Names of God

Monotheistic faiths believe that there is a supreme being, who is necessarily unique, and the different names given to that being in different languages could in principle be translated as English God. However, the "real" name of God plays an important role in some cultures.

Contents

1 List of Names 2 Taboos 3 See also 4 External links

List of Names

• Aten is the earliest name of a God associated with monotheistic thought. See also the Great Hymn to the Aten by Akhenaten.

• Shang Ti 上帝 (Hanyu Pinyin: shang di) was a supreme God worshipped in ancient China. It is also used to refer to the Christian God in the Standard Mandarin Union Version of the Bible.

• Ahuramazda "Lord Wisdom" is the name of the supreme benevolent God in Zoroastrianism.

• In the Hebrew Bible of Judaism, the name of God represents the Jewish conception of the divine nature. The various Jewish names of God represent God, and His divine attributes. The most important name of God is the tetragrammaton (YHWH), and Elohim. See Names of God in Judaism.

• Jesus Christ is the name of God incarnate in Christianity. Jesus is a personal name, and Christ means "the anointed" (translating Messiah). Most Christians believe in a divine Trinity, i.e. a single God manifest in God the Father, Son of God and Holy Spirit. Many alternate names are used in poetry.

• Allah is the most frequently used name of God in Islam. It originally simply meant "the deity", and is properly translated as "God" in English. As such, contrary to much popular understanding of Allah as a distinct God, it is the word used by Arab Jews and Christians when speaking of God. See also 99 Names of God.

• Haile Selassie is the name of God incarnate in the Rastafari movement. He is also called Jah (an obscure biblical shortening of Jehovah) and Jah Rastafari, which was the name of Ras (prince) Tafari Makonnen before taking the name of Selassie at his coronation.

• Trimurti is the Hindu "Trinity". See Vishnu/Krishna, Shiva, Brahma. See also Vishnu sahasranama.

• Abraxas is a god uniting the dualistic concepts in Gnosticism. See also Monad.

• In Sikhism God is One Entity and has no gender. God is referred to as Waheguru, meaning Wonderful Lord; Satnam meaning True Name; On-kar meaning Creator. God according to Guru Nanak is beyond full comprehension by humans and can be called by an infinite number of names.

• In the effort to translate the Bible into every language (see SIL), the Christian God has usually been named after a concept that was present in the language before Christianity. God itself is an example of this, the word having earlier referred to Germanic pagan deities. Greek Theos was used for the supreme God even before Christianity, in the Septuagint, translated to Latin Deus by Saint Jerome. Other names of the Christian God that have a history of pagan meanings include Slavic Bog, Finnish Jumala, Japanese Kami 神.

Taboos

Several religions advance taboos related to names of their gods. In some cases, the name may never be spoken, or only spoken by inner-circle initiates, or only spoken at prescribed moments during certain rituals. In other cases, the name may be freely spoken, but when written, taboos apply. It is common to regard the written name of one's god as deserving of respect; it ought not, for instance, be stepped upon or dirtied. It may be permissible to burn the written name when there is no longer a use for it.

Some Orthodox Jews forbid any method of discarding the written name of God. Once written, the name must be preserved indefinitely. This leads to several noteworthy practices:

• Commonplace materials, such as calendars which include quotations from Torah, are written with an intentionally abbreviated form of the name. For instance, quotations written in English may substitute "G-d" for the name of God. Thus, a calendar or children's Hebrew school workbook may be discarded along with ordinary trash.
• Copies of the Torah are, like most scriptures, heavily used during worship services, and eventually become worn out. Since they may not be disposed of in any way, including by burning, they are removed, traditionally to the synagogue attic. There they remain until the building itself is destroyed by the hand of God or gentiles (non-Jews).
• Some religious texts including the name of God are buried.

See also

• Goddess
• List of deities
• Names of God in Judaism
• The Nine Billion Names of God (science fiction)

External links

• Names of God (http://www.religiousbook.net/Books/Online_books/Sh/Heart_7.html)uk:Біблійні імена Бога