According to www.dictionary.com Adonai is defined as: A Hebrew name for God, usually translated in the Old Testament by the word ``Lord''. Note: The later Jews used its vowel points to fill out the tetragrammaton (This is the description for the four (tetra) Hebrew letters (grammata) used in the Hebrew Bible for the name of the God of Israel, usually spelled YHWH, or JHVH.) "The indescribable name,'' and during reading it was substituted by the word "Adonai''.
Significant to the understanding of the word Adonai is the suffix `ay'. It was frequently suggested that the ending is a first person possessive suffix on a plural form of `adon' (my lord). This is logical for the form adonay, but the finely familiarized form adonay, which also comes into view in the Massoretic book, is much more difficult to explain" (Van Gemeren). There had been much consideration given to the Ugaritic (an extinct Semitic language of northern Syria) ending `ai'. It is used in that language as a strengthening of a basic word. On the other hand, it is doubtful that this explanation should be used in all situations. "The plural form of the name is apparent when the word occurs in the as it does in the term "Lord of lords" ('adone ha adonim) in Deut. 10:17. The rendition `my Lord' gives the impression that it is required when relating to the addresses as "my Lord Yahweh, what will you give me?" (Van Gemeren)
In Gen. 15:2 Abraham addresses God as his master by saying "O LORD (Adonai) GOD (Jehovah), what good will your gifts be..." (New American Bible 16) (Also see Deut. 9:26, 1KINGS2:26) Abraham calls Him Adonai after receiving great success against hardships and hefty odds. Abraham acknowledged God's lordship over all that he had and all that he was. In Ex. 4:10-14 Moses responds to God but God's personality seems much more testing and upset at Moses, for Moses is not fully trusting in Him, or referring to Him as Adonai. Of what purpose would it serve to lead your life in the opposite direction of that He has chosen? "If God is God, then He must be Adonai-He must be Master. If Jesus is God, then He, too, must be Jehova Adonai. LORD" (To Know Him 56).
Elohim
According to www.dictionary.com Elohim is defined as: A name for God in the Hebrew Scriptures. The "im" at the end of the name Elohim says that the word is masculine and in Hebrew it also means that it is plural.
There is a stark parallel between the Vietnam War and the circumstances under which life is maintained on Potrero Hill. The soldiers in Gods Go Begging are poor, uneducated, and trapped fighting in a war they do not support; the boys on Potrero Hill are also poor, uneducated, and unable to escape the war into which they were born. They are victims of their circumstances and their government. Some of the boys that Jesse meets in Vietnam are there because they were drafted. Unable to get a deferment, either due to a lack of funds or because no higher education establishment would accept them, boys are forced to go off to war. Others, like Mendez, fled to the United States in order to escape the violence at home that resulted from the United States’
The Bible never makes of the specific reference of the trinity, the Bible does talk about the divine existence of each of the three members of the Trinity, God (The Father), The Son (Jesus Christ), and the Spirit (The Holy Spirit). It is still a complex idea for me to understand fully but scripture does indeed tell of the work and existence of the trinity.
The word grace in the Greek is translated as “charis, pronounced as khar’-ece; it means graciousness (as gratifying), the God’s divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in ones life: acceptable, benefit, favor, or g...
dwelled in "the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel" (1
b) Biblical Foundation Many question if Jesus ever claimed to be God. First, Jesus claimed to be the unique Son of God, resulting in the Jewish leaders stoning Him ‘because you,’ the leaders said, ‘a mere man, claim to be God’ (John 10:33). On another occasion, a High Priest asked him: ‘Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?’ to which Jesus replied ‘I am, and you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven’ (Mark 14:61-62). Jesus also claimed to possess the same attributes of God. In the Bible, Jesus has never been recorded saying the exact words, “I am God.” However, Jesus’ original spectators seemed to think He said “I am the Father.” They were even ready to kill Him right there. The controversy is: Jesus didn’t have to say the specific words “I am God,” to claim this. Jesus did, however,...
The name Sethe is also interesting. This name could be interpreted as a feminine version of the Jewish name Seth, used in the fourth and fifth chapters of Genesis as the name of the third son of Adam and Eve, after Cain and Abel.
Abraham is deemed the founder and one of three patriarchs of the Jewish faith. In Fundamental Theology, by Heinrich Fries, a detailed description of Abraham’s journey and faith is given. A summary of Fries explanation is that Abraham’s name was originally Abram. He was considered a “nomadic chief” from Mesopotamia. God spoke to Abraham and told him to leave his home and country. This was one of many tests Abraham faced. In the words of the Bible, Abraham was t...
