“This Is Indeed God’s Most Holy and Great Name”
“This Is Indeed God’s Most Holy and Great Name”
Nicholas of Cusa made that statement in a sermon he gave in the year 1430. * He was a man of many interests, focusing his attention, for instance, on the study of Greek, Hebrew, philosophy, theology, mathematics, and astronomy. At the age of 22, he became a doctor of Roman Catholic canon law. In 1448 he was appointed cardinal.
About 550 years ago, Nicholas of Cusa founded a nursing home for the elderly in Kues, now known as Bernkastel-Kues, a town located about 80 miles [130 km] south of Bonn, in Germany. This same building now houses Cusa’s library of more than 310 manuscripts. One of them is the Codex Cusanus 220 in which Cusa’s sermon of 1430 can be found. In that sermon, In principio erat verbum (In the Beginning Was the Word), Nicholas of Cusa used the Latin spelling Iehoua for Jehovah. * Folio 56 contains the following statement regarding God’s name: “It is God-given. It is the Tetragrammaton, i.e., the name composed of four letters. . . . This is indeed God’s most holy and great name.” Nicholas of Cusa’s statement agrees with the fact that God’s name appears in the original text of the Hebrew Scriptures.—Ex. 6:3.
This codex from the early 15th century is one of the oldest extant documents in which the Tetragrammaton is rendered “Iehoua.” This written testimony is further evidence that forms of God’s name similar to “Jehovah” have been the most common literary transcription of God’s name for centuries.
[Footnotes]
^ par. 2 Nicholas of Cusa was also known as Nikolaus Cryfts (Krebs), Nicolaus Cusanus, and Nikolaus von Kues. Kues was the name of the German town where he was born.
^ par. 3 The sermon was in support of the Trinity.
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Cusa’s Library