Names of God
Monotheistic faiths believe that there is and can only be one unique supreme being,
Polytheism means the belief in several coexisting deities. The
conceptions of such beings can vary widely, but the word
God in English and its counterparts in cognate languages are normally used for all of them. Other languages have similar generic names, and a common experience is for the word for "God" in one language to be
perceived by speakers of other languages as the name of a specific deity worshipped by speakers of that one language. However some names refer almost exclusively to the supreme being of a single religion.
Some of the names are used in approximately the same sense (e.g., when a Catholic uses both "God" and "the Holy Trinity"), but for the most part, the names mark important differences in meaning. Positivists (e.g., advocates of
Logical empiricism) should take note that a robust theory of the meaning of
Religious Language, however dismissive, ought to be able to account, in
some fashion, for these differences in meaning. Among the names used, or ways to refer to the divine, are the following; there are both generic words given for the divine being(s), as well as specific names (used by analogy to names for particular individuals or things) for the divine used in particular religions.
Judaism
In the
Hebrew Bible, the name of God represents the
Jewish conception of the divine nature. The various Jewish names of God represent God, and His divine attributes. The most important name of God is the
tetragrammaton (
Hebrew:,
English:
YHVH or
YHWH"vowels are not written in the Hebrew spelling), and
Elohim.
Christianity
Yahweh or
Jehovah are common vocalizations of God's personal name based on the Hebrew
tetragrammaton (above). Most modern
Christian Bibles have removed this name in nearly all of the 7000 places it appears in the Hebrew Scriptures, usually replacing it with 'LORD' or a similar alternative. The name does appear at four places in the King James Bible (e.g. Exodus 6:3), but is only used with prominence by the
Jehovah's Witnesses. Nearly all Christian traditions recognize the name in some form, even if it has largely fallen out of use.
Much of Christendom believes in the
Holy Trinity, i.e. a single God in three Persons,
God the Father,
God the Son and
God the Holy Ghost.
Jesus (
Iesus,
Yeshua,
Joshua, or
Yehoshûa) is a Hebraic personal name meaning "Jehovah saves/helps/is salvation",
[ Bible Dictonary by Wm. Smith LLD 1948 p.307; An Expository Dictionary of NT Words by W.E. Vine 1965 edition p.275, Websters English Dictionary; etc. ].
Christ means "the annointed" in
Greek, translating
Messiah; while in English the old Anglo-saxon Messiah-rendering
hæland 'healer' was practically anihilated by the Latin Christ, some cognates such as
heiland in Dutch survive.
In the effort to translate the
Bible into every language (see
SIL), the Christian God has usually been named after a pagan or philosophical concept that was present in the language before Christianity.
God itself is an example of this, the word having earlier referred to Germanic pagan deities.
Greek Theos (
Θεός, with the initial letter invariably capitalised - pagan or "false" gods were written as
theos/θεός, theoi/θεοί with lowercase letters used throughout)) was used for the supreme God even before Christianity, in the
Septuagint. St. Jerome translated the Hebrew word
Elohim to
Latin as
Deus. Other names of the Christian God that have a history of pagan meanings include
Slavic Bog,
Finnish Jumala,
Japanese Kami and in
Arabic Allah which is generally thought to be solely a word which describes the Islamic God.
The less evangelical branch of the
Quakers often refers to God as
The Light.
Another term used is '
King of Kings' or 'Lord of Lords' and
Lord of the Hosts.
Other names used by Christians include the
Hebrew names
Elohim,
El-Shaddai, and
Adonai.
Islam
Allah is the most frequently used name of God in
Islam when speaking Arabic. It originally simply meant "the God" in Arabic, and was used in pre-Islamic times to refer to a divinity worshipped in
Mecca. It is properly translated as "God" in English, and seen by Muslims as the same God of Christianity and Judaism (Referred to as "the God of
Abraham,
Isaac, and
Jacob). The
Arabic word
Allah is a
linguistic cognate of the
Hebrew word
Eloah and the
English word "
god", although there are some
Christian sects which claim that there is a distinction between their deity and the deity or deities worshipped in either
Judaism or
Islam. Nevertheless,
Allah is the same word in
Arabic used by
Arab Jews and
Christians when speaking of God.
