99 Bible and Qur’an Names of the One God
It is not a name, but the term or title “Son of man” is found in the Hebrew Jewish Bible, especially in the book of Ezekiel; and in the Greek Christian New Testament: In the Torah book of Numbers, in Psalms, and in Prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and in the New Testament books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, and Revelation.
Biblical scholars claim that this term or title is used to identify faithful people of God and some even argue that this term is also used to identify angelic people of God. In Jewish understandings in apocryphal writings these charismatic saints were developed into apocalyptic pre-messianic figures of I Enoch, and 4 Ezra.
In Jewish thought before the birth of Jesus a generally well defined concept of a transcendent human redeemer figure, spoken of as the Son of Man, who will come to earth as Judge was a feature of the drama of the End Time.
The title Son of Man was applied to Jesus by the early church through a series of misconceptions and became the foundational motif in the various early debates about the nature of Prophet Jesus being Divine. The few authentic son of man sayings in the Gospels refer not to Prophet Jesus but to a future apocalyptic human figure.
According to the Gospels themselves, Jesus almost always referred to himself not as the ‘Son of God’; but as ‘The Son of Man’. The title “Son of man” occurs 81 times in the Greek text of the four gospels and only very rarely do even the Gospels claim Jesus directly called himself the ‘Son of God’.
The gospel writers and many of the people in the New Testament, including one possessed by evil spirits (Mark 5:2-7), did call Jesus the ‘Son of God’; but Jesus himself strongly preferred the term ‘Son of Man’, although he often did refer metaphorically to God as his father.
The Qur’an states: “Allah is only One God. Far be it removed from His transcendent majesty that He should have a son. All that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth is His. Allah is sufficient as a Defender.” (Quran 4:171) Both Jews and Muslims agree that the One God is sufficient to provide suitable religious guidance to each and every people on earth without help from anyone else.
The Qur’an also states: “It is not suitable for Allah, Glory be to Him, that He should take unto Himself a son. When He decrees a thing, He only says to it: Be! and it is.” (Quran 19:35) When Allah created Adam, Adam did not become the ‘Son of God’.
God says: “Lo! the likeness of Jesus with Allah is as the likeness of Adam. He created him from dust, then he said to him: Be! and he is.” (3:59) No one thinks Adam is the Son of God’. It is true that Jesus often did refer metaphorically to God as his father. He did this in accord with the metaphorical style of the Torah. He never expected that any Jew who heard him speak about God as his father would take his words literally.
As the Qur’an states: It is not (possible) for any human being to whom Allah had given Scripture, wisdom and prophethood, that he should afterwards have said to mankind: Be slaves of me instead of Allah; but (he said): Be ye faithful servants of the Lord by virtue of your constant teaching of Scripture and your constant study of it. (Quran 3:79)
Jews and Muslims agree that in the years after his death, some of Jesus’ followers began to believe and teach that the close connection Jesus felt to his father in Heaven meant he was not just the ‘Son of Man” as he so often stated, but also literally the ‘Son of God’. This new interpretation by some of his apostles of the metaphors ‘father’ and ‘child of God’, was a major mistake that Jesus did not foresee.
The Torah does refer both to the whole People of Israel metaphorically as God’s first born son. (Exodus 4:22) and also refers to all those who are duty bound to act, even when mourning, as God commands us; as sons-children of God: “You (Plural) are Children of the LORD your God.” (Deuteronomy 14:1)
In the days of Prophet Abraham, the religions of the Near East, India and China had hundreds of gods, and hundreds of names for their gods. Thus, The Encyclopedia of Gods by Michael Jordan contains over 2.500 entries of individual deities from ancient and modern cultures and societies.
But for those religions that trace their prophets back to Prophet Abraham, and his two sons Prophets Ishmael and Isaac, the many names of God simply describe different aspects or attributes of the one God’s multifaceted personality.
God’s names are appellations: titles and descriptions. Thus to say that God is a King or Judge describes one of many ways God acts. To say that God is the Compassionate One is to describe one of many character or personality traits of the one God.
While each of the many ‘terms or names’ for the one God is only one of the many appellations of the one universal creator of space and time; both Islam and Judaism also have one special Divine name that is always in each believer’s heart and soul.
Because the Qur’an is filled with beautiful Arabic poetry; it is not surprising that the the Qur’an is also filled so many names of God.
