The name Abba in the Bible

Abba is not really a name but rather an appellative. It occurs three times in the Bible:
 In Mark 14:36, Jesus uses it to cry out to the Father during His ordeal in the garden of Gethsemane.
 In Romans 8:15, Paul explains that the sons of God have received a spirit of adoption by which they
cry out Abba, Father!
 In Galatians 4:6, Paul teaches that because of this sonhood, the Spirit of God's Son comes into the
hearts of the sons, crying Abba, Father!
Etymology of the name Abba
The word abba is the common Semitic (Chaldean, says Zodhiates — The Complete Wordstudy
Dictionary) word that expresses familiar intimacy with a father. It's probably related to the words papa
(and thus pope), dad, daddy, and tata (that's the Slavic daddy), and some say this is because these words
are essentially onomatopoeic, that is, written after the way a baby babbles.
Whether that is true is hard to say, but what we can say is that the word abba comes from the
common Hebrew word ‫( אב‬ab), meaning father:

‫אב‬
In Hebrew the word ‫'( אב‬ab) is the proper word for father, but it comes from an assumed
root ‫'( אבה‬bh). What that root (verb) may have meant to the Hebrews, we don't know because it's
not used in the Bible, and that means we have no context to try it to. BDB Theological Dictionary is
even less yielding and declares this root "perhaps at least formally justified as the stem of ‫'( אב‬ab),
but existence and meaning wholly dubious". But, sayeth BDB in the shortest abbreviations
justifiable, there is an Assyrian verb abu, which means to decide. The 'ab would thus be the one
who decides.
And then, to make matters worse, there's the verb ‫'( אבה‬aba), which is spelled and pronounced
identical to the assumed root of ‫'( אב‬ab). This verb is quite common in the Bible, and it means to
accede to a wish, consent or accept to a reproach. HAW Theological Wordbook notes, "The
primary meaning of this root is the willingness (inclination) to do something under obligation or
upon request".
And of course there's the word ‫'( אב‬eb), which means freshness or fresh green, from the assumed
root ‫'( אבב‬bb). Another derivation of this root is the word ‫'( אביב‬abib), meaning barley. Hence the
name Tel Aviv.
But the word ‫'( אב‬ab), meaning father, also occurs in meanings other than that of a biological
parent. Sometimes it's used to indicate the lord of a village (Isaiah 22:21), or an elder (2 Kings
2:12), or an ancestor (Genesis 10:21), and often it simply indicates a position of authority; a
counselor (Genesis 45:8) or prophet (2 Kings 6:21). The word 'ab is also ascribed to God (Isaiah
63:16, Hosea 11:1)
It stands to reason that the word ‫'( אב‬ab) is not, like our word "father" reserved for the male parent
and used metaphorically for other people, but rather a word of unknown and unparalleled meaning,
which expresses respect to persons of authority, including male parents.
The word 'ab followed by the letter yod usually makes the ab-part possessive. The
construct ‫'( אבי‬abi) may mean "father of," "my father," or form the adjective fatherly (literally "of
father").
Also note the following structure, and remember that a man's "house" is not simply a building but
rather his wife and children:
 The noun ‫'( אב‬ab) means father and possibly comes from the root ‫'( אבה‬bh). A verb spelled and
pronounced exactly the same as the assumed root of the word ‫'( אב‬ab) is the verb ‫'( אבה‬aba),
meaning to do something under obligation or upon request.
 The noun ‫( בן‬ben) means son and probably comes from the verb ‫( בנה‬bana) meaning to build,
such as a house. From ‫( בן‬ben) in turn comes the word ‫( בת‬bat), which means daughter.
Linguistically unrelated but still striking is the word ‫( בית‬bayit, or beth in constructs such
as Bethel orBethlehem), which means house. And equally unrelated but still striking is the
verb ‫( בין‬bin), literally meaning being able to see a difference; perceive or discern. A
derivative of this verb is the substantive ‫( בין‬ben), meaning between.

Abba meaning
 The Hebrew variant of our word daddy may not have expressed the comfort that comes from familiarity
but rather the comfort that comes from knowing that someone bigger and stronger is in control. It's
doubtful that in Gethsemane Jesus cried out like a small boy for his daddy. He most likely cried out to
the Almighty, but in the most intimate way He could, appealing both to God's authority, His
omnipotence and Jesus' priority as a son. He cried Abba like a prince to his king.
So no, Abba as used in the New Testament surely doesn't mean Daddy. It means Sir and only gains
more verbal momentum through the weight of the one who says it, and that of the one it's addressed to.
The name Abir in the Bible
The name Abir is one of the titles of the Living God. For some reason it's usually translated (for some
reason all God's names are usually translated and usually not very accurate), and the translation of
choice is usually Mighty One, which isn't very accurate. Our name occurs six times in the Bible but
never alone; five times it's coupled with the name Jacob and once with Israel.
In Isaiah 1:24 we find four names of the Lord in rapid succession as Isaiah reports:
"Therefore Adon YHWH Sabaoth Abir Israel declares..". Another full cord occurs in Isaiah 49:26: All
flesh will know that I, the Lord, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Abir Jacob," and the identical
is noted in Isaiah 60:16.
The full name Abir Jacob was first spoken by Jacob himself. At the end of his life, Jacob blessed his
sons, and when it was Joseph's turn he spoke to him of blessings from the hands of Abir Jacob (Genesis
49:24). Many years later, the Psalmist remembered king David, who swore by Abir Jacob that he would
not sleep until he had found a place for YHWH; a dwelling place for Abir Jacob (Psalm 132:2-5).
Etymology of the name Abir
The name Abir comes from the root ‫'( אבר‬br), which roughly means to be strong:

‫אבר‬
The root ‫'( אבר‬br) is a remarkable root that occurs all over the Semitic language spectrum. The root
itself doesn't occur as verb in the Bible but inAssyrian it means to be strong or firm. There are
obviously many words in Hebrew that have to do with strength, but this one denotes a specific kind
of strength, namely that of a bird's pinions or flight-feathers.
It's not immediately clear how the ancients saw the feather (or why they named it a "strong one"),
but it stands to reason that they recognized it as one of two epidermal growths with which a creature
may be naturally covered, the other one being hair (and not counting exoskeletons). Perhaps the
ancients saw hair as the "weak one" and the feather as the "strong one" because of their obvious
structural qualities, but it should also be noted that the Hebrew word for hair, namely ‫( שער‬s'r) is
part of a cluster of words that all have to do with an intense emotional experience (and for a closer
look at this, see our riveting article on Hair in the Bible). When a hairy creature experiences fear, it
can only fight or run for its life; a feathered creature can just lift up and sail off.
The spiritual aspect of a bird's ability to rise up from the earth and fly towards heaven didn't escape
the Hebrew poets; some angels are reported to have bird-like wings with which they fly (Isaiah 6:2),
and even God Himself has wings (Psalm 91:4). But since angels usually have a human appearance
and humans are made in God's image, it stands to reason that humans have wings too. And that
means that:
 The physical limbs of birds are merely bodily manifestations of a much more general quality,
and
 The wings of God, angels and humans are non-physical wings which bring about the same
thing as physical wings do for birds.
Now, what might that "same thing" be?
The ancients observed creation with much greater care than we do today, and they noted that flight
is not necessarily the most defining function of a wing. In fact, the Hebrew word for wing
is ‫( כנף‬kanap), and the associated verb is ‫( כנף‬kanep), which doesn't mean to fly but rather to hide or
enclose. Isaiah's seraphim have six wings, but only two are used for flight and four are used for
covering and protecting. Hence Isaiah speaks ofYHWH protecting Jerusalem like a hen its chicks
(Isaiah 31:5) and the Psalmist of seeking refuge under God's wings (Psalm 91:4). Winged creatures
such as birds and insects were collectively known as ‫'( עוף‬op), after the similar verb ‫'( עוף‬op), but an
associated noun ‫'( עפעף‬ap'ap) means eyelid; the organ that covers and protects the eye.
In other words: wings are essentially instruments with which to hide or protect, and flight is a mere
side effect of having wings. Things with wings are things that are designed to protect whatever can
get under those wings, that is, whatever can get within that thing's range of defensive operation
(like, say, a city's defense walls or a soldier's protective armor). That is why things with wings are
naturally and per definition strong. Not because they might take off to the skies.
Our root's Biblical derivations are:
 The masculine noun ‫'( אבר‬eber), meaning pinion(s), wings or the ability to do what you can do
with wings. This noun occurs three times: In Psalm 55:6 David fearfully observes a plethora
of horrors, and wishes someone would give him ‫ אבר‬like the dove (‫יונה‬, yona), so he could fly
(‫עוף‬, 'op) and settle down (‫שכן‬, shakan) [in peace?]. The prophet Isaiah famously declared that
those who wait for YHWH will ascend (‫עלה‬, 'ala) with‫ אבר‬like eagles do (Isaiah 40:31). And
Ezekiel received a riddle from Dabar YHWH, which obviously depicted
the Babylonian empire as a great eagle with great wings (‫כנפים‬, kanapim), with long pinions
(‫ )אבר‬and full plumage (‫נוצה‬, nosa) and different colors (Ezekiel 17:3).
 The feminine equivalent ‫'( אברה‬ebra), meaning the same and used four times: In Job 39:13 an
ostrich flaps joyously with the ‫ אברה‬and plumage of love. In the difficult Psalm 68:13 "she
who remains at home," after an apparent battle, lies down in a safety that has to do with dove's
silver wings and gold ‫אברה‬. Significantly, in Deuteronomy 32:11, the Lord is equated to an
eagle who caught Jacob (= Israel) in its ‫אברה‬, while hovering over him and caring for him and
guarding him like the apple of its eye. Something similar, but without the simile, happens in
Psalm 91:4, where one who trusts in the Lord may seek refuge under His wings and He will
cover him with His ‫אברה‬.
 The denominative verb ‫'( אבר‬abar), which means: to use pinions/wings. It's used only once, in
Job 39:26. Most translations assume that the Lord asks Job if it's by his understanding that the
hawk soars, but obviously our verb is not limited to flight.
 The adjective ‫'( אביר‬abbir), meaning strong (the way a feather is strong), and this is where our
root becomes even more interesting:
The adjective ‫'( אביר‬abbir) literally means feathery, which obviously means something else in
English than in Hebrew. In Hebrew this word reflects the rigidity and resilience of a flight-feather
as well as the protective qualities of the feather and its ability to spirit the bearer and possible guests
to safety. This word frequently appears in military contexts (mighty-ones; Job 24:22, Jeremiah
46:15, Lamentations 1:15), and here at Abarim Publications we wonder whether it perhaps also
served as generic term for a type of soldier, comparable to David's "mighty-men" (which is a
different word, from ‫גבר‬,geber).
Most strikingly, this word is also used as a personal name of God, namely Abir, meaning the
Mighty One. The Masoretes insisted on a minute difference between the pronunciation of our
adjective 'abbir and this Name 'abir, but this difference didn't exist until 1,500 years after this word
was first written.
In plural, this word mostly appears to denote a collective military force, and note that in Hebrew a
plural may also denote a degree of intensity in stead of a literal multitudinousness. In Judges 5:22,
the judge Deborah and general Barak sing about how they marched against
the Canaanite generalSisera's army, and how the horses' (‫סוס‬, sus) thunderous hoofs dashed as his
dashing ‫אבירי‬. A similar connection between ‫ אבירי‬and cavalry is made in Jeremiah 8:16 and 47:3.
In Psalm 22:12, on the other hand, we read the familiar statement "Many bulls [plural of ‫פר‬, par]
have encircled me, the ‫ אבירי‬of Bashan have surrounded me". The bull-theme appears to be carried
on to Psalm 50:13, where ‫ אבירים‬is used juxtaposed with ‫'( עתוד‬attud), meaning he-goat. In Psalm
68:30, it appears along ‫'( עגל‬egel), meaning male calf. In Isaiah 34:7 it appears again next
to ‫( פר‬par), meaning young bull.
All this strongly suggests that this particular group of words reflects a theological idea that also
existed in Assyria and Babylon, which there was depicted as the famous winged bull
named lamassu or sedu (and which in turn might be related to the name divine Shaddai).
The Hebrew scholars of the kingdom years weren't operating in a cultural vacuum, but lavishly
borrowed stories, imagery and terminology from their colleague scholars of neighboring cultures.
The same thing obviously happens today, when a Christian apologist might try to drive the gospel
home while using time-bound terms such as evolution theory, search engine, server (or even:
opportunity cost, target audience, swarm intelligence, and so on). The name Leviathan reflects
 another example of Yahwism being discussed in terms of Babylonian imagery. And the phrases
King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Savior of the World and even Son of God came straight from Roman
imperial theology and were hijacked by the apostle Paul to allow the citizens of the Roman world to
discuss the mystery of the Messiah.
The reader should realize by now that ancient people had completely different feelings when they
saw wings or bulls or a statue of a winged bull than do modern people. Whatever caused the various
associations of the ancients, as far as we can tell, the Assyrian winged bull depicted a protecting
spirit, a house-spirit, that which the Romans later called a genius or daemon. There were small ones
for the regular household and big ones for cities, kingdoms and empires.
Obviously, when people tried to explain Yahwism in a world that was organized around the idea of
this house-spirit, YHWH became the "house-spirit" of all creation. And since the Lord's "house-
spiritual" covenant began with (the house of) Abraham, then passed onto the house of Jacob and
then onto the house of Israel, and will eventually pass on to all the families of the earth, in the Bible
He is at times referred to as Abir Israel (Isaiah 1:24) or Abir Jacob (Genesis 49:24, Psalm 132:2 and
5, Isaiah 49:26 and 60:16).

Associated Biblical names

♂ ☼ Abir‫אביר‬
♂ Ⓟ Abraham‫אברהם‬
♂ Abram‫אברם‬
♂ ♕Shemeber‫שמאבר‬
Abir meaning
The name Abir reflects protection more than strength, although one obviously has to be strong to be any
good at protecting. Still, although all modern translations universally translate this name with Mighty
One, it's probably best translated with Protector.
Abir Jacob was to Israel what the national lamassu was to the Assyrians and the Babylonians, namely a
dedicated spiritual force of unity, safety and strength. And in that limited sense was Abir Jacob to Israel
what Marduk was to Assyria and Babylon.
The idea of a personal protector spirit is not as unbiblical as it may sound; both Matthew and Luke refer
to this phenomenon (Matthew 18:10 and Acts 12:15), and the idea of Israel having a national protector
spirit clearly comes from God Himself (Exodus 23:23).
The name Adonai in the Bible
Adonai by itself is not really a proper name but rather a title or appellative. As we will see below, it
quite literally means 'mister' or my lord, master or owner, and is not unlike the word baal, which means
the same. Yet adon(ai) occurs frequently as element in compound names: Adoni-
bezek, Adonijah, Adonikam,Adoniram and Adoni-zedek.
Adonai is also the source of the fabricated name Jehovah. When the Masoretes wanted to preserve the
pronunciation of the words used in the Bible they ran into a problem when YHWH, the proper name of
the Lord that was forbidden to be pronounced, occurred. To circumvent the problem, the Masoretes
inserted the vowel symbols that go with adonai, indicating that whenever the reader saw YHWH, he
had to say adonai.
When later readers saw the name YHWH combined with the symbols for adonai, they erroneously
concluded that YHWH was to be pronounced as Jehovah.
Etymology of the name Adonai
The word adonai comes from the unused root ‫'( אדן‬dn), of which the meaning is disputed, says BDB
Theological Dictionary, and lists the following proposals: Some say it's comparable to
the Assyrian word adannu, meaning firm or strong, and the associated adverb adannis means strongly
or exceedingly. Others say it may have to do with a Persian word meaning firm or fasten, and thus it
means to determine, hence command, hence rule. Others still propose relations to an Arabic verb that
means to be obedient or cause obedience, hence govern and rule. This verb is thought to have to do with
theHebrew word ‫( דין‬din), meaning to judge, and thus with the name ‫( דן‬Dan), and also makes the best
candidate morphologically spoken:

‫אדן‬
 The root ‫'( אדן‬dn) isn't used as verb in the Bible and we don't know what it may have meant,
although there might be an etymological or associative link with the verb ‫( דין‬din), meaning to judge
or govern. The two extant Biblical derivatives of our root ‫'( אדן‬dn), however, overlap quite
obviously to reveal their core meaning:
 The masculine noun ‫'( אדן‬eden), meaning foundation, base or pedestal (not to be confused with
the name ‫ ;עדן‬Eden, which is a wholly different word).
 The masculine noun ‫ אדון‬or ‫'( אדן‬adon) reflects authority in the sense of being the foundation
for individuals or groups. It's the source of the divine name or term Adonai, commonly
translated with 'Lord'.
'Eden ‫אדן‬
The first noun, ‫'( אדן‬eden) is used for the sockets or bases for the side panels of the tabernacle
(Exodus 26:19) and the bases of its pillars (38:10). The bride of the Song Of Solomon likens the
legs of the groom to pillars set on pedestals of pure gold (5:15), and Ezekiel sees the altar in the
New Temple standing on a wooden base (41:22). Most strikingly is the usage of our word 'eden in
Job 38:6, where it denotes the foundation of the earth and is used in parallel with the
phrase ‫'( פנתה אבן‬eben pinnatah), meaning corner stone. The corner stone returns in Psalm 118:22,
where it metaphorizes the rejected but resurrected and glorified Christ (Matthew 21:42).
Whatever the linguistic roots of these words may be, in practical Biblical usage, the
word 'eden conveys a sense of solidity and foundation. It ties things together (like Christ —
Colossians 1:17) and it gives solid footing (like the Words of Christ — Matthew 7:24, also see our
critical article on the name Peter).
'Adon ‫אדון‬
The word 'adon refers to the authoritative foundation of social structures (groups, or individuals
relative to society). It's commonly translated with 'lord' or 'Lord', and that doesn't wholly cut it.
English translations usually also translate the name YHWH with 'Lord' (which is an even worse
departure from the original), which here and there leads to congested sentences; the KJV famously
solved this problem by lamely translating Adonai with 'Lord' and YHWH with the capitalized
'LORD'. But the main objection to translate ‫'( אדן‬adon) with 'lord' or 'Lord' is that our English word
lord doesn't convey a sense of fundament, nor is it closely related to another, very common, word
meaning foundation or junction.
Of lords and pedestals
Our English word 'lord' comes from the antique word hlafweard, which is literally 'loaf' +
'ward(en)', meaning 'the supply guy', or rather: 'he who has the say-so over where the provisions go'.
Our word 'master' comes from the Latin magister, which in turn comes from the familiar 'mega',
and thus literally means 'great one'. Our word 'sir' is short for 'sire', which in turn is short for 'senior'
and means 'elder'.
In German, the superlative of the word for 'old' became 'Herr' and in Dutch the similar 'heer'.
Servants and the likes were subsequently associated with being young; hence the word 'boy' for a
slave of any age, the term 'junior officer' as indicative for someone with a relatively lower rank, and
any cheerful salute involving 'boys!'.
As in Hebrew, in Dutch the term 'my-sir' (mijn heer contracted to meneer, the still very common
word for gentleman, sir, boss, teacher and all that) achieved the status of autonomous term, which
lead to curious but proper constructions like 'your my-lord' or 'the my-lord of him'. The
German/Dutch speaking worlds have largely done away with social strata based on formal rank, but
the Germanic lord-words remain in adjectives like herrlich andheerlijk, the German and Dutch
words for delicious, literally meaning lordly, lord-like, or pertaining to a lord or being of the status
of a lord.
In Hebrew, our word 'adon often occurs postfixed with the letter ‫( י‬yod) and due to the multifarious
functions of this postfix, the form ‫'( אדני‬adonai) may be a possessive plural ('adonies of), or the
singular 'adon of me ('my 'adon') or even an adjective meaning 'adonly or 'pertaining to an 'adon'.
And in case any of these variations combine (in for instance 'my adonies', as in Genesis 19:2, where
it means 'my lords' or simply 'sirs') the twin yodsblend together and we're still presented with the
base form ‫ אדני‬and only the context to guide us toward a proper interpretation. Also note that
Hebrew sometimes makes use of majestic plural, or a plural form to indicate respect, so
that ‫ אדני‬may be used to mean 'lords' in stead of 'my lord', but used for a single individual: Lord, and
not 'lords of' or 'my lord'.
 The opposite of ‫'( אדני‬adonai), or 'my lord' is ‫'( עבדך‬ebedek), meaning 'your servant' or 'your
devotee'; someone who abides the 'adon's bidding. This term seems to have no real equivalent in the
modern world other than perhaps 'yours truly'.
Lords of the Bible
Since 'adon is the common Hebrew appellation for the people we would call 'sir' or 'mister', it
occurs all over the Bible. The Pharaoh of Egypt is referred to as 'adon (Genesis 40:1), and so is
king Saul of Israel (1 Samuel 16:16). But even lesser officers, such as Joseph (Genesis 42:10),
generalJoab (2 Samuel 11:11), the government of the Tekoites (Nehemiah 3:5), and even the
prophet Elijah (1 Kings 18:7) are addressed with 'adon.
Polite and hospitably, Lot calls his angelic guests such (Genesis 19:2), and Hannah says it to high
priest Eli (1 Samuel 1:15). A concubine's man is called her 'adon (Judges 19:26). Ruth calls her
future husband Boaz 'adon (Ruth 2:13), and Sarah calls her husband Abraham as such (Genesis
18:12) and is therefore highly appreciated by Peter (1 Peter 3:6).
The Greek word used by Peter is κυριος (kurios), which is slightly different in meaning, as it
denotes only authority and might, not the idea of fundament. The feminine variant κυρια (kuria)
denotes a mistress. This word is used twice in the Bible, in 2 John 1:1 and 5, where John addresses
an unnamed "lordess". Some speculate that this "lordess" is Mary, the mother of Jesus. A large
majority of the Biblical occurrences of the word kuriosdenote either God or Christ.
Similarly, about half of the occurrences of the word ‫אדון‬, is applied to God. In Genesis 18:3,
Abraham addresses the three men (previously introduced as YHWH, see 18:1) with 'adoni (and
nine verses later, Sarah speaks of her husband with the exact same word — 18:12).
Adonai is often used in conjunction with YHWH: ‫( יהוה אדני‬Adonai YHWH — Genesis 15:2),
or ‫( אדני יהוה‬YHWH Adonai — Psalm 68:20). Moseseven combines several divine names, including
a form of Elohim, in his famous phrase ‫ישראל אלהי יהוה האדן‬, meaning The Lord YHWH, the God of
Israel.
Adon is also the word used in the following familiar phrases:
 ‫ אדנים אדני‬meaning Lord of lords (Deuteronomy 10:17).
 ‫ואדני אלהי‬, meaning my Lord and my God (Psalm 35:23).
 ‫אדני הצבאות אלהי יהוה‬, meaning YHWH the God of Hosts my Lord (Amos 5:16).