An Islamic tradition states that there are
99 Names of God, which are His attributes.
Besides those names of
Qur'anic origin, some other names have been used, be it far less widely, e.g. the Osmanli anachronism
Tangri (originally the pagan Turks' celestial chief god, corresponding to the Mongol
Tengri), or the
Farsi word for God,
Khuda.
Rastafari
*
Haile Selassie is the name of God incarnate in the
Rastafari movement. God is called
Jah and Haile Selassie is called Jah Rastafari, from his precoronation name Ras Tafari Makonnen
Bahá'í Faith
Bahá'ís refer to God using the local word for God in whatever language is being spoken, so
God is used in English,
Allah in Arabic,
Gud in the Scandinavian languages, and so forth. This is because Bahá'ís believe that, although people have different concepts of God and His nature, and may call Him by different names and use different languages, everyone is referring to one unique Deity.
Bahá'ís believe that the essence of God is beyond the knowledge and understanding of human beings, and that he therefore must be known through his names, or attributes. God's names are seen as his attributes, and God is often, in prayers, referred to by these titles and attributes, such as the Mighty, the All-Powerful, the Merciful, the Ever-Forgiving, the Most Generous, the All-Wise, the Incomparable, the Gracious, the Helper, the All-Glorious, the Omniscient.
Translations of scripture typically use the local language unless a whole phrase is being transliterated for a specific purpose. However, since the languages in which the Bahá'í Faith was first authored were Arabic and Farsi, the term
Allah and other "names" are used in some specific contexts, even by non-Arabic speakers. The above-mentioned attributes are sometimes referred to in their Arabic form - for instance Bahá'ís refer to "Bahá" (meaning Glory or Splendour) as The
Greatest Name of God. This also forms the root of the word "Bahá'i." The Bahá'í greeting
Alláh'u'abhá is a formulation of this word and is usually translated "God is most Glorious".
*
Aten is the earliest name of a supreme being associated with monotheistic thought, being the solar divinity which
Akhenaten had declared the only god of the state cult, as part of his wholesale absolutist reforms, thereby threatening the position on the various temple priesthoods, which had the old polytheism restored immediately after his death. See also the
Great Hymn to the Aten .
*
Ahura Mazda "Lord of Light" or "Lord Wisdom" (wisdom and light being synonymous in either case) is the name of the supreme benevolent god in
Zoroastrianism. Zoroastrians today may refer to Ahura-Mazda as 'Ormazd,' simply being a contraction of the original term.
While some of the older deities have names long pre-dating the
Latin people the
Romans belong to, and even more were adopted with their
autochthonous names (or Latinized in a recognizable way), many minor divinities were named simply as personifications of various minor aspects of daily life.
Latin also prominently used an abstract word for god,
deus (hence deity and, from its adjective
divinus, divinity), from
Proto-Indo-European root
deiwos, also the root of words for "sky" and "day" -- the god-sense is originally "shining," but "whether as originally sun-god or as lightener" is not now clear; the
epithet Deus Optimus Maximus, DOM "Best and Greatest God", coined for
Jupiter, the
pater familias of the Roman
pantheon, was later adopted in Christianity, as well as
Deus.
The name of this
Persian god of light, one of the earliest Indic words we possess, being found in clay tablets from Anatolia dating to about 1500 B.C, reported in English only since 1551, is from Latin, from Greek
Mithras, derived from itself from Avestan
Mithra-, possibly from an Indo-Iranian root
mitram "contract," whence
mitras "contractual partner, friend," conceptualized as a god, or, according to Kent, first the
epithet of a divinity and eventually his name; from proto-Indo-Germanic root base
mei- "to bind"; related to Sanskrit
Mitrah, a Vedic deity associated with Varuna.
