Praying (and Pronouncing) the Names of God – As spoken by Tony Evans
The Names of God in the Old Testament – Pronunciation and frequency of use plus more.
Parsing the Divine Name by Ronald S. Hendel at BAR. Shorter version is here.
Articles in BAR often write “Yahweh” as the name of ancient Israel’s God. This concerns some readers, as occasionally expressed in letters to the editor (see Queries & Comments). Here, I explain why many—but not all—biblical scholars and archaeologists use this name. The problem involves two intertwined facts: (1) The letters of the tetragrammaton—YHWH—are not fully vocalized in the Hebrew Bible; and (2) Jewish tradition prohibits the pronunciation of this name.
Talking Points:
- In the original Hebrew, the name of God is given as four letters, YHWH, known as the Tetragrammaton; these letters are the root of both Jehovah and Yahweh.
- Hendel argues, “The vocalization of the first syllable is actually preserved, mostly in liturgical expressions and personal names. ‘Halleluyah,’ a frequent refrain in the Psalms, means ‘Praise Yah.’”
- Likewise, Hendel explains, the names of many individuals in the Hebrew Bible contain the name “Yah,” such as Obadiah, Isaiah, Hezekiah, Josiah, and Nehemiah.
- later Second Temple traditions expanded on the commandment to include any utterance of the divine name. When reading from the scriptures, they would speak the name Adonai (“my Lord” in Hebrew) in the place of YHWH. Thus, when the Greek Septuagint version of the Hebrew Bible was translated in the early second century BCE, YHWH was replaced with Kurios (“Lord” in Greek).
Info below was derived or extracted from Names of God in Judaism at Wikipedia here.
YHWH – Main articles: Tetragrammaton, Yahweh, and Lord § Religion, Yahweh (Lord, Jehovah) (yah-weh)
Also abbreviated Jah, the most common name of God in the Hebrew Bible is the Tetragrammaton, יהוה, that is usually transcribed as YHWH. Hebrew script is an abjad, so that the letters in the name are normally consonants, usually expanded as Yahweh in English.[11]
As the Temple has not been rebuilt since its destruction in 70 CE, most modern Jews never pronounce YHWH but instead read אֲדֹנָי (Adonai, Hebrew pronunciation: [ʾăḏōnāy], lit. transl. My Lords, Pluralis majestatis taken as singular) during prayer and while reading the Torah and as HaShem (“The Name”) at other times.[29][30] 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.
HaShem
It is common Jewish practice to restrict the use of the names of God to a liturgical context. In casual conversation some Jews, even when not speaking Hebrew, will call God HaShem (השם), which is Hebrew for ‘the Name’ (compare Leviticus 24:11 and Deuteronomy 28:58). When written, it is often abbreviated to ה׳. Likewise, when quoting from the Tanakh or prayers, some pious Jews will replace Adonai with HaShem. For example, when making audio recordings of prayer services, HaShem[75] will generally be substituted for Adonai.
A popular expression containing this phrase is Baruch HaShem, meaning “Thank God” (literally, ‘Blessed be the Name’).[76]
Samaritans use the Aramaic equivalent Shema (שמא, ‘the name’) in much the same situations as Jews use HaShem.
Adonai
Adonai Duration: 3 seconds.0:03
אֲדֹנָי (ăḏōnāy, lit. transl. My Lords, pluralis majestatis taken as singular) is the possessive form of adon (‘Lord’), along with the first-person singular pronoun enclitic.[n 4] As with Elohim, Adonai’s grammatical form is usually explained as a plural of majesty. In the Hebrew Bible, the word is nearly always used to refer to God (approximately 450 occurrences).
In most English translations this word is rendered as “Lord” with the first letter capitalized and the other letters lower case. Those translations that have the word “Lord” in all capital letters, “LORD”, are instead indicating God’s covenant name YHWH (usually rendered “Yahweh”). The use of all capital letters denotes the difference between the use of Adonai and Yahweh. (Only the NRSV translation confuses the issue by rendering Adonai as both “Lord” and “LORD”). From here.
