Names of God in Judaism

[2] Some moderns advise special care even in these cases,[3] and many Orthodox Jews have adopted the chumras of writing "G-d" instead of "God" in English or saying Ṭēt-Vav (טו, lit.

The names of God that, once written, cannot be erased because of their holiness[5] are the Tetragrammaton, Adonai, El, Elohim,[n 1] Shaddai, Tzevaot; some also include I Am that I Am.

Also abbreviated Jah, the most common name of God in the Hebrew Bible is the Tetragrammaton, יהוה, which is usually transliterated as YHWH.

In prayers it is replaced by the word אֲדֹנָי (Adonai, Hebrew pronunciation: [adoˈnaj] 'My Lords', Pluralis majestatis taken as singular), and in discussion by HaShem 'The Name'.

Nothing in the Torah explicitly prohibits speaking the name[12] and the Book of Ruth shows that it continued to be pronounced as late as the 5th century BCE.

[13][n 2] Mark Sameth argues that only a pseudo name was pronounced, the four letters יהוה (YHVH, YHWH) being a cryptogram which the priests of ancient Israel read in reverse as huhi, 'he–she', signifying a dual-gendered deity, as earlier theorized by Guillaume Postel (16th century) and Michelangelo Lanci [it] (19th century).

[24] The Tetragrammaton appears in Genesis[25] and occurs 6,828 times in total in the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia edition of the Masoretic Text.

All surviving Christian-era manuscripts use Kyrios (Κυριος 'Lord') or very occasionally Theos (Θεος 'God') to translate the many thousand occurrences of the Name.

Owing to the expansion of chumra (the idea of "building a fence around the Torah"), the word Adonai itself has come to be too holy to say for Orthodox Jews outside of prayer, leading to its replacement by HaShem ('The Name').

The singular forms adon and adoni ('my lord') are used in the Hebrew Bible as royal titles,[34][35] as in the First Book of Samuel,[36] and for distinguished persons.

Professor Yoel Elitzur explains this as a normal transformation when a Hebrew word becomes a name, giving as other examples Nathan, Yitzchak, and Yigal.

[40] The forms Adaunoi, Adoinoi, and Adonoi[41] represent Ashkenazi Hebrew variant pronunciations of the word Adonai.

El appears in Ugaritic, Phoenician and other 2nd and 1st millennium BCE texts both as generic "god" and as the head of the divine pantheon.

A common name of God in the Hebrew Bible is Elohim (אלהים, ʾĕlōhīm), the plural of אֱלוֹהַּ (Eloah).

A number of scholars have traced the etymology to the Semitic root *yl, 'to be first, powerful', despite some difficulties with this view.

Richard Toporoski, a classics scholar, asserts that plurals of majesty first appeared in the reign of Diocletian (CE 284–305).

This last name may have been suggested by the we used by kings when speaking of themselves (compare 1 Maccabees 10:19 and 11:31); and the plural used by God in Genesis 1:26 and 11:7; Isaiah 6:8 has been incorrectly explained in this way.

It is, however, either communicative (including the attendant angels: so at all events in Isaiah 6:8 and Genesis 3:22), or according to others, an indication of the fullness of power and might implied.

[49] The plural form ending in -im can also be understood as denoting abstraction, as in the Hebrew words chayyim (חיים, 'life') or betulim (בתולים, 'virginity').

[26] The King James Version of the Bible translates the Hebrew as "I Am that I Am" and uses it as a proper name for God.The word ehyeh is the first-person singular imperfect form of hayah, 'to be'.

Other renderings include: Leeser, "I Will Be that I Will Be"; Rotherham, "I Will Become whatsoever I please", Greek, Ego eimi ho on (ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ὤν), "I am Being/the Existing One" in the Septuagint,[54] and Philo,[55][56] and Revelation;[57] Latin, ego sum qui sum, "I am Who I am."

[62] After the time of Solomon[63] and particularly after Jezebel's attempt to promote the worship of the Lord of Tyre Melqart,[62] however, the name became particularly associated with the Canaanite storm god Baʿal Haddu and was gradually avoided as a title for Yahweh.

In Hebrew, her phrase El Roi, literally, 'God of Seeing Me',[70] is translated in the King James Version as "Thou God seest me.

For example, when making audio recordings of prayer services, HaShem[75] will generally be substituted for Adonai.

A popular expression containing this phrase is Baruch HaShem, meaning "Thank God" (literally, 'Blessed be the Name').

Talmudic authors,[77] ruling on the basis of Gideon's name for an altar (YHVH-Shalom, according to Judges 6:24), write that "the name of God is 'Peace'" (Pereq ha-Shalom, Shabbat 10b); consequently, a Talmudic opinion (Shabbat, 10b) asserts that one would greet another with the word shalom in order for the word not to be forgotten in the exile.

The term never appears in the Hebrew Bible; later rabbis used the word when speaking of God dwelling either in the Tabernacle or amongst the people of Israel.

In Jewish tradition the sacredness of the divine name or titles must be recognized by the professional sofer (scribe) who writes Torah scrolls, or tefillin and mezuzah.

The Proto-Kabbalistic book Sefer Yetzirah describes how the creation of the world was achieved by manipulation of these 216 sacred letters that form the names of God.

The general halachic opinion is that this only applies to the sacred Hebrew names of God, not to other euphemistic references; there is a dispute as to whether the word "God" in English or other languages may be erased or whether Jewish law and/or Jewish custom forbids doing so, directly or as a precautionary "fence" about the law.