Associated Biblical names

⌂ Addon‫אדון‬
♂ ☼ Ø Adonai‫אדני‬
♂ ♕Ø Adoni-bezek‫אדני־בזק‬
♂ Adonijah‫אדניה‬
♂ Adonikam‫אדניקם‬
♂ Adoniram‫אדנירם‬
♂ ♕Adoni-zedek‫אדני־צדק‬
♂ Baladan‫בלאדן‬
♂ ♕Berodach-baladan‫בראדך בלאדן‬
♂ ♕Merodach-baladan‫מרדך בלאדן‬
♂ Tobadonijah‫אדוניה טוב‬
Adonai meaning
The name Adonai literally means My Fundament and by implication My Lord, but can be used
autonomously to refer to a person upon whom society stands: Milord or simply Sir or Mister.
It should be noted that the Hebrew authors saw themselves as the autonomous agents of the Creator's
doings, much rather than His blindly obedient slaves or even lifeless pawns He moves at will. The
Hebrews called the Creator 'mister Yahweh', and addressed them the way any of us would address our
CEO in a business meeting.
People who slavishly call their CEO 'Lord LORD' or something along those lofty lines are probably
slacking or up to something.
The name Christ in the Bible
 Christ, or christos is not really a name but an appellative, or even a title. It describes an appointment; a
function in the theocratic structure of Israel. ButMatthew mentions that Jesus of Nazareth was called
Christ (1:16) and that makes this noun a valid member of the Abarim Publications Name Vault.
Etymology and meaning of the name Christ
The noun χριστος (christos), meaning anointed, comes from the Greek verb χριω (chrio), meaning to
smear or anoint:

χριω
The verb χριω (chrio) means to smear or anoint. The Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation of
the Old Testament) uses this verb to describe any kind of smearing, pouring or anointing, ranging
from regular armory maintenance (2 Samuel 1:21, Isaiah 21:5) to basic medical routines (Isaiah
1:6).
In Israel, the ritualistic act of anointing was performed to inaugurate people into certain specific
offices, and only offices that had no earthly superior and were subject only to God. Thus only a
High Priest (Leviticus 4:3) and a prophet and a king would be anointed into office (1 Kings 19:16).
Regular priests and certain venerable objects would be consecrated by receiving a mere sprinkling
of the oil (Exodus 30:26, Leviticus 8:30).
The derivations of this verb are:
 The noun χρισμα (chrisma), meaning an anointing or the anointed. This noun is used to
indicate the anointing oil (Exodus 29:7) and the Anointed One (Daniel 9:26) and in 1 John
2:20 it indicates the state of being anointed (in the Holy Spirit).
 The noun χριστος (christos), denoting anyone anointed with the holy oil (high priests,
prophets and kings; see the link below for our article on the pseudo-name Christ). From this
word in turn derive:
o Together with the preposition αντι (anti), meaning over or against: the
noun αντιχριστος (antichristos), meaning antichrist (see the link below for our
article on the pseudo-name Antichrist).
o The noun χριστιανος (christianos), which is a name given to the followers
of Jesus Christ (Acts 11:26, Acts 26:28, 1 Peter 4:16; see the link below for our
article on the spectacular misnomer Christian).
o Together with the adjective ψευδης (pseudes), meaning false: the
noun ψευδοχριστος (pseudochristos), denoting someone who claims to be anointed
(1 John 2:26-27) but who is probably just being religious (Matthew 24:24 and
Mark 13:22 only).
Compound derivations that contain our verb χριω (chrio):
 The verb εγχριω (egchrio), from the preposition εν (en), meaning in, on, at or by, and our
verb χριω (chrio). The verb εγχριω (egchrio) also means to anoint but with a rather mundane
reflection, largely indicating a smearing in a medical or perhaps even recreational sense; eyes
with salve (Revelation 3:18).
 The verb επιχριω (epichrio), from the preposition επι (epi) meaning on or upon, and our
verb χριω (chrio). The verb επιχριω (epichrio) means a smearing over. This verb occurs only
in John 9:6 and 9:11, where Jesus over-smears the eyes of the blind man.

Associated Biblical names

♂ Ø ≣ Antichristαντιχριστος
♂ ♕☼
Ø ChristΧριστος
☺ ChristianΧριστιανος
So yes, the literal meaning of the name Christ is Anointed, but practically it means much
rather Inaugurated or even Highest Earthly Rank. Politically speaking, it describes the Individual's
Autonomy, as opposed to a political system in which one person or a few people exert absolute power
over the rest (read our article on the name Antichrist).
There were many more phrases and names from the Old Testament to label the Son of God with
(Branch, Prince of Peace, Corner Stone), but the label Christ became such a hit probably because of its
political implications.
The Christ and Rome
In their wonderful book In Search Of Paul, authors Crossan and Reed argue that much
of Paul's signature theological phraseology was in fact a direct response (and insurrectionary response)
to Roman imperial theology. Since in Rome, politics and theology were the same, calling Jesus the
Christ (or theHebrew equivalent Messiah — John 1:41) was not so much an act of worship to God but
much more an act of high treason against Roman imperial theology. Subsequently, the proclaimed
Christ died a political death: on the cross.
To modern readers the name Christ doesn't mean anything other than it being the surname of Jesus, but
in the time that the Bible was written it was a commonly understood title of the rightful king of Israel.
The phrases "Son Of God," Redeemer, and "Savior of the World" came straight from the Romans and
were originally applied to Caesar Augustus, son of the deified Julius Caesar.
Even the title "son of God" and the word monogenes, meaning only-begotten, a word made famous by
John 3:16, is applied in the Bible to quite a few others (see below). And to make matters worse: even
the name Jesus was quite common in the time of the Bible and there are five separate individuals named
Jesus mentioned in the Bible (see our article on the name Jesus).
Title flexibility
It seems that there are not many titles of Christ that are exclusively His. After His death and
resurrection, the apostle Paul depicted Him mostly as the Crucified Christ (where the English word
crucify is also a misnomer, since the Greek word that Paul uses means "lifted up" — Paul speaks of the
Elevated Christ).
When under emperor Constantine Christianity became the empire's main religion, Christ quickly
became known as Pantokrator, or All-Ruler, a phrase drawn from the Septuagint (and please read our
article on the name Nazarene for a closer look at this). During the time of the great plague, Christ
became the Man of Sorrows. The Reformation brought the Bible into the common home, and Jesus
became mostly depicted as one of us, a sympathetic teacher with his friends and followers.
In our day and age of individual freedom, Christ is depicted in all possible ways, with all available skin
colors and attire, even up to Catholicism Wow's nice tried but still wholly atrocious Buddy Christ.
Since Paul says that the Spirit searches all things (1 Corinthians 2:10), perhaps we should start calling
Him the Great Search Engine. Or since in Him and by Him everything was made, and in Him all things
hold together (Colossians 1:17), perhaps The Great Server would apply. Perhaps not. But all these
various depictions show that no matter how intimate Christ is experienced, or how much reverence we
feel for Him, His ultimate personality or even most fundamental function is utterly difficult to grasp.
The great unicity of Jesus Christ is not that He is the Christ, or that He is a teacher or even a son of
God; His ultimate unicity is that He died like we will all die, but that He wouldn't stay dead. And that
not just because he rose (because even that has a few Biblical precedents in Lazarus and the widow's
son ofLuke 7:11-16, the boy whom Elijah the Tishbite raised in 1 Kings 17:17-24 and the Shunammite's
son whom Elisha raised in 2 Kings 4:35) but because there was nothing in this world that could keep
Him dead. His victory over death at Golgotha, by the sheer merit of His identity, is big enough for us all
to enjoy. In Christ, all of us are immortal.
So yes, the name Christ means Anointed, but with a very big footnote.
See our article on the name Nicodemus for the often misunderstood "anointing" or "embalming" of
Jesus' dead body.
See our article on the name Armageddon for the importance of acknowledging the Christhood, or legal
royalty, of Jesus.
Sons of God mentioned in the Bible:
Adam Luke 3:38

The Pre-flood Pack Genesis 6:2

Israel Exodus 4:22

Angelic Earth Patrol Job 1:6

Peace makers Matthew 5:9

The resurrected Luke 20:36

Those led by the Spirit of God Romans 8:14, 19

Those who have faith in Christ Jesus Galatians 3:26

Those led by the Spirit of God Romans 8:14, 19

Jesus Luke 22:70

Occurrences of the word monogenes that don't apply to Jesus Christ:
...the only son of his mother... Luke 7:12

...for he [Jairus] had an only daughter... Luke 8:42

...for he is my only boy... Luke 9:38

...offering up his only begotten son (i.e. Isaac; Abraham already was the father of Ishmael.) Hebrews 11:17

The name Dabar YHWH in the Bible

Dabar-Yahweh means roughly Word of the Lord. See below for a discussion of Dabar, and
see YHWH for an article on the name Yahweh.
Dabar-Yahweh is one of the few dominant Hebrew names or titles of God in the Bible, although not
often enough recognized as such. This beautiful name is introduced as late as Genesis 15:1 where the
Word of God is in a vision to Abraham and speaks to him (compare: Elohim occurs in Genesis 1:1,
YHWH Elohim in 2:4, and Elyon in 14:18).
God speaks often to people and in many different ways. The Word of God, however, typically conveys
formal messages and mostly to prophets. The Word of God gains a pivotal status in the New Testament
when He "becomes flesh" in Jesus Christ, now known by the Greek translation Logos.
Other alternatives and pseudo-alternatives are:
 The Word of the Lord YHWH, or ‫( יהוה דבר־אדני‬Dabar Adonai YHWH), as used by Ezekiel (6:3,
25:3 and 36:4).
 The Mouth of YHWH, or ‫( יהוה פי‬py YHWH; Exodus 17:1, Leviticus 24:12, Numbers 3:6 etcetera).
 The Speakings of YHWH, or ‫( יהוה אמרת‬amaroth YHWH; 2 Samuel 22:31, Psalm 105:19, Jeremiah
51:62).
 The Sword of YHWH, or ‫( יהוה חרב‬hereb YHWH; 1 Chronicles 21:12) or ‫( ליהוה חרב‬Jeremiah 47:6).
This curious term is clearly also part of the same theme; the edge of a sword was known as its
mouth (Genesis 34:26, 2 Samuel 2:26), but see our article on the word ‫ חרב‬hereb for more details.
Etymology and meaning of the name Dabar YHWH
Where some names of God come uniquely from rare roots, the names Elyon and Dabar come from roots
that have truly vast domains of application. The word dabar, however, outdoes even elyon and is a
universe of meaning in itself:

‫דבר‬
The root ‫( דבר‬dabar), its many derivations and the many meaning of each derivation, occur over
2,500 times in the Old Testament. HAW Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament reports that
the King James Bible uses more than 110 different English words and expressions to translate this
oneHebrew word ‫( דבר‬dabar).
Our root basically has to do with the vocal conveyance of a whole message (unlike the
verb ‫( אמר‬amar), which means to say or talk), or refers to 'matters' or 'things to be discussed'.
Besides its enormous significance in the phrase Word of God, the root is used to indicate the
"order" of Melchizedek, the "inner sanctuary" of the Holy of Holies, the Ten "Commandments" and
to supply two out of five books of Moses with their titles: the original title of Numbers
is ‫( וידבר‬Wayyadabar- And He spoke) but is also known as ‫( במדבר‬Bemidbar - In the wilderness).
The original title of Deuteronomy is ‫( הדברים‬Hadabarim - The Words). In Judges 5:12 the judge
Deborah (‫ )דברה‬is urged to 'word' (d.b.r.y) a song.
Scholars generally have the root ‫( דבר‬dabar) break apart into two distinct groups of meanings:
A: a group of words that pertain to speech and specifically intelligent discourse.
B: a group that pertains to being behind or coming later or as a consequence.
 But such a division is not required when we recognize that speech and reason are highly personal
and strongly defining attributes which are obtained long after the person begins to exist, so actually
(A) is a sub-group of (B) and the two aren't groups at all. Still, the distinction persists in its English
reflection and may help us to reach some understanding of the height and depth of this marvelous
word.
We'll have a look at the derivations of the root ‫( דבר‬dabar) and mark each with an (A) or (B),
depending on which group of meanings the word belongs to. We stress again that no such
distinction exists in Hebrew; to the Hebrews all words that follow are closely related in essence, and
all variations of the same theme.
Abarim Publication postulates that this theme, of which speech and reason is also an expression, in
its most fundamental sense is fruitfulness, fruitage; the bringing forth of things, or the bringing
about of things. In fact, since the Hebrew language is not as lavish in its use of the verb 'to be' as
English, we see a large overlap of both the verb and the noun dabar with the idea of the being or
coming about of predominantly conceptual entities; things, anything that can be named, and tapping
into the creation theme, anything that God spoke (or could have spoken) into being:

‫דבר‬
The verb ‫( דבר‬dabar) (A). As a verb, this word generally denotes the producing of whatever the
same word means as noun, hence: to speak, declare, warn, threaten, command, promise, sing . . .
etc. The noun always denotes a message or at least a verbal unit that came from contemplative
thought, or (according to HAW Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament ) "most matters
pertaining to moral and ideal values".
The verb dabar should be distinguished from ‫( אמר‬amar), to say or talk, or rather the activity that
brings about strings of these: ‫( אמר‬omer) 'word,' such as those found in dictionaries. The
verb amar brings the focus on what is spoken, but dabar brings the focus on the actual speaking.
The verbamar always comes with what was said (i.e.: and then he said, "fine morning, ain't it?"),
while dabar may occur without content (i.e.: and, after clearing his throat, he spoke.)
The verb dabar occurs in Psalm 18:47b: "And subdues people under me [NAS]," but in the 2
Samuel 22:48 parallel the verb ‫( ירד‬yarad, bring down; see Jordan) is used. Finally it should be
noted that 400 out of 1100 occurrences of the verb dabar are in the formula 'and God
said/promised/commanded/etc.'

‫דבר‬
The masculine noun ‫( דבר‬dabar) (A). As a noun, this word denotes a unit that was made to come
about. It can be a single word, but it can also be a whole sentence or statement like the Ten Words
(a.k.a. the Ten Commandments) which by sheer fact of their decree brought about people who
didn't steal and murder etc (read our article on Romans 7).
Dabar can be an 'act' such as the acts of King David (1 Chronicles 29:29; we suggest: the things
that David 'made to come about'), and it can be a whole literary corpus (a book as a physical object
or a general account is called ‫( ספר‬seper) such as the book of Samuel the Seer who recorded the acts
of David, or Chronicles, which was originally titled: ‫( הימים דברי‬dabary heyomim), "Events of the
Days / Times".
Dabar may be as general as to mean 'thing'. The proper plural (‫דברים‬, dabarim, or the pseudo-
genitive plural ‫דברי‬, meaning 'dabarim of') may mean 'words' (Genesis 11:1) as well as 'things'
(Genesis 15:1) or 'matters' (Exodus 18:19).
Together with ‫'( על‬al), meaning on or upon, our noun forms the phrase ‫ ;על־דבר‬upon the thing, or on
account of, or simply: because. Together with ‫(כל‬kol, meaning all) it becomes 'everything' and note
how this also relates to Deuteronomy 8:3 and Matthew 4:4, "Man shall not live by bread alone but
by every word [that is: everything] that comes from the mouth (Hebrew: midbar, see next) of the
Lord".
With certain negations (such as ‫( לא‬lo'), meaning not or no) our word expresses 'nothing'. Together
with ‫'( על‬al), meaning on or upon, our word forms the term ‫על־דבר‬, literally upon the thing, or
rather: 'on account of', or 'because'. Together with ‫( יום‬yom), meaning day, our word forms the
phrase‫' ;דבר־יום‬thing of the day' or 'daily chore'.
 In conjunction with YHWH, the word dabar denotes either any word spoken by God, or a specific
Person of the Godhead who is talking. In the inaugurate usage (Genesis 15:1), the Word of the Lord
comes to Abram in a vision — ‫( מחזה‬mahazeh) from the verb ‫( חזה‬haza), meaning to look or see —
indicating that he was seeing the Word of God. When the Word of the Lord actually addresses
Abram to say His first recorded words ever, namely, ‫( לא־תירא‬lo-teyare; don't be afraid), the
verb ‫'( אמר‬amar, meaning to say) is used. In the New Testament the Word of the Lord is recognized
as Jesus Christ, who came down from heaven to bring about the will of God (John 6:38). And
there's that theme again.

‫דבר‬
The masculine noun ‫( דבר‬deber) (B), meaning pestilence, or perhaps most literally:
something awful. This very common word is used nearly always in the sense of punishment sent by
God as a result of sin. Deber denotes any kind of pestilence that results in death.

‫דבר‬
The masculine noun ‫( דבר‬dober) (B), meaning pasture/ fold. A mere two times does ‫( דבר‬dober)
mean pasture: Micah 2:12 and Isaiah 5:17, both as feeding ground for lambs (Isaiah) and a flock of
sheep (Micah). Possibly the idea of a pasture is related to that of the midbar (see next), but maybe
the two prophets placed the sheep utopical in their 'element,' (lambs grazing in their thing) a
concept so difficult to translate that later, translated texts speak of pasture (because that's how
Scripture Theorists figure that the same word dbr means something else this time). Contemporary
generations may want to translate these instances of ‫( דבר‬dober) with groove. Perhaps not.

‫דברות‬
The feminine plural noun ‫( דברות‬dobrot) (B), meaning floats. Once the dbr root shows up as
something that's made out of logs in order to transport them over water, like a floating raft (1 Kings
5:9). Most likely these floaters were towed by regular vessels.

‫דברה‬
The feminine noun ‫( דברה‬dibra) (A and B depending on context), meaning cause, reason, order,
matter. Dibra occurs seven times: Job 5:8: NAS, NIV: cause; Psalm 110:4: NAS, NIV: order [of
Melchizedek], NEB: succession [of Melchizedek]; Ecclesiastes 7:14: NAS, NIV: anything; Daniel
2:30: NAS: for the purpose of; NIV: so that may; Daniel 4:17: NAS: in order that; NIV: so that
may.
Dibra in Ecclesiastes 3:18 and 8:2 results in an obstructing redundancy in English and is generally
omitted. But 3:18 reads something like, "I said in my heart concerning the matter of the sons of
man". Surely most translators seek to reflect some sphere of archaism, or else (since dabar = logos)
the most apt translation of the phrase "the matter of the sons of man" would be: anthropology.

‫דבורה‬
The feminine noun ‫( דבורה‬deborah) (via B to A), meaning bee (its curious
plural ‫ דברים‬or ‫ דבורים‬looks like a common masculine plural; Deuteronomy 1:44, Psalm 118:12,
Judges 14:8). Some commentators imagine that the bee was called "a speaker" because of its
buzzing. But that can not be true for two reasons. First of all, the bee is not the only animal that
makes sound. And secondly, because the bee doesn't speak with its buzzing.
We suggest that the bee was named by means of the dbr root because it produces honey. Honey was
the chief sweetener in the olden days, and although God's words are sweater than honey (Psalm
119:103), Ezekiel reports that the scroll full of lamentations that God gave him tasted after
it.Manna tasted like honey-wafers; manna also showed the glory of the Lord (Exodus 16:7) and
Jesus compares himself to it (John 6:31-35). The promised land was a land of milk and honey
(and Paul compares early learning to milk).
 Ergo, the bee brings forth the honey which in turn has a lot to do with the Word of God. See our
article on the name Deborah.

‫דביר‬
The masculine noun ‫( דביר‬debir) (From A to B to A), meaning hindmost chamber (BDB
Theological Dictionary), inner sanctuary (NAS, NIV), oracle (KJV). This word, when it doesn't
mean the town Debir, is reserved as an alternative name of the Holy of Holies in Solomon's temple
and, because of the connection to dabar, was translated 'oracle' by the King James and others.
Younger translations tend to lean towards group B and seek meaning in the location of the Holy of
Holies; in the back. Most notably is its usage in Psalm 28:2, " . . . onto the debir of your holiness".
Abarim Publications likes to suggest that since in the Holy of Holies the Ark was kept, and in the
Ark the Law, which in turn is intimately related to the Word of God, a better translation of the
word debir is 'place of the Word.'

‫מדבר‬
The masculine noun ‫( מדבר‬midbar) (A and B), meaning mouth. Just once the dbr root denotes
mouth (your mouth is lovely - Song of Solomon 4:3), we may assume as source of speech. An apt
translation would be 'your yap' if that hadn't had the negative connotation. Better is: 'You say nice
things.'
The other, more regular word for mouth (nearly 500 occurrences) is ‫( פה‬peh). Since the words of
God are often reported to come out of His mouth, it should be obvious at once that the Hebrews did
not see the mouth as part of what we call a face (God doesn't have one) but rather as origin or well
of words going one way and receptacle of food going the other.
In its article on ‫( פה‬peh), HAW Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament even states, "The
mouth is the external manifestation of one's character and disposition".

‫מדבר‬
The masculine noun ‫( מדבר‬midbar) (A? B?). This noun is identical to the previous noun. Usually it's
translated with 'wilderness' but that doesn't seem to do justice.
Midbar is the only word from the dbr stock that doesn't immediately obviously fall into one of the
two categories. But still it must be noted that where our English word 'wilderness' brings to mind
something wild; something untamed, uncultivated, or unregulated, the word midbar brings to mind
the word dabar; word, entity, thing. Like words 'live' in the mouth, so do things live in a midbar.
A midbar is an ecosystem where entities exists in a larger system, just like words exists in speech.
The word midbar does not denote a specific kind of terrain, and even the subdivision that some
scholars list does not satisfy. Sometimes the word denotes lush stretches that are good for grazing
(Psalm 65:12, Jeremiah 23:10) but sometimes a midbar is deserted and empty. Job 38:26 speaks of
a‫'( ארץ‬eres; land) without ‫'( איש‬ish; people) and a ‫( מדבר‬midbar; wilderness) without ‫( אדם‬adam;
men), and just like a land is not typically without people, so is a midbar also not typically without
men. Sometimes the midbar even holds towns and peoples (Isaiah 42:11, Joshua 15:61).
Twice, however, the word is used metaphorically and typically negative: Hosea 2:5 and Jeremiah
2:31, possibly validated by its ultimate association to wildernesses such as the deserts
of Negev and Sinai.

