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#6.
Further titles of God considered:
El, Jah and Adon.
pp. 144 - 147
We have considered, in a simple way, the two great titles of God, Elohim and
Jehovah, but there are other titles used in the Scriptures that must be given attention in
order that our preliminary survey may be complete. There are four titles which have a
similar sound, though derived from different roots. They are El, Eloah, Elyon and
Elohim.
El means power. In Psa. 50: 1 we read: "The mighty God, even the Lord, hath
spoken", which in the Hebrew reads, "El, Elohim Jehovah hath spoken". Here the word
"God" is the translation of Elohim, and the word "mighty" is the translation of El. In
each of the following passages, the word "mighty", "power", or "strong", is the
rendering of the Hebrew El:--
"Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty" (Psa. 29: 1).
"God standeth in the congregation of the mighty" (Psa. 82: 1).
"The strong among the mighty shall speak" (Ezek. 32: 21).
"Because it is in the power of their hand" (Micah 2: 1).
This title El is the one with which many of the divine attributes are associated. It is
used in each of the following passages:--
"The almighty God" (Gen. 17: 1).
"The God of the age" (Gen. 21: 33).
"A God of truth" (Deut. 32: 4).
"The living God" (Josh. 3: 10).
While Elohim is a plural word, El is a singular word, and the thought of the
concentration in God, of the divine attributes, conveyed by this title, indicates that though
plurality must be understood in the Godhead, yet in essence God is spirit, and in
attributes God is one.
Closely allied with the title El is the added title Shaddai. The words El Shaddai occur
in combination seven times in the following passages Gen. 17: 1; 28: 3; 35: 11;
43: 14; 48: 3; Exod. 6: 3; Ezek. 10: 5. In the remaining 41 occurrences it stands
alone, and is rendered "The Almighty": of these 31 occur in Job, the remaining 10 being
found in Genesis, Numbers, Ruth, Psalms, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Joel. In spite of this
consistency of translation, almightiness is not the true idea conveyed by Shaddai; rather
is it bountifulness and full sufficiency: an almighty power, certainly, but viewed in the
light of its competency to provide.