Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

GOD IN THE OLD TESTAMENT, NAMES OF

The most common words for God in the OT are the name Yahweh (6639 times) and Elohim (“god,” 2750 times). The following discussion focuses on less frequent names and words for God.

Adon

Heb. ʾāḏôn means “lord,” with the connotation of superiority, and was used of both human and divine sovereigns. In the OT it indicates Yahweh’s power and control over everyone and everything. The form Adonay (ʾăḏōnāy ) is used exclusively of Yahweh. The ending -āy may be emphatic (“the Lord of all”). The traditional translation “my Lord” assumes a plural of majesty, with a lengthened final vowel to distinguish it from other “lords,” both human and divine. When used independently of Yahweh, it takes on the character of a separate name, but the reference to Israel’s God is always clear (e.g., Gen. 18:27; Exod. 5:22; 34:9; Isa. 6:1). It eventually came to be pronounced in place of the sacred name Yahweh.

Baal

Heb. baʿal also means “lord,” but with a nuance of possession; other translations include “master” and “husband.” It is frequently used in reference to non-Israelite gods in general and as the name of the Canaanite storm-god in particular. The only clear evidence for Baal as a title of Yahweh is the name Beʿalyah (1 Chr. 12:5[MT 6]; “Yah(weh) is Lord”). It is not possible to determine whether other names incorporating Baal were initially understood as referring to Yahweh. For example, Saul’s son Ishbaal (“man of Baal,” 1 Chr. 8:33; 9:39) may also have been called Ishvi (“man of Yahweh(?)”; cf. 1 Sam. 14:49), but it is clear from the substitution of bōšeṯ (“shame”) in almost all such names that the Deuteronomists understood the theophoric element as the Canaanite god. Ishbaal is called Ishbosheth throughout the Deuteronomistic history (e.g., 2 Sam. 2:8, 10, 12, 15), and Jonathan’s crippled son Meribbaal (1 Chr. 8:34; 9:40) is called Mephibosheth (e.g., 2 Sam. 4:4). Finally, it has been suggested that Hos. 2:16[18] (“On that day, says Yahweh, you will call me ‘my man’ [ʾîšî], and no longer will you call me ‘my baʿal’ ”) rejects an established use of Baal for Yahweh as Lord. However the context is marriage, and both Hebrew terms should be translated “husband,” with the prophet rejecting the latter in order to avoid any possible confusion with the pagan deity.

Heb. ʾēl is the Hebrew equivalent of the common Semitic word for “god” (cf. Ugar. ʾil, Mesopotamian and Amorite ilu, North Arab. ʾilāh, Phoen. ʾl). The most likely derivation is from the verbal root ʾwl, “to be strong, dominate.” Although the term frequently means simply “god” in the OT, there are some instances where it preserves the name of a deity other than Yahweh. In Gen. 33:20 Jacob dedicates an altar at Shechem to ʾēl ʾĕlōhê yiśrāʾēl, “El, the god of Israel,” while in 46:3 a god identifies himself to Jacob as ʾēl ʾĕlōhê ʾāḇîḵā, “El, the god of your father.” It should not be surprising, therefore, that Jacob’s name was changed to “Isra-El” after his night encounter with “a man” (God?) at the Jabbok (Gen. 32:22-30[23-31]) or that the early tribal confederacy was called “Israel.” This indicates that El was the deity worshipped by the group(s) who preserved the patriarchal stories and that the identification of Yahweh with “the god of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” in Exod. 3:6 represents a later assimilation of two originally separate deities.

Often ʾēl is followed immediately by an epithet, e.g., “El, who sees” (ʾēl roʾî, Gen. 16:13; cf. 22:14) and “El, the eternal” (ʾēl ʿôlām, Gen. 21:33; cf. Isa. 40:28; Jer. 10:10). The phrase ʾēl bêṯ-ʾēl in Gen. 35:7 could mean simply “the god of Bethel,” but the evidence for El as the god of the patriarchs, especially Jacob, supports the rendering “El of Bethel.” Similarly, ʾēl bĕrîṯ in Judg. 9:46 is best understood as “El of the covenant”; baʿal bĕrîṯ (“lord of the covenant,” Judg. 8:33; 9:4) is probably an epithet of El. These “El names” are associated with specific places (e.g., Beer-lahai-roi, Beersheba, Bethel, Shechem), and are generally interpreted as local manifestations of El.

El Elyon

The adjective ʿelyôn was commonly applied to kings and gods, and El Elyon (Heb. ʾēl ʿelyôn) is an appropriate title for the high god of the Canaanite pantheon as well ("El, the most high”). In Gen. 14:19 El Elyon is called “maker of heaven and earth” (qōnēh šāmayim wāʾāreṣ). This is an expansion of “El, creator of the earth” (ʾl qn ʾrṣ), which occurs in an 8th-century b.c.e. Phoenician inscription from Karatepe and a 2nd-century Neo-Punic inscription and is reflected in the divine name ^{dEl-ku-ni-ir-ša from a Hittite myth discovered at Boghazköy. As for localization, apart from Ps. 78:35, the full formula occurs only during Abraham’s encounter with Melchizedek, king of (Jeru)salem (Gen. 14:18-20, 22). However, it is divorced from Jerusalem in the 50 occurrences of Elyon alone (four are paralleled with El), and in Ps. 78:35 the context is the wilderness wanderings. Apart from Abraham’s equation of (El) Elyon with Yahweh, the two are linked only in the Psalter (Ps. 7:17[18]; 18:13[14] [= 2 Sam. 22:14]; 21:7[8]; 47:2[3]; 83:18[19]; 91:9; 92:1[2]; cf. Ps. 97:9 and the links with the alternative name Elohim in the Elohistic Psalter: Ps. 46:4[5]; 50:14; 57:2[3]; 73:11; 78:56).}