Associated Biblical names

♂ ☼ Dabar-YHWH‫דבר־יהוה‬
⌂ Daberath‫דברת‬
♂ ⌂ ♕Debir‫דביר‬
‫דבר‬
♀ Deborah‫דבורה‬
‫דברה‬
♂ Dibri‫דברי‬
⌂ Lidbir‫לדבר‬
⌂ Lo-debar‫דבר לא‬
‫דבר לו‬
The name El in the Bible
El is the generally accepted shortened form of Elohim, the genus God. Etymologically, however, the
link may not be so strong. In its signature charming way BDB Theological Dictionary states the
'question intricate and conclusions dubious.'
The way we, here at Abarim Publications, understand it, is that the word el was either the
common Canaanite word for god, or a specific deity named such. When the Elohimite cult was
introduced in the region, the name Elohim was formed independent of the word el or name El. When
the reference to theIsraelite God Elohim needed to be abbreviated (to serve as an element in names, for
instance), the result was a second word el or name El, which was indistinguishable from the first one.
It's probably a bit like when someone from Faroffstan named Itzenbil (means 'mighty worried but rarely
frowning' in his native language) moves into your neighborhood. Soon people start calling him Bill
(short for Itzenbil), which is indistinguishable from Bill (short for William) who had been your
neighbor for decades.
Originally El was the name of a Canaanite god, but Biblically the name El stands to Elohim the way
Bob stands to Robert.
Also note that the Hebrew name ‫ אל‬transliterated into Greek forms Ηλ, which constitutes the first
syllable of the word ηλιος, (helios), meaning sun. This word comes from an ancient proto Indo-
European root.

‫אלה אל‬
In names, the segment ‫'( אל‬el), usually refers to ‫'( אלהים‬elohim), that is Elohim, or God, also known
as ‫'( אלה‬eloah). In English, the words 'God' and 'god' are strictly reserved to refer to deity but
in Hebrew the words ‫'( אל‬l) and ‫'( אלה‬lh) are far more common. Consider the following:

‫אל‬
 ‫'( אל‬al), which is the Hebrew transliteration of the Arabic article that survives in English in
words like alcohol and algebra. There are some words in the Hebrew Bible that are
transliterations of Arabic words, which contain this article.
 ‫'( אל‬al), particle of negation; not, no, neither.
 ‫'( אל‬el) preposition that expresses motion towards someone or something; unto, into, besides,
in reference to.
 ‫'( אל‬el), which is a truncated form of ‫'( אלה‬eleh), meaning these (see below).

‫אלה‬
 ‫'( אלה‬eleh), meaning these. Follow the link to read our article on this and the next three words
 ‫'( אלה‬ala), to swear; derivative ‫'( אלה‬ala) means oath.
 ‫'( אלה‬ala), to wail.
 ‫'( אלה‬alla), oak, from the assumed and unused root ‫'( אלל‬ll). Follow the link to read more on
these and the next words
 ‫'( אלה‬ela), terebinth, from the root ‫'( אול‬wl).

The name El-kana in the Bible

The name El-kana occurs six times in the Bible, although this name is commonly translated as part of
the narrative in stead of transliterated as a name.
This name occurs most strikingly in the Ten Commandments, where YHWH Himself declares that He
is El-kana (Exodus 20:5, Deuteronomy 5:9).
Moses calls Him such (Deuteronomy 4:24 and 6:15), and even states: ‫( הוא קנא אל שמו קנא יהוה‬yhwh qana
shemu el-qana hewa), or "YHWH is jealous; his name is El-kana" (Exodus 34:14).
Once this name is spelled ‫קנוא אל‬, namely in Joshua 24:19.
Etymology of the name El-kana
 The name El-kana consists of two elements, the first one being ‫אל‬, El, the prominent Canaanite deity
whose name became applied to the God of Israel, or the common abbreviation of Elohim, the genus
God:

‫אלה אל‬
In names, the segment ‫'( אל‬el), usually refers to ‫'( אלהים‬elohim), that is Elohim, or God, also known
as ‫'( אלה‬eloah). In English, the words 'God' and 'god' are strictly reserved to refer to deity but
in Hebrew the words ‫'( אל‬l) and ‫'( אלה‬lh) are far more common. Consider the following:

‫אל‬
 ‫'( אל‬al), which is the Hebrew transliteration of the Arabic article that survives in English in
words like alcohol and algebra. There are some words in the Hebrew Bible that are
transliterations of Arabic words, which contain this article.
 ‫'( אל‬al), particle of negation; not, no, neither.
 ‫'( אל‬el) preposition that expresses motion towards someone or something; unto, into, besides,
in reference to.
 ‫'( אל‬el), which is a truncated form of ‫'( אלה‬eleh), meaning these (see below).

‫אלה‬
 ‫'( אלה‬eleh), meaning these. Follow the link to read our article on this and the next three words
 ‫'( אלה‬ala), to swear; derivative ‫'( אלה‬ala) means oath.
 ‫'( אלה‬ala), to wail.
 ‫'( אלה‬alla), oak, from the assumed and unused root ‫'( אלל‬ll). Follow the link to read more on
these and the next words
 ‫'( אלה‬ela), terebinth, from the root ‫'( אול‬wl).

The second part of our name is the adjective ‫( קנא‬qanna), meaning jealous:

‫קנא‬
The Semitic root ‫( קנא‬qn') appears to denote a becoming deep red (it does so in Arabic), and as such
spawns words all over the Semitic language spectrum that have to do with jealousy. This probably
has nothing to do with getting an angry red face, but rather with jealousy being a defining quality of
life. In other words: jealousy is right up there with love and hate, although in our stunted modern
world it's not often recognized as such (see our article on the damam-words which includes the
name Adam and the noun ‫דם‬, dam, meaning blood).
In Hebrew the derived feminine noun ‫( קנאה‬qin'a) means ardor, zeal or jealousy. Unlike someone
who steals out of hunger, someone who copulates with his neighbor's wife can not count on
understanding and forgiveness but can count on wounds and disgrace, because jealousy enrages a
man (Proverbs 6:34, 27:4).
Jealousy was recognized to be such a strong emotion that a substantial piece of Mosaic legislation
dealt specifically with the jealous feelings of a husband towards his supposedly unfaithful wife
(Numbers 5:11-31). Still, the Preacher recognized that every labor and every skill which is done
comes from rivalry between men (Ecclesiastes 4:4), and lists zeal right along love and hate
(Ecclesiastes 9:6).
The exact same word serves to describe a person's zeal for righteousness, which obviously taps into
the greater marriage-and-adultery theme that explains the relationship between YHWH and
mankind (Ezekiel 16:38). When Phinehas gored Zimri and Cozbi, he did so because he
was jealouswith the jealousy of the Lord (Numbers 25:11). Subsequently, the Lord offered him and
his descendants His covenant of peace (25:12) and perpetual priesthood because he was jealous for
his God and made atonement for the sons of Israel (25:13). It is assumed that Israel's nationalistic
movement of the Zealots derived their name from this statute.
 The military captain Jehu's zeal for the Lord appears to have prompted him to embark on an
unequalled killing spree (2 Kings 10:16) and Davidfamously exclaimed, "Zeal for Thy house has
consumed me..". (Psalm 69:9). But more often, the Lord's zeal for His people alters history (2 Kings
19:31, Isaiah 9:6), as He arouses His zeal like a man of war (Isaiah 42:13, Zechariah 1:14, 8:2), as
He wraps Himself with zeal like a mantle (Isaiah 59:17).
Sometimes our noun is used in such a way that it expresses a sentiment rather akin to anger. The
Lord God declares that He will deal with the men ofSeir according to their anger (Ezekiel 35:11),
but Eliphaz assured Job that the simple will be dealt with by their own anger (Job 5:2),
as anger rots the bones (Proverbs 14:30). But mostly, it's God's anger that's coming the way of
wayward men (Deuteronomy 29:20, Ezekiel 5:13, Zephaniah 1:18, Psalm 79:5).
Our noun also yields the denominative verb ‫( קנא‬qana'), meaning to be jealous or zealous, pretty
much with the same compass as the noun (Genesis 30:1, 2 Samuel 21:2, Isaiah 11:13) or to provoke
or entice jealousy or zeal (Deuteronomy 32:16, 1 Kings 14:22, Ezekiel 8:3).
Two adjectives derive from this root. Both mean jealous and both are only applied to God:
namely ‫( קנוא‬qanno') (Joshua 24:19, Nahum 1:2) and ‫(קנא‬qanna) which is used in the Lord's
important confession that He is a jealous God (Exodus 20:5 and Deuteronomy 5:9, also see
Deuteronomy 4:24 and 6:15). In Exodus 34:14 it's even stated that the Lord's name is Jealous God
(El-kana).

Associated Biblical names

♂ ☼ El-kana‫קנא אל‬
‫קנוא אל‬
☺ ② KanaaniteΚανανιτης
El-kana meaning
The name El-kana means Jealous God or even God Of Being Jealous and God Of Jealousy.
The name Elyon in the Bible
Elyon is one of the Names or Titles of God in the Bible, and the first not-Creator Name. Sometimes it
occurs by itself (Numbers 24:16) but often together with El. The name El Elyon occurs initially in
Genesis 14:18, during the Melchizedek scene. The name Elyon is also often teamed up with the
Tetragrammaton YHWH, for instance in Psalm 47:2 and 97:9, or with the appellation Elohim, for
instance in Psalm 57:2 and 78:56.
Etymology of the name Elyon
The name Elyon comes from the Hebrew verb ‫'( עלה‬ala), meaning to go up:

‫עול עלל עלה‬

Biblical Hebrew counts one root ‫'( עלה‬lh), two or three roots ‫'( עלל‬ll) and two or three roots ‫'( עול‬wl).
It's not clear how many of each root there are because the meanings of these roots overlap to more
or lesser degree:

‫עלה‬
The root-verb ‫'( עלה‬ala), meaning to go up or ascend, occurs about 900 times in the Bible and its
bouquet of derivatives many hundreds of times more.
BDB Theological Dictionary lists four densely typed columns of nuances, but the compass of this
verb is pretty straight forward. But besides denoting a movement towards a higher place (Genesis
45:25), this verb also captures journeying towards some specific destination (Joshua 10:4), or even
activity (such as war; Numbers 13:31).
Dew rises (when it disappears: Exodus 16:14), smoke rises (Genesis 19:28) and vegetation grows
(Isaiah 34:13). Thoughts emerge (Isaiah 65:17), boundaries extend (Joshua 15:3), and worthy folks
get exalted (Proverbs 31:29).
This verb's impressive array of derivations:
 The masculine noun ‫'( עלה‬aleh), meaning leafage (Genesis 3:7, Isaiah 1:30).
  The masculine noun ‫'( עלי‬eli), meaning pestle (that's a club-shaped instrument for crushing or
pounding substances). BDB Theological Dictionary explains the derivation as 'rising before
the blow.' This word occurs in Proverbs 27:20 only, and perhaps as the name Eli.
 The feminine noun ‫'( עלה‬ola), denoting a whole burnt offering ('that which goes up', says
BDB). This noun occurs 286 times throughout the Old Testament.
 The identical feminine noun ‫'( עלה‬ola), meaning ascent or stairway (Ezekiel 40:26 only).
 The adjective ‫'( עלי‬illi), meaning upper (Judges 1:15 and Joshua 15:19 only).
 The feminine noun ‫'( עליה‬aliya), meaning roof chamber (2 Kings 4:10) or 'sky-chamber'
(Psalm 104:3).
 The adjective ‫'( עליון‬elyon), meaning high (Deuteronomy 26:19), or upper (Joshua 16:5).
 The masculine noun ‫'( עליון‬elyon). This noun is identical to the preceding adjective and
literally means high. But it's used in the sense of highest. It forms a title (or some even say
personal Name) of God: the Most High. BDB states that this noun in Psalm 82:6 doesn't mean
God, but others refute that.
 The masculine noun ‫( מעל‬mo'al), meaning lifting. This word occurs only once, in Nehemiah
8:6, where it is usually translated into an expression of the English verb to lift.
 The masculine noun ‫( מעלה‬ma'ala), meaning ascent, the going up of a hill or towards an
elevation of some sort (1 Samuel 9:11, Ezekiel 40:31). There are a few ascents named in the
Bible: the ascent of Akrabbim (Judges 1:36); the ascent of Adummim (Joshua 15:7).
 The preposition ‫( מעל‬ma'al), meaning upward, on top of, or above (Genesis 22:9, Amos 2:9).
 The feminine noun ‫( מעלה‬ma'ala), meaning that what comes up, i.e. thoughts (Ezekiel 11:5;
perhaps suggesting that Ezekiel was already thinking about a lower and higher mind, two and
a half millennia before Freud).
 The identical feminine noun ‫( מעלה‬ma'ala), meaning step or stair (Ezekiel 40:6, Ezra 7:9).
 The feminine noun ‫( תעלה‬te'ala), meaning water-course (Ezekiel 31:4, Isaiah 36:2).
 The identical feminine noun ‫( תעלה‬te'ala), meaning healing (BDB: 'of new flesh and skin
forming over wound; Jeremiah 30:13 and 40:11 only).
 The ubiquitous particle ‫'( על‬al) denoting any kind of elevation or motion towards someone or
something. BDB lists over eleven columns of nuances of this word's meanings, which range
from upwards, upon and above to hence, on account of and towards. This particle is probably
related to the prefix ‫( ל‬le), which means pretty much the same thing.

‫ עלל‬I
The verb ‫'( עלל‬alal I) means to act severely towards someone. Perhaps an association with the
previous verb is justifiable as it takes a position of superiority to exercise this verb. Or as HAW
Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament states, "This word speaks of relationships. It is used to
indicate the exercise of power over another person, generally in a bad sense, hence meaning 'to
maltreat'". And judging from the derivatives, this verb contains a repetitive factor.
Our verb occurs thirteen times in the Bible (Exodus 10:2, Judges 19:25, Lamentations 1:22). Its
derivatives are:
 The feminine plural noun ‫'( עוללות‬olelot), meaning a gleaning; a going over something a
second time (Isaiah 17:6, Jeremiah 49:9).
 The denominative verb ‫'( עלל‬alal), meaning to glean (Leviticus 19:10, Judges 20:45).
 The feminine noun ‫'( עלילה‬alila), meaning wantonness (Deuteronomy 22:14) or deed (1
Samuel 2:3, Zephaniah 3:11).
 The feminine noun ‫'( עליליה‬alilya), also meaning deed (Jeremiah 32:19 only).
 The masculine noun ‫( מעלל‬ma'alal), meaning deed or practice (1 Samuel 25:3, Hosea 5:5,
Proverbs 20:11).
 The masculine plural noun ‫( תעלולים‬ta'alulim), meaning wantonness (Isaiah 3:4 and Isaiah
66:4 only).

‫ עלל‬II
 The root ‫'( עלל‬alal II) has to do with children, and may be related to the previous root in that
children are mischievous, or perhaps it is related to the root(s) ‫'( עול‬ul), see below. Note that BDB
Theological Dictionary lists this root as ‫'( עלל‬alal II), but HAW Theological Wordbook of the Old
Testament skips it all together (and has presumably assimilated it in any of the other roots). This
root's derivatives are:
 The masculine noun ‫'( עולל‬olel), meaning child (Job 3:10, Isaiah 1:5, Jeremiah 6:11).
 The denominative verb ‫'( עלל‬alal), meaning to act like a child (Isaiah 3:12). Note that this verb
is spelled and pronounced the same way as the next and previous verbs:

‫ עלל‬III
The root-verb ‫'( עלל‬alal III) means to insert or thrust in. It's used only once in the Bible, in Job
16:15, where Job declares that he has thrust his horn in the dust. This root comes with two
derivatives:
 The masculine noun ‫'( על‬ol), meaning yoke. HAW Theological Wordbook of the Old
Testament declares that this noun and its parent verb have to do with each other "from
insertion of the neck into the yoke". Here at Abarim Publications we are not so convinced.
Yokes are generally placed on top of an animal's neck, and it's designed to have two animals
walk side by side. Our noun is sparsely used literally (Numbers 19:2, 1 Samuel 6:7) and
mostly figuratively, denoting the overbearing power of kings (1 Kings 12:4, Isaiah 14:25),
bondage (Leviticus 26:13), sin (Lamentations 1:14) or even the Lord (Jeremiah 2:20, Matthew
11:29). Perhaps technically this noun is related to a verb that means to thrust in or insert, but
this metaphor seems largely due to the similarity between our noun ‫'( על‬ol) and the
particle ‫'( על‬al), meaning up or upon.
 The masculine noun ‫'( עליל‬alil), meaning furnace or crucible. This noun occurs only in Psalm
12:6. It may be that a furnace was known as a device into which things were inserted, but
some scholars place this noun under the root ‫'( עלל‬alal).

‫ עול‬I
The root ‫'( עול‬ul I) means to give suck; to feed an infant (1 Samuel 6:7, Isaiah 40:11). This verb
corresponds to an Arabic verb meaning the same. In the Bible this verb is used only to describe the
nursing of animals, but judging from its derivative, it could be applied to human babies as well:
The sole derivative of this root (if we follow the outline of BDB Theological Dictionary) is the
masculine noun ‫'( עול‬ul), literally meaning a suckling; a very young child (Isaiah 49:15 and Isaiah
65:20 only).

‫ עול‬II
BDB insists on a second root, corresponding to an Arabic verb meaning to feed or nourish, which
would be in Hebrew ‫'( עול‬wl II), but which isn't used in the narrative of the Bible. Its sole derivative
is ‫'( עויל‬awil), meaning young boy (Job 19:18 and Job 21:11 only).

‫ עול‬III
The root-verb ‫'( עול‬ul III) again corresponds to an Arabic cognate, which means to deviate, and so
does our Hebrew root: to deviate from or act unjustly. It's no long shot to conclude that in the
Hebrew mind, acting wrongfully had to do with mental immaturity. Children do whatever they like,
until a teacher corrects them. Adults who were never corrected will maintain this childish behavior,
and act unjustly. The derivatives of this root are:
 The masculine noun ‫'( עול‬awel), meaning injustice, unrighteousness (Leviticus 19:15, Job
34:32, Psalm 82:2).
 The denominative verb ‫'( עול‬ul), meaning to act wrongfully (Isaiah 26:10 and Psalm 71:4
only).
  The feminine noun ‫'( עולה‬awla), also meaning injustice, unrighteousness (2 Samuel 3:34, Job
6:29, Isaiah 61:8).
 The masculine noun ‫'( עויל‬awil), meaning unjust one. This noun occurs only in Job 16:11, but
note that it is identical to the noun ‫'( עויל‬awil), meaning young boy.
 The masculine noun ‫'( עול‬awwal), meaning unjust or unrighteous one (Job 18:18, Zephaniah
3:5).
 The curious word ‫'( עלוה‬alwa), which occurs only in Hosea 10:9 (and is equal to the name
Alvah). Scholars generally assume that this form is either due to a scribal error (although in
this particular case, that's hard to believe), or else it's a deliberate variation of ‫'( עולה‬wl) in
which the central two letters are transposed.

Associated Biblical names

♂ Aliah‫עליה‬
♂ Alian‫עלין‬
⌂ Ø Aloth‫עלות‬
♂ Alvah‫עלוה‬
♂ Alvan‫עלון‬
⌂ Elealeh‫אלעלה‬
‫אלעלא‬
♂ ② Eli‫עלי‬
‫אלי‬
♂ ☼ Elyon‫עליון‬
♂ ♕Tidal‫תדעל‬
Elyon meaning
The name Elyon is identical to the adjective ‫ עליון‬used as a noun. It means Highest or Most High.
The name Immanuel in the Bible
The Hebrew name Immanuel occurs twice in the Old Testament, both times in Isaiah, both in
prophecies concerning the Messiah. In Isaiah 7:14, the prophet writes, "Behold, a virgin will be with
child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel". In 8:8 he writes, "...and the spread of
[the Euphrates', see v 7] wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel".
Seven centuries later, Joseph finds Mary, his wife to be, with child and is understandably disgruntled.
But an angel from God visits him in a dream and quotes Isaiah, saying that Joseph's little family is the
target of a famous, seven hundred year old prophecy. The Child will be called Immanuel
(Εμμανουηλ,Emmanouel) eventually, but for now he should be named Jesus (Matthew 1:19-25).
Where, in this context, exactly the name Jesus (=Joshua) came from is not immediately clear, but
Immanuel is not the only name Isaiah pinned on the Messiah. In 9:6 he writes, "And his name will be
called Palayaas (Wonderful Counselor), Elgebur (Mighty God), Abiad (Eternal
Father), Sarshalom(Prince of Peace). Jesus, of course, became known by all those names.
Etymology of the name Immanuel
The name Immanuel consists of three parts:
1) The Hebrew preposition ‫( עם‬im), meaning 'with':

‫עמם‬
There are two separate roots of the form ‫'( עמם‬mm) in the Bible, which don't seem to have anything
to do with each other:

‫ עמם‬I
The assumed root ‫'( עמם‬mm) isn't used in the Bible, so we don't know what it might have meant. But
cognate verbs mean to be comprehensive or include. And it yields some derivatives that have the
common meaning of togetherness (which leads some scholars to believe that it might be kindred to
the root ‫'( אמם‬mm), from whence stems the word ‫'( אמה‬umma), meaning tribe or people):
 The preposition ‫'( עם‬im), meaning 'with' in a wide variety of senses. This particle has the exact
same meaning as ‫'( את‬et II).
  The word ‫( מעם‬me'im), meaning from, with or beside in a wide variety of senses;
 The feminine juxtaposition ‫'( עמה‬umma), meaning against, beside.
But our root also yields the following, less abstract words:
 The masculine noun ‫'( עם‬am), meaning a people in ways ranging from pretty much all
mankind (Genesis 11:6) to a specific nation (Exodus 1:20) to the population of a town
(Genesis 19:4). It sometimes occurs to differentiate between common folks and their leader
(Leviticus 4:27), or to indicate people in general (Genesis 50:20) or simply general public, as
in Jeremiah 17:19, where the prophet speaks of the Gate of the People.
 The masculine noun ‫'( עם‬am), meaning (paternal) kinsman. This word occurs mostly in plural,
and is commonly translated simply with people or my people (Genesis 49:29, Numbers
27:13).
The word ‫'( עם‬am) postfixed with the letter yod forms the compound ‫( עמי‬ami) meaning
either my people (kinsman), or people (kinsman) of.

