🤓YAHWEH & ELOHIM🤓

[BigJohn]

Discussion about Yahweh and Elohim.

Please put in your own input into this discussion.

[Miss Hepburn]

My input...I would be a student and know little.

[BigJohn]

Actually, you have brushed up against the words for Yahweh and Elohim, many of times.

Yahweh, unfortunately got translated for the most part as LORD whereas Elohim is generally translated as God. By the way, in Hebrew, these words are pronounced very closely to that of Yahweh and Elohim.

The first creation account explicitly speaks of Elohim. In the second creation account, Yahweh is introduced. I suspect the reason why some criticize the two creation accounts, is, as I suspect, where written by two different groups.

The same can be said of the two different flood accounts.

[DavidHenson]

Originally Posted by BigJohn

Discussion about Yahweh and Elohim.

Please put in your own input into this discussion.

Okay. Lets start with those two words. Both Hebrew, the first a proper name and the second a generic title. The name applies only to, Yahweh of course, and the second, Elohim applies to anything or anyone that is mighty, inasmuch as the might is greater than the one attributing it and/or anyone that is venerated.

So Yahweh: Names are always translated, not transliterated. In English it is translated into Jehovah. However, if you are a practicing Jew or a Hebrew scholar you may prefer Yahweh. Neither are more correct than the other except for the conformity to the language in question. For example, here is a jumbled mess which one might be able to make some sense out of with some patience. A list of the name pronounced differently in various languages.

Many websites I looked at make the same mistake of confusing the word God for a proper name. It isn't. So Elohim and Adonai aren't names, they are words meaning god(s) or lord(s) respectively. There are, as Paul said, many lords and many gods. Jehovah is a God but so is Dagon, Moloch, Baal, Jesus, Moses, the judges of Israel, angels, Satan, et cetera. Same thing with lord.

Regarding the pronunciation, no one knows how they pronounced it. They didn't write vowels, so one can only guess. If we did that in English it would look like this: bg jhn lks th sbjct f yhwh. Translation: Big John likes the subject of YHWH. So Yahweh may have been pronounced like, in translation, Yahawah, or Yeheweh, Yihiwih, Yohowoh, Yuhuwuh, or any of a combination of the vowels.

[BigJohn]

Originally Posted by DavidHenson

EXCERPT

So Yahweh: Names are always translated, not transliterated.

Then why is Amen virtually always transliterated into almost every language to sound as Amen?

I have only found a few languages where it got translated.

[BigJohn]

Why does the Jewish Encyclopedia list Elohim as one of the names of God?

You can find it here:

https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/a...5-names-of-god

[BigJohn]

The same Jewish Encyclopedia claims the name Jehovah is "A mispronunciation (introduced by Christian theologians".

[DavidHenson]

Originally Posted by BigJohn

Then why is Amen virtually always transliterated into almost every language to sound as Amen?

I have only found a few languages where it got translated.

Amen isn't a name. It's a word that means so be it, and you are right, it is always transliterated. Some words, like sin and satan are transliterated into English.

ETA: That's wrong. Satan is a Hebrew word that is translated as resister or adversary. (Numbers 22:22) When the word is accompanied by the definite article ha (the) it applies to Satan. But satan for a name is really a nickname based on the meaning of the word. It isn't Satan's actual name. Like god isn't Jehovah's name, but in Greek, for example, if the Greek theos is accompanied by the definite article ho, it means the God. Same with the Arabic Allah. Al meaning the and lah meaning God?

Like if someone's nickname is "Red" because he has red hair or a red complexion. Names often have meaning. Like Esau means hairy. Esau was given the name because he was unusually hairy at birth. I have a sister like that. But he was nicknamed Edom which means red due to the red lentil stew he trades his birthright for. (Genesis 25:25, 26, 30) Maybe that isn't particularly interesting to everyone, but I digress. Oh, and don't say anything about being born hairy to my sister.

[BigJohn]

Originally Posted by DavidHenson

EXCERPT

Regarding the pronunciation, no one knows how they pronounced it. They didn't write vowels, so one can only guess.

If you look at the Masoretic Text, people can come up with how the name was pronounced. The problem is, the name is not spelled consistently from one location to another. In one case, it is spelt one way and in another place it might be spelt differently. I once sat down and listed several different spellings variations for the name. This may have been one reason why people stopped using the name even though it is in the Hebrew text.

[BigJohn]

Originally Posted by DavidHenson

Amen isn't a name. It's a word that means so be it, and you are right, it is always transliterated. Some words, like sin and satan are transliterated into English.

As for Yahweh, how could it be translated into a foreign language when the source language had no word for Yahweh?