Living, breathing I AM.

[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.

[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.....

[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.

[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]

When the Hebrew word for Amen was being translated from Hebrew to the various languages, none of those languages had a word for the Hebrew word for Amen. So what they did was created a word for those respective languages that sounded like the Hebrew word Amen. That process is transliteration.

Elohim and Yahweh had the same issues!

[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.

[BigJohn]

If you look at Elohim and Yahweh: it appears both words have been suppressed from being used. Today, it appears that no one seems to know exactly how Yahweh was pronounced. The same probably can be said about Elohim.

I got a feeling that Elohim and Yahweh are on the 'same road' as the Hindu Supreme God (Trimurti) is on and that is 'forgotten Gods".


If you look at Elohim: it can mean almost anything. We can be called Elohim.

To me, Elohim resonates with what many believe might be the original belief system found in other religions and that is Animism. To me, Animism is a foreign word in the West but is prevalent in the East.

My definition of Animism, in a 'nut shell', is spirit is in everything. Which seems to resonate very nicely with the concept of Elohim.
Sad to say, I would say most people have never heard of Elohim nor Yahweh but then, the same can be true of the Hindu Supreme God Trimurti.

It seems some people still worship Trimurti but I would say, the majority of Hindus do not seem to recognize the name.

[Miss Hepburn]

Ok, but,
In Moses' language what did God say His name was?
Maybe it doesn't say anywhere, I dunno.

Added later: I looked it up:

The first was God's description of Himself, to be used as His name: e'heyeh aser' e'heyeh, meaning "I AM WHO I AM."
The second used similar language to instruct Moses to tell the people of Israel that he had been sent by "I AM."
This verse continues with the third statement from God regarding His name.

The Hebrew Bible explains it by the formula אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה‎ ('ehye 'ăšer 'ehye ] transl. I Am that I Am), the name of God revealed to Moses in Exodus 3:14.


*Added hours later: How to pronounce it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCIC0cpLQp8&t=72s

[BigJohn]

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

Ok, but,
In Moses' language what did God say His name was?

Moses said: אֱלֹהִים֙

Which is transliterated as: ’ĕ·lō·hîm

.

Elohim said to Moses
in Hebrew: אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר אֶֽהְיֶ֑ה
Which is transliterated as: ’eh·yeh ’ă·šer ’eh·yeh

Which translates as: I AM THAT I AM.