‫ עמם‬II
The verb ‫'( עמם‬amam) means to darken or dim, and figuratively: to make secret. It occurs two or
three times: Ezekiel 28:3, (perhaps Ezekiel 31:8) and Lamentations 4:1

Associated Biblical names

⌂ Adullam‫עדלם‬
♂ Amalek‫עמלק‬
☺ Amalekite‫עמלקי‬
⌂ Amam‫אמם‬
♂ Amasa‫עמשא‬
♂ ☺ Ammi‫עמי‬
♂ Ammiel‫עמיאל‬
♂ Ammihud‫עמיהוד‬
♂ ♕Ammihur‫עמיחור‬
♂ Amminadab‫עמינדב‬
♂ Ammishaddai‫עמישדי‬
‫שדי עמי‬
♂ Ammizabad‫עמיזבד‬
♂ Ammon‫עמון‬
♂ Amram‫עמרם‬
♂ Aniam‫אניעם‬
♂ Balaam‫בלעם‬
♂ Ben-ammi‫בן־עמי‬
⌂ Bileam‫בלעם‬
⌂ Chephar-ammoni‫העמני כפר‬
♂ Eliam‫אליעם‬
⌂ Gomorrah‫עמרה‬
⌂ Ibleam‫יבלעם‬
♂ ☼ Ⓟ Immanuel‫אל עמנו‬
♂ Ithream‫יתרעם‬
♂ Jashobeam‫ישבעם‬
♂ Jekameam‫יקמעם‬
♂ ♕Jeroboam‫ירבעם‬
⌂ Jokdeam‫יקדעם‬
⌂ Jokmeam‫יקמעם‬
⌂ Jokneam‫יקנעם‬
♂ ⌂ Jorkeam‫ירקעם‬
♂ Lo-ammi‫עמי לא‬
♂ ♕Rehoboam‫רחבעם‬
⌂ Ummah‫עמה‬
2) The nu-part in Immanu comes from the common pronomial suffix that means 'us'.
3) The third part of the name Immanuel is the Hebrew word ‫( אל‬El), the common abbreviation of the
word ‫( אלהים‬Elohim), denoting the genus God.
Right after Isaiah names Immanuel for the second time (Isaiah 8:8), he says, "Devise a plan but it will
be thwarted; state a proposal, but it will not stand, for God is with us" (v10). The Hebrew of the last two
words of this sentence is ‫ ;אל עמנו‬an exact replica of the name Immanuel.
Immanuel meaning
The name Immanuel means God (Is) With Us. The verb 'to be' is usually omitted in Hebrew but
actually something more nuanced is going on. Hebrew uses the verb 'to be' only when a behavior is
specified that defines whatever is doing the behaving. In Hebrew a sentence like "the dog is outside"
does not reflect a dog dozing in the shade, but a dog displaying behavior by which we recognize that it's
a dog. Perhaps it's running after a squirrel and barking like there's no tomorrow; whatever, when the
Hebrew says that the dog is, the dog is busy being a dog.
And that means that when God calls Himself I AM, He means that He's very busy doing His thing. The
name Immanuel, however, lacks the verb to be, and denotes a passive presence of the Most High. In
other words, the name Immanuel does not so much emphasize God working in us or even working for
us, but rather a coexisting, with undetermined result. It reflects God's casual walking in the garden in
the cool of the day (Genesis 3:8) and the descriptions of the presence of the Lord in the
New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:21-23).
The miracle of Immanuel
Although many commentators (whether negative or positive) have focused on the virgin birth, the
greater rarity lies in God's desire to be with man. The theme of the virgin birth appears frequently in the
religious expressions of nations surrounding ancient Israel, but the idea of fellowship of a deity with
humans appears to be both unique and central to Yahwism.
See Genesis 26:3, Job 29:5, Isaiah 41:10 and up to a hundred more references in the Old Testament —
not to mention the obvious central theme of the New Testament; Mark 3:14, John 1:14. There's
absolutely nothing like this to be found in any of the cultures adjacent to Israel in Biblical times.
Until the spread of Christianity, the world outside Judaism believed that the divine was stern and
distant, cruel and despotic, demanding and borderline psychotic. Until the gospel of Jesus Christ was
brought to the masses, humanity had no idea that God would want to be friends with us (Exodus 33:11,
John 15:12-17, James 2:23).
Jesus and Immanuel
There is not a single detail in the Bible that has no meaning, and naming the Messiah Jesus in stead of
Immanuel has meaning too. What this meaning comes down to is not explicitly stated so we're pretty
much left to guess, either more or less informed, and here at Abarim Publication we're guessing the
following.
It's clear that all names have meaning in the Bible, but there also appears to be function attached to their
popularity. In other words, it's significant that the names of key figures such
as Adam, Seth, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David and so on, and even Immanuel, are assigned to
only once person. Whatever these men did (Abraham: leaving one's home and follow God), or whatever
point in the development and growth of Israel they signified (Moses: vicariously gave the Law of God;
David: united the tribes), it only happened once and it required only one person. Immanuel is a special
case because since God being with us is really quite binary (He either is or He's not), it can only be
signified by one person (namely Immanuel). Yet the practical modus operandi by which God is with us,
requires a whole lot of people. That's how He chose to do it. God is among humanity because there are
godly people among humanity. And who are these godly people, the reader may wonder? Are they
particularly learned or otherwise exceptionally skilled? Are they great generals, kings or perhaps
inventors, orators or money-makers? Nope, none of the above.
Isaiah wrote the politically rather incorrect words that Israel's Messiah would be none of the above, but
rather quite unexceptional. He would not be particularly endowed with talents or wealth and would not
be overly appreciated by anybody (Isaiah 53:2). The name Jesus may have been picked because it was
among the most common names in Judea in the first century. And since boys would spend their
childhood learning from their father and in special centers of learning, it was very important who one's
father and hometown were, especially if one wanted to partake in religious debates. Jesus' father was
not a scholar but a manual laborer, and Jesus spent his childhood in Nazareth, a hamlet so insignificant
 that no other historian mentions it until the third century AD. The name Jesus of Nazareth may evoke
great respect today, but in Jesus' own time it was equivalent with John Doe. The proponents of the Jesus
story could have plugged Him as Jesus of Bethlehem or even Jesus son of David, but in stead they
chose to emphasize how ordinary He was and how little formal education He had enjoyed.
When Jesus at age twelve mesmerized the scholars in the temple, He didn't do so by reciting passages
and intellectual responses any twelve year old boy from Jerusalem might have recited, but by displaying
a kind of natural wisdom that truly astonished the academic jet set. Jesus was the Ramanujan of his day;
the Mozart of revelatory contemplation. And obviously, a system that was based on the idea that
authority came from decades of study might not welcome a natural, especially when that system had, at
some point, put the quest for divinity on a side track and was now almost wholly concentrated on the
quest for cash (read our article on the name Annas).
The character of Jesus of Nazareth is obviously hugely complex, and apart from all else, the nature of
Him that every follower of Him wants to emulate embodies two things: (1) God's Law is engraved on
every human heart, and can be retrieved from there; every human person knows what is righteous and
what's not, and (2) the ordinary human individual determines the actions of a king (president or CEO),
and not the other way around.
Or in modern terms: the ordinary consumer determines the goings on in the economy, and not the folks
who run the corporations. A subject can simply say no to the unrighteous plans of the king. The worst
the king can do is crucify this unruly subject, but no king can kill the word "NO". A nonsensical boss
might fire an uppity employee, but no boss can deforest a mountain, or uproot a local economy on his
own. Just like consumers brought the cigarette industry on its knees, so will they (or should they) stop
other detrimental industries from ruining the planet. Neither governments nor CEOs are responsible; the
consumer is. The obvious way to stop all this is to withdraw one's support, one customer at a time.
May God be with us.
The name Ishi
There are two completely different Hebrew names that accidentally became transliterated into English
as Ishi. We'll call them Ishi I (‫ )אישי‬and Ishi II (‫ )ישעי‬and treat them separately.
The name Ishi I in the Bible
There's a bit of a debate on whether Ishi is actually a true name. It occurs only in one scene in the Bible,
in Hosea 2:16-17, where the word ‫ אישי‬is usually interpreted as a symbolic Divine name, as is Baali;
both from the series of symbolic names that also contain Ammi and Ruhamah of verse 1.
Etymology of the name Ishi I
The name Ishi is identical to the phrase 'my husband' (literally 'my man') as used in Genesis 29:32 (and
on), 2 Samuel 14:5 and 2 Kings 4:1, and that's because the word ‫'( איש‬ish) is one of a few words for
man:

‫אנש איש‬
Scholars insist that there are three separate roots ‫'( אנש‬nsh) and one root ‫'( איש‬ysh), which have
nothing to do with each other. BDB Theological Dictionary acknowledges the few who have
assumed that there are certainly relationships, but decrees a single ancestral root "impossible".
This may be theoretically true, but we may as readily assume that the Hebrew authors and audience
were more persuaded by these words' similarities than by their differences:

‫ אנש‬I
The root-verb ‫( אנש‬anash) means to be sick or weak (Job 34:6, 2 Samuel 12:15, Micah 1:9). This
verb occurs about a dozen times in the Old Testament, and has no derivatives.

‫ אנש‬II
The root ‫'( אנש‬nsh) isn't used as verb in the Bible, but in cognate languages it means to be inclined
to, friendly or social. It yields one derivative, the masculine noun ‫'( אנוש‬enosh), meaning man or
mankind (Job 28:13, Psalm 8:4, Isaiah 24:6). This word is one of a few to mean man,
and 'enoshseems to indicate man without any special characteristic; hence the name Enosh
 Other words for man are: ‫'( אדם‬adam; see the name Adam), which describes man as corporeal being
and ‫'( איש‬ish; see below), which denotes a man in a specific function.
Both HAW Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament and BDB Theological Dictionary quote
theories that put this root and the previous one together, and enosh may denote man as frail and
helpless creature. Perhaps it even teaches that the strength of society in general is a direct result of
the frailty of the human individual, which is an idea also expressed by the Greek
words ψυχη (psuche), meaning soul or needy thing, and πνευμα(pneuma) meaning spirit or
synchronously moving things. Perhaps mysterious texts such as Revelation 13:3 should be
understood in part against the backdrop of this principle.
Some scholars have suggested that the mysterious noun ‫'( אש‬esh), meaning fire, was derived from
this root, but others refute this (reports BDB Theological Dictionary).

‫ אנש‬III
The third root ‫'( אנש‬nsh) is again unused in the Bible, but in cognate languages it may means soft or
delicate. Its sole derivative is the feminine noun‫'( אשה‬ishsha), meaning woman or wife. Since the
Bible views societies as female individuals (i.e. mother Babylon, or the Bride of Christ), and
women are generally weaker than man, here at Abarim Publications we see much reason to assume
one single core idea behind these roots, even if the roots themselves are separate in theory.

‫איש‬
And then there is root ‫'( איש‬ysh) which yields the masculine noun ‫'( איש‬ish), meaning man or
mankind. It's obviously one of a few Hebrews words that can be translated as 'man' but appears to
be most alike our English word 'man'. It differs from ‫( אדם‬adam), or 'corporeal one' and the
noun ‫'(אנוש‬enosh), or 'human' in that ‫'( איש‬ish) regards man as an individual and that mostly in some
specific function. In constructions like "man of the earth" (Genesis 9:20) or "man of God"
(Deuteronomy 33;1), this word ‫'( איש‬ish) is used. This word is also the common word for husband.

Associated Biblical names

♂ Enosh‫אנוש‬
♂ Eshbaal‫אשבעל‬
♂ IscariotΙσκαριωτης
♂ ♕Ish-bosheth‫איש־בשת‬
♂ Ishhod‫אישהוד‬
♂☼Ø
② Ishi‫אישי‬
‫ישעי‬
♂ ⌂ Issachar‫יששכר‬
♂ Jesse‫ישי‬
♂ ♕Josiah‫יאשיה‬
There's only a small difference between the words ‫( אישי‬ishi) and ‫( בעלי‬ba'ali) as both are used to mean
my husband. But (ba'ali) is more an authoritative title; it may also mean my master or my lord. The
word (ishi) simply means my man, which may denote one's equal husband or a man one has employed.
Ishi I meaning
Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names doesn't treat this name but NOBSE Study Bible
Name List reads My Husband. BDB Theological Dictionary also doesn't treat this Ishi, but notes that
the name ‫( ישי‬Jesse) is spelled ‫( אישי‬Ishi) in 1 Chronicles 2:13.

The name Ishi II in the Bible

This version of the name Ishi occurs four times in the Bible, twice in Judah (1 Chronicles 2:31 and 1
Chronicles 4:20), once in Simeon as the father of the men who destroyed the Amalekites (1 Chronicles
4:42) and one in Manasseh (1 Chronicles 5:24).
Etymology of the name Ishi II
 This name comes from the root-verb ‫( ישע‬yasha'), meaning to save or deliver:

‫ישע שוע‬
The two roots ‫( ישע‬yasha') and ‫( שוע‬shawa') are closely related in meaning and probably also
linguistically. Their forms are so alike that especially in names the two can often not be told apart:

‫ישע‬
The root-verb ‫( ישע‬yasha'), probably originally meant something like to be wide or spacious
(in Arabic it still does), and its counterpart is the verb‫( צרר‬sarar), meaning to be narrow, to bind or
to be in distress. Our verb ‫( ישע‬yasha') means exactly the opposite: to be wide, to be loose or
delivered, and to be saved.
This root and its derivatives occur 353 times in the Old Testament. HAW Theological Wordbook of
the Old Testament notes that deliverance indicates a movement from distress to safety, and
generally must come from some somewhere outside the party oppressed. The one who brings this
deliverance is known as the "savior," and this may be a human agent delivering from any kind of
earthly oppression, to God and man's deliverance from evil. However, any human savior is regarded
as empowered by YHWH, and so, all deliverance comes from YHWH; the God of our salvation and
deliverance (Psalm 68:19-20).
The derivatives of this verb are:
 The feminine noun ‫( ישועה‬yeshua) meaning salvation (Genesis 49:18, 2 Samuel 10:11).
 The masculine noun ‫( ישע‬yesha') meaning salvation too. This word can also be used to mean
financial salvation; prosperity or welfare (2 Samuel 23:5, Psalm 12:5).
 Following the previous type of meaning, the adjective ‫( שוע‬shoa'), meaning independent
indicates a 'free man,' a (financially) independent person (Isaiah 32:5).
 The feminine noun ‫( תשועה‬teshua), meaning salvation or deliverance (1 Samuel 11:9, Psalm
51:16).

‫שוע‬
The root-verb ‫( שוע‬shawa'), means to cry, or more specifically, to cry out for help (Psalm 30:2,
Psalm 72:12). More than half of the twenty-two occurrences of this verb are in the first person
singular (I cry/ I cried), and most often this verb occurs in the Psalms.
Derivatives:
 The masculine nouns ‫( שוע‬shua') and ‫( שוע‬shoa') both mean a cry (Job 30:24, Isaiah 22:5).
Note the similarity between these words and the word ‫( שוע‬shoa'), meaning noble, mentioned
above.
 The feminine noun ‫( שועה‬shawa) means the more specific cry for help (Jeremiah 8:19, Psalm
39:13).
The proximity of these word groups is shown in Job 36:19. Some translations read here the
peculiar, "If your cry for help is set in order . . . " (Jay P. Green), while others read, "Will your
riches keep you from distress . . . " (NAS).
Also note the similarity with roots ‫( שעע‬sha'a) and verb ‫( שעה‬sha'a; follow the link for more info on
both).

Associated Biblical names

♂ Abishua‫אבישוע‬
♂ Bar-JesusΒαριησους
♀ Bath-shua‫בת־שוע‬
♂ ☀ Chemosh‫כמוש‬
‫כמיש‬
♂ Elisha‫אלישע‬
♂ ⌂ Elishah‫אלישה‬
♂ Elishua‫אלישוע‬
♫ ≣ Hosanna‫הושיעה נא‬
♂ ♕Hosea‫הושע‬
♂ Hoshaiah‫הושעיה‬
♂ Isaiah‫ישעיה‬
‫ישעיהו‬
♂☼Ø
② Ishi‫אישי‬
‫ישעי‬
♂ ⌂ Jeshua‫ישוע‬
♂ ☼ JesusΙησους
♂ Joshua‫יהושע‬
‫יהושוע‬
♂ Malchi-shua‫מלכי־שוע‬
♂⌂♕
② Mesha‫מישא‬
‫משא‬
‫מישע‬
♂♀☺
② Shuah‫שוחה‬
‫שוח‬
‫שועא‬
‫שוע‬
Ishi II meaning
This version of the name Ishi means Salvation according to Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper
Names. NOBSE Study Bible Name List readsSalutary, but since that word means more than only
bringing or aiding salvation, a more proper rendering would be Salvific.
The name Jehovah
This pronounceable form of YHWH was introduced in 1520 by Galatinus but immediately strongly
contested. Because the Hebrew script almost only consists of consonants, the vowels had to be inserted
when the text was read out loud. When the language ceased to be used, the Masoretes devised an
ingenious vowel-notation system to preserve the pronunciation.
However, the name YHWH was deemed so holy that it shouldn't be pronounced. In stead, the reader
would say ‫( אדוני‬adonai), meaning My Lord, from the unused and not translatable root ‫'( אדון‬adon).
Another derivation of this same root is the noun ‫'( אדן‬eden a, not to be confused with ‫עדן‬, the
name Eden), meaning pedestal.
Hence the Masoretes superimposed the vowel-notation of ‫ אדוני‬onto ‫ יהוה‬and the word Jehovah was
born.
The name Jesus in the Bible
There are five separate individuals named Jesus in the Bible, which is not such a wonder since Jesus is
the Greek version of the Hebrew name Joshua.
The most famous Jesus, of course, is Jesus the Nazarene, also known as Jesus Christ or the Messiah; the
semi-biological son of Mary, son-by-law ofJoseph and monogenes Son of God. Jesus was born
in Bethlehem, lived as an infant in Egypt, and in Nazareth until He was thirty years old. In the early
days of His ministry he moved to Capernaum, and at the end of it He was arrested in the garden
of Gethsemane, tried by Pontius Pilate and executed atGolgotha. Three days later He resurrected and
forty days after that He ascended to heaven.
Other men named Jesus in the New Testament are:
 An ancestor of Jesus in the Lucan genealogy (Luke 3:29), and only according to some translations.
In Greek this name is spelled Ιωση (Jose), which only the King James and Young translations
properly transliterate. The Darby translation speaks of Joses. The New International Version and
New American Standard translations have Joshua. And the American Standard Version has Jesus.
 Joshua (Acts 7:45 and Hebrews 4:8).
 A fellow worker of Paul named Jesus Justus (Colossians 4:11).
  A Jewish magician who Paul and Barnabas meet on Cyprus, named Bar-Jesus (a Greek
transliteration of the Aramaic for Son Of Joshua).
The name Jesus was obviously quite common in New Testament times. The Roman-Jewish historian
Josephus mentions at least twenty different people named Jesus in his works, one of these being Jesus
son of Damneus, who became high priest when the previous high priest was deposed for executing
James the Just, the brother of Jesus of Nazareth (Ant.20.9). Another Jesus Josephus wrote about was
Jesus son of Ananias, who in 62 AD began walking about Jerusalem, loudly foretelling its destruction
by the Romans in 70 AD.
Why the name Jesus?
It's a bit of a mystery why Jesus was called Jesus and not Immanuel, as stipulated by the prophets
(Isaiah 7:14) and confirmed by the unnamed angel who spoke with Joseph according to the gospel
of Matthew (Matthew 1:23). The gospel of Luke, on the other hand, has the archangel Gabriel instruct
Mary to call her Son Jesus (Luke 1:31). Either heavenly management isn't as flawless as we thought it
was, or else humanity has been missing the point for two millennia. Here at Abarim Publications we opt
for the latter.
Names in Biblical times actually meant something, and in the Yahwist tradition, they usually indicated
some kind of theological thought. Whatever particular theological idea, for instance, the
name Zechariah represented isn't wholly clear (the name means Pondering Yahweh) but together with
its Greek equivalentZacharias, it's the most popular name in the Bible (with up to three dozen known
bearers). In other words, the name Zechariah may very well have represented the academic element of
Yahwism and, obviously, a lot of folks were in on that. That makes it highly significant that other
famous names occur just once. Despite people's modern habit of naming children after famous people,
in the Bible the following names belong to only one person (and this is just a sample): Adam, the
male Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Solomon, Elisha, Zerubbabel...
In the Bible, the rarity of a name seems to go somewhat hand-in-hand with the unicity of the theological
thought or achievement it represents, and that makes it highly significant that the name Jesus (or
Joshua, Jesuha or even Hosea) was among the most common ones available. The first Joshua,
significantly, received his name personally from Moses the Law Giver (Numbers 13:16). This Joshua
led the people into the Promised Land as successor of Moses, and the popularity of that name seems to
suggest that even though there could be only one Law of God, which could be given only once, namely
via Moses, there could be many who led the people across the Jordan (see Daniel 12:3).
Not to discourage new believers, but it takes decades of intense study of Scriptures to get any good at it
(which isn't required for salvation, we should hastily add; Scripture Theory is only for some). And that's
why in Judaism, boys from a very early age were strenuously instructed in matters of the Torah. When
any of these boys became exceptionally good at this craft, they could become rabbis, and then it was
fiercely important to indicate who one's father (one's primary teacher) was and in which great center of
learning they had spent their formative years.
A rabbi who was the son of a rabbi and who had spent the first thirty years of his life at the great
academies of Jerusalem, would be duly heeded. Someone from Tarshish (Paul, for instance) was
likewise reckoned as prime academic material. But what about Jesus? Well, Jesus' father was a common
laborer, and Jesus spent the first thirty years of His life in Nazareth, a hamlet so insignificant that no
classical author mentions it until the third century AD, and then probably only because Nazareth had of
course acquired some nostalgic value. In Jesus' days, Nazareth was as good as nowhere. Someone from
Nazareth was no one, and could not possibly have any insight in Scriptures worth of note.
The Jewish Problem
If a modern writer would want to depict the relationship of Jesus of Nazareth with the rabbinical
tradition of His day in a fictional and metaphorical story, he would probably start by telling us about
some Jake Jr., whose academic credentials consisted of a mail-ordered certificate from the university of
Dripville. In other words, to the academic world of the day, the name Jesus of Nazareth meant John
Doe, the proverbial ordinary guy of no particular academic merit. It instilled very little confidence in
anyone with learning, and constituted quite an insult when people began to appreciate whatever Jesus
was saying over whatever they were. The very name and hometown of Jesus presented an assault on the
rabbinic monopoly of wisdom, and on tyranny in general.
Jesus was called the king of the Jews, which was taken very serious by king Herod first and later the
Romans. The Jews were notoriously difficult to subdue because they valued their freedom to go
 wherever God would lead them too much. The Roman empire had to draft scores of special rules and
exceptions to somehow make the presence of Jews in the empire workable.
And those who, after all the trouble the government had gone through to facilitate them, still kept going
some contrary way, where subsequently crucified. The Roman cross was specifically designed to
execute people who threatened the stability of Rome; it's the symbol of contrariness to the Romans and
the symbol of freedom for everybody else. This stubborn refusal of Jews to dance to the tunes of some
ruler began to seriously irritate people and became known in Britain of the eighteenth century as
the Jewish Problem (hence Hitler's Final Solution).
A people that per definition will refuse subdual to the point of death, and then comes up with a king is
not paradoxical. It says something about this king, which is great news to anyone who feels subdued,
but very bad news to anyone who feels good doing the subduing. The kinghood of Jesus is manifested
in the freedom of and respect for the individual human person. It's perpendicularly opposed to the full
sweep of classic governmental theory; it dictates that a ruler is not the boss but the servant of the
people. In the Kingdom of King Jesus, every person is king (Matthew 23:8-12), and the Kingdom will
be held together by the Holy Spirit the way a person's soul holds together a person's body. Leadership in
the modern sense is a fungus that grows in loose joints.
The present world is riddled with folks who think they reject Jesus because they reject the formal
church, but it's really fabulous to see that especially today, King Jesus has more support than any other
form of government in the world. Most people don't understand who Jesus is simply because for the last
two millennia, the church has been largely a continuation of Roman dictatorship, and the church
benefitted mostly from not telling anyone what the real deal was.
King Jesus on the other hand, has been alive and well, working in the fringes of society, creating a vast
underground movement that we now see surfacing, staging huge protests against corrupt governments,
against cruelty and against suppression of humanity and life in general. However this works in practice,
the government of King Jesus results in the greatest possible freedom of all people.
One crucial key quality of the Jesus movement (or however you want to call it) is that it is non-violent,
and based on the simple withdrawal of support of unrighteous governments and corporations, to the
extent that the law allows. Followers of Jesus realize their personal responsibility for every buck they
spend, that is: for every dollar with which they uphold companies and policies. The Jesus movement
also doesn't need a total victory over the forces of evil and pollution because in our competitive world, a
mere conscious minority can tip the balance in favor of a greener product, and bring about the
bankruptcy of an unrighteous system. Violent revolutions merely replace one leader for the next and
change nothing essentially. A Jesus-based revolution is slow, private and much more effective.
Read our article on the name Philippi for a closer look at the Jesus movement versus the Roman
Empire, and an example of how violent resistance is doomed to fail.
Read our article on the name Lydia for a closer look at what might lie at the very root of corruption and
pollution in the world.
Etymology of the name Jesus
The name Jesus is the Greek transliteration of either the name ‫( יהושע‬Joshua) or its shortened form
(‫ )ישוע‬Jeshua, and consists of two elements. The first part is the appellative ‫( יה‬Yah) = ‫( יהו‬Yahu)
= ‫( יו‬Yu), which in turn are abbreviated forms of the Tetragrammaton; the name of the Lord: YHWH, or
Yahweh.
The second element of the name Joshua/Jesus comes from the root-verb ‫( ישע‬yasha'), meaning to save
or deliver:

