the sacred name of god: in tongues of different traditions

7/31/2019 THE SACRED NAME OF GOD: IN TONGUES OF DIFFERENT TRADITIONS

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THE SACRED NAME OF GOD:IN TONGUES OF DIFFERENT TRADITIONS

By Dr. P. R. Palodhi

The Name of God is the reference point for man in relation to its Creator - without which humanitysyearning for Ultimate Reality remains vague and vacant. God reveals His name in recurrent cycles ofProphetic religions so that man can gravitate towards Him. But as the tradition gets older pomposity ofPagan aspirations increases and continues to distort the Name revealed by the Creator until a Prophetarrives with the name of God to revitalize the tradition of God. Because of such repeated cycles ofProphetic teachings, the name of God, codes of religious conduct, warnings about Satan and false gods,Here and Hereafter, and Final Judgment etc remained as traditional continuity in revealed religions(Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity and Islam) separated by the time, the place and the language.

In reflecting to the Name of God our probe could go back to the earliest written materials found duringvarious explorations like: in the ruins of the Royal Library of the Ebla civilization, in the archaeological siteof Tell Mardikh in Syria dated to 2300 BC; or inscriptions of proto-Sinaitic, Canaanite, Phoenician,Akkadian, Ugarit, east and west Semitic, Hebrew, and Aramaic etc languages. The archaic root of thename of the Creator God could be traced as EA-El from the deciphered archives of ancient Near Eastfrom where our civilization springs up; now the various cognates of EA-EL suggest that Gods sacred

names that we get now as YAHWEH-ELOHIM of Hebrew Bible or ALLAHof Arabic Quran also havecome in tongues of ancient generations and remained vibrant throughout the course of religion s history.Thus cognates of YAHWEH (The Lord, giver of life) in different tongues are traceable as EA - YAH -IHOH - IOW - AHUR - ASSUR - ISHVAR etc. And cognates of ELOHIM / ALLAH (The God, first cause)have reverberated asELENL IL ELAH ELOAH - ELYON - IL - ILAH - ILU etc.

Cognates of EA / YAHWEH in Traditions around the world:EA: Temple of EA at Ur, we find cuneiform clay tablet writings: EA creates man

Work in his Eridu fruit-tree garden. Babylonian version of Noah ( i.e. Pir-Napishtim) was worshipper of AE/EA.

YAU: Assyro-Babylonian name for Divinity.AY(Y) A: Akkadian expression for God.I-HE-WEI: Taoist abstract self created Trinity.

IHOH: Cabalistic name for absolute creator/destroyer/author/regulator.YWA: In extant hymns of Karen tribes of Burma YWAis the name of eternal Omnipotent

Creator God which has been obliterated by the adverse impact of latter Buddhism.IOW: Symbol under which Druids invoked omnipotent power the spirit of creation akin to

IHOH.TAO: Chinese expression for the way of Supreme Divine.HU: Archaic Vedic word root meaning: to call upon, invoke.WSJR: The consonantal script form of Egyptian Supreme God OSIRIS, which has latter

been paganized into a polytheistic cult. The Coptic form is USIRE.ASHUR: Assyrian expression for Supreme God.AHUR: Persian expression for Supreme God.AESIR: Norse expression for Supreme GodESAR: Turkish expression for Supreme God

ISVAR: Indian expression for Supreme God (Sanskrit root: ISH= who commands).WAHEGURU: In Sikhism the Supreme Divine Master Who neither begets nor was begotten.ASHURA: Muslim holy day observed on the 10

thof Muharram, the first month of Islamic year.

Ashura was originally designated in 622 by Prophet Muhammad as a day offasting. But when relationship between the Jews and the Muslims becamestrained, Prophet made Ramadanthe Muslim month of fasting, leaving Ashura

fasting as a voluntary observance. On this day Adam and Eve, life and death,fate and pen supposedly were created.


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Cognates of EL / ALLAH or ELOHIM:EL: Was used by the Phoenicians for the High One. In Hebrew it appears as

The First Cause. In Canaanite/Ugraitic myths it is Supreme God.LI: In Chinese mythology: abstract right, cosmic law and order, divine

Intelligence,LIAO: Chinese ALTER for Supreme ruler (God).ILLA TICCI: Peruvian omniscient God. Epithet of Viaracocha.ELE: The word root from the Greek meaning giver of light.ELYSIUM: Paradise in Greek mythology.LA: Means creator (chap: 348; Agni Puran). The word root means that which

existed for ever. In Mayan sacred mysteries LA signifies: Eternal Truth.ALA: Name of God in Igbo tribe (Nigeria)ALLAH: The finally revealed Name to the mankind which has not undergone any

metamorphosis like the cases of all other previous names of God.

