April 5: Words for God

One of my early memories of reading the Bible involves confusion at the different words used to describe God. While one can readily make analogies to human relationships in which a variety of words are used to address, describe, or give honor to one person—multiple words for “father” or “mother” come to mind—I remember specifically being confused by the contrast between the terms “God”, the standard New Testament translation, and Yahweh, which appeared in several Hebrew Scripture narratives. Also mysterious was the trend to capitalize all four letters of “LORD” in Hebrew Scripture. As a child I assumed that this was the writer’s way of giving God particular respect.

While a typical first-guess reaction to the term Yahweh is to understand it simply as the Hebrew word for “God”—in the same way that Spanish words sometimes appear untranslated in a Hemingway short story—this is not completely the case. In translations such as the King James, “LORD” is written in caps to indicate that the original Hebrew word is יהוה, or YHWH—the abbreviation referred to in Judaism as the tetragrammaton. In most modern Jewish communities, a prohibition against pronouncing the tetragrammaton is observed; for example, Orthodox Jewish communities use the term Hashem, or “the Name.” Describing the challenge of translating various Hebrew names for the divine, Robert Alter writes,

In the late-biblical period, only the High Priest in the Holy of Holies on the day of Atonement was allowed to utter the ineffable name. When several centuries later the Hebrew text of the Bible was assigned vowel markings, YHWH was vocalized as though it were ’adonai, “Master” or “LORD,” and was pronounced as ’adonai. The King James Version in most instances honors this precedent by translating the name as “the LORD,” using smaller upper-case font for the last three letters to indicate that there was something anomalous about the word (34-35, Introduction).

Other words in the Psalms which describe the divine include ’elohim and ’el, both meaning “God.” The word ’el in particular appears in many names in the Hebrew Scripture, including the name Israel given to Jacob after he wrestles with a mysterious spiritual being: “One who strives with God.” In some Psalms, “God” is also called Yah, which is likely an abbreviation of the tetragrammaton YHWH. This syllable also appears in the word Hallelujah, “Praise God.” (The word God itself, according to Merriam Webster, comes from Middle English, dates from before the 12th century, and is similar to the Old High German ‘Got.’) In the Psalms God is also sometimes called Elyon, or "the Most High."

The tetragrammaton appears in this week’s lectionary psalm for Palm Sunday, 118:
22 The stone the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone;
23 the LORD has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes.
24 This is the day the LORD has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.
25 O LORD, save us;
O LORD, grant us success.
26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD.
From the house of the LORD we bless you.

The image from 22, “The stone the builders rejected,” a metaphor indicating a reversal of expectations, is quoted in Luke 20:17 as Christ’s expression of Messianic hope. Lines 25 and 26, which were sung in Jewish communities to celebrate the Passover festival, are quoted in Mark 11:9-10, as Jesus is riding a colt into Jerusalem. Hosanna, a word often left untranslated, means “Save us”:

1As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, 2saying to them, "Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 3If anyone asks you, 'Why are you doing this?' tell him, 'The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.' "
4They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, 5some people standing there asked, "What are you doing, untying that colt?"
6They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go.
7When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it.
8Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields.
9Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,
"Hosanna!"
"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"
10"Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!"
"Hosanna in the highest!"
11Jesus entered Jerusalem and went to the temple. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.

The iconic image of Palm Sunday, Jesus entering Jerusalem on a colt, would have been understood as a fulfillment of a prophecy of Zechariah, in which a peasant king rides a donkey instead of a war-chariot. The related verse from the book of Zechariah is 9:9-10, translated in NOAB: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” This passage has been described to me as exemplifying difficulties of translating Hebrew into English. In Hebrew poetry, a common technique to add particular emphasis to an image involves duplication, or repeating a term. In this passage, an attempt at literal translation can result in the amusing image of the Messiah entering Jerusalem like a circus performer, with one foot on a donkey and one on a colt.

The Palm Sunday image of Jesus’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem also implies continuity between Jesus and David’s dynasty. 1 Kings 1:38 describes Solomon succeeding David as king of Israel: “So the priest Zadok, the prophet Nathan . . . went down and had Solomon ride on King David’s mule, and led him to Gihon. There the priest Zadok took the horn of oil from the tent and anointed Solomon.” The image of people spreading cloaks in the road before Jesus would also resonate with the audience as related to the spreading of cloaks when Elisha anointed Jehu to lead a rebellion against the Omride regime, described in 2 Kings 9:13: “Then hurriedly they all took their cloaks and spread them for him on the bare steps, and they blew the trumpet, and proclaimed, ‘Jehu is king.’” Finally, the image of palm branches, which we commemorate on Palm Sunday with crosses made of palm, links to an image from 1 Maccabees 13:51, in which the community celebrates Jerusalem’s independence: “. . . the Jews entered it with praise and palm branches, and with harps and cymbals and stringed instruments, and with hymns and songs . . .” The hymn of praise in Mark 11, a citation from Psalm 118, testifies to the enduring role the Psalms played in communal celebrations, in the time of David, the time of Christ, and our time today.

--Elizabeth Fels

Alter, Robert. The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2007.

Coogan, Michael, Ed. The New Oxford Annotated Bible (3rd ed). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.