‫ישע שוע‬
The two roots ‫( ישע‬yasha') and ‫( שוע‬shawa') are closely related in meaning and probably also
linguistically. Their forms are so alike that especially in names the two can often not be told apart:

‫ישע‬
The root-verb ‫( ישע‬yasha'), probably originally meant something like to be wide or spacious
(in Arabic it still does), and its counterpart is the verb‫( צרר‬sarar), meaning to be narrow, to bind or
 to be in distress. Our verb ‫( ישע‬yasha') means exactly the opposite: to be wide, to be loose or
delivered, and to be saved.
This root and its derivatives occur 353 times in the Old Testament. HAW Theological Wordbook of
the Old Testament notes that deliverance indicates a movement from distress to safety, and
generally must come from some somewhere outside the party oppressed. The one who brings this
deliverance is known as the "savior," and this may be a human agent delivering from any kind of
earthly oppression, to God and man's deliverance from evil. However, any human savior is regarded
as empowered by YHWH, and so, all deliverance comes from YHWH; the God of our salvation and
deliverance (Psalm 68:19-20).
The derivatives of this verb are:
 The feminine noun ‫( ישועה‬yeshua) meaning salvation (Genesis 49:18, 2 Samuel 10:11).
 The masculine noun ‫( ישע‬yesha') meaning salvation too. This word can also be used to mean
financial salvation; prosperity or welfare (2 Samuel 23:5, Psalm 12:5).
 Following the previous type of meaning, the adjective ‫( שוע‬shoa'), meaning independent
indicates a 'free man,' a (financially) independent person (Isaiah 32:5).
 The feminine noun ‫( תשועה‬teshua), meaning salvation or deliverance (1 Samuel 11:9, Psalm
51:16).

‫שוע‬
The root-verb ‫( שוע‬shawa'), means to cry, or more specifically, to cry out for help (Psalm 30:2,
Psalm 72:12). More than half of the twenty-two occurrences of this verb are in the first person
singular (I cry/ I cried), and most often this verb occurs in the Psalms.
Derivatives:
 The masculine nouns ‫( שוע‬shua') and ‫( שוע‬shoa') both mean a cry (Job 30:24, Isaiah 22:5).
Note the similarity between these words and the word ‫( שוע‬shoa'), meaning noble, mentioned
above.
 The feminine noun ‫( שועה‬shawa) means the more specific cry for help (Jeremiah 8:19, Psalm
39:13).
The proximity of these word groups is shown in Job 36:19. Some translations read here the
peculiar, "If your cry for help is set in order . . . " (Jay P. Green), while others read, "Will your
riches keep you from distress . . . " (NAS).
Also note the similarity with roots ‫( שעע‬sha'a) and verb ‫( שעה‬sha'a; follow the link for more info on
both).

Associated Biblical names

♂ Abishua‫אבישוע‬
♂ Bar-JesusΒαριησους
♀ Bath-shua‫בת־שוע‬
♂ ☀ Chemosh‫כמוש‬
‫כמיש‬
♂ Elisha‫אלישע‬
♂ ⌂ Elishah‫אלישה‬
♂ Elishua‫אלישוע‬
♫ ≣ Hosanna‫נא הושיעה‬
♂ ♕Hosea‫הושע‬
♂ Hoshaiah‫הושעיה‬
♂ Isaiah‫ישעיה‬
‫ישעיהו‬
♂☼Ø
② Ishi‫אישי‬
‫ישעי‬
♂ ⌂ Jeshua‫ישוע‬
♂ ☼ JesusΙησους
♂ Joshua‫יהושע‬
‫יהושוע‬
♂ Malchi-shua‫מלכי־שוע‬
♂⌂♕
② Mesha‫מישא‬
‫משא‬
‫מישע‬
♂♀☺
② Shuah‫שוחה‬
‫שוח‬
‫שועא‬
‫שוע‬
Jesus meaning
The name Jesus means Yah Will Save. The name Joshua is the Hebrew form of the Greek name Jesus,
and most probably the name by which Jesus was known by His contemporaries. Jesus was fascinated by
the Book of Isaiah, possibly because this Book appears to be entirely about Him, but perhaps also
because the name Isaiah (‫ )ישעיה‬is almost identical to the name Joshua with the two segments reversed.
The name Logos in the Bible
The name Logos (meaning Word) isn't really a name but rather a phenomenon that happens to also be a
living Person, namely the Son of what some may call the Trinity. Together with Θεος (Theos) the
phrase 'Word of God' is formed. And that is one of the titles of Jesus Christ.
The Word of God is introduced into the Biblical narrative as early as Genesis 15:1, where He is
called ‫דבר־יהוה‬, which is Dabar YHWH. But as an active character, the Word of God obviously appears
at the beginning of creation, where God not only "spoke" everything into being, but made creation a
manifestation of the Word He contained. In the New Testament these difficult things are explained most
clearly by the apostle John, who writes:
John 1:1-3
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the
beginning with God; all things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being
that has come into being.
Paul says it this way:
Colossians 2:16-17
For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth [...]; all things have been created
by Him and for Him, and He is before all things and in Him all things hold together".
And:
Romans 11:36
For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.
In the twentieth century it became obvious that creation is indeed upheld by a discrete set of data; a kind
of code composed with two kinds of nuclei in the core of atoms (quite binary, actually), and again as the
tertiary code of DNA in the core of living cells. When Moses built the tabernacle according to patters he
was shown, he followed that same design: an entity with at its core the formative code of the Ten
Commandments (Exodus 25:40 — read more about this magnificent Biblical superstructure in our
article on the Household Set).
What the Hebrews knew is something that science is only recently discovering: to make a universe you
need two things: (1) an enormous amount of energy, and (2) a set of rules with which you can
manipulate the energy. The Genesis account focuses mainly on the void and formless energy and what it
became; John and Paul mostly concentrate on the instructions.
But the name Logos also reflects reverence for human speech in general. In his writings, Timothy states
the often misquoted, "all writing is inspired by God" (2 Timothy 3:16 — read our discussion of this
verse in our article All Scripture Is God-Breathed?), and writing was in the ancient world rightly
regarded as a holy enterprise. Writing (and before that: speaking) allowed an unprecedented exchange
of ideas and with that a furtherance of mankind's understanding of creation and its ultimate purpose. But
possibly even more important: a speech-based society forces its members into a state of perpetual
review of what people are saying, and by wanting to respond, a continuous state of creativity. All
speech, therefore, imitates the Creator when He spoke the universe into existence.
 But these incredible insightful ideas didn't come falling out of the sky in the first century AD. Much of
the Bible is based on notions and imagery from deep antiquity, just like any text is composed from
words and techniques that are necessarily much older. The oldest coherent culture that lies at the root of
the various Indo-European cultures is that of the Aryans. In her remarkable work The Great
Transformation Karen Armstrong writes:
Karen Armstrong — The Great Transformation
The Aryans took the spoken word very seriously. Like all other phenomena, speech was a god, a deva.
[...] Quite apart from its meaning, the very sound of a chant was holy; even a single syllable could
encapsulate the divine. Similarly, a vow, once uttered, was eternally binding, and a lie was absolutely
evil because it perverted the holy power inherent in the spoken word. The Aryans would never lose this
passion for absolute truthfulness.
Long after the Aryan culture had collapsed, the people who wrote the Bible still promoted these same
ideas. Satan was still called the father of lies (John 8:44), and the Living God was still to be worshipped
in spirit and truth (John 4:23). One of Jesus' most repeated statements is "I tell you the truth" (John
5:24) and Paul urged his audience to "investigate everything and hold on to what is right" (1
Thessalonians 5:21). Even the very cult of Yahweh ("I AM") appears to have been focused on that
which truly existed and violently opposed to those figments that were false ("Who Are Not").
Etymology and meaning of the name Logos
The name Logos is a noun derived of the Greek verb λεγω (lego), meaning to speak intelligently:

λεγω
The verb λεγω (lego), meaning to speak intelligently. It sometimes occurs as synonym of the
verb καλεω (kaleo), meaning to call, but it should be distinguished from the verb λαλεω (laleo),
meaning talk, especially without any sense.
The meaning of verb λεγω (lego) underwent an interesting evolution. It originally denoted a lying down
to sleep. Then it slowly began to mean to lie together and to collect and finally it came to mean to lay
before or to relate, or simply to say, speak, to deliver a discourse.
The Biblical applications of our verb generally fall into three categories:
 To lay before, or relate or narrate messages such as parables or events (Luke 18:1, Luke 9:21).
 To say, speak or disclose (Matthew 1:20, Mark 5:30, Galatians 5:16, Revelation 6:6).
 To call or name; synonymous with the verb καλεω (kaleo).
Direct derivations of this verb are:
 The feminine noun λογια (logia), meaning a collection, usually of money (1 Corinthians 16:1).
 The noun λογος (logos), meaning intelligence, or "word" in the sense of the expression of that intelligence,
discourse and even something as undefined as "thing" (Matthew 5:32, Matthew 8:8, Luke 4:22, Acts 14:12,
Hebrews 13:17). It exists in modern English in words such as psychology and sociology.
Lego in Latin
Our verb also exists in Latin, and according to Lewis and Short A Latin Dictionary was imported from
Greek. It even exists in German as lesen, which is usually considered as two separate verbs, one
denoting the gathering of grains; to glean, and the other meaning to read. It's even related to the English
verb to lease (says Friedrich Kluge's An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language).
In Latin the verb lego means to bring together, to gather or to collect. From there it captured the
meaning of to select or choose, and became subsequently also used in the meaning of catching up on a
conversation or to catch something with the senses (to hear, see, etc), or even to read out loud or recite.
One interesting derivation of this verb is the noun legio, legionis, denoting a Roman legion, a military
unit consisting of between 4,200 and 6,000 men, or legiones (formed from lego in the sense of a
selecting or choosing, says Lewis and Short's).
In the Bible this noun occurs three times, transliterated back to Greek, as λεγεων (legeon): in one
context to denote a large number of demons (Mark 5:9, 5:15 and Luke 8:30) and once of angels
(Matthew 26:53).
There is another verb lego in Latin, which conjugates differently from the previous one and is probably
a whole different verb, but not without similarities. It means to dispatch, appoint or send as an
ambassador, but is also used in a legal context with the meaning of to appoint or bequeath. It joins the
previous verb in the phrase legati legionum, meaning commanders of a legion.
Compound derivations of this verb that are used in the Greek New Testament are:
 The verb αντιλεγω (antilego), which consists of (1) the familiar preposition αντι (anti), meaning against, and
(2) our verb λεγω (lego), meaning to speak. This verb literally means to speak against, and is used in the
Bible to mean to deny (Luke 20:27), to contradict (Acts 13:45), to oppose (John 19:12), or to disobey
(Romans 10:21). Derived from this verb is:
o The noun αντιλογια (antilogia), meaning literally meaning a contradiction but in the Bible
used in the sense of a controversy or strife (Hebrews 6:16), or a reproach (Hebrews 12:3).
 The verb γενεαλογεω (genealogeo), which consists of (1) the noun γενεα (genea), meaning generation, and
(2) our verb λεγω (lego), meaning to speak. This verb indicates the belonging of someone to a certain
lineage; the being inscribed into a genealogy (Hebrews 7:6). From this verb comes:
o The noun ανενεαλογηος (agenealogetos) consisting of (1) the preposition α (a), meaning
without, and (2) our verb γενεαλογεω(genealogeo). The whole construction indicates someone
without an established genealogy (Hebrews 7:3).
o The noun γενεαλογια (genealogia), meaning genealogy (1 Timothy 1:4).
 The verb διαλεγομαι (dialegomai), which consists of the preposition δια (dia), meaning through or
throughout (or denoting a transition), and (2) our verb λεγω (lego), meaning to speak. The whole
compound literally means to talk something through, and is used in the Bible pretty much in the same way
as our derived English word "dialogue"; in the sense of to converse, dispute or reason with someone (Mark
9:34, Acts 18:4, Hebrews 12:5). From this verb comes:
o The noun διαλεκτος (dialektos), meaning what it does in English: a dialect, an ethnic language
(Acts 1:19).
 The adjective διλογος (dilogos), which consists of (1) the adverb δις (dis), which comes from the familiar
cardinal number δυο (duo), two, and which means twice, and (2) our verb λεγω (lego), meaning to speak.
This negative word denotes being double-tongued or deceitful (2 Timothy 3:8).
 The verb εκλεγω (eklego), which consists of (1) the preposition εκ (ek), meaning out, from or of, and (2) our
verb λεγω (lego), meaning to speak. This verb indicates a pronouncement of favor; an election of a favored
thing, person of group (Luke 10:42, John 6:70, Ephesians 1:4). From this verb comes:
o The adjective εκλεκτος (eklektos, which lives forth in English as "eclectic"), denoting in the
Bible the elect or the chosen (Luke 23:35, 1 Peter 2:4). And from this adjective in turn comes:
 The adjective συνεκλεκτος (suneklektos), consisting of (1) the
preposition συν (sun), meaning together or with, and (2) our
adjective εκλεκτος (eklektos). It means chosen with others (1 Peter 5:13).
 The verb επιλεγω (epilego), consisting of (1) the preposition επι (epi), meaning on or upon, and (2) our
verb λεγω (lego), meaning to speak. This verb denotes speech in addition to something else (delivering an
"epilogue"), or to choose in addition or succession to someone else (John 5:2, Acts 15:40).
 The verb καταλεγω (katalego), consisting of (1) the preposition κατα (kata), meaning down from, down
upon, etcetera, and (2) our verb λεγω(lego), meaning to speak or, originally, to lie down. This verb appears
to literally mean to talk someone down or to degrade someone, but in practice, and only in extra-Biblical
texts, this verb is used merely to indicate the choosing of a place to flop. In the Bible this verb is used only
used once, and that in the sense of to put someone's name down on — to submit someone's name to — a
certain list (1 Timothy 5:9).
 The adjective ματαιολογος (mataiologos), which consists of (1) the adjective ματαιος (mataios), meaning
vain or empty, and (2) our verbλεγω (lego), meaning to speak. The compound denotes idle talk, but is used
in the Bible only as substantive: empty blabbermouth (Titus 1:10). From this adjective comes:
o The noun ματαιολογια (mataiologia), meaning vain talk (1 Timothy 1:6).
 The verb παραλεγω (paralego), consisting of (1) the preposition παρα (para), meaning near or nearby, and
(2) our verb λεγω (lego), meaning to speak, or originally, to lie down. It's used in the Bible as a nautical
term: to sail close to (some place or coast; Acts 27:8 and 27:13).
 The verb προλεγω (prolego), consisting of (1) the preposition προ (pro), meaning before, and (2) our
verb λεγω (lego), meaning to speak. It means to foretell or forewarn (2 Corinthians 13:2, Galatians 5:21).
 The adjective σπερμολογος (spermologos), consisting of (1) the noun σπερμα (sperma), meaning a seed, and
(2) our verb λεγω (lego), in the sense of to collect. This word originally described birds that wander around
aimlessly, picking up whatever they come across, but came to be applied to folks who, in the course of their
day, pick up tidbits of information and excitedly pass them on without context or relevance: gossips and
idle babblers. This word occurs in the Bible only in Acts 17:18.
 The verb στρατολογεω (stratologeo), consisting of (1) the noun στρατος (stratos), meaning warfare (and
which isn't used in the Bible), and (2) our verb λεγω (lego), meaning to speak. In this case the charge of the
verb our verb λεγω (lego) rather leans towards choosing (compare with the verb εκλεγω (eklego),
 mentioned above). It denotes the enlisting of men in an army; to draft. It occurs only as a participle: one
who has drafted, meaning a commander (2 Timothy 2:4).
 The verb συλλεγω (sullego), consisting of (1) the preposition συν (sun), meaning together or with, and (2) our
verb λεγω (lego), usually meaning to speak but originally to lie down together and to gather. In the Bible
this verb means to assemble together or to collect (of fruits, Matthew 7:16, Luke 6:44; of stumbling blocks,
Mathew 13:41).
 The adjective ψευδολογος (pseudologos), consisting of (1) the adjective ψευδης (pseudes), meaning false,
and (2) our verb λεγω (lego), meaning to speak. It means lying and is used in the Bible only as substantive:
a lying one; a liar (1 Timothy 4:2)

Associated Biblical names

♂ LegionΛεγεων
♂ ☼ Ø Logosλογος
♂ PhilologusΦιλολογος
The name Logos means Word.
The name Messiah in the Bible
The word Messiah, like its Greek counterpart Christ, is not really a name but an appellative or a title. It
denotes a function (or rather: several functions) within the theocratic structure of Israel (see below). It
appears transliterated in the New Testament only in John 1:41 and 4:25, spelled Μεσσιας.
Etymology of the name Messiah
Our "name" Messiah is identical to the noun and adjective ‫( משיח‬mashiah), meaning Anointed One, and
comes from the Hebrew verb ‫( משח‬mashah), meaning to anoint:

‫משח‬
The verb ‫( משח‬mashah) means to anoint, or even more general: to spread a liquid. In Jeremiah
22:14 the prophet speaks of "painting" a house bright red. In Isaiah 21:5 shield are "oiled". In
Exodus 29:2 ritualistic unleavened cakes are "oiled".
It seems that this verb is employed where attention needs to be drawn; it does not simply denote a
physical act but much rather a marking, a setting apart. It's no surprise therefore that the most
common usage of this verb entails the ritual of "anointing" someone in office, and only the offices
that had no earthly superior: the King of Israel (1 Samuel 16:3), a prophet (1 Kings 19:16, Isaiah
61:1) or a High Priest (Exodus 28:41).
One obvious derivation of this verb is ‫( משחה‬missha), meaning anointing oil. This very special oil
was manufactured according to a precise recipe (Exodus 30:22-25), and misuse or even duplication
of it was strictly forbidden (30:21-33). Whoever could call himself ‫( משיח‬mashiah; our word
Messiah) in Israel had had his head anointed with this highly guarded oil.
A much more frequently used word for oil in the Bible is the Hebrew noun ‫( שמן‬shemen), which
generally denotes olive oil, and which comes from the verb ‫( שמן‬shamen), meaning to become fat.
Although these words are also sometimes used in a ritualistic sense, they are much more commonly
used for everyday practices, such as cooking or wound tending.
Ergo: the word ‫( שמן‬shemen) denotes the "slippery stuff" and the word ‫( משחה‬missha) denotes the
"marking stuff".
The verb ‫( משח‬mashah) yields a few other derivations which shed more light on the breadth of this
verb's meaning:
 The noun ‫( משחה‬mossha), means (consecrated) portion. It denotes a part of the peace offering
that Israel was supposed to offer to God, consisting of an animal breast and thigh and its
surrounding fat. The fat would go on the altar, but the breast and thigh would be "set apart"
forAaron and his sons (Leviticus 7:35).
 The noun ‫( ממשח‬mimshah), which meaning is debated. HAW Theological Wordbook of the
Old Testament notes that the meaning of this word is uncertain but proposes expansion,
probably after the core meaning of the verb. BDB Theological Dictionary simply says
dubious, and submits that this word only occurs in Ezekiel 28:14, in relation to a
certain cherub. This passage is strongly debated because the author says it's about the king
of Tyre, but it looks a lot like it's about satan. BDB translates these words with "cherub of
expansion". The New American Standard Bible and the New International version simply read
"anointed cherub".
  The noun and adjective ‫( משיח‬mashiah), meaning anointed or anointed one, occurs about forty
times in the Bible and may refer to priests (Leviticus 4:3-5, 4:16, 6:22) or kings (1 Samuel
2:10, Samuel 16:6) but also to an unspecified or abstract figure of reverence (1 Samuel 12:3-
5). Our word occurs in implied plural in 1 Chronicles 16:22 and Psalm 105:15. HAW
Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament notes that , "The Psalm literature especially
regards mashiah as God's agent or vice-regent . . . but from the New Testament we learn that
the meaning of mashiahin Psalm 2:2 can not be limited to a king about to be enthroned, but is
a reference to the unique vice-regent Jesus Christ (Acts 13:32, Hebrews 1:5, 5:5)".