El Shaddai

Outside of the Bible this name occurs at Ugarit and in a Thamudic inscription from Teimā. The Deir ʿAlla inscription mentions a group of gods called the šdyn. The biblical El Shaddai (Heb. ʾēl šadday) was traditionally rendered as “God Almighty” under the influence of LXX pantokrátōr and Vulg. omnipotens. The šadday element is generally explained as a dual of šaḏ (“breast, mountain”). The translation “El of the mountains” fits well with the Ugaritic description of El’s residence upon the cosmic mountain(s) and “the mountains of El” (harĕrê-ʾēl) in Ps. 36:6(7). Since El was the god of the patriarchs, it is significant that five of the eight instances of the full formula occur in Genesis (Gen. 17:1; 28:3; 35:11; 43:14; 48:3). Shaddai’s function as an El epithet is further reflected in its occurrence 13 times in parallel with El (e.g., Num. 24:4, 16; Job 8:3; 13:3) and twice with Elyon, another of El’s titles (Num. 24:16; Ps. 91:1). That it was considered an ancient divine name is evidenced by the fact that 31 of the 41 occurrences of Shaddai by itself are found in the deliberately archaizing book of Job. The self-revelation of Yahweh to Moses as El Shaddai in Exod. 6:3 is part of the over-arching biblical identification of Yahweh with El (cf. Gen. 17:1; Ruth 1:21; Isa. 13:6; Joel 1:15).

Eloah

An expanded form of El and possibly the singular of Elohim, Heb. ʾĕlōah is used as both the appellation “god” and a divine name. As with El and Elohim, some instances are ambiguous, but ʾĕlōah is clearly a noun in 2 Chr. 32:15; Ps. 114:7; Isa. 44:8; Dan. 11:37-39. Most instances of Eloah as a name occur in the poetry of Job (including all of the 41 times in Job), where it parallels Shaddai and El. Outside of Job, Eloah is understood to be Yahweh.

Fear of Isaac

The “paḥaḏ of Isaac” is credited with helping Jacob during his sojourn with Laban (Gen. 31:42), and Jacob invokes “the paḥaḏ of his father Isaac” as a guarantor of the subsequent treaty with his father-in-law. The context and content require a nuance of divine protection, ruling out possible derivations meaning either “clan” or “thigh” (cf. Gen. 24:2, 9; 47:29). The traditional rendering as “the Fear of Isaac” denotes the dread God instills in others as a means of protecting Isaac and Jacob (cf. “the fear of Yahweh” in 1 Sam. 11:7; Isa. 2:10, 19, 21). It is more a description of God’s activity than a name.

Holy One

Heb. qāḏôš emphasizes the essential otherness of divinity in general and of Yahweh in particular: Of the 44 instances 31 are as “the Holy One of Israel.” It is a favorite term of Isaiah (30 times: 25 with the full formula; 3 others refer to Israel in the same verse). It is often used in the context of Israel’s sinfulness, thereby accentuating the contrast with Yahweh (e.g., Ps. 78:41; Isa. 1:4; 30:12; 37:23; Jer. 51:5; Hos. 11:12[12:1]). The vocative in Ps. 71:22 indicates it could be used as a divine name, as does the parallel with Eloah in Hab. 3:3.

Mighty One of Jacob

The adjective ʾabbîr means “strong, mighty” and is used of humans and animals. The strong animal par excellence was the bull (cf. the parallelism in Isa. 34:7; Ps. 22:12[13]), and many translate the phrase ʾăḇîr yaʿăqōḇ as “the Bull of Jacob,” appealing to the epithet “Bull” for El at Ugarit. In Gen. 49:24 the phrase is linked with references to El Shaddai (v. 25b) and “El, your father” (v. 25a). This probably represents the preservation of another recollection of El as the god of Jacob, one which emphasizes the deity’s power to look after the patriarch. Nonetheless, all other instances explicitly identify “the Mighty One” as Yahweh (Isa. 49:26; 60:16; Ps. 132:2, 5; cf. Isa. 1:24, “the Mighty One of Israel”). The Masoretic pointing without a daghesh in the middle consonant dissociates the epithet from the bull imagery of the northern Israelite cult and seeks to avoid confusion with Baal.

See further the individual entries.

Bibliography. A. Alt, “The God of the Fathers,” in Essays on Old Testament History and Religion (1967, repr. Sheffield, 1989), 1-77; F. M. Cross, Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic (Cambridge, Mass., 1973), 31-75; O. Eissfeldt, “}#0ôn, ʾü0Znāy,” TDOT 1:59-72; T. J. Lewis, “The Identity and Function of El/Baal Berith,” JBL 115 (1996): 401-23.

John L. McLaughlin

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

GOD IN THE OLD TESTAMENT, NAMES OF

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)