ContradictionsReading order 5Bible context 1 min read
Did Abraham know God's name?
Genesis credits Abraham with using Jehovah in a place name, while Exodus denies that Abraham knew God by that name.
- Textual conflict
- Interpretive tension
- The passages pull in different directions, but the conflict depends on how their wording, scope, or narrative context is read.
- Importance
- Major
- A major event or claim with wider implications.
Abraham uses the divine name, while Exodus says the patriarchs did not know God by that name. Whether knowing the name means knowing the word or knowing God in a particular role affects the conflict.
An editorial assessment of the quoted passages. Importance describes the stakes; it does not increase certainty. Reading order weighs both.
Abraham names a place with Jehovah in its name
And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah–jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.
Genesis 22:14
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)
Read the full chapter:Genesis 22
God says the ancestors did not know his name Jehovah
And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them.
Exodus 6:3
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)
Read the full chapter:Exodus 6