Associated Biblical names

♂ ♕☼
Ø Messiah‫משיח‬
Meaning of the name Messiah
The pseudo-name Messiah literally means Anointed (One), but since in Israel only the King, the High
Priest and prophets were anointed, the name Messiah means much rather Inaugurated or even Highest
Earthly Rank. And since the title mashiah is almost exclusively reserved for the King of Israel, the
name Messiah is really a pseudonym for King (Christians may like to think that only Jesus is called
Messiah in the Bible, but this isn't true. The prophetIsaiah, for instance, proclaims ‫כה־‬
‫ לכורש למשיחו יהוה אמר‬or "thus says YHWH to His anointed [messiah], to Cyrus" — Isaiah 45:1).
And the Israelites' eagerly awaiting of the Messiah mostly denotes their desire to become an
autonomous nation, much rather than the advent of holiness. When the Romans crucified Jesus Christ
and placed a plaque saying King of the Jews over Him, they weren't just mocking Jesus, they were
explaining to the Israelites that their notion of an autonomous Israelite state was dead or dying on a
Roman cross.
When Paul developed his Christian theology, he borrowed much of the key phrases (son of God, king of
kings, redeemer, savior) from Roman imperial theology; phrases applied to emperor Augustus, the son
of the "divine" Julius Caesar. And as Jesus — the presumed king and thus leader of an insurrection —
died a political death on the cross, so were the apostles and the early church persecuted because of high
treason, and certainly not for theological reasons.
Christ Pantokrator
The name Pantokrator became in post-Biblical times applied to Jesus for the sole purpose of providing
emperors — in turn conveniently dubbed the representatives or even more bodacious: the replacements
of Christ on earth — legitimacy for their regimes. It was in their obvious interest to portray Christ as a
remote emperor, who ruled by means of local leaders (clergy), since they did the same thing and could
hence derive the abysmal political doctrine of "right of kings".
This "right of kings" decrees that a monarch has no earthly superior, and thus rules by the will of God
and can therefore do what he wants. But while this right was used to make the populous love the system
that suffocated them, it ultimately derived from very poor theology. The word Christ, namely, means
"anointed one" and in Israel's theocratic structure denoted either king, priest or prophet; those ranks that
had no earthly superior and were directly linked to God. The good news of the gospel is that all ordinary
humans can claim this anointing (2 Corinthians 1:21, Hebrews 1:9, 1 John 2:20). This means that any
common person can claim the ultimate rank of Christ (not Christian) and is endowed with that very
right of kings.
Furthermore, any lick of sense would have merely supported the notion that Christ needs no
representative other than the omnipresent Holy Spirit, and would certainly not allow His own
replacement by any human king. Even the term imperialists adopted to this effect, namely Pantokrator,
did little beyond proving the exact opposite of their claims to be reality. Pantokrator, namely, does not
mean all-ruler or all-governor but rather all-holder, and although emperors might have deluded
themselves into believing that they were ruling the entire world as much as Christ does, they certainly
had no grasp of every little event that unfolded anywhere on earth — and that is precisely what the
Greek word pantokrator means: having a grasp of everything.
My God stronger than yours
The idea of God as having much power, or rather of Him being victoriously engaged in a competition
with lesser powers, is purely a pagan sentiment and not Biblical. The Creator is not a player on the
world stage, while everything other than the Creator is. By sheer merit of the definition, the Creator
 does not compete and neither needs nor lacks power but provides whatever has power with power. God
owns everything: the good, the bad and the ugly (Psalm 50:12, Isaiah 45:5-7, Ezekiel 18:4, John 16:15).
The divinity with which the Bible deals provides both a stage and the rules of engagement of worldly
forces, whether natural or human. The Bible states that God's laws are natural laws, and those will
eventually prevail (Colossians 1:15-17, John 1:1-3, Romans 1:20, Matthew 24:35, Luke 16:17). All
human activity must ultimately be aligned with those same laws, and images of man wrestling with God
(Genesis 32:24-30) solely describe the struggle of a righteous man to align his heart and mind with the
eternal laws of the Lord.
The pagan prays to entice his deity to do what the pagan wants and the deity hadn't thought of, but a
righteous man prays to entice his and everybody else's Deity to show him what He wants and he didn't
think of. A pagan wrestles with his god, but a righteous man wrestles with his own ungodliness.
When Davidsang: "teach me your ways O Lord" he was saying something as mind-bogglingly un-pagan
as Jesus when He said: "Your will be done" (Psalm 25:4, Matthew 6:10).
The name Pantokrator in the Bible
In the New Testament the name Pantokrator occurs only in the Book of Revelation (1:8, 4:8, 11:17,
15:3, 16:7, 16:14, 19:6, 19:15, 21:22), not counting 2 Corinthians 6:18, where Paul concludes a series of
quotes from the Septuagint. It's the word with which the authors of the Septuagint interpreted the
nameSabaoth and the mysterious divine title Shaddai, possibly because by that time nobody really
remembered what Shaddai meant.
The epithet pantokrator had been coined by Greek mythologists, who had applied it very sporadically
to Hermes and to Mandulis, a Nubian equivalent of Horus, who also corresponds to Apollo. But neither
of these was considered supreme or almighty. In stead they were oracular and messenger gods. Hermes
even zipped chipper like a mailman between the world of the gods and that of mortals, and clearly
shares traits with the Word of God and the Holy Spirit.
The word "trinity" does not occur in the Bible and it took a few centuries of fermenting in a Greco-
Roman Petri dish (and the decree of an emperor who was no theologian by a long shot) for the "Church
Fathers" to come up with the Trinitarian dogma as un-solution to an otherwise non-existing problem.
The Bible writers, on the other hand, were unyielding monotheists and obviously didn't think much of
pagan pantheons or could care less about the wholly pagan dilemma of where God the Father might end
and God the Son began, and Who might have come up with Whom first (but to give a hint: the summit
of Rome's divine pyramid comprised the so-called Capitoline Triad, which first consisted
of Jupiter, Mars and Quirinus, and later Jupiter, Juno and Minerva).
The evangelist John wrote that the Word was in the beginning with God, and that all things came into
being by Him (John 1:1-3). Paul wrote something similar to the Colossians (1:16), but added that He
was the first-born of all creation (1:15). This term "first-born" may have stressed the Word's
preeminence and not His birth, as some commentators claim, but whoever wrote Proverbs 8 stated that
Wisdom was the craftsman (see our article on the noun τεκτων,tekton, which describes the profession of
Jesus of Nazareth and his father) by His side, having been brought forth as the first of His works
(Proverbs 8:30, 8:22).
Whereas some scholars are comfortable with creating compartments within the deity (something
like: Logos is really a thought inside God's mind) others find this demonstrative of both baffling
arrogance and pagan immaturity and ultimately not very helpful. Right after Isaiah sees YHWH come
with both might and an arm that simultaneously rules and gathers the lambs in His bosom, he states that
He has measured the world's waters in the hollow of His hand (Isaiah 40:10-12). And similarly, the
Psalmist declares that the depths of the earth are in His hand (Psalm 95:4).
Pantokrator doesn't simply rule like a distant emperor or is stronger than the strongest contender.
Pantokrator is He who holds everything, both in His hands, His bosom and in His mind.
Etymology of the name Pantokrator
The name Pantokrator consists of two elements. The first part comes from the prefix πας (pas), meaning
all:

πας
The word πας (pas) declines into the more familiar forms παν (pan) and παντος (pantos) and expresses
oneness, wholeness or totality. It is used both in singular form and in plural, both with and without the
definite article.
 Our word occurs more than 1,200 times in the New Testament, which is much more than the word "all"
does in English versions, and that demonstrates a much wider range of application of the Greek word.
About half of its occurrences can be translated with "all" — albeit often with added nuances such as "all
of them" or "the whole of it" or "every one" or "all kinds of", and so on — and the rest expresses a
wholeness for which English has specific terms, such as "great" (patience/humility/endurance) or
"complete" and even "none" or "nothing". Reversely, in several occasions, the Greek has specific terms
while English must resort to paraphrasing (such as the words that mean "whole-housedly" and "whole-
multitudinously", see below).
Words that are directly derived from our source word (in its various forms, and with or without
suffixes) are:
 Together with the suffix -θεν (-then), which indicates a motion from a location: the
adverb πανταχοθεν (pantachothen), meaning from every place, from all sides (Mark 1:45 only).
 Together with the suffix -χου (-chou), which indicates stationariness in a place: the
adverb πανταχου (pantachou), meaning in all places, everywhere (Mark 16:20, Acts 17:30, 1 Corinthians
4:17).
 The adverb παντη (pante), meaning in every way (Acts 24:3 only).
 Again together with the suffix -θεν (-then): the adverb παντοθεν (pantothen), meaning from every side (Luke
19:43 and Hebrews 9:4 only).
 The adverb παντως (pantos), meaning wholly, entirely (1 Corinthians 5:10, 9:10, 16:12) or by all means, at
all events (Luke 4:23, Acts 18:21, 1 Corinthians 9:22).
Additionally, our word shows up in a small array of compounds (mostly as παν-, pan- and παμ-, pam-):
 Together with the adverb αμα (hama), meaning together or together with: the adjective απας (hapas), also
meaning all or whole but somehow stronger than just πας (pas). This word occurs 34 times in the New
Testament (Matthew 6:32, Mark 8:25, Acts 2:14, 2 Timothy 4:2).
 Together with δια (dia), meaning through: the adverb διαπαντος (diapantos), meaning the whole time, or at
all times (Acts 21:7 only).
 Together with πληθος (plethos), meaning multitude: the adverb παμπληθει (pamplethei), meaning massive or
with the whole multitude: "whole-multitudinously" (Luke 23:18 only).
 Together with πολυς (polus), meaning many: the adjective παμπολυς (pampolus), meaning very much, vast
(Mark 8:1 only).
 Together with δεχομαι (dechomai), meaning to receive: the noun πανδοχευς (pandocheus), meaning host or
innkeeper (Luke 10:35 only). From this word comes:
o The noun πανδοχειον (pandocheion), meaning inn (Luke 10:34 only).
 Together with αγυρις (aguris), meaning assembly (an extra biblical word that derives from αγορα, agora,
meaning public square or marketplace): the noun πανηγυρις (paneguris), meaning a massive gathering
(Hebrews 12:23 only).
 Together with οικος (oikos), meaning house: the adverb πανοικι (panoiki), meaning with one's whole house,
"whole-housedly" (Acts 16:34).
 Together with οπλον (hoplon), meaning weapon: the noun πανοπλια (panoplia), meaning a complete armor.
This word survives in English as "panoply" (Luke 11:22 and Ephesians 6:11-13 only).
 Together with εργον (ergon), meaning work or deed: the adjective πανουργος (panourgos), meaning able to
do anything; shrewd, crafty (2 Corinthians 12:16 only). From this word derives:
o The noun πανουργια (panourgia), meaning shrewdness, cunning (Luke 20:23, 1 Corinthians
3:19, 2 Corinthians 4:2, 11:3, Ephesians 4:14).
 Together with τελος (telos), meaning end or completion: the adjective παντελης (panteles), meaning the
completion of all (Luke 13:11 and Hebrews 7:25 only).
 Together with κρατος (kratos), meaning power: the familiar noun παντοκρτωρ (pantokrator), meaning
almighty, all-ruler (2 Corinthians 6:18, Revelation 1:8, 4:8 11:17, 15:3, 16:7, 19:6, 19:15, 21:22).
 Together with τοτε (tote), meaning then: the adverb παντοτε (pantote), meaning always, at all times
(Matthew 26:11).

Associated Biblical names

⌂ PamphyliaΠαμφυλια
♂ ☼ Pantokratorπαντοκρατωρ
The second part of our name comes from the verb κρατεω (krateo), which describes holding on to
someone or something:
κατος
The noun κρατος (kratos) and associated verb κρατεω (krateo) express holding on, holding in one's
power, having power over, or master in the sense of absorbing something into one self — and this
usually via some agent. These words come from an ancient root that means just that and ultimately
derives from a group of word that has to do with being hard and inflexible.
Misnoming the -cracy
Quite unfortunately, in the 16th century these words were adopted into the English language (via French
and late Latin) to denote forms of government (democracy, aristocracy, theocracy), but these words
really only express government when this government is thought of as something that masters or holds
the people in its power. Infinitely more sad is the similar misfortune that lurked in early interpretations
of the familiar term παντοκρατορ(pantokrator), which even today is often thought to explain Christ as
the supreme emperor of the universe.
The nuance of our noun is demonstrated in Ephesians 1:9, where Paul uses it in combination
with ισχυς (ischus), meaning strength-having, when he speaks of greatness in accordance with
the κατος (kratos) of God's ισχυς (ischus). Here at Abarim Publications we surmise that in this
case, κατος(kratos) relates to believers' mastery of God's strength-having, not God's mastery of His own
strength-having, as most modern translations appear to maintain. In other words: God empowers those
who know Him, and He empowers them with His strength. That means that they "master" His strength,
like one masters a skill.
Paul uses the same words in Ephesians 6:10, where he exhorts his audience to be empowered in the
Lord and in the "mastery" of His strength-having. In Colossians 1:11 he speaks of the "mastery" of
God's δοξα (doxa, literally meaning: thoughts or opinions — in other words: humans may adopt God's
thought patterns, and that gives them tremendous power). Peter reverses these same terms in 1 Peter
4:11, as does John in Revelation 1:6 and 5:13, and Jude incorporates them both in his magnificent Jude
1:25. In 1 Timothy 6:16 Paul couples our noun with the word for "honor", which flows from us to Him,
suggesting that κατος (kratos) goes from Him to us.
A similar mode of agency occurs in Hebrews 2:14, where the devil has assumed the κατος (kratos) of
death. Mary uses our noun κατος (kratos) to describe what the Lord did with His right arm (Luke 1:51).
The derivations of our noun are:
 Together with the particle of negation α (a): the adjective ακρατης (akrates), meaning without a grip and
particularly the grip on one's own appetites; self-control (2 Timothy 3:3 only). From this word comes:
o The noun ακρασια (akrasia), denoting lack of self-control (Matthew 23:25 and 1 Corinthians
7:5 only).
 Together with the preposition εν (en), meaning in, on, at or by: the adjective εγκρατης (egkrates), meaning
being empowered, having control over and particularly over one self (Titus 1:8 only). From this word
come:
o The noun εγκρατεια (egkrateia), denoting someone who has control over himself (Acts 24:25,
Galatians 5:23 and 2 Peter 1:6 only).
o The verb εγκρατευομαι (egkrateuomai), meaning to have self-control (1 Corinthians 7:9 and
9:25 only).
 The verb κρατεω (krateo); see below.
 The adjective κρατιστος (kratistos), which is the superlative form of an otherwise not used adjective meaning
hold-having. It means most-holding and is used as appellation when addressing dignitaries (Luke 1:3, Acts
23:26, 24:3 and 26:25).

κρατεω
From the noun κατος (kratos) also comes the verb κρατεω (krateo), which describes holding or holding
on to someone or something.
The verb may literally mean to arrest by means of a police force (Matthew 26:48-55, Acts 24:6),
apprehend with a group of colleagues (Matthew 21:46, Mark 3:21) or to conquer by superior physical
strength (Matthew 18:28) or a great chain (Revelation 20:2). It may describe a physically or figuratively
clinging to someone (Acts 3:11), a grabbing a person's hand (Matthew 9:25), or feet (Matthew 28:9), or
head (Colossians 2:19).
 Our verb may denote the holding something in one's hand (Revelation 2:1), or on one's record (John
20:23). But it may also describe a holding on to a common understanding (Hebrews 4:14), or traditions
(Mark 7:3-8, 2 Thessalonians 2:15), or anything you got (Revelation 2:25, 3:11) — someone's words
(Mark 9:10), name (2 Revelations 2:13) and teachings (Revelation 2:14-15).
Our verb may also denote the holding back of the "four winds of the earth" (Revelation 7:1), or an
otherwise logical conclusion or observation (Luke 24:16), or even someone in the clutches of death
(Acts 2:24).
The derivations of our verb are:
 Together with the noun κοσμος (kosmos), which commonly denotes the civilized human world rather than the
natural world: the nounκοσμοκρατωρ (kosmokrator), which literally means a world-holder. This noun
occurs in Greek literature as epithet of world-ruling deities, but in the New Testament it obviously denotes
someone who holds the world from its divinely ordained freedom and progression. It occurs only in plural,
in Paul's list of procedural and bureaucratic enemies of the people (Ephesians 6:12).
 Together with πας (pas), meaning all or whole: the familiar noun παντοκρατωρ (pantokrator), literally all-
holder, not "all-ruler" (especially not in any imperial way), but rather what was expressed by Paul in
Colossians 1:17: "in him all things hold together".
 Together with the preposition περι (peri), meaning around or about: the adjective περικρατης (perikrates),
which denotes a mastery of a particular task or set of skills. This word occurs only in Acts 27:16, where
Paul and companions got their ship back under their control.

