Mark

Oh how i wsih i had a dog with a wiggily-waggily tail 🙂

Cheryl,

A few sources to help you understand my position with Genesis.

“ However, some passages use that name (YHWH) when referring to much earlier periods (e.g Gen 4:1;, 5:29; 9;26…). A common explanation is that Exodus 6:3 belongs to a source (P) that links revelation of the divine name exclusively with Moses, and in the patriarchal narratives refers to El Shaddai; other material comes from the J source, which refers to Yahweh throughout. However that does not explain why the final editor of the Pentateuch appears unconcerned about the inconsistency.

Another explanation aimed at harmonization, notes the close link between the name and the character of God, and suggests that the name itself may not have been unknown to the patriarchs, but before the revelation to Moses they were unaware of its full revelation. (this is now the view you are accepting Cheryl).

Another explanation is that though the name Yahweh was unknown to the patriarchs, those who retold the stories recognised that the God they worshipped as Yahweh was the same God who spoke to, and was worshipped by, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and those before them, and so they used that name in their accounts of those earlier incidents…While not departing from the essential historical details, the narrator might, nonetheless, choose not to report the ipsissima verba of characters in the narrative because he wants to make a particular point…In this case the narrator has a definite purpose; he uses the name Yahweh in the earlier narrative deliberately, because he wants to emphasise the continuity between patriarchal worship and later worship of Yahweh.” – ‘Old Testament Theology, Robin Routledge p.92-94
(Now this is my view and i hope you can now see it is not a path to liberalism, but a highly recognised conservative scholarly approach)