Jesus said of God His Father in Jn.17:3, “That they might know You, the only true God”. Learning the Divine Name & titles of God from the Bible languages can help us to better know the true Deity.
Our English word “God” is commonly used in Christianity to denote the Supreme Creator-Ruler of the universe and Source of right moral authority. The word comes from proto-Germanic words which were originally neuter, applying to both genders, but during Christianization the term God became masculine. The apostle Paul wrote in 1Co.8:5, “There are many gods and many lords”. In the 1st century AD there were many regional heathen gods with their various names & titles. In today’s English, the God who is supreme Deity usually is indicated by a capital “G”, to make a distinction from the gods of polythéism.
Old Testament (OT) scriptures used several terms to refer to the true righteous Deity, the uni-plural Godhead, who cannot be depicted by physical things. The New Testament (NT) uses fewer terms. The word God in most English translations of the OT most often represents four Hebrew & Aramáic terms.
1. EL: Strongs h410 – This was a masculine singular word for God/god common to many ancient Semitic cultures. There are over 200 OT occurrences. Its counterpart in the (Jewish) old Greek OT & Septúagint/LXX & NT is Théos, Strongs g2316. Theos occurs 1,340 times in the NT. El was also the proper name of the Canaaníte high god, whose son was Báal. Basically El denotes power/might. The word El appears within many proper names, e.g.: Beth-El (house of God), Isra-El (overcomer with God), Micha-El (who is like God), Immanu-El (with us is God). The word El is also combined with other characteristic terms, such as El Elyón (God Most High), ref Ge.14:19-20, Ps.78:35; and El Shaddái (God Almighty or the Mighty Breasted One) in Ge.17:1, 49:25, Ex.6:3. The term El can also be used for strange gods or idol gods, ref Ex.34:14 & Ps.44:20; Messiah Himself, Is.9:6; and possibly angels.
2. ELÓAH: Strongs h433 – This word is found mostly in Job and poetic passages. It is derived from, and means the same as, El. The LXX uses the term Theos g2316. Eloah is the feminine singular (or possibly the dual) of Elohim. It’s used 55 times, e.g. Jb.27:3, De.32:15, Is.44:8, Ne.9:17. Eloah can be used for strange idol gods, e.g. 2Ch.32:15, Da.11:38. Although the feminine -ah ending is in this title, there’s not universal agreement regarding the exact relationship of Eloah to the deity of our Bible and to the terms El & Elohim. However, in scripture Eloah is never called Elyon h5945 the Most High.
3. ELAÁH: h426 – This term is Aramaic, not Hebrew. There are 90 occurrences in the Aramaic (not the Hebrew) chapters of Ezra & Daniel. e.g. Ezr.4:24, 7:15, Da.2:18. It too can refer to strange gods; Je.10:11, Da.3:12. The LXX uses Theos. It is uncertain whether or not Elaah corresponds to Eloah.
4. ELOHÍM: h430 – This is the most common term for God/gods in the OT. It occurs 2,600 times, beginning with Ge.1:1. It too denotes might/power. In one sense, Elohim connotes God as Creator, the Mighty Ones. The LXX & NT uses Theos. Elohim is a masculine plural ending -im combined with the feminine singular root Eloah (or possibly El). When it is used for the true God, the word is considered a singular noun, usually taking singular verbs & adjectives. Elohim is also used for foreign gods/goddesses, e.g. Ge.35:2 & Ex.18:11; the singular Dagón in 1Sm.5:7; ghost in 1Sm.28:13; human judges of Israel (arbitrating for God), Ex.21:6 & 22:8; Moses himself, Ex.4:16 & 7:1; Messiah Himself, Ps.45:6-7; and possibly regional rulers/principalities in the heavenlies (Ps.82:1) and angels & demons. In these cases, the word denotes a (seemingly) supernatural being or a representative of the true God.
Many explanations for the plural form Elohim have been proposed. Most Christians relate it to the plural nature of the one Godhead/Tri-unity. The masc plural –im form of God appears to designate a plural of fullness or intensive plural. That is, the true Godhead embodies the fullness of deity or the totality of qualities that humans would call “God”. The Trinity of the Bible is the only One (of all elohim or gods) who warrants the description ‘God is true DEITY in the complete sense of the word’.
YHVH/YHWH: h3068 – In the KJV, this is rendered “LORD” in all caps. This Name of four letters is 3rd person singular. The Hebrew letters are yod hey vav hey, which together may have sounded like ee–áh–oo–aye (Yáhweh) said rapidly in ancient Hebrew. The meaning…He is/He exists, e.g. Ex.3:15. These four letters appear on the Moabite Stone (dated 830 BC) and on Láchish pottery (dated 580 BC).