El
El – Duration: 3 seconds.0:03
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.[42] In the Hebrew Bible, El (אל, ʾel) appears very occasionally alone (e.g. Genesis 33:20, el elohei yisrael, ‘Mighty God of Israel’,[43] and Genesis 46:3, ha’el elohei abika, ‘El the God of thy father’)
Elohim – Main article: Elohim
A common name of God in the Hebrew Bible is Elohim (אלהים, ʾĕlōhīm), the plural of אֱלוֹהַּ (Eloah). When Elohim refers to God in the Hebrew Bible, singular verbs are used. The word is identical to elohim meaning gods 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).
El Shaddai- Main article: El Shaddai
How to pronounce – Click here.
El Shaddai (אל שדי, ʾel šaday, pronounced [ʃaˈdaj]) 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”.
From Wikipedia here
- Third in frequency among divine names,[9] the name Shaddai appears 48 times in the Bible, seven times as “El Shaddai” (five times in Genesis, once in Exodus, and once in Ezekiel).[10]
- The first occurrence of the name comes in Genesis 17:1, “When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, ‘I am El Shaddai; walk before me, and be blameless,’[11] Similarly, in Genesis 35:11 God says to Jacob, “I am El Shaddai: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins.” According to Exodus 6:2–3 Shaddai was the name by which God was known to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
See Ross Nichols’ list of scriptures that contain El Shaddai here.
Tzevaot – For the Gnostic deity, see Sabaoth (Gnosticism).
Tzevaot, Tzevaoth, Tsebaoth or Sabaoth (צבאות, ṣəḇāʾōṯ, [tsvaot] ⓘ, lit. “Armies”), usually translated “Hosts”, appears in reference to armies or armed hosts of men but is not used as a divine epithet in the Torah, Joshua, or Judges. Starting in the Books of Samuel, the term “Lord of Hosts” appears hundreds of times throughout the Prophetic books, in Psalms, and in Chronicles.
The Hebrew word Sabaoth was also absorbed in Ancient Greek (σαβαωθ, sabaōth) and Latin (Sabaoth, with no declension). Tertullian and other patristics used it with the meaning of “Army of angels of God”.[50]
Ehyeh – Main article: I Am that I Am
Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh – Duration: 4 seconds.0:04
Ehyeh asher ehyeh (אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה) is the first of three responses given to Moses when he asks for God’s name in the Book of Exodus.[26] The King James Version of the Bible translates the Hebrew as “I Am that I Am” and uses it as a proper name for God.
The word ehyeh is the first-person singular imperfect form of hayah, ‘to be’. Biblical Hebrew does not distinguish between grammatical tenses. It has instead an aspectual system in which the imperfect denotes any actions that are not yet completed,[51][52][53] Accordingly, Ehyeh asher ehyeh can be rendered in English:
- “I am that I am” or
- “I will be what I will be” or
- “I will be who I will be”, or
- “I shall prove to be whatsoever I shall prove to be” or even
- “I will be because I will be”.
- Other renderings include:
- Leeser, “I Will Be that I Will Be”;
- Rotherham, “I Will Become whatsoever I please”, Greek, Ego eimi ho on (ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ὤν),
- ‘I am The Being’ in the Septuagint,[54] and Philo,[55][56] and Revelation[57] or,
- “I am The Existing One”;
- Latin, ego sum qui sum, “I am Who I am.”
The word asher is a relative pronoun whose meaning depends on the immediate context, so that “that”, “who”, “which”, or “where” are all possible translations of that word.[58]
End of Extract from Wikipedia here.
Names for God in Scripture and passages in which these names are found.
Extracted from here.
In the Bible there are many different names given to the One True God. The most frequently used names are YHWH, usually rendered as Yahweh (ca. 6,800 times); Elohim (ca. 2,600 times); Adonai (ca. 439 times); and El (ca. 238 times). Most of the other names are combinations of these names like El Shaddai, El Eloah, and Yahweh Elohim. The most commonly used names for God in the Hebrew and Protestant Bibles are Ha-Shem (meaning “the name” which is used in the modern Jewish Masoretic Text translations of the Tanach) and Jehovah (used in both Protestant and Jewish translations). Both are names for God that only date back to the Middle Ages and are not found in the ancient texts of Sacred Scripture.
All Scripture quotations below are from the New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) unless otherwise noted as from the New American Bible (NAB).