Associated Biblical names

♂ ☼ Pantokratorπαντοκρατωρ
Pantokrator meaning
The name Pantokrator means All Holding. It expresses "the capacity for, not the exercise of power" (in
the elegant words of D.L. Holland's Pantokrator in New Testament and Creed, 1973), and is not the title
of a remote despot but rather that of the passionate architect and intimately involved maintainer of all of
creation.
The name Sabaoth in the Bible
The name Sabaoth is one of the divine names or epithets of God. It occurs mostly in combination
with YHWH (about 261 times, says Harris, Archer and Waltke's Theological Wordbook of the Old
Testament) but also with Elohim and variations (24 times).
The name YHWH Sabaoth occurs first in 1 Samuel 1:3, but without clarifying context. A clarifying
context occurs further up, in Samuel's description of the battle of Elah, where we
find Goliath of Gath holler at the lines (plural) of Israel, asking why they had come out in a line (single)
(1 Samuel 17:8). Shortly after, young David steps up and replies that while Goliath has a sword and a
spear, David comes in the name of YHWH Sabaoth of the lines (plural) of Israel (17:45).
It's obvious that although YHWH deals with armies, he's not the kind of classic warrior god who infuses
his favorite human army with great sword-wielding and spear-hurling strength. He's doing it differently,
as Goliath soon discovered.
The name YHWH Sabaoth is usually translated with The Lord Of Hosts (see etymology below), but
scholars generally seem to agree that these hosts can't simply mean "army" in the military sense.
The Oxford Companion To The Bible observes (under "Names of God in the Hebrew Bible"):
Oxford Companion To The Bible
Some have though that the hosts (Sabaoth) are the armies of Israel, but a reference to these human
armies is inappropriate in, for instance, prophetic denunciations of Israel (e.g. Isaiah 1:24), and the word
probably denotes heavenly or angelic armies.
Although YHWH is a "man of war" (Exodus 15:3), is mighty in battle (Psalm 24:8), and has been
observed to actively partake in military engagements (Joshua 10:11), he's typically not bellicose.
When Joshua is about to attack Jericho (Joshua 5:13), he is met by a sworded angelic being who
identifies himself as ‫שר־צבא־יהוה‬, which means Captain of the Host of YHWH (the word for captain or
prince returns in names such as Sarah and Israel; the word for host is the singular form of our name
Sabaoth).
Joshua asks him if he is for "us" or for "them" but the Prince explains that his presence at the battle of
Jericho has nothing to do with an "us" or "them" but rather with YHWH and His plan for the world. As
long as Israel is aligned with the forces that drive the universe's ordained evolution, it's a host that the
Lord can use. If not, then Israel will find itself shangaied by hosts that are, until these hosts themselves
are no longer so (Isaiah 10).
 The name Sabaoth occurs twice in the Greek New Testament (spelled σαβαωθ); once in Paul's quote of
Isaiah 1:9 (Romans 9:29) and once in James' condemnation of the injust rich (James 5:4).
Sabaoth and Jesus
Herbert Lockyer — All the Divine Names and Titles in the Bible
Although there are a few references where Jehovah Sabaoth is associated with human wars, in the great
majority of passages where the title is found there is no allusion to war [...].
The title then seems to point to the relation of God to His people when gathered together for service or
worship [...]. Our Lord spoke of those who "gather in His name" and His name alone should be our
gathering Name.
Although Jesus didn't come to bring peace but a sword (Matthew 10:34), He also came to gather (John
12:32). The greatest instance of YHWH gathering is reported of in Genesis 2:7, where He gathers the
dust of the earth, breathes into it His breath and creates a living being. Later He tells Abraham that his
progeny would (also) be like the dust of the earth (Genesis 13:16), and Paul explains that those who
believe are the progeny of Abraham (Galatians 3:7). And just as YHWH has done, Jesus gathers the
dust of the believers, releases into them the Spirit of God and creates the living Church (Acts 2).
HAW Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament devotes more than two columns to Sabaoth. Via
texts such as Psalm 24:10's incantation "Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of
glory" HAW observes:
Harris, Archer, Waltke — Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament
Yahweh of hosts conveys the concept of glorious king. Yahweh is king of the world (Zechariah 14:16)
and over all the kingdoms of the earth (Isaiah 37:16) [...].Although the title [Sabaoth] has military
overtones, it points directly to Yahweh's rulership over the entire universe.
He continually rules, but at times he directly intervenes to secure his own victory and insure the
direction of history for the salvation of his people. In Amos 4:13 [Sabaoth] is associated with his
creating the mountains and wind and his ability to control nature. He is master over every force; he
alone secures peace.
When Jesus ordered the wind to be still, the disciples said to each other, "Who then is this, that even the
wind and the sea obey Him?" (Mark 4:41). The obvious answer would have come from Amos 4:13, and
the author of Mark makes a deliberate point to equate or at least align Jesus with Sabaoth.
Etymology of the name Sabaoth
The name Sabaoth comes from the verb ‫( צבא‬saba'):

‫צבה צבא‬
Linguists have identified three different roots ‫( צבה‬saba) and one closely similar root ‫( צבא‬saba'), but
a Hebrew audience may not have distinguished between them all that whole-heartedly. Then there are
two roots of the form ‫( צבב‬sbb), which seem kindred in form but not by meaning:

‫צבא‬
The root-verb ‫( צבא‬saba') is complicated. Dictionaries give its meaning as to wage war/ fight/ serve, but
here at Abarim Publications we entirely disagree with that:
Our verb focuses on the unified behavior of any closely interlinked group, whether it's an army that
moves as a single unit but with separate divisions (Numbers 31:7), or Levites serving in the tabernacle
(Numbers 4:23) or women serving at the tabernacle's entrance (Exodus 38:8). Since in the Old
Testament large, unified groups are usually armies, this verb mostly expresses military engagement. But
to conclude that our verb is essentially military — and therefore that the servants of the tabernacle were
engaged in spiritual warfare (as per HAW Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament) — is fantastic
and wholly off the wall.
Our verb expresses a wholly integrated organization and all its activities: in the inevitable military
sense, the whole of the military that consists of soldiers, cooks, engineers and what not. Our word
'military' is thought to have to do with the Sanskrit noun melah meaning 'assembly', which hits the nail
on the head. A military engagement described by this verb covers not just the actual battle but rather the
whole gamut of intelligence, planning and diplomacy; the whole engagement.
 Our verb yields one all-telling derivative: the masculine noun ‫( צבא‬saba'), which denotes the closely
interlinked group mentioned above. And since in the Old Testament people mostly converged in order
to wage war, our word most often denotes a military unit or the whole of the military (Judges 8:6,
Exodus 7:4, 2 Samuel 8:16). In Numbers 31:14 occurs the more complete phrase ‫המלחמה צבא‬,
(saba' ha'milhama), literally: unit of the going to war.
Our verb means to engage, team up or join and our noun means organizational unit of any kind and
obviously not exclusively military.
Many times our noun denotes (in the words of BDB Theological Dictionary) a "host (organized body)
of angels" (1 Kings 22:19, Psalm 103:21, 148:2, Isaiah 24:21, Daniel 8:10). The misapplication of our
root ‫( צבא‬saba') may explain the curious and erroneous notion of warring hordes of angels; angels are
not typically waging war in the conventional meaning of the word. Angels, even hosts of angels, convey
messages and praise God (see Luke 2:13). The words used in Revelation 12:7 to describe the
quintessential 'war in heaven' literally mean 'fight' and may very well have denoted a stern debate. Much
against popular folklore, God doesn't fight satan because even in his rebellion, satan still must do what
the Almighty orders him to do (which is to buzz off).
Our noun in plural forms the familiar word ‫( צבאות‬seba'ot): hosts, as in YHWH Sabaoth, meaning the
Lord Of Hosts. Again, this word does not denote God as the Lord of Warfare, but rather the God of
organization and cooperation. Just prior to the battle of Jericho, Israel's great military leader Joshua was
privileged to commune with the commander of the ‫( צבא‬saba') of YHWH (Joshua 5:14). Many
enthusiasts have taken this as proof that the Lord indeed sports an elite force of angelic green barrets,
but this heavenly commander's enigmatic yet obvious evasion of Joshua's question which side he's on,
demonstrates to others that he wasn't there to fight.
Our noun ‫( צבא‬saba') is also used to collectively denote the visible celestial bodies (Deuteronomy 4:19,
Jeremiah 8:2, Isaiah 34:4). And like angels, planets and stars don't wage war, but (we know since
Kepler), they certainly engage each other in a greater, unified gravitational community.
Our word appears in Genesis 2:1 to encompass all of creation. If our word had meant armies, Genesis
2:1 would have read, "Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their armies". It
obviously doesn't. Genesis 2:1 expresses the fundamental way the universe is organized: as a wholly
integrated system or many smaller systems that in turn consist of smaller systems, and so forth down to
the level of organisms that comprise socio-groups within larger cultures within the biosphere and
themselves consist of organs that consist of cells that consist of organelles that consist of molecules that
consist of atoms that consist of subatomic particles.
In Job 10:17, Job laments the forces of righteousness 'confederating' against him, while in 7:1 and 14:14
he speaks of man's 'assemblage' that stops when he dies. This obviously resonates with David's famous
observation that he was weaved together (from ‫סכך‬, sakak) in his mother's womb (Psalm 139:13, also
see Job 10:8-11). Likewise, the prophet Isaiah may not famously and rather oddly state
that Jerusalem's 'warfare' had been accomplished, but rather her 'assembly', or rather that of the baby in
her womb (Isaiah 40:2, see 40:3 and compare with Isaiah 9:6).
The Hebrew verb ‫( צבא‬saba') means to ally; to combine and integrate. Its derived noun means alliance
or integrated whole. See below under ‫(צבה‬saba II) for an Aramaic homonym that means something
slightly different.

‫ צבה‬I
The root-verb ‫( צבה‬saba I) means to swell up and is used only in Numbers 5:27 (of the abdomen of an
adulteress) and Isaiah 29:7 (where armies "swell" up against Ariel). Isaiah's usage reveals the obvious
connection between the verb ‫( צבה‬saba) I and ‫( צבא‬saba') treated above. Our verb ‫(צבה‬saba I) yields the
feminine noun ‫( צבה‬sabeh), meaning a swelling (Numbers 5:21).

‫ צבה‬II
The root ‫( צבה‬saba II) is unused so we don't know what it means, or even that it ever existed. But
scholars assume that it must have been used at some point because in the Bible occurs the important
masculine noun ‫( צבי‬sebi), meaning beauty or honor (Ezekiel 7:20, 2 Samuel 1:19, Isaiah 23:9).
 Apparently, linguists figure that beauty and honor have nothing to do with swelling up, but here at
Abarim Publications we're not so sure that the existence of this noun necessitates a separate root. A
similar double meaning of being heavy and being honorable exists in the verb ‫( כבד‬kabed — the
command to honor thy father and mother literally calls to "give weight" to one's father and mother).
In the Aramaic (latest) parts of the Hebrew Bible, as well as in the Talmud, occurs the verb ‫( צבא‬saba'),
which is spelled the same as the Hebrew verb treated above but which probably stems from or is related
to the Hebrew root ‫( צבה‬saba II). This Aramaic verb means to wish (presumably from wishing
something that's beautiful) but it may very well mean to surmise, gather or conclude and be related to
the identical Hebrew. It occurs four times in Daniel 4, three times in Daniel 5:19, and once in 7:19. A
derived noun, namely ‫( צבו‬sebu), means 'desired thing' (or perhaps concocted thing) and occurs once, in
Daniel 6:17.

‫ צבה‬III
The root ‫( צבה‬saba III) is also unused, but it yields the following derivations:
 The masculine noun ‫( צבי‬sebi), assumed to denote a gazelle (2 Samuel 2:18, Proverbs 6:5). This noun is
obviously connected to the above in that a gazelle is a herd animal. Also note that this noun is spelled and
pronounced exactly the same as the noun ‫( צבי‬sebi) meaning beauty.
 The feminine noun ‫( צביה‬sebiya), also meaning gazelle (Song 4:5 only).

‫ צבב‬I
The unused root ‫( צבב‬sbb I) may have something to do with an Assyrian noun meaning cart. In the Bible
only the derived masculine noun ‫( צב‬sab) remains, which is supposed to denote some kind of
transportation device, like a cart. It occurs only two times: Numbers 7:3 and Isaiah 66:20.

‫ צבב‬II
The unused root ‫( צבב‬sbb II) may have something to do with an Arabic verb that means to cleave to the
ground. An Arabic noun derived from that verb denotes some kind of large lizard. In the Bible only one
derivative of this root remains: the masculine noun ‫( צב‬sab), thought to mean lizard. This noun occurs
only once, in Leviticus 11:29, in a list of unclean animals.

Associated Biblical names

⌂ Aram-zobah‫צובה ארם‬
‫צובא ארם‬
♂ BarsabbasΒαρσαβας
⌂ Hamath-zobah‫צובה חמת‬
♂ ☼ Sabaoth‫צבאות‬
♀ ♞TabithaΤαβιθα
⌂ ♞Zeboiim‫צביים‬
‫צבים‬
‫צבאים‬
♂ Ziba‫ציבא‬
‫צבא‬
♂ ♞Zibia‫צביא‬
♀ ♞Zibiah‫צביה‬
⌂ Zobah‫צובה‬
‫צובא‬
‫צבה‬
♂ ♞Zobebah‫צבבה‬
Sabaoth meaning
Here at Abarim Publications (where everything is a lot more complicated than it initially seemed) we
like to believe that YHWH Sabaoth denotes a pseudo-creative office of the Creator, namely the one that
issues the force that counteracts the second law of thermodynamics. This law stipulates that the entropy
 (= the degree of chaos, or rather the number of ways in which elements of a system can be arranged
while still getting the same result) of a closed system should always increase; meaning that in creation
everything is supposed to fall apart. This is necessary for the material economy of the universe. Without
it there would be no recycling.
The curious quality of life and culture is that it evolves the wrong way. Living things are more
complicated than inanimate things, and the latter should have resulted from the former and not the other
way around. Here at Abarim Publications we're guessing that this contradiction was observed by ancient
thinkers, and personified in their theology. God's office of Elohim was responsible for the material
universe and thermodynamics. God as YHWH created life out of the dust that God as Elohim had made.
And YHWH Sabaoth created organization out of living things (read our article on Evolution and the
Bible for more on this).
Sabaoth means Communities, Units or Alliances.
Sabaoth and hell
It's not even necessary for Sabaoth to actually violate His own devised second law of thermodynamics.
If He organizes a region of space by decreasing its entropy, He should allow elsewhere in the same
system the entropy to increase more. That means that even though He locally contradicts His own Law,
globally He's not. But that would require that in order to "pay" for humanity's level of organization,
Sabaoth is responsible for the emergence of a region elsewhere where creation is hyper-unorganized.
Perhaps this explains why the Mosaic idea of Sheol (in the Pentateuch meaning simply grave or
netherworld) was developed into the more modern idea of hell around the same time that the name
Sabaoth began to be used. The meaning of the name Baal-zebub (Lord Of Disarray) seems to confirm
this model. This deity started out as the Philistine god of Ekron but evolved to represent satan. Satan
and chaos were famously defeated by Jesus Christ, who obviously related Himself to the Sabaothic
office of the Creator by saying:
Matthew 26:52-53
Those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword, or do you think that I cannot appeal to My
father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels?
The name Shaddai in the Bible
Shaddai is a divine name but not a creation name. It is first used in Genesis 17:1
where YHWH introduces Himself to Abram, saying "I am El Shaddai". God commands Abram to be
blameless and promises him the covenant. Then He changes Abram's name to Abraham.
Etymology of the name Shaddai
The meaning of Shaddai is difficult to establish. The authors of the Septuagint and the Vulgate
translated it with Almighty (pantokrator and omnipotens) but that's probably more out of enthusiasm
than out of sound etymology (it really doesn't mean that).
It's possible that these authors deemed the name Shaddai so holy, that they circumvented it in a same
way as the Masoretes would later do with the name YHWH (by pointing it as the word Adonai; hence
giving rise to the pseudo-name Jehovah).
Some say that this name Shaddai (‫ )ׁשדי‬is derived from the verb ‫( ׁשדד‬shadad), meaning to destroy,
hence: My Destroyer:

‫שד שדם שדה שדד‬

There are 22 base letters in the Hebrew alphabet but when folks began to place dots around them to
aid pronunciation, many more separate "letters" emerged.
What once was the one and only ‫( ש‬s) became two distinct letters ‫( ׂש‬sin) and ‫( ׁש‬shin).
Dictionaries treat these two as separate letters, but when studying words that are spelled with either
of the versions of ‫( ש‬s), it's always smart to check out the other one.
The roots ‫( שדד‬sdd) and ‫( שדה‬sdh) exist in both forms:

‫ׂשדה‬
The root ‫( שדה‬sdh) does not occur in the Bible as verb, only in its derivatives. But, says BDB
Theological Dictionary, it's "plausibly connected" with the Assyrian sadu, meaning mountain, used
 by people whose land was mountainous (see Deuteronomy 32:13 and Judges 5:18). The derivatives
of this root are:
 The masculine noun ‫( שדי‬saday), meaning cultivated field (Jeremiah 12:12) or wild land and
home of wild beasts (Joshua 2:22). This noun is a poetic synonym of the following noun.
 The masculine noun ‫( שדה‬sadeh), meaning open field or pasture land (Genesis 29:2) or home
of wild beasts (Genesis 4:8, Jeremiah 14:5).

‫ׁשדה‬
The sibling root ‫( שדה‬shdh) doesn't occur as verb in the Bible so we have no context to try it to. It
exists in Arabic with the meaning of to moisten, and the Aramaic equivalent ‫( שדא‬shd') means to
pour out. Its derivatives are:
 The masculine noun ‫( שד‬shad), meaning (female) breast (Hosea 2:4, Song of Solomon 1:13)
or animal breast (Lamentations 4:3).
 The feminine version, ‫( שדה‬shidda), occurs in Ecclesiastes 2:8, but no satisfying translation or
interpretation has been offered.
In our culture, breasts and mountains may be each other's obvious metaphors, but in Hebrew that
doesn't work that way, as metaphors are usually derived from an action and not from appearance
(but see the name Haran). The two may nevertheless have been connected in the Hebrew mind, but
then not via the mountainous forms, but rather from the food they produce. Fields need rain to
produce and draught was a nightmare. In that same sense, dry breasts that couldn't feed one's
offspring, were a curse (Hosea 9:14).

‫ׁשדם‬
The root ‫( שדם‬shdm) occurs only with the letter ‫( ׁש‬shin) Its meaning is unknown but its sole
derivation is the feminine noun ‫( שדמה‬shedema), meaning field (Deuteronomy 32:32, 2 Kings 23:4).

‫ׁשדד‬
The root-verb ‫( שדד‬shadad) means to deal violently with, ruin or destroy (Judges 5:27, Isaiah 16:4,
Jeremiah 51:48). This verb occurs fifty-seven times in the Bible; twenty-six of them in the Book
of Jeremiah.
There is perhaps a bit of a cross-over to the root ‫( ׂשדה‬sdh) as the latter may denote the home of the
wild beasts, with all dangers and ruin associated with that. The prophet Jeremiah tells of people
who go out of their cities (but omits saying that they thus enter the fields) and come upon a wolf
that destroys them (Jeremiah 5:6). For the destroying, he uses our verb ‫( שדד‬shadad).
This verb's sole derivation is the masculine noun ‫( שד‬shad), sometimes spelled ‫( שוד‬shud), meaning
havoc or violence (Amos 3:10, Jeremiah 6:7) or devastation (Hosea 7:13, Isaiah 13:6).

‫ׂשדד‬
In the root-verb ‫( שדד‬sadad) the field meets the violence. It means to harrow and it occurs only
three times in the Bible: Job 39:10, Isaiah 28:24 and Hosea 10:11.

‫ׁשד‬
The noun ‫( שד‬shed) is commonly but erroneously translated as demon. It's a loan word — from
Assyrian, says BDB Theological Dictionary, where the sedu is a protecting spirit. It's undoubtedly
from Babylonian, says HAW Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, where the shedu is a
demon, either good or evil.
HAW further submits, "In Mesopotamian thought the shedu was a supernatural protective power for
whose presence the gods were invoked," and makes the observation that, "Good and evil are in the
 moral, not the metaphysical". In The Religion Of Israel, Y. Kaufmann writes, "When the gods of
the nations are called shedim it is not meant that they are evil spirits, but that they are insubstantial
shades, 'no-gods,' with neither divine nor demonic functions".
Our noun is used in the Bible only two times: Deuteronomy 32:17 and Psalm 106:37, both in
conjunction with the act of sacrifice and in the latter case, the sacrifice of children.
Note the similarities between the nouns:
 ‫( ׁשד‬shed), meaning demon;
 ‫( ׁשד‬shad), meaning breast;
 ‫( ׁשד‬shod), meaning havoc.
The divine name Shaddai may be inspired by the shedu, and note that the shedu was depicted as the
familiar winged bull, and that the name Abir(another important divine name) is connected to the
noun ‫'( אבר‬eber) meaning pinions and the verb ‫'( אבר‬abar), meaning to fly.

Associated Biblical names

♂ Ammishaddai‫עמישדי‬
‫שדי עמי‬
☺ Chaldeans‫כשדים‬
‫כשדיים‬
♂ Chesed‫כשד‬
♂ ☼ ☂ Shaddai‫שדי‬
♂ Shedeur‫שדיאור‬
⌂ Siddim‫שדים‬
⌂ Sodom‫סדם‬
Others furiously refute this because this meaning would go against the nature of God. The
prophet Isaiah, however, seems to be in the camp of the first when he writes, "Wail, for the day of
YHWH is near. It will come as destruction (shad) from Shaddai" (Isaiah 13:6).
Those of the latter camp suggest that Shaddai comes from sadu, a word meaning mountain in
the Babylonian (Akkadian) language that Abram spoke, and so El Shaddai would be El Of The
Mountain, or El of the Gathering.
Yet another possibility is that Shaddai comes from ‫( ׁשד‬shed), the Babylonian version of the
Roman genius; the house-spirit or one's personal protector spirit, the idea of which is not unbiblical at
all, see Matthew 18:10 and Acts 12:15. The Babylonian depiction of the shedu, as they called it, had the
familiar form of the winged bull. That would possibly relate our name Shaddai to the name Abir in
essence, and would denote the "house-spirit" of Israel, which is also not unbiblical, see Exodus 23:23.
Some other ideas:
The rabbinic theory is that ‫ שדי‬may be formed by the particle ‫ש‬, meaning who, which, or where, or that,
plus the word ‫די‬, meaning sufficient, enough:

Abarim Publications' online Biblical Hebrew Dictionary

‫די‬
There appear to be two different Hebrew particles ‫( די‬dy), which don't have anything to do with
each other. A third, Aramaic ‫( די‬dy), meaning 'which' appears lavishly in Ezra and Daniel.

‫ די‬I
The substantive ‫( די‬day) appears to be unique to the Hebrew language. It means sufficiently, enough
or even abundance. It frequently occurs in constructions with other words (Esther 1:18, 2
Chronicles 30:3, Malachi 3:10 only) and often combined with prefixes:
 With ‫( ב‬be), meaning in: ‫( בדי‬beday), meaning what suffices for, or for the need of (Nahum
2:13, Jeremiah 51:58) or in the abundance of (Job 39:25), or according to the sufficiency
(Leviticus 25:26, Deuteronomy 25:2) or according to the abundance of (Judges 6:5).
  With ‫( מ‬me), meaning from or out of: ‫( מדי‬meday), meaning out of the abundance of, or as
often as (1 Samuel 1:7, 1 Kings 14:28, Jeremiah 31:20).
 With ‫( כ‬ke), meaning like or as: ‫( כדי‬keday), meaning as abundant as (Deuteronomy 25:2,
Judges 6:5).

‫ די‬II
A second, identical particle occurs frequently in combination with the preposition ‫'( עם‬im), meaning
with, to form the term ‫עמדי‬, commonly translated with 'with me'. How this ‫ די‬managed to acquire the
meaning of 'me' isn't known (merely a postfixed letter ‫י‬, yod, means 'me'), but something similar
appears in Arabic (says BDB Theological Dictionary).