Hinduism
*
Brahman in
Sanskrit is both the knowable and unknowable Supreme.
, has been seen as the first manifestation of the unmanifest Brahman (the single Divine Ground of Hinduism) that resulted in the phenomenal universe.
Anami Purush (nameless power) and
Radha Soami (lord of the soul) are two names used for God in
Surat Shabda Yoga.
*In
Vaishnavism, the
Vishnu sahasranama enumerates names of God. The names of
Vishnu's
Dasavatara in particular are considered divine names. In
Gaudiya Vaishnavism,
Krishna in particular is held as the personal aspect of God, the
Hare Krishnas being a modern example of a movement following this philosophy.
*In
Shaivism, the
Shiva sahasranama enumerates names of God.
*
Trimurti is the
Hindu "Trinity", although this differs largely to the Christian conception. See
Vishnu,
Shiva,
Brahma. See also
Sahasranama.
Sikhism
In
Sikhism God is One Entity and has no gender. He is referred to in the
Sikh Scriptures by many hundreds of names. The holy scripture of the
Sikhs called the
Sri Guru Granth Sahib or
SGGS begins with the following passage called the
Mool Mantar or the "Main
Mantra":
Original Text -:
ISO 15919 transliteration:
:Simplified transliteration: Ik ōaṅkār sat nām kartā purkh nirbha'u nirvair akāl mūrat ajūnī saibhaṃ gur prasād :
English: One God. Truth is His name. Creative Being Personified. No Fear. No Malice. Image Of The Undying, Beyond Birth, Self-Existent. By Guru's Grace ~
The English translation uses 'His' or 'He' when referring to God. Sikhism does not recognise God as being of either sex and the original Punjabi version reflects this by being gender neutral.The
SGGS says the following about God:
"You have so many Names, Lord, I do not know their limit. There is no other equal to You." (SGGS page 877).
However, some of the popular names for God are:
*
Akal Purakh meaning
Timeless Primal Being. "Akal" stands for 'Primal, timeless' and "Purakh" stands for 'Being'
*
Ek Onkar meaning
One Creator. "Ek" means "One"; "Onkar" means "Creator".
*
Satnam meaning
True Name*
Waheguru, meaning
Wonderful Lord*
Bhao Khandan meaning
Destroyer of Fear*
Dukh Bhanjno meaning
Dispeller of Pain*
Bhagat Vachhal meaning
Lover of His Saints*
Hari meaning
Glowing, Shining, Vitalising - Absolute Name of God
*
Govind meaning
Preserver of the WorldGod according to
Guru Nanak is beyond full comprehension by humans; has endless number of virtues; takes on innumerable forms; and can be called by an infinite number of names thus
"Your Names are so many, and Your Forms are endless. No one can tell how many Glorious Virtues You have." (SGGS page 358)
*
Shang Ti 上帝 (
Hanyu Pinyin: shàng dì) (literally
King Above) was a supreme God worshipped in ancient
China. It is also used to refer to the Christian God in the
Standard Mandarin Union Version of the
Bible.
*
Shen 神 (lit.
spirit, or
deity) is commonly used to refer to various spirits, including gods, and was adopted by
Protestant missionaries in China to refer to the Christian God. In this context it is usually rendered with a space, " 神", to demonstrate reverence.
*
Tian 天 (lit.
sky or
heaven) is used to refer to the sky as well as a personification of the sky. Whether it possesses sentience in the embodiment of an omnipotent, omniscient being is a difficult question for linguists and philosophers.
*
Xwedê is the term used for God in the
Yazidi religion and in
Kurdish.
*
Abraxas is a god uniting the
dualistic concepts in
Gnosticism. See also
Monad.
*
Cao Đài is the name of God in
Caodaism.
