From the time of Simon the Righteous until the temple's ruin, the name was only heard "as it is written" during the Yom Kippur liturgy at the temple of Jerusalem, where the high priest pronounced it 10 times, continued Father Remaud.

"On hearing the explicit name from the mouth of the high priest, the 'cohanim' [Aaron's descendants] and the people present in the atrium knelt down, prostrated themselves with their face on the ground saying: 'Blessed be the glorious name of his Kingdom forever.'"

The Mishna does not say that the high priest pronounced the divine name, but that the name "came out of his mouth," he clarified.

A whisper

Moreover, continued Father Remaud, it seems that toward the end of the period of the second temple -- 70 A.D. -- the high priest now only pronounced the word in a whisper. This was explained in a childhood memory of Rabbi Tarphon (1st-2nd centuries), who recalls that even straining to hear, he could not hear the name.

The biblical scholar also noted that the formula of Exodus -- "This is my name forever" (Exodus 3:15) -- through a play of words in Hebrew is interpreted by the Talmud of Jerusalem as "This is my name to remain hidden."

"Today, the divine name is never pronounced," continued Father Remaud. "In the Yom Kippur office of the synagogue, which replaces the temple's liturgy by the recitation of what took place when the temple existed, the people prostrated themselves in the synagogue when recalling -- though not pronouncing -- that the high priest pronounced the divine name."

The Catholic priest noted that the first Christians called "Jesus by the term 'Lord' (Kyrios)," by which they "deliberately applied the term used in Greek to translate the divine name."

"In Judaism's liturgical tradition, this divine name was only pronounced in the liturgy of forgiveness of sins, on the day of Kippur," he continued. "One might see an allusion to this tradition and to the purifying power of the Name, in this verse of the First Letter of St. John: 'Your sins are forgiven for his names' sake' (1 John 2, 12)."