Name of God

You might have been told, at some point, to be specific in your language. Don’t merely say flower if what you mean is Jonquil or the Partridge Pea or Pansies. Give things their proper name, we are told. Don’t say thingy, whatzit, or thingamajig.

How, then, to approach the name of God?

If I say Elohim or Adonai, or Jehovah-Yahweh, or Jehovah-Rapha, or El-Shaddai, or El-Olam, or Abba, or Love, or Creator, or Higher Power, or Everlasting Father, or Great Shephard, or Holy One, or Holy Spirit, or I AM, or King Eternal … do I mean something different from what I mean if I say Supreme Being, or Source, or Truth, or Yazad, or Bhagwaan, or Maheshvar, or Waheguru, or Allah? Will I be better understood if I speak of Adjuru, or Amba, or Embu?

172 names for God have been counted in the Old and New Testaments. The Zoroastrian community, so I read, recognizes 1001 names of God, and translations of those names range from Without Cause, to Primal Cause, to Who Reaches Everyone Equally, to Without Shape, to Keeper of Accounts. One name means Detached from All, and the next, Connected with All – and both make divine sense. One means Beyond Reason, and the next, Sovereign Reason. Then there is one that means Supreme Transmuter of Fire into Divine Sparks.

These names arose through the efforts of human beings at various points in time at different places on the globe, seeking communion with the Sacred. So every name resonates. Every name works. I can say God without insisting that you use that term. You can say Ham-chun without requiring me to understand it exactly the same as you do.

What’s important is to know that we are all using the proper name.