Deism and Pantheism
In
Deism and
Pantheism, and in variations like
Pandeism,
Panendeism, and
Panendeism, God is sometimes refered to as
Deus (pronounced Day-es), the Latin word giving rise to the word, Deism. Believers in Pantheistic or Pandeistic systems equate God with the Universe, and may refer to God by that term.
Several religions advance
taboos related to names of their gods. In some cases, the name may never be spoken, or only spoken by inner-circle
initiates, or only spoken at prescribed moments during certain
rituals. In other cases, the name may be freely spoken, but when written, taboos apply. It is common to regard the written name of one's god as deserving of
respect; it ought not, for instance, be stepped upon or dirtied. It may be permissible to burn the written name when there is no longer a use for it.
Judaism
Most observant
Jews forbid any method of discarding the written name of God. Once written, the name must be preserved indefinitely. This leads to several noteworthy practices:
* Commonplace materials, such as
calendars which include quotations from Torah, are written with an intentionally abbreviated form of the name. For instance, quotations written in English may substitute "G-d" for the name of God. Thus, a calendar or children's Hebrew school workbook may be discarded along with ordinary trash.
* Copies of the
Torah are, like most
scriptures, heavily used during
worship services, and will eventually become worn out. Since they may not be disposed of in any way, including by burning, they are removed, traditionally to the
synagogue attic.
See genizah. There they remain until the building itself is destroyed by the hand of God or
gentiles (non-Jews).
* All religious texts that include the name of God are buried.
Islam
*In Islam the name of God may be uttered and written freely, although respect is practiced in its utterance. Like Judaism, the written name of God or any religious text may not be discarded. Methods of its disposal differ among cultures, while some may cut out, for example of a letter, the name of God and burn it by fire, others may bury it and others keep it. Note that this is not a religious obligation but a cultural one: in islam any form of idol worship is forbiden, and some may argue that believing that pen on paper forming any pattern or word does not deserve special status.
Tabuism or glorification are usually reasons not to refer to a deity directly by name.
In addition to capitalized
pronouns (e.g. He, Him, She, Her, One), this can be split into two types: Phrases and Alternatives. Generally, phrases are used to extol, and alternatives are more direct replacements for words.
Phrases
*One Most High
*The Holy One
*My Rock
*My Redeemer
*The One in Which There is No Flaw
*The
King of Kings (also an earthly ruler's title)
*Our Father
*King of the Heavens
*The Almighty
*Pancrator (Pantocrator) 'ruler of everything'
*He who is called "I am"
*The LORD
Alternatives
*
G-d *
G*d *
HaShem (
he. literally "The Name")
*
Ichthys for Jesus Christ
* Yud-Kay-Vov-Kay (Spelling of the
Tetragrammaton replacing the letter Hey with "Kay")
* Elokeinu (again, replacing the Hebrew letter Hey with a Kuf in the nominal phrase "Our Lords")
* Elokeem (again, replacing the letter Hey with a Kuf in the nominal word "Lords")
*
Names of God in Old English poetry*
Aigonz is the word for God in the
lingua ignota of
Hildegard of Bingen*
Eru Ilúvatar, a name of monotheistic God in
Quenya, a fictional language invented by
J. R. R. Tolkien.
*"
The Nine Billion Names of God", a short story by
Arthur C. Clarke.
*
Maleldil is the name of God in
Old Solar, the true language in the
Space Trilogy books by
C.S. Lewis
*
Goddess*
List of deities*
Names of God in Judaism*
99 Names of God (in Islam)
*
Sahasranama (Hindu)
*
Etymology OnLine- here divinity and Mithras*
Hebrew Names of G-d*
Names of God*
Names of Krishna (God)*
Encyclopaedia Britannica 1911- Turks*
Meher Baba's 101 Names of God*
Jehovah (Yahweh)*
Hinduism, Hinduism Today
*
Ehyeh and YHWH - The Relationship Between the Divine Names in Exodus 3:14-15