It is utter mistake to surmise that these names are mere human invention and products of simpleevolution of language. Quran reveals that Prophets of mankind received Revelations in their ownlanguages:Allah sent not a Messenger except to teach in the language of his own, in order to make thingsclear to them. (Q, 14:4).

Reflection to Allah and Yahweh-Elohim:

If we look into the Prophetic traditions from posteriorisequel, the name revealed in the final Revelation formankind came in Quran as Allah in Arabic; and before Prophet Muhammad also we could hear fromProphet Jesus (Matt 27:46; Mark 15:34) in Aramaic: Eli, Eli, la ma sabachthani? (My God, my God,hast Thou forsaken me?). The very frequent Hebrew word for God occurring in OT is Elohim (a cognateof the word Allah).The name Allah revealed in Quran for more than 2500 time (similar to the frequ encyof Elohim in Hebrew Bible). Biblical tradition has received the Words of God through severalgenerations of Prophets since last few millennia; thereby it has accrued records of Revelationfrom the time even before formation of alphabetic languages.From archaic tradition of El-Yah, whenthe texts were written in later ages, the choice of word or words for God had varied in the Hebrew Bibleversions. These variations are evidenced in two different source texts: Elohist and Yahvist. Elohist Torah

calls upon God as ELOHIM (meaning God), and Yahvist Tora of Jahwist source as YHVH or YAHWEH(meaning Lord) which is also found in Dead Sea Scrolls of the Essenes community dating back to 2000years. The difference in names results from the theological point being made in the Elohist and Priestlysources that God did not reveal his name Yahweh to any man before the time of Moses. Scholarspointed that: It is not certain, however, that 'Yahweh' was the oldest form of the name. A short form 'yah'appears 25 times in the Old Testament (Ex 15:2; and cultic cry 'hallelu-Yah'= 'praise Yah'). Sometimesthe short form appears as 'yahu' or 'yo' as in proper names like Joel ('Yo is God') or Isaiah ('Yah issalvation'). So it is evident from the last two people of the Book that the Gods Name has come to theMuslims as ALLAH (God) in the Quran, and to the Hebrews as YAHWEH-ELOHIM (Lord God) in theBible. Understanding of the senses implied in the cognate words Elohim and Allah demand reflection totheircommon root l (for both God and in its pagan aberrations i.e. false gods), plural word Elohim,and One Gods plural majesty.

Plural majesty in Gods Name:

From last two Revelations (Bible and Quran) we come to know that the revealed name of God has twoobvious aspects: firstly, grammatically masculine; and secondly, collective plural but singular inconstruction. Thus meaning of Allah or Elohim means One God of plural majesty i.e. with manyattributes. There is One God, the Father from whom are all things and for Whom we exist (1 Corinthians8.6,). A vital aspect about the concept of God lies in understanding the sense of Gods plural majesty.This sense of Gods plurality may be understood by comparing to English word headquarters, which isplural but governs a singular verb: there are many rooms or quarters, but they all serve one purpose.Transcendent God commands His creation by being present immanently with plural manifestations of His


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attributes.The term Elohim in Tanakh remains ambiguous unless one reflects to the vital plural aspectof Elohim. The form of the word Elohim, with the ending - im, is plural and masculine in Hebrew, but theconstruction is usually singular.This reflection has come in Quran as well when: on one hand, God isfound to reveal Himself in plural term: We indeed created man (Q, 50:16); And the Jinn race, Wecreated before. (Q, 15:27); We said to the angels, prostrate to Adam (Q, 18: 50); and on the otherhand, He also revealed: The One! God, the eternally besought of all! He neither begets nor wasbegotten. (Q, 112: 1-4). There are many more such instances where Allah reveals Himself by the wordWe rather than I. Thus both Elohim and Allah in Hebrew and Arabic tongues respectively, aregrammatically masculine and collective plural but singular in construction. This only signi fies One Godsplural majesty.

But when His name appeared as Yah, this was implying another aspect i.e. *hyy (life). Its relatedname came as Ahura in Zoroastrianism, derived from root Ahu(Asu in Vedic) meaning Giver of life.Recently, scholars have begun to re-examine the Babylonian Talmud in light of its Sasanian Iraniancontext. The concept of a self/soul is far more detailed and central in Zoroastrianism than spirit ( ruuh),thus in Zarathushtrian theology a very important part is Chinvat of Hebrew Bible. It is the Bridge ofSeparation (relating Here and Hereafter), because here the souls of the wrongful get separated from thesouls of the rightful. Prophetic mission of Zoroaster was especially ordained to stem the rot among earlyrace of Aryans who once had Supreme God in Asura (RV. I, 35, 7; RV. III, 29, 14; RV. V, 41, 3; and RV.X, 10, 2 etc); but they began to reject both Supreme God Asura and His followers (asura clans like

Zoroastrians); then started vilifying Asura as demon and worshipping the mysterious race of devas, thusin other hymns Vedic god Agni (RV. VII. 13. 1) and also Indra (RV. VI. 22. 3) turned into Asura slayers,but often these devas(e.g. Varuna) were also equated with Asura.

