All the names of God in the Bible and their meanings - a complete list

Bible lessons

Published 10/06/2013

In this article we want to introduce you to all the names of God in the Bible and their meaning. By learning the names of God, we understand God and give Him glory and honor.

In the Old Testament and in the Jewish tradition, names played a huge role. It was believed that a name reveals one's personality and shows who one is. It is amazing how many names our God has, showing the comprehensiveness and versatility of His personality.

All the names of God in the Bible - list and table

Does God have a name?

What is God's name? Numerous Divine names are revealed to us in the Holy Scriptures: in the Old and New Testaments. However, it is important to understand that the Divine essence is completely incomprehensible to the human mind. This means that she cannot have a name that would exhaustively characterize her. God cannot be defined by any one concept. Let us quote the words of St. Basil the Great:

“There is not a single name that, having declared the entire nature of God, would be sufficient to fully reflect it” (“Orthodox Dogmatic Theology”).

The name of the Lord, "Yahweh", in different versions of the Hebrew language

The names of God indicated in the Holy Scriptures reflect only some of His properties and actions by which He reveals Himself to man. St. Gregory of Nyssa taught that God “receives names from the actions that we believe concern our lives” (“God: Orthodox Teaching”). People sought to verbally recreate His images, using analogies from our world. That is why the One God has so many names. But they are all relative and even taken together cannot fully convey the Divine essence. After all, God is above all names and analogies from our world.

The Holy Scripture contains many names-epithets that God has in Orthodoxy. Theologians divided them into affirmative (cataphatic) and negative (apophatic). St. Basil the Great explained: the first show us what is in God (for example, “Almighty,” “True,” “Near”). And the second - that which is alien to Him (for example, “Unchangeable”, “Incorruptible”, “Invisible”) (“The Truth of the Existence of God”).

Yahweh (YHWH), Adonai and Adon - what is the difference between these names?

Regarding the names of God, I think many people assume more than what is supported by Scripture. On the other hand, the richness of theology is revealed through the various names used for God, especially in the Old Testament.

The name Yahweh (YHWH) was not used by God before it was spoken by Him in the wilderness to Moses. Before this time, names such as Elohim, Adonai, El, El Elyon and El Shaddai were used. If I understand correctly, Adonai is more than a description of the name of God, as it simply means Lord. It's like Jesus Christ. Christ is a description, while Jesus is a name.

Question:

Please tell me, Director Ivanov - is “director” a name or a position? And Mr. Ivanov - “Mister” is a title or a name? So how do you say that God and Lord is the name? God has a name, and you cite the Tetragrammaton YHWH, which appears more than 7000 times in the Bible. All over the world its reading is passed on as Jehovah or Yahweh, so why don’t you finish this in your answer and cite Exodus 3:15? Let's honestly insert this Tetragrammaton into all the places in the Bible where it appears in the original texts. I don’t expect your answer, but I’m glad that there are still people who read the Bible and think. Goodbye.

God of the Slavs Chernobog

Many ancient legends have been told about the evil spirits of the swamp, but not all of them have reached us. After all, they are protected by the powerful Chernobog - the ruler of the dark forces of evil and whim, serious illnesses and bitter misfortunes. This is the god of darkness. His abode is terrible forest thickets, ponds covered with duckweed, deep pools and swampy swamps.

He holds a spear in his hand with malice and rules the night. The evil spirits subordinate to him are numerous: goblins who entangle forest paths, mermaids who drag people into pools, cunning banniki, malicious and insidious ghouls, capricious brownies.

How to pronounce God's name correctly?

One of the excuses is that today no one knows how exactly the name of God was pronounced. And besides, the form of pronunciation “Jehovah” accepted today is considered incorrect by some modern learned theologians.

They argue that it would be more correct to consider that the name of God sounds like Yahweh, or Yahweh. However, they don’t have agreement here either.

Interestingly, recently the French archaeologist and Hebraist Gerard Gerteau published his research in the book “ The Name of God - Its History and Pronunciation ,” where he argues:

God's name was most likely pronounced Yehua or Yehoah with the Hebrew aspirated X, as in English and Greek, and stress on the penultimate syllable.

