Exodus 6:2 “I am the LORD. 3 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name the LORD I did not make myself known to them.”

The Issue

Source critics point out that this (attributed to ‘P’) appears to contradict Gen 4:26 (attributed to ‘J’), which says that men called upon the name of the LORD as early as the days of Enosh (see also Gen 12:8; 28:13).

Steven DiMattei asks:

‘When was the name Yahweh first invoked: in the earliest generations of man OR not till Moses at Sinai? (Gen 4:26, 12:8, 13:4, 15:7, etc. vs Ex 6:2-3).’

DiMattei states:

‘This is a contradiction that you won’t find listed on your average, nor above average, contradictions in the Bible website; in fact, I doubt you’ll find it anywhere but here!’

Ehrman (Jesus, Interrupted) asks:

In the book of Exodus, God tells Moses, “I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name ‘The LORD’ [= Yahweh] I did not make myself known to them” (Exodus 6:3). How does this square with what is found earlier, in Genesis, where God does make himself known to Abraham as The LORD: “Then he [God] said to him [Abraham], ‘I am The LORD [= Yahweh] who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans’” (Genesis 15:7)?

Possible solutions

Waltke & Fredricks (in their commentary on Genesis) cite Eslinger, who notes that

‘Exodus 6 does not say that the patriarchs did not call upon the name Yahweh. He argues that the passive construction “I was not known as Yahweh” is a variant of the active construction, “you will know that I am Yahweh.” This “recognition formula” refers to the manifestation of the divine name through miraculous interventions and is common only in Exodus and Ezekiel (more than fifty times). In the former God manifests his miraculous intervention through history; in the latter, through prophecy.’

According to the Faithlife Study Bible:

‘This appears to indicate that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did not know the name yhwh (Yahweh), the name revealed to Moses at Sinai (Exod 3:14–16).

‘If this is true, the many occurrences of the name Yahweh in the Hebrew text before ch. 3 (e.g., Gen 2:5; 4:26) would be considered editorial additions by scribes, indicating for later readers that the same deity is being referred to. Another explanation is that the name Yahweh was actually not new to Moses, but was an existing name that was given new significance (see note on Exod 3:13). In this case, the verse could be translated: “I am Yahweh. I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as El-Shaddai. And my name is Yahweh; did I not make myself known to them?”’

Cole (TOTC) remarks that the truth of the present verse is borne out by the fact that forms of YHWH do not occur in personal names before the time of Moses.  The use of YHWH from Gen 2:5 onwards is, according to Cole, due to the later writer reading that name into the text (i.e., ‘the God we now know as YHWH…’).  When Gen 4:26 says that men ‘began to call upon the name of YHWH’ it may mean no more than that at that time people began to engage in organised prayer and worship.

Matthew Henry has a succinct explanation:

‘The patriarchs knew this name, but they did not know him in this matter by that which this name signifies.’

K.A. Kitchen (On the Reliability of the Old Testament) regards this verse as expressing a rhetorical positive – “Did I not…?”.

So also Stuart (NAC), who argues on linguistic grounds that:

‘the most likely translation of 6:3 is not that of the NIV (“but by my name the LORD I did not make myself known to them”) but rather a question, “and by my name Yahweh, did I not make myself known to them?”’