Is “God” of the Old Testament the same as Jesus of the New Testament?

Question

Dear Gramps,

Is “God” of the Old Testament the same as Jesus of the New Testament?

Lisa

Answer

Dear Lisa,

There are three members of the Godhead–God, the Father, who is called by the Hebrews, Eloheim; Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, the Father, who appeared to man in Old Testament times by the name of Jehovah, and in his mortal life was known by the Hebrew name of Joshua, or Jeshua, meaning Jehovah is salvation. Translated into Greek, the word is Jesus.

The word Eloheim means the Gods–from Eloi, the Hebrew word for God, and heim, the Hebrew plural termination

In the first verse in the book of Genesis, In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, the Hebrew word for God is Eloheim. So the correct translation of that verse would be In the beginning the Gods created the heaven and the earth.

The same account of the creation was recorded on scrolls of papyrus that came into the hands of the prophet Joseph Smith, who translated it from the Egyptian hieroglyphs into English. This Genesis account begins in the fourth chapter of the Book of Abraham in the Mormon scripture, The Pearl of Great Price, as follows—

And they (the Gods) said: Let there be light; and there was light.

 

And they (the Gods) comprehended the light, for it was bright; and they divided the light, or caused it to be divided, from the darkness (Abraham 4:3-4).

The above scripture translated back into the Hebrew would correctly use the term for the Gods as Eloheim.

Exodus 6:2-3 expands our understanding of the God of the Old Testament—

And God [Eloheim] spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the LORD [Jehovah]:

 

And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty [El Shaddai, meaning the Almighty One], but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.

In this scripture Jehovah separates his identity from that of Eloheim, or God the Father. Whenever the word LORD appears in the Old Testament, it is translated from the Hebrew word, Jehovah. To demonstrate that Jehovah is indeed Jesus Christ, we quote from Zechariah 12:8-10—

8 In that day shall the LORD [Jehovah] defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the LORD [Jehovah] before them.

 

9 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I [Jehovah] will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

 

10 And I [Jehovah] will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me [Jehovah] whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him [Jehovah], as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him [Jehovah], as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.

Here, Jehovah is identifying himself as he who would be crucified, Jesus the Christ of the New Testament.

Gramps