TNDL: "WHAT ARE THE 7 NAMES OF THE HEBREW GOD?"

Seven Names of God

The seven names of God that, once written, cannot be erased because of their holiness[5] are the Tetragrammaton, El, Elohim, Eloah, Elohai, El Shaddai, and Tzevaot.[6] In addition, the name Jah—because it forms part of the Tetragrammaton—is similarly protected.[6] Rabbi Jose considered "Tzevaot" a common name[7] and Rabbi Ishmael that "Elohim" was.[8] All other names, such as "Merciful", "Gracious" and "Faithful", merely represent attributes that are also common to human beings.[9]

An early depiction of the Tetragrammaton: a passage of the Ketef Hinnom silver scrolls with the Priestly Blessing from the Book of Numbers[10] (c. 600 bce).

YHWH

The Tetragrammaton in Paleo-Hebrew (fl. 1100 bce – 500 ad), Aramaic (fl. 1100 bce – 200 ce), and modern Hebrew scripts.

Portion of column 19 of the Psalms Scroll (Tehilim) from Qumran Cave 11. The Tetragrammaton in paleo-Hebrew can be clearly seen six times in this portion.
Main articles: Tetragrammaton, Yahweh, and Lord § Religion
The name of God used most often in the Hebrew Bible is YHWH[n 1] (י ה ו ה), also known as the Tetragrammaton (Greek for "four-letter [word]"). Hebrew is an abjad, so the word's letters Yōd, Hē, Vav, Hē are usually taken for consonants and expanded to Yahweh in English.

In modern Jewish culture, it is accepted as forbidden to pronounce the name the way that it is spelled. In prayers it is pronounced Adonai, and in discussion is usually said as HaShem, meaning “The Name”. The exact pronunciation is uncertain because—although there is nothing in the Torah to prohibit the saying of the name[11] and Ruth shows it was being pronounced as late as the 5th century bce[12][n 2]—it had ceased to be spoken aloud by at least the 3rd century bce during Second Temple Judaism[14] and vowel points were not written until the early medieval period. The Masoretic Text uses vowel points of Adonai or Elohim (depending on the context) marking the pronunciation as Yəhōwāh (יְ הֹ וָ ה, [jăhowɔh] (About this soundlisten)); however, scholarly consensus is that this is not the original pronunciation.[15] (For a discussion of subtle pronunciation changes between what is preserved in the Hebrew Scriptures and what is read, see Qere and Ketiv.)
The Tetragrammaton first appears in Genesis[16] and occurs 6828 times in total in the Stuttgart edition of the Masoretic Text. It is thought to be an archaic third-person singular imperfect tense of the verb "to be" (i.e., "[He] was being"). This agrees with the passage in Exodus where God names Himself as "I Will Be What I Will Be"[17] using the first-person singular imperfect tense.

Rabbinical Judaism teaches that the name is forbidden to all except the High Priest, who should only speak it in the Holy of Holies of the Temple in Jerusalem on Yom Kippur. He then pronounces the name "just as it is written".[citation needed][18] As each blessing was made, the people in the courtyard were to prostrate themselves completely as they heard it spoken aloud. As the Temple has not been rebuilt since its destruction in 70 ad, most modern Jews never pronounce YHWH but instead read Adonai ("My Lord") during prayer and while reading the Torah and as HaShem ("The Name") at other times.[19][20] Similarly, the Vulgate used Dominus ("The Lord") and most English translations of the Bible write "the Lord" for YHWH and "the Lord God", "the Lord God" or "the Sovereign Lord" for Adonai YHWH instead of transcribing the name. The Septuagint may have originally used the Hebrew letters themselves amid its Greek text[21][22] but there is no scholarly consensus on this point. All surviving Christian-era manuscripts use Kyrios [Κυριος, "Lord") or very occasionally Theos [Θεος, "God"] to translate the many thousand occurrences of the Name. (However, given the great preponderance of the anarthrous Kyrios solution for translating YHWH in the Septuagint and some disambiguation efforts by Christian-era copyists involving Kyrios (see especially scribal activity in Acts[23]), Theos should probably not be considered historically as a serious early contender substitute for the divine Name.)

