Did Abraham know God by the name Yahweh? If you read Genesis, the answer seems obvious. Yahweh’s name is all over the place. Yet Exodus 6:3 appears to say otherwise. God tells Moses, “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.” Is this verse teaching that God did not reveal His name to Abraham? This question regularly comes up in my Old Testament studies class. Is there a contradiction between Genesis and Exodus 6:3? I don’t think so. But to understand the passage, we must consider what God means by making himself known. In most English translations, LORD in capital letters represents the name Yahweh (unless you’re reading the LSB, which uses Yahweh). That name occurs 165 times in Genesis, including in conversations involving the patriarchs. We therefore need an explanation that…