Living, breathing I AM.

The churches around here never pray to Elohim or Yahweh……maybe they do elsewhere ? Curious to learn how widespread those practices actually are……

[BigJohn]

Originally Posted by Molearner

The churches around here never pray to Elohim or Yahweh……maybe they do elsewhere ? Curious to learn how widespread those practices actually are……

Why would they pray to Elohim or Yahweh?

Probably none of them have a Bible that uses such names. To most people: those names have no meaning.

You would think that they should know those names but they don't.

What is odd...... is that the Masoretic Text, as far as I know, is used as the text for every translation of the Bible for the 'Old Testament'. It seems that very few people have ever checked the various translations at how they were translated. If they had, these and other translation problems would have been corrected.

It is sad that for the most part, people don't seem to be able to recognize these names in Hebrew. I remember once, showing a chap the name Yahweh in Paleo-Hebrew and he had no idea what it meant.

As far as I know, both Elohim and Yahweh are considered the number one words used in the Masoretic Text used for the 'Old Testament' but you might be hard pressed to find anybody that knows that.

It seems that the Jews have all kinds of 'restrictions' on using those names. But if you look in a Hebrew Bible (Masoretic Text), the usage of Elohim and Yahweh are used without any restrictions.

[sky]

Originally Posted by BigJohn

Why would they pray to Elohim or Yahweh?

Why wouldn't they?.

The syllable on our lips is not nearly as important as the attitude of our heart. Didn't Jesus cite the prophet Isaiah: “ people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me”....

[Maisy]

Originally Posted by Molearner

The churches around here never pray to Elohim or Yahweh……maybe they do elsewhere ?

Is it like this?

English - DOG
Spanish - PERRO
Turkish - KOPEK
Norwegian - HUND

Different words for the same thing.

So

English - God
Hebrew - Elohim
Israelites - Yahweh

Different words for the same thing?

Somebody feeding a Dog and somebody else feeding a Hund does not mean two different species are being fed. Both words refer to the same animal.

In the same way, somebody praying to "God" and somebody else praying to "Elohim" does not mean they are praying to different beings.

God and Elohim and Yahweh are not referring to different beings in the same way Dog, Perro, and Hund are not different animals. This is just my theory!

It's funny how we look at an animal and think, that's a Dog! When it is not that at all. D O G are three symbols we agree refer to a certain kind of animal. But the animal is not 3 symbols or letters in a certain sequence. We've assigned sounds to the symbols so have a spoken language as well as a written one but that animal is not the sound for it either.

In the same way, the supreme being is not God or Elohim or Yahweh. Those are a series of symbols or letters we agree to refer to a supreme being. It existed before one made up a word and sound for it. Mental conceptual symbols for it.

[Maisy]

It's not different words for God.
It's not different names for God.
The word "God" is language specific itself. It's different symbols for a supreme being concept.
In English one may think - Elohim is a different name for God.
In Hebrew one may think - God is a different name for Elohim.
If you get what I'm saying.
Things are never their names. Names are scratches in the dirt.
Symbols. Symbols with straight lines. AEFHIKLMNTVWXYZ
Symbols with curved lines. BCDGJOPQRSU
אבגדהוזחטיכלמנסעפצקרשת <- Hebrew alphabet.
English = God
Japanese = 神
Somebody may ask "Do you believe God exists?"
"God" is a symbol for something else.
So yes the symbol exists! The thing that exists has nothing to do with the symbol (word) one particular group made up. But then human beings have the ability to live in the conceptual or symbolic world. To live abstractly. Live in a way that is based on general ideas and not any particular real person, thing or situation. It may be when a person says "I am praying to God" they are praying to a particular idea or mental concept. They may be imagining a being as opposed to experiencing it directly.

[sky]

Originally Posted by Molearner

The churches around here never pray to Elohim or Yahweh……maybe they do elsewhere ? Curious to learn how widespread those practices actually are……

Very widespread imo, in fact universal...
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.....

[BigJohn]

Elohim and Yahweh are not te only deities that have been 'lost' in time.

The Hindu Supreme God Trimurti is almost unknow by Hindu devotees.

[Honza]

Maisy I agree with you. That makes sense.

[Miss Hepburn]

BigJohn, I'm sorry I missed it somewhere...When Moses asked God what His name was, in Moses' language,
what was it He actually said?
It was not English "I Am". Maybe every school kid knows this! I don't.
Btw, I respect the reseacrh you've done. :)

[BigJohn]

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

BigJohn, I'm sorry I missed it somewhere...When Moses asked God what His name was, in Moses' language,
what was it He actually said?
It was not English "I Am". Maybe every school kid knows this! I don't.
Btw, I respect the reseacrh you've done. :)

the account is recorded In the Hebrew language in Exodus 3:14(a). You can find it in the Hebrew Bible which is basically the Masoretic text. From what I have seen, every translation uses this text for their respective text for translating their version of the Old Testament.

The text in question reads : God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM "

In Hebrew, the word used for God in this English translation sounds in Hebrew like Elohim. When the Hebrew scriptures were translated into Koine Greek (Greek Septuagint), there words that had no Koine Greek equivalent. So they created a new Koine Greek word that sounded like the Hebrew word. An example is Amen. It sounds very close to how it is sounds in Hebrew.

The same thing should have been done for Elohim and Yahweh but it wasn't. Some Bibles, such as the Catholic New Jerusalem Bible now uses Yahweh but for some reason didn't bother with Elohim.

Maybe, in a few centuries from now, these two words will be translated properly.