Thus in tongues of different Prophetic traditions the revealed name of God has come in two cognateforms: (I) El, Elohim, and Allah, explained from the Arabic as meaning to be foremost, to lead, torule, which would give the meaning leader, Lord. -- signifying the First cause from Whom themanifest creation emanates, i.e. God of heaven, earth and everything between them. (II) And when itcame as Yah, YHWH or cognates like Ahur (Asur), it signified a specific Life giving aspect of Hisomnipotence, where God is represented as speaking, and hence as using the first personI am.In theBible Yahweh-Elohim tells Moses when Israel asks for the name of the God who will liberate them fromthe Egyptian captivity; Moses is to tell them "ehyeh sent me" (Ex, 3:13-14, ehyeh asher ehyeh, I Amthat I Am).

Reflection to common root L for both God and godsIn this context we must not forget that the religion of God in post -Flood world came amidst overwhelmingpolytheism of heathen gods in Mesopotamia and Egypt where both monotheist and polytheist Hebrewslived along with pagan Sumerians and Egyptian Pharaohs. Hence, to the Prophets, God has beenrevealing Himself as well as telling about the heathen gods using the words in familiar languageswhich are already in vogue with the contemporary people.The stem l is found prominently in the earlieststrata of east Semitic, northwest Semitic, and south Semitic groups. And the forms include Ugaritic il(pl.lm); Phoenician l (pl. lm); Hebrew l (pl. lm); Aramaic l; Akkadian ilu (pl. ilti). In northwest Semiticusage lwas both a generic word for any "god" and the special name or title of a particular god, or in themonotheistic sense of God.Thus lwas both a generic term for "god" and the common name or title of asingle particular "god" or "God". The Semitic root 'lhis found to be related as: Arabic ilh, Aramaic 'alh,'elh, and Hebrew 'elah. From the sense already inveterate in Semitic usage when finally God revealed

Himself as Allah in Arabic, in fact, name of God has been signified both in complete word as well as ineach individual letter of alif, lam, and ha. From this discussion it becomes apparent why God reveals (Surah Baqarah, 2: 255):

La ilaha illa Allah(There is no god but the God).


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[Republished from my publication: http://www.articlesbase.com/religion-articles/the-sacred-name-of-god-in-

tongues-of-different-traditions-5698574.html ]

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Suggested Reading:

1. Encyclopedia of world religions, by G.T. Bettany, Bracken Books, London2. Merriam-Websters Encyclopedia of world religions, 19993. Dic. Of Mythology folklore and symbols by Gertrude Jobes, 1962. Part 1&2; The Scarecrow

Press Inc, NY4. Dic. of gods and goddesses, devils and demons by M. Lurker, 19875. Dic. Of Philosophy and Religion eastern and western thought, by W.L. Resse, Humanities

Press, N.Jersy, 1980;6. New lights on the Gathas of Holy Zarathustra, by Ardeshir.F.Khabardar, New Book Co. Ltd,

Bombay, 1951;7. The Indian Historical Quarterly, vol. vii, and no: 1, 1931)8. The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible. Nashville. Abingdon Press. 1962. B. W. Anderson.

"God, Names of." Vol. 2. George Arthur Buttrick. Editor

9. The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible. T.H. Gaster, "Myth, Mythology," G.A. Buttrick, EditorNashville, Tennessee. Abingdon Press. 1962., Vol. 3.

10. A Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Mythology. Gwendolyn Leick. London & New York.Routledge. 1991. ISBN 0-415-19811-9 pbk.

11. Anchor Bible Dictionary. Henry O. Thompson, "Yahweh." Vol. 6.. David Noel Freedman.Editor. New York. Doubleday. 1992

12. Jewish Encyclopedia - com.13. Theophilus G. Pinches. The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records and

Legends of Assyria and Babylonia, pp.112-114 (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.London). 1908.

14.Ardeshir Framji Khabardar, 1951, New lights on the Gathas of Holy Zarathustra., (Bombay);and also Rg Veda.

15. Map of Har Nafha (196), and Vol. 2, ANCIENT ROCK INSCRIPTIONS, SUPPLEMENT TO

MAP OF HAR NAFHA (196) 12-01]16. Anderson. B.W. (1962), "God, Names of", p. 409, vol. 2. George Arthur Buttrick. Editor. The

Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible. Nashville. Abingdon Press.17. Smith, Mark S. (2001). The origins of biblical monotheism: Israel's polytheistic background

and the Ugaritic texts, Oxford University Press US. p. 135]18. K. van der Toorn, Bob Becking, Pieter Willem van der Horst (eds), "Dictionary of deities and

demons in the Bible" (revised 2nd edition, Brill, 1999)19. El (deity) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.mht
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