El


See also: El (deity) § Hebrew Bible
El appears in Ugaritic, Phoenician and other 2nd and 1st millennium bce texts both as generic "god" and as the head of the divine pantheon.[24] In the Hebrew Bible El (Hebrew: אל) appears very occasionally alone (e.g. Genesis 33:20, el elohe yisrael, "El the God of Israel",[25] and Genesis 46:3, ha'el elohe abika, "El the God of thy father"),[26] but usually with some epithet or attribute attached (e.g. El Elyon, "Most High El", El Shaddai, "El of Shaddai", El `Olam "Everlasting El", El Hai, "Living El", El Ro'i "El my Shepherd", and El Gibbor "El of Strength"), in which cases it can be understood as the generic "god". In theophoric names such as Gabriel ("Strength of God"), Michael ("Who is like God?"), Raphael ("God's medicine"), Ariel ("God's lion"), Daniel ("God's Judgment"), Israel ("one who has struggled with God"), Immanuel ("God is with us"), and Ishmael ("God Hears"/"God Listens") it is usually interpreted and translated as "God", but it is not clear whether these "el"s refer to the deity in general or to the god El in particular.[27]
Eloah
Further information: Elohim § Etymology
Elohim
A common name of God in the Hebrew Bible is Elohim (Hebrew: About this soundאלהים (help·info)‎). Despite the -im ending common to many plural nouns in Hebrew, the word Elohim when referring to God is grammatically singular, and takes a singular verb in the Hebrew Bible. The word is identical to the usual plural of el meaning gods or magistrates, and is cognate to the 'lhm found in Ugaritic, where it is used for the pantheon of Canaanite gods, the children of El and conventionally vocalized as "Elohim" although the original Ugaritic vowels are unknown. When the Hebrew Bible uses elohim not in reference to God, it is plural (for example, Exodus 20:2). There are a few other such uses in Hebrew, for example Behemoth. In Modern Hebrew, the singular word ba'alim ("owner") looks plural, but likewise takes a singular verb.

A number of scholars have traced the etymology to the Semitic root *yl, "to be first, powerful", despite some difficulties with this view.[28] Elohim is thus the plural construct "powers". Hebrew grammar allows for this form to mean "He is the Power (singular) over powers (plural)", just as the word Ba'alim means "owner" (see above). "He is lord (singular) even over any of those things that he owns that are lordly (plural)."
Theologians who dispute this claim cite the hypothesis that plurals of majesty came about in more modern times. Richard Toporoski, a classics scholar, asserts that plurals of majesty first appeared in the reign of Diocletian (ce 284–305).[29] Indeed, Gesenius states in his book Hebrew Grammar the following:[30]

The Jewish grammarians call such plurals … plur. virium or virtutum; later grammarians call them plur. excellentiae, magnitudinis, or plur. maiestaticus. This last name may have been suggested by the we used by kings when speaking of themselves (compare 1 Maccabees 10:19 and 11:31); and the plural used by God in Genesis 1:26 and 11:7; Isaiah 6:8 has been incorrectly explained in this way). It is, however, either communicative (including the attendant angels: so at all events in Isaiah 6:8 and Genesis 3:22), or according to others, an indication of the fullness of power and might implied. It is best explained as a plural of self-deliberation. The use of the plural as a form of respectful address is quite foreign to Hebrew.

Mark S. Smith has cited the use of plural as possible evidence to suggest an evolution in the formation of early Jewish conceptions of monotheism, wherein references to "the gods" (plural) in earlier accounts of verbal tradition became either interpreted as multiple aspects of a single monotheistic God at the time of writing, or subsumed under a form of monolatry, wherein the god(s) of a certain city would be accepted after the fact as a reference to the God of Israel and the plural deliberately dropped.[31]
The plural form ending in -im can also be understood as denoting abstraction, as in the Hebrew words chayyim ("life") or betulim ("virginity"). If understood this way, Elohim means "divinity" or "deity". The word chayyim is similarly syntactically singular when used as a name but syntactically plural otherwise.

In many of the passages in which elohim occurs in the Bible it refers to non-Israelite deities, or in some instances to powerful men or judges, and even angels (Exodus 21:6, Psalms 8:5) as a simple plural in those instances.

Elohai
Elohai or Elohei ("My God") is a form of Elohim along with the first-person singular pronoun enclitic. It appears in the names "God of Abraham" (Elohai Avraham); "God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" (Elohai Avraham, Elohai Yitzchak ve Elohai Yaʿaqov); and "God of Sarah, Rebecca, Leah, and Rachel" (Elohai Sara, Elohai Rivka, Elohai Leah ve Elohai Rakhel).

