A People Who Knew God by Many Names
When the Hebrew Scriptures speak of God, they do not speak with one voice. Across the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings, the same God is named El, Elohim, Yahweh, Adonai, El Shaddai, Yahweh Sabaoth, and a dozen other titles besides. To modern readers reaching for an English Bible, these often collapse into a single word: "God" or "Lord." But the original Hebrew preserves a richer texture β and that texture is theology.
Names in the Ancient Near East were never decoration. To know a god's name was to know something of that god's character, claim, and reach. When the burning bush speaks to Moses and refuses to answer "What is your name?" with a tidy proper noun, something theological is happening that the rest of the Hebrew Bible spends a thousand years unfolding.
El and Elohim: God in the Plural of Majesty
The most general Hebrew word for God is El (ΧΦ΅Χ), a term Israel shared with its Canaanite neighbors. In its plural form, Elohim (ΧΦ±ΧΦΉΧΦ΄ΧΧ), it dominates the opening chapter of Genesis: "In the beginning, Elohim created the heavens and the earth."
The plural form is grammatically curious. It does not point to multiple gods β the verbs governing Elohim are usually singular ("Elohim created"). Hebrew grammarians call this a plural of majesty or plural of intensity, signaling fullness rather than number. Compare it to the royal "we" still used in formal speech.
When Elohim is used, the emphasis tends to fall on God as the universal Creator β the one who relates to all peoples and all things. It is the cosmic name.
Yahweh: The Personal Name
In Exodus 3, Moses asks for a name to give Israel. The voice from the bush answers, Ehyeh asher Ehyeh β "I AM WHO I AM" β and gives the proper name YHWH (ΧΧΧΧ), traditionally vocalized Yahweh.
This is the personal, covenantal name of God. It appears more than 6,800 times in the Hebrew Bible. Whereas Elohim is God-as-Creator, Yahweh is God-as-covenant-partner β the one who delivers slaves out of Egypt, the one who keeps promises across generations.
Out of reverence, ancient Jews stopped pronouncing it. By the time Hebrew vowels were added to the consonantal text in the medieval period, scribes inserted the vowels of Adonai ("Lord") as a cue: when you read aloud, say Adonai, not Yahweh. The hybrid the Reformers produced β "Jehovah" β is a Latinized misreading of that convention.
Most modern English Bibles preserve the distinction with typography. When you see "LORD" in small capitals, the underlying Hebrew is Yahweh. When you see "Lord" in normal case, it is Adonai.
El Shaddai and the God Who Provides Beyond the Visible
El Shaddai (ΧΦ΅Χ Χ©Φ·ΧΧΦ·ΦΌΧ) appears mainly in the patriarchal narratives. Its etymology is disputed β possibly "God of the mountain," possibly "God Almighty," possibly connected to a root meaning breasts and thus the God who nurtures. The Septuagint usually renders it Pantokrator β "the All-Sovereign."
What is clear from context is the theological work it does. El Shaddai shows up when Abraham is told he will be the father of nations, when Jacob is renamed Israel, when Joseph blesses his sons. It is the name attached to promises that strain the limits of what is humanly possible.
Yahweh Sabaoth and the God Who Leads Armies
Yahweh Sabaoth β "the LORD of hosts" β names God as commander of unseen armies. The "hosts" in question include both the heavenly bodies (sun, moon, stars) and angelic beings. Isaiah opens his vision in the temple with the seraphim crying "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts" (Isaiah 6:3). The title evokes God's sovereign command over every power, visible and invisible.
Why the Plurality of Names Matters
To later Christian theology, this naming pattern matters in two ways.
First, it warns against reduction. A single name for God would tempt us to flatten the divine character into one register. The Hebrew Bible refuses that, naming God now as cosmic creator, now as covenant partner, now as patriarchal protector, now as commanding presence. Each name is a true name. None is exhaustive.
Second, it sets up the New Testament. When the Gospel of John opens with "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1), it is doing something the rabbis would have recognized. To name Jesus as the Logos, to call him Kyrios (the Greek translation of Adonai), is to claim that in him the names converge β that the Creator-Elohim, the covenant-Yahweh, and the Almighty-El Shaddai are now embodied.
A Practice for Readers
Try this with a Hebrew Bible or a translation that preserves the distinctions: read Genesis 1β2 noticing where the text uses Elohim and where it switches to Yahweh Elohim. The shift is not arbitrary. Genesis 1 presents God as cosmic architect; Genesis 2 zooms in to God as intimate gardener. The two names hold the two postures together.
The names of God are not interchangeable labels. They are theological commitments. To pray to El Shaddai is to ask differently than to pray to Adonai. The Hebrew Scriptures bequeath us a vocabulary for prayer richer than the English word "God" can carry alone.