For YHVH, the LXX & NT uses the term Kúrios g2962, meaning ‘Lord’; there’s 700 NT occurrences.
AHYH is the 1st person singular. The letters are áleph hey yod hey, and may have sounded like ehyéh asher ehyéh. Ex.3:14 meaning I AM, I AM who I AM, I will exist, I will be, I will become that I will become. cf. the Greek “I AM” Jesus spoke in Jn.18:4-6 with the Greek LXX Ex.3:14 “I AM the Being”. Jesus, the preexistent Word of God (Jn.1:1, 14), also said in Jn.8:56-58, “Before Abraham was, I AM”.
Today the ancient Hebrew pronunciations are uncertain. Both YHVH/YHWH and AHYH are state of being verbs from the root HYH, hey yod hey, which perhaps sounded like háyah, meaning…to exist. In Hebrew, they signify the family Name of the Godhead/Tri-unity (uniplural).
The Name YHVH/YHWH (h3068) is called the Tetragrámmaton, the ‘Name of Four Letters’. This théonym is thought by most Bible historians to be the personal proper Name of the Elohim of Israel. It occurs over 6,500 times, more than any other proper name or noun in the entire OT!
In old Hebrew scrolls, this Name had no vowel marks (níqqud) for pronunciation. Alphabet letters in the ancient Paleo-Hebrew script were consonants. It seems the letters YHVH or YHWH could also be used as vowels (therefore they’ve been called semi-vowels.) Josephus wrote in Wars of the Jews 5:5:7 that the letters of the Name were vowels. The general consensus of Bible scholars is…the Name was originally said as Yáhweh (ee-áh-oo-aye) or Yáhuah or Yehuah. The pronunciation Jehóvah was based on a different set of vowel marks, and didn’t appear until the Middle Ages. The term Jehovah is used a few times in the KJV, but is considered less likely to be an authentic pronunciation.
Because of its use in several key passages, this Name/theonym is said to connote (in addition to its above literal meaning) God’s faithfulness to his covenant promises and His nearness to His people. The Name is representative of God’s righteous nature & character.
It is significant to note that the Name YHVH/YHWH h3068 was never used in those chapters & verses of Ezra and Daniel which were written in Aramaic! God is identified as Elaah 90 times in those chapters! Elaah pertained to a non-Hebrew-speaking society. (The OT chapters & verses written in Aramaic were Ezra 4:8 – 6:18, Ezra 7:12-26, Daniel 2:4 – 7:28, Jeremiah 10:11. see the topic “Aramaic in the Bible”.)
Today there are Sacred Name groups so-called which think the Hebrew Name YHVH/YHWH should be spoken & used predominantly for “God” in all nations/cultures. I took a correspondence course from a Sacred Name group in the early 1990s. Some Sacred Name adherents believe that not using His Name YHWH/YHVH is taking His Name in vain, and violates the 3rd commandment of the Decalogue.
My personal practice is to only infrequently use the Tetragrammaton Name in general communications. It’s not customary to use it. We aren’t certain how it was pronounced in Old Hebrew. There are Bible scholars & archaeologists who can read the ancient Hebrew and Aramaic…yet they admit they can’t be certain exactly how the Name was pronounced! Also some Jews take offense over use of the Name YHVH/YHWH. My intent is to use names & titles that facilitate communication and understanding.
The prophet Daniel was one of three righteous men named by Ezekiel (Ezk.14:14, 20). Daniel wasn’t the kind of man who’d customarily break the 3rd commandment! Yet even in inspired scripture, wise Daniel and Ezra didn’t think it necessary to transliterate the Tetragrammaton when communicating in a language (Aramaic) other than Hebrew! And the Name isn’t transliterated in the OT Greek LXX either, as it has come down to us. So it’s unnecessary to always utter the Name. That’s not to say Sacred Namers aren’t well-meaning. But their inflexibility and presumption in requiring an exact Hebrew pronunciation causes a measure of confusion and needless division in the Body of Christ. Moving on….
YAH: h3050 – This is an abbreviated form, used nearly 50 times (in Psa. & Isa.). ref Ps.68:4b, Is.12:2, Ex.15:2. The Greek LXX uses Kurios. Re.19:6 reflects Hallelú-Yah, shown as Allelú-ia in some NT’s.
In the KJV and most English Bibles, the name YHVH is rendered…the “LORD” (all caps). This is a euphemism to avoid using or (incorrectly) pronouncing God’s personal name. The Jewish Encyclopedia said the using of YHVH in common speech became forbidden due to an extreme interpretation of Le.24:16 (where an individual cursed and spoke God’s Name with contempt) combined with Ex.20:7 (regarding taking God’s Name in vain or for no good purpose or to attest an untruth). So Jews often refer to God as HaShém (The Name), or just write “G-d”.
adówn: h113 – The English word “lord” (not all caps) represents this Hebrew term, which means master/lord/ruler (human or divine). It occurs 330 times. e.g. Ps.110:1 “The LORD (YHVH) said to my Lord (Adown).” When reading the Bible aloud, Jews began to substitute this term for YHVH.
