fathers. For, otherwise the mention of his name would have had no effect.
In the Book of Abraham, Pearl of Great Price, the question is settled beyond a doubt. There we read:
“And his voice was unto me: Abraham, Abraham, behold, my name is Jehovah, and I have heard thee and have come down to deliver thee, and to take thee away from thy father’s house, and from all thy kinsfolk ... I will take thee, to put upon thee my name, even the Priesthood of thy father, and my power shall be over thee. As it was with Noah so shall it be with thee; but through thy ministry my name shall be known in the earth for ever, for I am thy God.” (Pearl of Great Price, p. 30, vv. 16-19)
Note (1) that the sacred name was revealed to Abraham while he was in the city of Ur of the Chaldees; (2) that when the Lord puts his name upon a chosen servant, he confers upon him the Priesthood; (3) that the father of Abraham had the Priesthood, and therefore must have known the name of the divine Head; and (4) that as the knowledge of the name had come from Noah, so, through Abraham, it should be made known in all the world.
There is every reason to believe that the sacred name was well known to our first ancestors, Adam and Eve, from the early days of their existence on earth, first in the Garden of Eden, and then after the exodus from that paradise. This belief grows, as we read the second and third chapters of Genesis, and it becomes a certainty when, in the fourth chapter (v. 1) we hear the joyful exclamation of Eve at the birth of Cain, “I have gotten a man from Jehovah.”
And then again, in Gen. 5:29, we learn that Lamech, the father of Noah, knew the sacred name. For, in naming his illustrious son, he said:
“This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord [Jehovah] has cursed.”
The name was known all through the ages before the flood, and then to the patriarchs after the flood, but it had, undoubtedly, been dimmed in the consciousness of the Israelites in their wretched condition in Egypt, and therefore it was again revealed through Moses.
“It [Jehovah] is certainly not a new name that is introduced; on the contrary, the ‘I am that I am’ would be unintelligible, if the name itself were not presupposed as already known. The old name of antiquity, whose precious significance had been forgotten and neglected by the children of Israel, here, as it were, rises again to life, and is again brought home to the consciousness of the people.” (Smith, Bible Dictionary)
In reading the Scriptures about the various manifestations of Jehovah, it is important to remember that a messenger authorized to represent Jehovah always speaks or acts as if he were the divine Person he represents. He stands, literally, in his stead. For instance:
We remember the account in Exodus of the rebellion of Israel, in consequence of which the Lord decreed to send an angel to go before the people in his stead. The account is, briefly, this: The Lord instructed Moses to break camp and cause the people to proceed on their way to Canaan. But, he said, “I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiffnecked people: lest I consume thee in the way” (Ex. 23:20-23: “Behold I send an angel before thee ... Beware of him, and obey his voice; provoke him not, for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him. But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies ... For mine angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites and the Hittites ... and I will cut them off.” Thus, the Angel of the Presence of the Lord occupied completely the position of the Lord himself during the entire journey through the wilderness.
Moses may have known who the Angel of the Presence was. Isaiah may have known. We do not. But we do know, according to the Scriptures, that Michael is the “first of the chief princes” (D. and C. 107:54).
In the Doctrine and Covenants the important truth is revealed that Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, is Jehovah. We read, “Listen to the voice of Jesus Christ, your Redeemer, the Great I AM, whose arm of mercy hath atoned for your sins.” (29:1) “I AM,” as we have seen, is the same as “JEHOVAH.”
Again:
“Thus saith the Lord, your God, even Jesus Christ, the great I AM, Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the same which looked upon the wide expanse of eternity, and all the seraphic hosts of heaven, before the world was made; the same which knoweth all things, for all things are present before mine eyes; I am the same which spake, and the world was made, and all things came by me.” (38:1-3; comp. 109:34, 68; 110:4)
This truth is definitely stated in “A Doctrinal Exposition,” signed by the First Presidency and the Twelve Apostles of the Church, June 30, 1916. We read:
“A fourth reason for applying the title ‘Father’ to Jesus Christ is found in the fact that in all his dealings with the human family Jesus the Son has represented and yet represents Elohim, his Father, in power and authority. This is true of Christ in his pre-existent, antemortal, or unembodied state, in which he was known as Jehovah; also during his embodiment in the flesh; and during his labors as a disembodied spirit in the realm of the dead; and since that period in his resurrected state.” (“Articles of Faith,” James E. Talmage, p. 471)