It has been known that the Romans and the Greeks have had many interactions with each other, whether it would be due to trading or just plain traveling, the stories of their myths have crossed each other in one way or another. This is may be the reason why there are many similarities between Greek and Roman Mythology. Even though a Greek god or goddess may have a different name in Roman Mythology they still performed similar tasks and were worshiped for similar reasons. I will compare and contrast Greek gods with their Roman equivalences to see how similar they truly are to each other. Probably the most famous Greek god, Zeus, was the god of all gods. Born to Cronus and Rhea, he was the ruler of the sky, and had the power to create thunderstorms and lightning as well as earthquakes. As the story goes he overthrew his father, Cronus, and became the ruler of Mount Olympus to head the new line of Gods. Jupiter, also known as Jove, was very much like Zeus. He was the predominant power holder among the Roman Gods. According to Tripp, Jupiter is a “contraction of two words meaning ‘Heavenly Father.’”(Pg. 332) He ruled the sky, controlled all of the weather, and had thunderbolts as a weapon. Tripp also wrote “Jupiter’s cult and his general character were, however, well established in Italy before the Greek religion became influential there.” (Pg. 333) This implies that the idea of Zeus, Jupiter and Jove had very little influence on each other since they were created before the Greek myths and Roman myths had started to cross paths. Hera, the wife and sister of Zeus, was the goddess of marriage, childbirth, and the queen of the heavens. She gave birth to Ares, Hebe, and Eileithyia. She also gave birth to Hephaestus, but it has been believed that she bore him without the aid of Zeus. In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, she was extremely jealous of the affairs that her husband had and she often tormented or harmed Zeus’s mistresses. Juno, the feminine version of Jupiter’s name, is Hera’s counterpart. Juno had many names that served for different purposes. As Juno Pronuba, she was goddess of marriage, as Juno Lucina, she was the goddess of childbirth, and as Juno Regina, she was the special counselor and protector of the Roman state. (Roman Mythological Characters, Juno) In Tripp, there was also a Juno Moneta that was governed finances. (Pg. 332) It seem...
Nothing can be more life changing than when a god chooses to interact with a mortal man. Much of Greek mythology describes the natures of these interactions. The Olympian Gods meddle with the mortals they rule over constantly, but what is the result for these interactions, and how do they impact the mortals? The question that this paper tries to address is what is the nature of these divine interaction, and how does each side truly perceive each other? The Gods and mortals interact in a variety of ways, but the true natures of these interactions truly describe how the ancient Greeks perceived their gods.
In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, she utilizes an array of symbolism such as color, the store, and her husbands to solidify the overall theme of independence and individuality. Their Eyes Were Watching God is considered by many a classic American Feminist piece that emphasizes how life was for African Americans post slave era in the early 1900s. One source summarizes the story as, 1 ”a woman's quest for fulfillment and liberation in a society where women are objects to be used for physical work and pleasure.” Which is why the overall theme is concurrent to independence and self.
The relationship between the gods and humanity in The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Odyssey are the same. In each saga, the gods seem to live nearby and are always present. Both epic poems portray humans as simply at the mercy of the gods. The gods feel that it is their duty to intervene if they feel that man is traveling off course from his destiny. However, the gods are not all powerful.
Many Greek gods were seen as both benefactors and tormentors, typically it depends on which god or goddess you are researching about. The seemingly contradictory behavior of the gods, acting as both benefactors and tormentors of man, can readily be explained when viewed in light of the prime directive for man, to worship the gods and not “overstep,” and the ensuing “Deus ex Mahina” which served to coerce man to fulfill his destiny as evidenced by the myths: “Pandora,” “Arachne, and “Odysseus.” Humankind and it’s range of vision over the gods beauty and power portrayed them to be benefactors but unseemingly it depicted their affliction towards humans.
The question of why bad things happen to good people has perplexed and angered humans throughout history. The most common remedy to ease the confusion is to discover the inflicter of the undeserved suffering and direct the anger at them: the horror felt about the Holocaust can be re-directed in the short term by transforming Adolf Hitler into Lucifer and vilifying him, and, in the long term, can be used as a healing device when it is turned into education to assure that such an atrocity is never repeated. What, however, can be done with the distasteful emotions felt about the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Surely the citizens of those two cities did not themselves directly provoke the government of the United States to deserve the horror of a nuclear attack. Can it be doubted that their sufferings were undeserved and should cause deep sorrow, regret, and anger? Yet for the citizens of the United States to confront these emotions they must also confront the failings of their own government. A similar problem is found in two works of literature, Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound and the book of Job found in the Tanakh. In each of these works a good man is seen to be suffering at the hand of his god; Prometheus is chained to a rock by Zeus who then sends an eagle to daily eat Prometheus' liver while Job is made destitute and brought to endure physical pain through an agreement between God~ and Satan. To examine the travails of these two men is to discover two vastly different concepts of the relationship between god and man.
Sakenfeld, Katharine Doob.The new interpreter's dictionary of the Bible . Nashville, Tenn: Abingdon Press, 2006.
This author was identified as J for using word Yahweh or Jehovah for the name of God. Also there is an interesting theory that author J was a woman. Of course, there are statements that prove it. First of all I want pay your attention on the fact that we are speaking about patriarchal society where a man was a head of the family and the role of a woman was to give a birth to children. But in the Bible we can find verses and even whole chapters that tell us about women and sometimes show that these women are smarter than patriarchs. There are several examples.