Genesis 2:4: “This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made earth and heaven.”
There is the story in the Talmud of a king who received two very fine pieces of glassware. They were so fragile that the king despaired and said: “If I put hot water in the glass it will crack, but if I put cold water in the glass it will also crack. So what did he do? He mixed the hot with the cold and poured it into the glass. Thus God knew that if He created the world with the Attribute of Mercy it would not stand, if He created the world with the Attribute of Justice it would not stand. And so he created the world as Jehovah (Lord) for Mercy and Elohim (God) for Justice. The word Jehovah or YHWH is in a feminine form and thus represents the feminine attributes of God such as mercy, caring, loving, nurturing and compassion. The word Elohim is in a masculine form and thus carries the masculine attributes of justice, protection, provision, and discipline.
As hard as it is for Christians to understand the Trinity, it is equally as hard for the Jews to understand this modalism. There is only one God but with very distinct attributes. The sages try to explain it by saying that God has two thrones one from which He sits to judge the world in justice as Elohim and the other to forgive the world in mercy as Jehovah or YHWH. Hence the creation story combines the two names YHWH Elohim (Lord God) to teach us that the world cannot endure on justice alone or on mercy alone. He had to mingle justice with mercy for the world to endure. Hence God when speaks to Moses as YHWH He is speaking from the aspect of mercy and when He is speaking as Elohim He is speaking from the aspect of judge and administering justice.
In John 8 some scribes and Pharisees brought a woman who was caught in adultery to Jesus and advised that the Law of Moses commanded that she had to be stoned, according to Elohim or the masculine attribute of God. They knew Jesus did not accept Oral Tradition to be as authoritative as the Torah and in an attempt to test Jesus they asked what they should do. You see the Torah list no less than 36 capital crimes. By the time of Jesus the Jews could no longer stomach the idea of putting someone to death such that Oral Tradition which was later recorded in the Talmud Makkoth 7b and the Mishnah tractate Makkoth 1:10 placed the burden of proof and the requirements for being able to sentence someone to death as so strict that it was virtually impossible to execute someone. Oral Tradition and later the Talmud clearly states that there must be a trial before the Sanhedrin and/or before a court of 23 members. During Jesus’s day, only the Sanhedrin could put someone to death.
Thus, if Jesus was to stick with his message that only the Torah was the authority and Oral Tradition, He would have had to condemn the woman to death. Not only would this discredit His message of love but He would be in danger of being sentenced before the Sanhedrin for disobeying their laws. Thus Jesus would be forced to admit that Oral Tradition had just as much authority as the Torah or else he would have to condemn this woman to death. Jesus gave his famous answer: “He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone.” In other words, the very fact that you commit a sin you are condemned, maybe not to capital punishment but a spiritual punishment. However, before he gave this answer he wrote something on the ground. Scripture does not tell us what he wrote as it would have been obvious to any Jew of that day. However, since we Christians make little effort to understand the thinking of that day there has been much speculation among Christians as to what Jesus wrote. Some say he wrote the names of the men who were present and that it was these were the men who were actually committing adultery with this woman. Some suggest He was just scribbling and buying his time. Some have suggested that he wrote out Isaiah 1:18 to express the idea of mercy. I think that is close but to write out the whole verse would have been a lot of writing, even in Hebrew. I mentioned this story to a rabbi who was very familiar with the story. He didn’t hesitate in his reply, he simply said that due to the dramatic response from the religious leaders and that fact that Jesus did not speak but wrote on the ground. It is more than likely he simply wrote out the Hebrew letters Yod and Hei or maybe just simply a Yod. A scribe and Pharisee would have instantly known what that meant. He would have written out the abbreviated form of the sacred name of God YH or Yah for YHWH (Jehovah). He could have spoken the name Elohim and that would have meant justice, stone her. But to appeal to the name that was so sacred it could not be uttered, the name that these religious leaders would automatically associate with mercy, would have a profound effect. Then to say “He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone” would have left these leaders speechless for they could not say that they were without sin and they had to admit that they themselves were must appeal to YHWH (Jehovah) the mercy of God and not Elohim, the justice of God for their own condemnation for even one sin would condemn them and of course any good Pharisee knew that it was a sin to say you had no sin.
I like to think that all Jesus wrote on the ground was a simple Yod, the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet. With that letter, he saved a woman’s life and won an argument with scribes and Pharisees. Then after he spoke he knelt again and this time he wrote out Isaiah 1:18, the words spoken by the Yod. These words spoke of mercy and not judgment, they said even if your sins are scarlet – shani (misplaced passion) they can be white as snow. Those religious leaders knew that long before there was a law that condemned this woman, there was at creation a Lord God, Jehovah YWHW Elohim, a God of both mercy and justice. That is a name that does not apply to any other god. It is a name that we cannot explain any more than we can explain the Trinity. Yet, the Trinity does exist and a God of both mercy and justice also exists. If He is a God of justice then we all deserve to go to hell, if He is a God of mercy, then He would provide an escape, forgiveness, and restoration. Jesus gave those Pharisees a choice, they could accept Elohim and receive the judgment of God or they could accept Jehovah (YHWH) and receive the mercy of God.
Jesus is giving us the same choice today.
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