Associated Biblical names

♂ Aridai‫ארדי‬
⌂ Dizahab‫זהב די‬
♂ Madai‫מדי‬
♂ ☼ ☂ Shaddai‫שדי‬
Hence the name Shaddai also contains the meaning of Self-Sufficient. This is particularly interesting in
light of Psalm 8:5.
‫ שדי‬may even have to do with the verb ‫שדה‬, meaning to moisten. God is after all the great Rain-maker
(Genesis 2:6, Genesis 7:12, also see our article on the name Torah). It may even have to do with the
derived noun ‫שד‬, breast, bosom, used both in erotic scenes and the practical usage of feeding babies. A
relation with the name Shaddai is not unthinkable, as this is the name by which God initiates the
covenant of which Jesus is the final fulfillment. The apostlePaul compares introduction to the basics of
the gospel with feeding milk to infants (1 Corinthians 3:1-2).
The name Shaddai may have originated in Akkadian, meaning Mountain, but to a Hebrew audience that
hears God introduces Himself as El Shaddai, it must have meant My Destroyer, [Our] House
Spirit, Self-Sufficient One, the Rain-Maker and Source Of Food For Babies, all at once.
The name Shiloh in the Bible
The name Shiloh is applied twice in the Bible, once as a Messianic title (Genesis 49:10, spelled ‫)שילה‬
and once as a much mentioned town in Ephraim(Joshua 18:1, spelled three different
ways: ‫ שילו‬or ‫ שלו‬but mostly ‫)שלה‬.
The town of Shiloh is most famous for being the first seat of government of the invading Israelite forces
under Joshua. At Shiloh the tent of meeting was set up (Joshua 18:1), the land was divided (18:10), and
judges sat, up to Eli and Samuel (1 Samuel 1:9).
Etymology of the name Shiloh
Since ‫שילה‬, the Messianic title, is so important, meanings are at once disputed. BDB Theological
Dictionary leans towards a reading that Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names resolutely
rejects, namely a compound of ‫ׁש‬, the short form of ‫( אשר‬asher) meaning who or whose, and ‫( לו‬lu), a
particle that denotes potentiality, usually supplicatory, such as: if only, would it be that, may it be — in
translations this word is often represented by 'Oh! May it be that...' More streamlined translations would
probably choose something like 'Oh, I wish that...'
Still, it should be noted that even though English doesn't have a word that expresses supplicatory
potential, the Hebrew language does. In English it's hard to turn the phrase into a name (Omayitbe or
Goshiwishthat?) but in Hebrew it isn't. In fact, the name of the first king of Israel, Saul, means
something along the same line: Wished For.
The Messiah of Israel was by no means just for Israel. Genesis 17:5 and 18:18 make it very clear:
in Abraham — or more precise: through the covenant that God made with Abraham, the covenant of
which Jesus Christ was the fulfillment — all the nations of the earth would be blessed (see also
Ephesians 3:15 and Revelation 21:24). The prophet Balaam of Pethor foresaw a crushing ruler arise
from Israel and take possession of all nations in Balaam's scope (Numbers 24:17), but the
prophet Haggai, who wrote just after the return, perhaps tapped into Genesis 49:10 when he wrote,
"...and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations will come..". (2:7).
The Messianic name Shiloh is then, with quite a substantial bit of poetic lenience, said to mean He
Whose It Is (according to BDB Theological Dictionary). The main literary defensive argument for this
 view comes from Ezekiel 21:27, where the prophet speaks of Him who shall come and whose right it is
to own everything. In this statement the section between "until the coming of..". and "...is the right, and
I will give it" is spelled ‫אשר־לו‬, which looks a lot like the expanded version of our name. Add to that the
detail that both Genesis 40:10 and Ezekiel 21:27 deal with Judah and the government or ownership of
that tribe, and the argument becomes quite compelling.
In his counter-argument, Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names notes that Ezekiel's style is
rather modern, Biblically spoken, and quite unlike material found in the Pentateuch. But that argument
may be annulled by the Pentateuch's late edition theory, which suggests that the Book of Genesis,
though originally very old, was edited to its present form around the time of Ezekiel. Either way, we
may be quite certain that Ezekiel, a priest who experiencedNebuchadnezzar's siege of Jerusalem, was
well aware of the prophecy of Genesis 49:10. And from an author of that caliber we may expect
confident references in stead of accidental similarities.
Isaiah, also not a marginal poet, wrote more than a hundred years prior to Ezekiel (although critics
bothered with the name of Cyrus in chapters 44 and 45 place him, or at least these references, after the
return from the exile). Isaiah seems to refer to the larger compass of Genesis 49:10 in his famous
Messianic prophecy, when he says, "For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the
government will rest on His shoulders..". (9:6)
After this reference to government, Isaiah lavishes the Messiah with a series of honorary titles:
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, and Prince of Peace, which brings us to the
interpretation of the name Shiloh that Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names and some
others favor and BDB Theological Dictionary not even considers: a derivation of the verb ‫( שלה‬shala),
to be quiet or at rest, with the distinct connotation of prospering:

‫שלה שלל‬
There are two roots ‫( שלה‬slh), and two roots ‫( שלל‬sll). One of the ‫( שלה‬slh) roots is obviously related
to one of the ‫( שלל‬sll) roots, but the other two don't seem to have much to do with each other:

‫ שלה‬I
The root-verb ‫( שלה‬shala I) means to be at rest (Job 3:26) or to prosper (Psalm 122:6, Jeremiah
12:1). Its derivatives are:
 The masculine noun ‫( שלו‬shalu), meaning prosperity (Psalm 30:7 only).
 The adjective ‫( שלי‬sheli), meaning quiet or private (2 Samuel 3:27 only).
 The adjective ‫( שלו‬shalew), meaning quiet or prosperous (Job 16:12, Zechariah 7:7).
 The feminine noun ‫( שלוה‬shalwa), meaning quietness or prosperity (Psalm 122:7, Proverbs
17:1).

‫ שלה‬II
The root-verb ‫( שלה‬shala II) means to draw out or extract. It's used only in Job 27:8, but it's
obviously related to root ‫( שלל‬shalal; see below). This root's sole derivative is the feminine
noun ‫( שליה‬shilya), meaning afterbirth (Deuteronomy 28:57 only).

‫ שלל‬I
The root-verb ‫( שלל‬shalal I) is obviously related to ‫( שלה‬shala II) and means to draw out. It's used
only in Ruth 2:16. Its sole derivative is the adjective ‫( שולל‬sholal), meaning barefoot (Micah 1:8,
Job 12:17 only).

‫ שלל‬II
The root-verb ‫( שלל‬shalal II) means to plunder, and this isn't far removed from the
verbs ‫( שלה‬shala II) and ‫( שלל‬shalal I), meaning to draw out. This verb occurs fourteen times, in all
 expectable ways: to describe the plundering that goes on during a raid or after a battle (Isaiah 10:6,
Jeremiah 50:10, Ezekiel 29:19).
This verb's sole derivative is the masculine noun ‫( שלל‬shalal), meaning plunder (Genesis 49:27,
Joshua 7:21, 1 Samuel 30:20).

Associated Biblical names

♂ Maher-shalal-hash-baz ‫בז חש שלל מהר‬
♂ Shallun‫שלון‬
♂ ⌂ ② Shelah‫שלח‬
‫שלה‬
♂ ⌂ ☼ Shiloh‫שילה‬
‫שילו‬
‫שלה‬
‫שלו‬
⌂ Taanath-shiloh‫תאנת שלה‬
Shiloh meaning
BDB Theological Dictionary thinks that the Messianic title means He Whose It Is but Jones' Dictionary
of Old Testament Proper Names refers to theSamaritan Pentateuch, where this name is translated
as Pacific, Pacificator or Tranquility.
BDB Theological Dictionary and Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names agree, however,
that the name of Shiloh the town indeed is derived of‫( שלה‬shala). As such is may be translated
as Tranquility Town (or Fair Haven or Pleasantville).
NOBSE Study Bible Name List doesn't translate either name.
How to pronounce the name YHWH
Judges 13:18
But the angel of YHWH said to him, "Why do you ask my name, seeing it is incomprehensible?
The name YHWH is very old and we may assume that the source texts that later added up to
the Torah we now have contained it. And it is equally likely that the Book of the Covenant,
which Moses read aloud to the Israelites, contained it too (Exodus 24:7). But at some point in time,
people began to believe that the name YHWH was so holy, that normal mortals better not pronounce it.
In stead, wherever the text called for YHWH, a reader would pronounce the Hebrew word for
lord: Adonai. And so, what started out as a wonderfully pious idea made the pronunciation of God's
personal name vanish from human consciousness.
Here at Abarim Publications, we prefer to transliterate God's name directly to the unpronounceable
"YHWH," and whenever we're called to read it out loud, we say adonai or lord.
The name YHWH in the Bible
YHWH is the second creation Name of God. God's Name changes from Elohim to YHWH Elohim in
Genesis 2:4 and the reason for this change is examined in our article on the Chaotic Set Theory.
As told by Joel M. Hoffman Ph.D. in his delightful and riveting book In the Beginning: A Short History
of the Hebrew Language, the Hebrews were the first to incorporate vowels in their written text, and by
doing this the previously esoteric art of writing and reading became available to the masses. The
seemingly casual command to 'write' something on doors or foreheads included the invention of a
writing system that could be learned by everybody. A very big deal, and resulting in the most powerful
tool of data preservation up to this common age.
Hebrew theology is by far the most influential ever, and this is in part due to the Hebrew invention of
vowel notation. This power (this theology) contrasted others by use of the vowel notation, using
symbols that were already used and until then only represented consonants, namely the
letters ‫( ו‬waw), ‫( י‬yod) and‫( ה‬he). And to give an example: the word ‫ דוד‬is either the word dod, meaning
beloved (and the ‫ ו‬is a vowel), or it is the word dud, meaning jar (and the ‫ ו‬is again a vowel), or it is the
word dawid, which is the name David (and the ‫ ו‬is a consonant).
These letters became markers for both the Hebrew identity and the Hebrew religion, including the
various names for God. One of these names is the famous Tetragrammaton ‫( יהוה‬YHWH) which
actually exists only of vowels, and is utterly exceptional in many ways, including the fact that we don't
know how to pronounce it (if it contains of only vowels, it may have sounded like: AAEEIIOOUU!!).
The word ‫( אל‬El) was the name of the prominent Canaanite god, whose name was either derived of or
became the common word for god in general. The plural of this word is ‫ ;אלים‬gods. With the addition of
 the letter ‫ה‬, creating the word ‫אלהים‬, the Hebrews not only stated essential monotheism (by naming a
single God after the plural word "gods") but also marked their God as theirs: Elohim is the singular
pantheon of the vowel-people.
Something similar occurred when the name of patriarch Abram (‫ )אברם‬was expanded with
the he into Abraham ‫אברהם‬, and the name of matriarch Sarai(‫ )שרי‬was expanded with
the he to Sarah (‫)שרה‬.
Etymology of the name YHWH
The name YHWH may be an artificial construct of the Hebrew language's available vowels, which
would be equivalent to our AEIOU (and even if the name YHWH existed before the Hebrews began to
note vowels, they may have chosen for their vowel-symbols the letters that made up the name of their
God). But it may also be a proper word, derived of some verb, which coincidentally came out existing
of only vowels. If that is so, the etymology of YHWH is utterly unclear, and therefore subject to much
debate.
The key scene in this respect seems to be Exodus 3:13-15, where God names Himself
first: ‫( אהיה אשר אהיה‬I AM WHO I AM), then ‫( אהיה‬I AM), and finally ‫( יהוה‬YHWH) and states that this
is his name forever and a memorial name to all generations.
It has been long supposed that YHWH was derived from the verb that is used to make I AM,
namely ‫( היה‬haya), meaning to be or to become, or rather from an older form and rare synonym of haya,
namely ‫הוה‬, hawa, hence y-hawa or yahweh, the proper imperfect of the verb, thus rendering the name
either BEING or HE IS. (But note that the Hebrew language is far more dynamic than our modern
languages. The verb to be indicates an action that intimately reveals the nature of the one who is doing
the acting. For more on this, see our article To Be Is To Do):

‫הוא הוה היה‬

The Hebrew language knows one root of the form ‫( היה‬haya) and two of the form ‫( הוה‬hawa) — or so
says HAW Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament; the older BDB Theological Dictionary does
not differentiate between the two roots ‫( הוה‬hwh). One of these roots ‫( הוה‬hawa — or one strand of the
one root ‫( הוה‬hawa) — is in fact the verb ‫( היה‬haya) in an older spelling, and the other ‫( הוה‬hawa) is an
unusual variant of the root-verb ‫( הוא‬hawa'):

‫היה‬
The marvelous and most fundamental verb ‫( היה‬haya) is the Bible's common verb to be, but it should be
noted that "very seldom in the Old Testament is haya used to denote either simple existence or the
identification of a thing or person" — in the words of HAW Theological Wordbook of the Old
Testament, which proceeds to suggest that the reader should have a look at a King James version of the
Bible and notice how often the English expressions of the verb to be are printed in italics, indicating that
the Hebrew text doesn't have those there.
Our verb ‫( היה‬haya) means 'to be doing something that defines the doer' or in case of some unfolding
event: to happen.
The Hebrew language is fundamentally dynamic, and as good as every occurrence of the
verb ‫( היה‬haya) expresses some essential behavior that defines the character which the text discusses. If
there is nothing essential going on, the Hebrew language simply omits its verb to be. And if simple
presence needs to be expressed, Hebrew uses the particle of existence ‫ יש‬yesh, meaning 'there is'
something but whether that something is doing something isn't told. (See this complicated principle
explained more graphically in our article To Be Is To Do.)

‫ הוה‬I
In Hebrew, the verb ‫( הוה‬hawa I) is an older version of the verb ‫( היה‬haya). In Biblical Aramaic, which
is closely related to Biblical Hebrew, the form‫( הוה‬hawa) remained. In the Hebrew parts of the Bible,
the verb ‫( היה‬haya) occurs more than three and a half thousand times, and the verb ‫(הוה‬hawa) a mere
half a dozen times (Genesis 27:29, Ecclesiastes 2:22 and 11:3, Isaiah 16:4, and Nehemiah 6:6). Many
 scholars believe that the name of the Lord, YHWH, was derived from this verb, although pretty much
every theory on how that might have happened can be challenged.

‫ הוה‬II
The root-verb ‫( הוה‬hawa II) means to fall, or so we surmise. It doesn't seem to be used anywhere in the
Bible (save for a curious variant ‫( הוא‬hawa'), which may or may not be the same as our verb ‫( הוה‬hawa)
— see below). BDB Theological Dictionary actually doesn't recognize two separate roots‫( הוה‬hawa) and
argues that the single Hebrew ‫( הוה‬hawa) works similar like our verb to (be)fall. But whatever the
etymology, these two roots are indistinguishable to anyone using them; even more so
because ‫( הוה‬hawa I) doesn't yield any derived nouns but occurs as verb all over the Old Testament,
whereas ‫( הוה‬hawa II) does not occur once as verb but spawns two or three separate nouns:
Our verb ‫( הוה‬hawa II) comes with the following derivations, which (in the words of HAW Theological
Wordbook of the Old Testament) "speak metaphorically of a fall of fortune". :
 The feminine noun ‫( הוה‬hawwa), meaning either a bad kind of desire or lust (Micah 7:3, Proverbs 10:3), or
ruin or destruction (Job 6:2, Psalm 5:9).
 The feminine noun ‫( היה‬hayya), meaning destruction of calamity. This noun occurs only once, in Job 6:2.
BDB Theological Dictionary feels that this word may be a misspelling of the following noun:
 The feminine noun ‫( הוה‬howa), meaning ruin or disaster. This noun occurs twice, in Ezekiel 7:26 and Isaiah
47:11.

‫הוא‬
The verb ‫( הוא‬hawa') occurs only once in the Bible, in Job 37:6, where Elohim commands the snow to
fall on the earth. Scholars generally agree that this verb is an unusual form of the verb ‫( הוה‬hawa II);
BDB Theological Dictionary calls it "an Arabizing usage," but HAW Theological Wordbook of the Old
Testament refutes that and figures that the author of Job altered ‫( הוה‬hawa II) into ‫( הוא‬hawa') to
distinguish it from ‫( הוה‬hawa I). But that's a rather odd supposition because in Hebrew we have quite a
few homomorphs which don't get altered for the sake of clarity. And disguising a word that normally
looks like another one, so that it doesn't look like the other one, also exits the small bubble of meaning
in which it's customarily found. Bad idea. The verbs ‫( הוה‬hawa I and II) may very well be one and the
same, and it may very well be that in Job 37, God commands the snow to beon the earth, in its typical
existential behavior of falling out of the sky.
Note that without the Masoretic vowel symbols, the verb ‫( הוא‬hawa') is identical to ‫( הוא‬hu), the third
person singular, independent nominative pronoun; he, she or it.

Associated Biblical names

♂ ☼ YHWH‫יהוה‬
∩ YHWH-jireh‫יראה יהוה‬
⌂ ≣ YHWH-nesi‫נסי יהוה‬
⌂ ≣ YHWH-shalom‫שלום יהוה‬
HAW Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament goes even further as it states, "...there is a problem
with the pronunciation Yahweh. It is a strange combination of old and late elements.[...] In view of
these problems it may be best simply to say that YHWH does not come from the verb hawa at all. [W]e
may well hold that YHWH [...] is an old word of unknown origin which sounded something like what
the verb hawa sounded in Moses' day. However, if the word were spelled with four letters in Moses'
day, we would have expected it to have had more than two syllables, for at that period all the letters
were sounded". Meaning: if people in the time of Moses indeed wrote the Name as ‫יהוה‬, and they would
have still pronounced it, it would have sounded like Yahay Wayhay.
In other words, the name YHWH looks like a hybrid of times, as if it can not be localized but spans
centuries of evolving grammar. Then it also looks very much as if it was derived of a verb that means to
be, but which is spelled differently than the regular verb to be, and similarly to a verb that means
something very bad. Perhaps all this confusion, or rather, this wide pallet of negotiations is what this
Name most essentially conveys: existence in its broadest sense, yet unlike any regular human
perspective; a blessing to the wise, but the undoing of the wicked.
 On the other hand, perhaps the name YHWH means Tom, Dick or Harry in a language that has slipped
out of the collective human consciousness and we are left with the echoes of a revelation that was as
sincere and confidential as the word abba: daddy.
YHWH meaning
After all this it should be clear that the name YHWH can't be readily interpreted.
If we're dealing with an expression of the verb ‫( הוה‬hawa II), and we maintain that this verb means to
fall, then YHWH would mean Falling, or He Will Fall or He Will Cause To Fall. This line of
reasoning may seem to lack any trace of sound theology, but the divine name Shaddai reflects a similar
negative, and may mean My Destroyer. The prophet Isaiah writes, "Wail, for the day of YHWH is near.
It will come as destruction (shad) from Shaddai" (Isaiah 13:6).
But perhaps we have the verb ‫( הוה‬hawa II) all figured wrong, and ‫( הוה‬hawa II) is the same
as ‫( הוה‬hawa I), meaning to be or to happen. Then YHWH would comfortably mean Being or He
Is or He Will Cause To Be.
Here at Abarim Publications we are most charmed by this particular explanation. Time and again the
Bible urges its readers to focus only on that which is real, on "That Which Is", and steer clear from
mumbo-jumbo, superstitions and nonsense. To the modern world Yahwism may seem like just another
religion but to the ancients it wasn't. The Jews were known as the people without a god (meaning
without an effigy) and it appears that Christians in the Roman empire may have been accused of
atheism (again meaning without a visible deity; see Cassius Dio 67.14).
Even though the name YHWH is etymologically difficult to explain, to a Hebrew audience it may have
looked very much like He Who Causes "That Which Is" To Be.
The brilliance of Yahwism
Yahwism, therefore, can be most aptly viewed as a kind of proto-science; it's the syntax of science and
focused on reality first and foremost. And no, Yahwism is not a religion that appeared to work really
well; it's the syntax of science that worked really well which received the name Yahwism. Where the
vast majority of pagan religions venerate society's stratification, Yahwism emphasizes the importance
of the individual (hence the idea of YHWH's Christbeing Jesus of Nazareth; the quintessential Average
Joe). Pagan religion wants blind obedience; Yahwism wants insight and responsibility. Pagan religion
wants a reverential and essential gap between the holy and the profane; Yahwism dictates that God
wants to fellowship with mankind — and just pause to dwell on that for a bit.
There are over a hundred references in the Old Testament alone of the Lord stating that He will or wants
to be with us (Genesis 26:3, Exodus 3:12, 1 Chronicles 28:20, Isaiah 53:5, Job 29:5), and although we
moderns are probably used to that idea, there is nothing like this to be found in any of the cultures that
surrounded Israel during Biblical times. The name Immanuel expresses purely a Yahwistic concept
(Isaiah 7:14), as obviously does the Word of the Lord becoming flesh, dwelling among us (John 1:14),
and appointing disciples "that they might be with Him" (Mark 3:14).
Here at Abarim Publications we love science (and if you haven't already, check out our articles
on quantum mechanics and chaos theory) but we are privately convinced that there is a greater source of
knowledge than science. Or let's rephrase that: it seems to us that Yahwism in its natural form is the
great unrecognized foundation of science and any kind of veritable knowledge. We know beyond doubt
that there are Yahwists among us who know far more than any scientist; they don't publish and that's
why the general public doesn't know about them, but they are there.
Our brains are made up of particles that have been around since the beginning of time, and just like
ants must build an ant-hill in obedience to ant DNA, somust mankind come up with a model of reality in
obedience to human DNA. In other words: the whole picture lies in our hearts, and that which we call
inspiration or having a hunch, or even simply an idea for a hypothesis, comes straight from our heart of
hearts (Deuteronomy 30:14, Jeremiah 31:33, Romans 2:15, Hebrews 10:16). The trouble humanity
faces is that we've been believing and teaching each other the wrong things; we look in a mirror dimly,
so to speak (1 Corinthians 13:12), and our thinking has to be renewed (Romans 12:2).
A mind which is trained in Yahwism will automatically be good at science, whereas a mind which is
trained in paganism will automatically jump too quickly to conclusions and will base these conclusions
on emotions rather than observations. Whether science will lead to bliss or to destruction depends
wholly on whether man worships his knowing self or the Creator (for more on this, see our article on
the familiar word Amen).
Some more suggestions
BDB Theological Dictionary lists the following interpretations of the name YHWH, proposed by a
score of venerated theologians (but note that, even though BDB is still considered "the finest and most
comprehensive Hebrew lexicon available," it was published in 1906, and some views have changed in
the last century):
BDB states, "Many recent scholars explain ‫ יהוה‬as Hiph. of ‫הוה‬:
 The one bringing into being;
 Life-giver;
 Giver of existence, creator;
 He who brings to pass;
 Performer of his promises;
 He who causes to fall (rain or lightning);
"But most take it as Qal of ‫הוה‬:
 The one who is;
 The absolute and unchangeable one;
 The existing, ever-living;
 The one ever coming into manifestation
 He will be;
 He will approve himself (give evidence of being, assert his being)