From Promise to Fulfillment: Knowing the Name of God

This paper argues that the divine name YHWH in the Hebrew Bible functions not as a phonetic identifier but as a covenantal designation disclosed through fulfillment. Against modern treatments that frame the Name as a linguistic or metaphysical problem, the study demonstrates that Scripture consistently defines "name" as publicly enacted identity—reputation established through historical action and covenant faithfulness. By tracing the biblical grammar of naming and knowing from the patriarchal period through Exodus and into the New Testament, the paper contends that the patriarchs knew God truly as El, yet not as YHWH—the God whose sworn promises enter history as realized events. The revelation of the Name at the Exodus marks a transition from promise to fulfillment, culminating in Exodus 34's identification of divine attributes as covenant names. Read within this narrative logic, YHWH signifies the God who causes what He has spoken to stand, an identity extended—but not replaced—in Christ. The Name of God is thus presented not as a lost word to be recovered, but as a character to be known through fulfilled covenant.