Page 100 - Coincidences in the Bible and in Biblical Hebrew

CHAPTER 4 THE NAME OF GOD (JEHOVAH)

CHAPTER 4

The Name of God (Jehovah )

4.1 The Divine in Hebrew and in English
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God appears in the Bible in a multiplicity of names. Some examples are Adon
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(for example, Josh. 3:11, 13), El (Gen. 14:20, 22), El Shadai (Gen. 43:14),
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Elohim (Gen. 1:1), Eheyeh (Exod. 3:14), Hashem (literally, “the Name”—refer,
for example, to Lev. 24:11, Deut. 28:58). A combination thereof is also not rare,
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for example: Hashen Elohenu (Hashem our Elohim).
However, the most sacred in Hebrew is the four-letter Divine Name, also
denoted as the tetragrammaton (or tetragram), and in Hebrew, literally, Hashem

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Hamephorash (the Explicit Name).
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This name is Yehovah (YHVH), pronounced in English “Jehovah ” or
“Yahweh.”
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The most frequently appearing names of God in the Bible are probably Elohim
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and Jehovah . El, (or Eloah), from which Elohim is derived, also means “force” in
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Hebrew. Elohim is therefore perceived, in Jewish tradition, as “the one who has
all the forces”—in short, the God of nature. This name for the Divine appears
repeatedly in the first chapter of Genesis, where creation is detailed; furthermore,

this is the only name for God used therein. Although plural in linguistic structure,
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Elohim is always related to in the Bible in the singular, emphasizing the oneness
of God (there is a single exception that we will discuss shortly).

The other name for God, Jehovah , makes its first appearance only in the second
chapter of Genesis, when the story of the creation of Adam and Eve is retold in
detail (a previous version is related in the first chapter of Genesis, verses 26–28).

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In Jewish tradition, the two names, Elohim and Jehovah , convey two “pic-
tures” of the conduct of God. The former is God of absolute justice (Din), the
latter of justice softened with grace and compassion, which results in a perception
of the Divine as God of mercy. Jewish sages relate to the differences between the
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