His book is devoted to the reconstruction of the pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton and received a large number of positive reviews from leading experts.

Why is Jehovah correct and not Yahweh?

One of the methods is a comparative study of theonyms - Jewish names, which include the Tetragrammaton.

Almost always the first element of such names is Jeho- or Jehu- (Yehoshua, Jehoanan, Jeconiah, Jeholiah, etc.). At the same time, the variants on Io(u)-, less often Ie-, are simply abbreviations from Ieho(u)- (John, Jonah, Joab, Joseph, Judah, etc.).

Another argument is that the Tetragrammaton differs from the Hebrew name Yehuda (Judas) by only one letter - D. Removing D, we get the modern pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton in Hebrew, and the ancient one should not differ much from the modern one.

In his opinion, it is almost 100% possible to establish that the Tetragrammaton had four syllables, and not two, as in the Yahweh version, while the first was I, and the last was A.

The third line of evidence goes back to the authoritative Jewish scholar Maimonides, who said that the Tetragrammaton was pronounced “according to its letters.”

In the Hebrew language, the same letter could serve as both a consonant and a vowel. When pronouncing, the vowel version was used. The vowel pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton "according to its letters" was E-E-U-A.

But on the other hand, is it so important how exactly the name of God is pronounced?

For example : today no one knows exactly how the name Jesus was pronounced in Hebrew (literally this name means “the help or salvation of Jehovah”), but this does not prevent everyone from using the form of this name that is common in this language.

Previously, in Rus' they said Jesus, and then everyone was forcibly forced to say Jesus, and now few people are outraged by this.

For example, your name is FEDOR (from Greek - GOD’S GIFT), if children pronounce KHVEDOR, or KHFEDAR, or FEDA, etc.,

You will still understand that they are calling on your NAME, especially if you know that the children respect your name, honoring it and appreciating its meaning, which has the meaning of “GOD’S GIFT.”

Would you blame your children if they distorted your NAME, resorting to you for help with hope and love for you.

Names of God in the Law, or in the books of the Old Testament Scripture

(In this table the numbering of verses is Hebrew)

Perception of God's name

The third commandment speaks best about the Christian attitude towards the names of God: “Thou shalt not take the name of thy God in vain” (Ex. 20:7). The Creator should be mentioned only in reverent prayer. Since ancient times, there has been a magical, sinful view on this topic. If a person knows the name of God, this supposedly gives him unlimited power.

In Old Testament times, Jews inextricably linked God with His names. They were considered as sacred as the Creator Himself. Therefore, the Jews used the Tetragrammaton (יהוה) - a four-letter designation of the name of God, which was forbidden to be pronounced. The Jews believed that this name contained great power, and when pronouncing it, they reverently replaced it with other words.

In Kabbalah, the Tetragrammaton is mentioned as one of the ten Sacred Names of the Creator. This name supposedly contains all the basic geometric shapes (point, line, plane, cube). The Tetragrammaton has firmly entered world culture. It has been featured in folklore, art and various mystical teachings since ancient times.

Names of God in the Gospel, or in the books of the New Testament Scripture

How did God the Father appear?

Another question that also has no clear answer: “Where did God the Father come from?” There was only one option: God always existed as the Creator of the Universe. Therefore, theologians and philosophers give two explanations for this position:

1. God could not appear because the concept of time did not exist then. He created it, along with space.
2. To understand where God came from, you need to think beyond the Universe, beyond time and space. Man is not yet capable of this.

Stribog god of the wind

He is the god above the gods of the elemental forces of nature (Whistling, Weather and others). Stribog is the ruler of the wind, hurricanes and blizzards. He can be touchingly kind and furiously evil. When he angrily blows the horn, the elements arise; when he is kind, the leaves simply rustle, streams gurgle, the wind howls in the crevices of the trees. From these sounds of nature came music and songs, and with them musical instruments. They pray to Stribog for the storm to subside, and hunters ask him for help in pursuing the sensitive and timid animal.