- Elohim = “God” (plural) as in the Creator: In the beginning God (Elohim) created the heaven and the earth (Genesis 1:1).
- El Elyon (el el-yone’) = “God (singular) Most High”: And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; now he was a priest of [El Elyon] God the Most High. And He blessed him and said, ”blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand (Genesis 14:18-20).
- El Roi = “God Who Sees”: Then she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, ‘You are a [El Roi] God who sees’; for she said, ‘Have I even remained alive here after seeing Him?’ Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi [well of the living one who sees me] (Genesis 16:13-14).
- El Shaddai (el shad-di’) = “God Almighty” or “God the All-Sufficient One”; the etymology is so ancient that Biblical scholars do not agree on the meaning of this name: I AM El Shaddai. Live in my presence, be perfect, and I shall grant a covenant between myself and you, and make you very numerous. And Abram bowed to the ground (Genesis 17:2-3).
- Yahweh (yah-weh) = found in Scripture as the consonants YHWH, known as the “Tetragramaton” is God’s holy Covenant name. The letters form a word or words from the verb “to be” and most scholars translate it as “I AM who I AM” or “I will be who I will be”, or “the Self-Existent One: Moses said to God, ‘Look, if I go to the Israelites and say to them, The God of your ancestors has sent me to you, and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what am I to tell them?’ God said to Moses, ‘I AM He who is. Tell them that I AM who I am sent you (Exodus 3:13-14).
- Adonai (ad-o-noy’) = “Lord” (Note: LORD, all in capital letters is a substitution out of reverence for God’s covenant name “Yahweh”): Then Moses said to the LORD, ‘Please Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time past, nor since you have spoken to your servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue. And the LORD said to him, ‘Who has made men’s mouth? Or who make him dumb or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?’ (Exodus 4:10-12, NAB).
- Yahweh-jireh = “Yahweh will provide” or “I AM will provide”: But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, ‘Abraham, Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ And he said, ‘Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, form Me.’ Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behind him he saw a ram caught up in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place [Yahweh jireh] The LORD will provide, as it is said to this day: On the Mountain Yahweh provides (Genesis 22:11-14).
- Yahweh-rapha = “Yahweh who heals”: If you will give earnest heed to the voice of Yahweh your God and do what He regards as right, if you pay attention to His commandments and keep all His laws, I shall never inflict on you any of the diseases that I inflicted on the Egyptians, for I am Yahweh your Healer [Yahweh rapha] (Exodus 15:26).
- Yahweh–nissi = “Yahweh My Banner”: (after willing a battle with God’s assistance ) Moses built an altar, and named it Yahweh is My Banner [Yahweh-nissi] …(Exodus 17:16).
- Yahweh-mekoddishkem = “Yahweh Who Sanctifies You”: And Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ‘But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, “You shall surely observe My Sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am Yahweh who sanctifies you [Yahweh-mekoddishkem]…(Exodus 31:12).
- Yahweh-shalom = “Yahweh is Peace”: He said, ‘Alas, my Lord, Yahweh! Now I have seen the Angel of Yahweh face to face ‘ Yahweh answered, ‘Peace be with you; have no fear; you will not die.’ Gideon built an altar there to Yahweh and called it Yahweh is peace [Yahweh-shalom] (Judges 6:22-24).
- Yahweh-sabaoth = “Yahweh of Hosts” (the “hosts” are the army of angels who serve God): Who is He, this king of glory? Yahweh of Hosts [Yahweh-saboath], He is the king of glory (Psalm 46:7, NJB); The LORD of Hosts [Yahweh-sabaoth] is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold (Psalms 22:10, NAB).
- Yahweh-raah = “Yahweh My Shepherd”: The LORD [Yahweh raah] is my shepherd; I shall not want …(Psalms 23:1, NAB).
- Yahweh-tsidkenu = “Yahweh Our Saving Justice”: Look, the days are coming, Yahweh declares, when I shall rise an upright Branch for David; He will reign as king and be wise, doing what is just and upright in the country. In his days Judah will triumph and Israel live in safety, and this is the name He will be called Yahweh-our-saving-justice [Yahweh-tsidkenu] (Jeremiah 23:5-6).
