JU13-14: What The Angel Of The Lord Really Meant When He Said His Name Was ‘Wonderful’

“Manoach said to the angel of Adonai, ‘Tell us your name, so that when your words come true we can honor you.’  The angel of Adonai answered him, ‘Why are you asking about my name? It is wonderful.‘”-Judges 13:17-18

It has now struck Manoach like a bolt of lightning that the man standing in front of him is indeed a prophet from God.

The truth be told though, he was much more that a prophet because He was the Angel of the Lord.

But as far as Manoach was concerned, he was dealing with a normal flesh-and-blood man.

So he responded the way anyone in the ancient Middle East would have behaved when dealing with a special guest.

He decided to honor the man by preparing a meal for him.

The Angel of the Lord’s response is interesting.

He tells Manoach:

“Even if I do stay,
I won’t eat your food;
and if you prepare a burnt offering,
you must offer it to Adonai.” 

Now it’s starting to dawn on Manoach that’s he’s dealing with someone who’s much more than a mere man…even if this man was a prophet sent from God.

In fact, the Angel of the Lord dropped a big hint when He told Manoach that if he’s going to offer a burnt offering, it must only be offered to Adonai.

Manoach’s natural response is to ask the man what his name or SHEM is?

You do remember what the real Biblical meaning of the word “name” or SHEM is, don’t you?

Manoach wasn’t asking the spirit being standing in front of him what is name was in the sense we do when we ask what someone’s name is.

When we say “What’s your name?”, we really mean “What should I call you?”.

But Manoach was asking…

Who are you?

What is your character, your attributes so I can honor you properly?

That’s what was going on inside of Manoach’s mind.

Because if the person standing in front of him was more than a human prophet, Manoach knew he had to adjust his thinking and behavior properly.

The Complete Jewish Bible says the Angel of the Lord’s response was “It is wonderful”.

Again, this being wasn’t responding to the question “What’s your name?” as we would normally understand it.

He was responding to the question “What is your essence?” or “What kind of being are you?”.

And the answer was “Wonderful”.

What?

Kind of anticlimactic, don’t you think?

Well, that’s because we’re dealing with a bad translation here.

The original Hebrew is PILLE or פִלְאִי.

The problem is this word doesn’t mean “wonderful”.

The King James Version translates the word as “secret”.

That’s closer.

The NIV translates it to “beyond understanding”.

BOOM!  That nails it.

PILLE does indeed mean “beyond understanding” or “incomprehensible”.

I think the translator who used the word “wonderful” really meant to say “full of wonder” which would capture the correct nuance.

The Angel of the Lord was telling Manoach that who I am is far beyond your ability to understand me.

This syncs well with the Rabbinic understanding that PILLE is a word expressing an attribute of God that’s not applied to your average human being.

In fact, this is the same word the prophet Isaiah used when speaking of Yeshua:

“For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
Isaiah 9:6

Again, it would probably have been better to translate that as “Counselor Full of Wonder”.

Because our modern understanding of “wonderful” doesn’t jive with the true Biblical meaning of the word intended here.

If I say “Have a wonderful weekend”, I don’t usually mean have a weekend full of wonders.

I just mean have a great weekend.

Or if I say, this new computer is wonderful, I don’t mean it’s beyond my ability to comprehend.

I mean I love using it.