posted
This is in the flameboard because some people find the very nature of the word God upsetting. I would put it in the OL, but some arsehole is bound to fuck this up with some "God? Who cares? He's just another car on the Man-Train of life, buddy!" or something else as inane.
I'm intrigued about all of the names for the single unitary God figure that is worshipped in Christian, Jewish & Islamic society. I hop I'm not mistaken in thinking that these are all either the equivalent of the same deity, or actually are the same deity.
I would like to know the names that are given to God in all of the holy scriptures of them religiony things.
Uh, and where they're from, too. Everytime I do a search for this, I get this.
Like, I know:
Allah - From Islam. Why, I don't know. Ancient of Days - From the Old Testament (?), I don't know. Jehova - From some part of the Bible, I guess. Jehova-Jirah - Variant of above. LORD - From the Bible I guess. YHWH - The Talmud? Old Testament? Yahweh - Is this really a name, or just a way to pronounce the above?
Others, I'm not sure of. I need to go read.
[ March 30, 2002, 12:36: Message edited by: U//Magnus ]
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Several variants of Jehovah, actually. Jehovah-Jirah is the only one that's coming to mind, though.
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
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The trouble with gathering such a list is that Judaism and Islam especially are quite fond of giving God extra names to describe certain activities or aspects. Thus you get all sorts of extra names. Anyway, a few I was able to find, with translations.
Islam: Ar-Rahman: The All-Compassionate Ar-Rahim: The All-Merciful Al-Malik: The Absolute Ruler Al-Quddus: The Pure One As-Salam: The Source of Peace Al-Mu'min: The Inspirer of Faith Al-Muhaymin: The Guardian Al-'Aziz: The Victorious Al-Jabbar: The Compeller Al-Mutakabbir: The Greatest Al-Khaliq: The Creator Al-Bari': The Maker of Order Al-Musawwir: The Shaper of Beauty Al-Ghaffar: The Forgiving Al-Qahhar: The Subduer Al-Wahhab: The Giver of All Ar-Razzaq: The Sustainer Al-Fattah: The Opener Al-'Alim: The Knower of All Al-Qabid: The Constrictor Al-Basit: The Reliever Al-Khafid: The Abaser Ar-Rafi': The Exalter Al-Mu'izz: The Bestower of Honors Al-Mudhill: The Humiliator As-Sami: The Hearer of All Al-Basir: The Seer of All Al-Hakam: The Judge Al-'Adl: The Just Al-Latif: The Subtle One Al-Khabir: The All-Aware Al-Halim: The Forebearing Al-'Azim: The Magnificent Al-Ghafur: The Forgiver and Hider of Faults Ash-Shakur: The Rewarder of Thankfulness Al-'Ali: The Highest Al-Kabir: The Greatest Al-Hafiz: The Preserver Al-Muqit: The Nourisher Al-Hasib: The Accounter Al-Jalil: The Mighty Al-Karim: The Generous Ar-Raqib: The Watchful One Al-Mujib: The Responder to Prayer Al-Wasi': The All-Comprehending Al-Hakim: The Perfectly Wise Al-Wadud: The Loving One Al-Maj�d: The Majestic One Al-Ba'ith: The Resurrector Ash-Shahid: The Witness Al-h Haqq: The Truth Al-Wakil: The Trustee Al-Qawi: The Possessor of All Strength Al-Matin: The Forceful One Al-W�li: The Governor Al-Hamid: The Praised One Al-Muhsi: The Appraiser Al-Mubdi: The Originator Al-Mu'id: The Restorer Al-Muhyi: The Giver of Life Al-Mumit: The Taker of Life Al-Hayy: The Ever Living One Al-Qayyum: The Self-Existing One Al-Wajid: The Finder Al-M�jid: The Glorious Al-Wahid: The Only One Al-Ahad: The One As-Samad: The Satisfier of All Needs Al-Qadir: The All Powerful Al-Muqtadir: The Creator of All Power Al-Muqaddim: The Expediter Al-Mu'akhkhir: The Delayer Al-Awwal: The First Al-Akhir: The Last Az-Zahir: The Manifest One Al-Batin: The Hidden One Al-Wal�: The Protecting Friend Al-Muta'ali: The Supreme One Al-Barr: The Doer of Good At-Tawwib: The Guide to Repentance Al-Muntaqim: The Avenger Al-Afu: The Forgiver Ar-Ra'uf: The Clement Malik al-Mulk: The Owner of All Dhul-Jalali Wal-Ikram: The Lord of Majesty and Bounty Al-Muqsit: The Equitable One Al-Jami: The Gatherer Al-Ghani: The Rich One Al-Mughni: The Enricher Al-Mani': The Preventer of Harm Ad-Darr: The Creator of The Harmful An-Nafi: The Creator of Good An-Nur: The Light Al-Hadi: The Guide Al-Badi: The Originator Al-Baqi: The Everlasting One Al-Warith: The Inheritor of All Ar-Rashid: The Righteous Teacher As-Sabur: The Patient One
I'll have to look for Christian and Jewish ones later.
