Divine Titles and Their Significance

From: Divine Titles and Their Significance By: Algernon James Pollock

• 2 min. read • grade level: 8

THE greatest word that can pass human lips is God—God from all eternity to all eternity, uncreated, self-sustained, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, The Mighty Creator and Sustainer; the One, "in whom we live, and move, and have our being." (Acts 17:28²⁸For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. (Acts 17:28)).

Seeing that Divine inspiration has employed different titles to bring before us the character and actings of God, we do well to consider them, being, at the same time, careful not to allow the working of the human mind in the things of God, but keeping closely to all that Scripture reveals on this theme of themes. The following is a list of Divine titles in the order of their first mention in the Old Testament.

Title—Meaning—First Mentioned

Elohim—Creatorial, supreme power (plural)—Gen. 1:1¹In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. (Genesis 1:1).

Jehovah—Continuous existence—Gen. 2:4⁴These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, (Genesis 2:4).

El—Victorious power—Gen. 14:18¹⁸And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. (Genesis 14:18).

Elyon—High, Highest, Most High—Gen. 14:18¹⁸And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. (Genesis 14:18).

Adonai—Lordship (plural)—Gen. 15:2²And Abram said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? (Genesis 15:2).

Angel of the Lord—Messenger—Gen. 16:7⁷And the angel of the Lord found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur. (Genesis 16:7).

Shaddai—The Almighty—Gen. 17:1¹And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. (Genesis 17:1).

Jah—Contraction of Jehovah—Ex. 15:2²The Lord is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father's God, and I will exalt him. (Exodus 15:2).

Adon—Lordship (singular of Adonai)—Ex. 23:17¹⁷Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord God. (Exodus 23:17).

Eloah—Supreme Being (singular of Elohim)—Deut. 32:15¹⁵But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation. (Deuteronomy 32:15).

The Lord of all the earth—Ownership—Josh. 3:11¹¹Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth passeth over before you into Jordan. (Joshua 3:11).

Elah—The Supreme (Chaldee)—Ezra 4:24²⁴Then ceased the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem. So it ceased unto the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia. (Ezra 4:24).

It is to be noted how many of the names of God begin with EL—El, itself; Elohim; Elyon; Eloah; Elah. Seven titles for God appear for the first time in the Book of Genesis. Well may it be called " the seed plot of the Bible."

Note: It would be well in view of questions that may arise to explain at the outset a remarkable peculiarity in the grammar of the Hebrew language, we believe specially designed of God, who must at the first have communicated language to His creature man. Unlike the English language, which has two numbers -singular meaning one; plural, meaning two or more—the Hebrew language has three numbers—singular, meaning one; dual, meaning two; plural, meaning three or more. The belief that God communicated language to our first parents is strengthened by what happened at the Tower of Babel. At that period of the world's history men had one common language. They were bent on making a name for themselves, and were building this Tower, whose top was to reach up to heaven. To weaken this ambition God confounded their language, that they might not understand each other. Hence the bestowal of differing languages to this end. How much more must language have been the direct gift of God to our first parents.

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