Clout Chaser 🗿 on Nostr: In 1856/57, Alexander MacWhorter III was himself inspired by discovering Gesenius’s ...

In 1856/57, Alexander MacWhorter III was himself inspired by discovering Gesenius’s off-hand speculation. What was all but a footnote in one man’s work became another man’s passion. MacWhorter (MW) did not simply treat “Yahweh” as a pronunciation; he reinterpreted all of Scripture on the basis of his exegesis of this new word.

MW published a 179 page book2 titled “Yahveh Christ, or, The Memorial Name” dedicated to his “new Christology” which reimagines all of Scripture in the context of “I am” being a demonic lie intended to conceal a future* promise. MW rejected “I am” out of hand as pagan superstition, the result of the corrupt & unreliable LXX.

Not only did this put him at odds with four thousand years of believers, but most importantly with Christ Himself and the NT which quote it as Scripture. Having opened the door to apostasy, MW springboards from Gesenius’s careless aside to transform “YHWH” from God’s eternal “I am” into a fundamentally opposed phrase in the future tense– something that doesn’t even exist in Hebrew –“He who will be”! Even while in places railing against his contemporaries who questioned Scripture, MW’s entire thesis rests on DH and the JEDP theory which nullifies Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch.

It is also notable that while LXX is filled with “Theos” or God, MW is passionate that referring to God as God is actually a pagan philosophical trick which could only possibly exist due to the very translation Jesus used but MW condemns out of hand.

(Stay tuned for part 3)