Registered: Mar 1999
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Hey, this is good for my GCSE (and, shortly, A level) RE course. I don't suppose anyone knows any sites with general information about Islam? Thanks
-------------------- "I am an almost extinct breed, an old-fashioned gentleman, which means I can be a cast-iron son-of-a-bitch when it suits me." --Jubal Harshaw
Registered: Feb 2002
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Or, for that matter, the Hebrew "El", as in El-Shaddi?
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
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As for Yahweh/Jehovah/Yahoo-Wahoo... The Hebrew name for their god is represented by the Hebrew letters yod-he-vav-he. In English, these are rendered as Y-H-W-H or Y-H-V-H. (Anyone who knows more about Hebrew, can you tell me whether vav is pronounced like an English 'w' or 'v'? I've never managed to figure that out.) The Hebrew alphabet has no vowels. Nowadays, they use various little dots around the letters to indicate vowels. However, they'd already decided to disallow saying the name out loud before they started writing vowels, so no-one knows how it was originally pronounced. "Yahweh" or "Yahveh" is the best guess.
"Jehovah" came about by taking "YHVH" and using the vowels from "Elohim" and "Adonai" (Hebrew for "gods" and "my lord", used as speakable names for Yahweh). I forget if the 'J' at the beginning comes from Latin or German, but, either way, it's because that's how those languages wrote the consonantal 'y' sound.
From what I understand, the bible also refers to him as "Yah" and "Yah-El" a couple times. But mainly "Yahweh". For the most part, you can replace any biblical instance of "the LORD" w/ "Yahweh" and "God" w/ "Elohim", and you'll know what the original text actually said.
BTW, the reason they called him "Elohim" ("gods") instead of "El" ("god") is kind of interesting. Originally, the Hebrews had no trouble believing in other gods. They just thought their god was better. It was normal back then for gods to be associated w/ places. If you went to a place, you worshipped their god. If you went home, you went back to worshipping you hometown god. However, during the Babylonian Diaspora, the Jews taken to Babylon decided to keep worshipping Yahweh. This was where they first started associating Yahweh w/ the Jewish people, rather than w/ the land of Palestine. Later on, they reformed their beliefs again and decided that not only was Yahweh better than the other gods, but the other gods didn't even exist. Someone came up w/ the idea that when people worshipped other gods, they were really worshipping Yahweh. Therefore, all the gods of the world were really Yahweh, so they called him "gods" instead of "god".
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If you're talking about the Christian god, then there's also, well, "God" (with a capital "G") as a name. A bit presumptious perhaps, but unless you say "Sol" and "Luna", you can't argue.
And if you do, you are sad and should probably stop maturbating over pictures of sarah Michelle Gellar and go out and talk to people.
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
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In Tim's exhaustive little ditty, he did neglect to mention that there remains considerable academic debate over whether the Jewish faith was originally polytheistic, as there do remain several references in the early texts that make it sound like there were two gods... "let us make a human" from Genesis, and then something about s figure called "Nature" being with God from the beginning. Odd stuff.
-------------------- "I was surprised by the matter-of-factness of Kafka's narration, and the subtle humor present as a result." (Sizer 2005)
Registered: Mar 1999
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Well, there was the concept of a being that was a kinda quasi-deity, as I understand it. The active force that actually carries out God's will. The Greeks called it "logos", and it's supposedly what John was refering to when he said "In the beginning was the Word (logos)". I don't think the concept was native to Greece, though.
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
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Shalom, which is used as a greeting in Israel, is a name of G-d.
The story goes like this-The Jewish people would never use the name of G-d in greeting someone. Then one fine day, an important man, as recounted in the Bible, said "Shalom" to other important men. The people thought if he can do this, why can't we? The leading authorities on Jewish law and customs debated this issue for a long time. Finally, they came to a decision. Jews can use "Shalom" as part of their greetings to each other.
Registered: Sep 1999
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But isn't "shalom" just the word for "peace"? I mean, if you start assigning various common nouns to the name of your god, and then declare them ineffable, you begin to severely limit your available vocabulary...
And I think Omega is referring to the Shekhina. Go here and scroll down the left side to find it. Also read the article about Yahweh. It talks about the stuff I mentioned above.
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