The Gospel according to John commences, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The word used for God is theos, from which English gets “theology,” meaning words about god. Theos is a generic term for any divine being. What sets John’s use of the word apart from any other is the connection to “the Word,” which in Greek is logos. The Christian Church understands that the logos took on human flesh, and this unique being is Jesus the Christ, who is god and human.
In English the word “God” is usually connected to a creator of all things and a source of moral authority for human beings. A “god” is a being or spirit having power over nature and people. For many a god is looked to as the source of all good and a refuge in time of need.
In Christianity the only true god is the being who reveals itself in the writings of the Bible. Exodus chapter six records, “God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself known to them.” The Hebrew word for “God” used in this passage is elohiym. Elohiym is like theos in Greek, it designates a generic divine being, which can be used in many different ways. It is the context and the descriptions that narrow the focus on a revealed God of the Bible. A divine being spoke to Moses and revealed itself in the divine name, Yahweh. This god claims to be the same being that appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the patriarchs of the Jewish faith, but did not reveal to them the personal divine name. God communicated with them as el shaddey, a singular form of the plural elohiym with the qualifier “the destroyer” or “the most powerful one,” often translated as almighty.
In many English Bibles whenever the name Yahweh is used as the personal name of God, it is presented in all capital letters, “LORD.” That way readers of the sacred texts can differentiate the various names and meanings of names for god or gods or God.
Christians believe the unique true God is revealed in the Old Testament writings in the plural, elohiym, not usually the singular, el. This gives credence to the teaching of the Trinity, three persons in one God, a unique doctrine of the Christian faith. As the Athanasian Creed (one of the three great statements of faith of the Christian Church) puts it, “Now the Universal Faith is this, that we worship one God in Trinity, and the Trinity in Unity; For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, another of the Holy Ghost; The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, the Holy Ghost uncreated; So the Father is God, the Son God, the Holy Ghost God; And yet there are not three Gods, but one God. For like as we are compelled by the Christian verity to confess each Person by himself to be both God and Lord; So are we forbidden to speak of three Gods or three Lords.”
In the first chapter of the Bible, Genesis chapter one, the word for God is elohiym. This emphasizes that a divine being is the source of all created things. In the second chapter of Genesis the name of God is Yahweh Elohiym to emphasize the personal connection of this divine creator with human beings, thus allowing for moral authority to proceed from God and the revealed words of God.
So you can see that the context and descriptions associated with the generic term “god” are crucial for the various religions around the globe as to what they believe about God and who are gods.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