El Shaddai
Main article: El Shaddai
El Shaddai (Hebrew: About this soundאל שדי (help·info)‎, pronounced [ʃaˈda.i]) is one of the names of God in Judaism, with its etymology coming from the influence of the Ugaritic religion on modern Judaism. El Shaddai is conventionally translated as "God Almighty". While the translation of El as "god" in Ugarit/Canaanite language is straightforward, the literal meaning of Shaddai is the subject of debate.
Tzevaot
Tzevaot, Tsebaoth or Sabaoth (צבאות, [tsvaot] (About this soundlisten), lit. "Armies") appears in reference to armies or armed hosts of men in Exodus[32] and Isaiah[33][34] but is not used as a divine epithet in the Torah, Joshua, or Judges. In the First Book of Samuel, David uses the name YHWH Tzavaot and immediately glosses it as "the God of the armies of Israel".[35] The same name appears in the prophets along with YHWH Elohe Tzevaot, Elohey Tzevaot, and Adonai YHWH Tzevaot. These are usually translated in the King James Version as the "Lord of Hosts" or "Lord God of Hosts". In its later uses, however, it often denotes God in His role as leader of the heavenly hosts.[citation needed]

The jewish word Sabaoth was also absorbed in Ancient Greek (σαβαωθ, sabaoth) and Latin (Sabaoth, with no declination). Tertullian and other patristics used it with the meaning of Army of angels of God.[36]

Jah
Main articles: Jah and Theophory in the Bible
The abbreviated form Jah (/dʒɑː/)[37] or Yah (/jɑː/ (About this soundlisten); יהּ, Yahu) appears in the Psalms[38] and Isaiah.[39] It is a common element in Hebrew theophoric names such as Elijah and also appears in the forms yahu ("Jeremiah"), yeho ("Joshua"), and yo ("John", ultimately from the biblical "Yohanan"). It also appears 24 times in the Psalms as a part of Hallelujah ("Praise Jah").[40]
Other names and titles
Adonai

Shefa Tal - A Kabbalistic explanation of the Priestly Blessing with Adonai inscribed.

Adonai
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Adonai (אֲדֹנָי, lit. "My Lords") is the plural form of adon ("Lord") along with the first-person singular pronoun enclitic.[n 3] As with Elohim, Adonai's grammatical form is usually explained as a plural of majesty. In the Hebrew Bible, it is nearly always used to refer to God (approximately 450 occurrences). As pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton came to be avoided in the Hellenistic period, Jews may have begun to drop the Tetragrammaton when presented alongside Adonai and subsequently expand it to cover for the Tetragrammaton in the forms of spoken prayer and written scripture. Owing to the expansion of chumra (the idea of "building a fence around the Torah"), Adonai itself has come to be too holy to say for Orthodox Jews, leading to its replacement by HaShem ("The Name").

The singular forms adon and adoni ("my lord") are used in the Hebrew Bible as royal titles,[41][42] as in the First Book of Samuel,[43] and for distinguished persons. The Phoenicians used it as a title of Tammuz, the origin of the Greek Adonis. It is also used very occasionally in Hebrew texts to refer to God (e.g. Ps 136:3.)[44]

Deuteronomy 10:17 has the proper name Yahweh alongside the superlative constructions "God of gods" elōhê ha-elōhîm and "Lord of lords" adōnê ha-adōnîm (כִּי יְ ה וָ ה אֱלֹֽהֵיכֶם הוּא אֱלֹהֵי הָֽאֱלֹהִים וַאֲדֹנֵי הָאֲדֹנִים ; KJV: "For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords").

The final syllable of Adonai uses the vowel kamatz, rather than patach which would be expected from the Hebrew for "my lord(s)". Prof. Yoel Elitzur explains this as a normal transformation when a Hebrew word becomes a name, giving as other examples Nathan, Yitzchak, and Yigal.[45]

Adoshem

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Up until the mid-twentieth century, the use of the word Adoshem, combining the first two syllables of "Adonai" with the last syllable of "Hashem"', was quite common. This was discouraged by Rabbi David HaLevi Segal in his commentary to the Shulchan Aruch. His rationale was that it is disrespectful to combine a Name of God with another word. It took a few centuries for the word to fall into almost complete disuse. Despite being obsolete in most circles, it is used occasionally in conversation in place of Adonai by Jews who do not wish to say Adonai but need to specify the substitution of that particular word. It is also used when quoting from the liturgy in a non-liturgical context, especially as a substitute in musical pieces where a replacement for "Adonai" must have the same number of syllables. For example, Shlomo Carlebach performed his prayer "Shema Yisrael" with the words Shema Yisrael Adoshem Elokeinu Adoshem Eḥad instead of Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Eḥad.

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