Adonái: h136 – In English, rendered “Lord”. This plural noun, appearing 430 times, is an emphatic form of adon h113 (lord). When the divine Name YHVH was next to Adonai in the text, usually the Jewish scribes substituted the vowels for elohim h430 instead…translated as “the Lord God” (instead of “the Lord LORD”); h3069 ee-ah-oo-vee a variation of h3068 YHVH (300 times). e.g. De.9:26, Is.25:8. Brittanica.com “The Masorétes, from the 6th to the 10th centuries CE, added to ‘YHWH’ the vowel signs of Adonai [h136] or Elohim [h430].” So the reader/speaker would substitute it for the Tetragrammaton.
Jewish translators of the old Greek (now the LXX) used Kurios for both adon h113 and Adonai h136.
Furthermore, in Bullinger’s Companion Bible Appendix #32 “The 134 Emendations of the Sopherim” are listed all 134 places in the OT where the Name YHVH h3068 (“LORD” in KJV) was thought to be intentionally altered to Adonai h136 (“Lord”) by the scribes! also ref Ginsburg’s Massórah. (They did note the changes in the margins.) e.g. Ps.110:5, Ge.18:3 (v.17 & v.19 has 1st & 3rd person singular), 27, 30, 32, 19:18, 20:4, Ex.4:10, Is.6:1, etc. It seems the 134 alterations were done in verses where YHVH was seen/anthropomórphised (took on human attributes/form) or plural in the text! The Aramaic Targums referred to the anthropomorphised or a 2nd YHVH as “the Mémra of the Lord” YHVH. In NT Greek, John called the Memra “the Lógos” (g3056), “the Word” in English, Jn.1:1. Targum Jonathán Ge.19:24 “The Memra [Word] of the Lord [in Sodom] caused fire…to descend from the Lord in heaven.” Two divine Persons/YHVHs were in text, so the Targum called the 2nd the Memra/(Word).
Almighty: g3841 Pantokrátor – This term appears in the Greek OT & NT. The 10 NT occurrences are: 2Co.6:18, Re.1:8, 4:8, 11:17, 15:3, 16:7, 14, 19:6, 15, 21:22. According to Vines Expository, p.50, “The word is introduced in the Old Testament Septuagint as a translation of LORD h3068 (or God h430) of hosts h6635. e.g. Je.5:14 and Am.4:13”. That is, in the Greek LXX & NT…“Almighty” g3841 is often used (though not in Isaiah) for the OT “YHVH of hosts”. (g3841 pantokrator isn’t used for the OT h7706 “El Shaddai”, the “Almighty” God of Ge.17:1, Job, etc.)
Also, in scripture God’s divine Name or a title was joined with one of God’s attributes, resulting in a characteristic Name in some translations. e.g.: the Everlasting (olám h5769) El in Ge.21:33, YHVH Jéereh/Provider (h3070) in Ge.22:14, YHVH Rapháh/Healer (h7495) in Ex.15:26.
Theophórics – These are abbreviations or shortened forms of the Name YHVH which appear within several human names in the Bible. At the beginning of names it appears as Yeho-, Ye-, or Yo-. For example: Yeho-shúa (Joshua) Ye-hu (Jehu), Yo-natan (Jonathan), or Yo-El (Joel ‘the Lord is God’). At the end of names it appears as –Yah. For example: Yesha-Yah (Isaiah), Yirme-Yah (Jeremiah), Zechar-Yah (Zechariah). The word Hallelujah is literally Hallelu-Yah (Praise YHVH/the LORD).
Father – g3962 patér. Jesus often spoke of/to God as His Father. e.g. Mk.14:36, Jn.5:26. In the OT, the term father (h1 awb) rarely referred to God as Father. But God as Father is common in the NT. Also Abbáh g5 (Father), derived from Aramaic, occurs 3 times in the NT; Mk.14:36, Ro.8:15, Ga.4:6.
To conclude…the greatest in the Godhead is God the Father, from Whom the whole Family is named (Ep.3:14-15)! He’s even greater than His Son Jesus (Jn.14:28), who consistently deferred to His Father. Father God is Supreme! For more on this aspect, see the topics “Godhead in Prehistory” and “Tri-unity of God”. For more about Jesus’ Name, see “Savior’s Name in Bible Languages”.
Bible Topic Exposition 