Because the Jewish tradition reaches back more than thirty five centuries; it is not surprising that Jews have focused on many additional names for the one and only God over those many centuries.
One of the Biblical names or terms for God is “יהוה צבאות” – “Adonai Tzevaot,” often translated as “The LORD of Hosts (armies, see 1 Samuel 17:45).” This phrase is never used in the Torah, but it is used about 250 times in the Prophets and Writings; and would be better translated as the “Fearless One.”
The very first time that the name “יהוה צבאות” – “Adonai Tzevaot” is used in the Bible is in the first chapter of the Prophet Samuel when Prophet Hannah makes a vow to God promising the LORD that if He gives her a son, she would give her son to the LORD all the days of his life. Childless Hannah suffered for years in her position of societal shame. Hannah believed in God but surely wondered where was God in the midst of her years of loneliness and embarrassment.
When Prophet Hannah prayed this prayer, the first words out of her mouth were “יהוה צבאות” – Adonai Tzevaot O fearless One (be my partner); “if You will indeed look on the affliction (childlessness) of Your maidservant and remember me, and not forget Your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a son, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and a razor shall never come on his head.” (1 Samuel 1:9-1 We all face various battles in life, whether against a real enemy or an impossible situation.
We can call upon Adonai Tzevaot the Fearless One, to help us in the midst of our battles. We need to be as unashamed in our faith, as Hannah was in her prayer and subsequent conversation with the high priest Eli (1 Samuel 1:12-18).
As Rabbi Nakhman of Bratzlav said: “The whole world is one long narrow bridge, so it is essential not to make yourself afraid.”
And Rabbi Barukh of Mezbizh said: “What a good and bright world this is if we do not lose our hearts, but what a dark world it is, if we do!”
Yet, because all the many names of God call upon the same One God, it is also not surprising that many of the 99 beautiful names of God in Muslim tradition also appear in Jewish tradition, which sometimes refers to the 70 names of God (Midrash Shir HaShirim and Midrash Otiot Rabbi Akiba).
Most of the similarities between Jewish and Muslim appellations of God are not due to linguistics alone. They also reflect similar philosophical views of God’s attributes.
However, since for more than twelve centuries, the only ongoing monotheistic religious community in the world existed within Israel, the Jewish People, the one and only God’s universal attributes were frequently expressed in the Hebrew Bible in terms of His activity and relationship to Banu Israel.
For example, Elohei kol basar, the God of all flesh (Jeremiah 32:27) is usually referred to as Elohei Yisrael or Elohei of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Exodus 3:15) Thus, Prophet Isaiah refers to both The Holy One (Isaiah 40:25) and The Holy One of Israel (Isaiah 1:4, 5:19) and Prophet David refers to both El Yisrael The God of Israel (Psalm 68:36) and El HaShamayim The God of the Heavens (Psalm 136:26).
Of course, just as one parent can love, protect, and judge many children, the One God of Israel is also the one God of the whole world, So Ezra, the most narrowly focused of prophets, uses both Elah Yisrael-God of Israel (Ezra 5:1) and Elah Sh’maya V’Arah- God of Heaven and Earth (Ezra 5:11).
The words El, Elah, Elohei and Elohim are all pre Abrahamic west Semitic generic terms for a God or for many Gods. In these various forms they appear almost 3,000 times in the Hebrew Bible. But the verb that describes the Divine action is singular not plural. In the same way God is described with male metaphors but these are not to be taken literally, just as the pronoun “we” in the Qur’an never means that the Divine One has any associates.
In both the Holy Qur’an and the Holy Bible, the same soul nefesh in Hebrew and nafs in Arabic is ascribed to both men and women even though in both Hebrew and Arabic the word is grammatically feminine.
In polytheistic systems of religion there really are both ‘male’ gods and ‘female’ goddesses. Ilâh (“god,” or “goddess”) is a feminine noun in Arabic grammar, in contrast to the male noun Allâh which is replaced with a masculine pronoun, huwa, “he”. The Quran freely refers to Allah using the Arabic pronoun, huwa (“he”), never hiya (“she”) just as the Hebrew Bible does not.
In pre-Islamic society, hiya would have been appropriate to refer to any of the pagan goddesses like Al-Lât, Al-Uzza and Manât, whom people thought of as ‘daughters’ of Allah
Since Islam and Judaism are very close yet uniquely different religions, there are also several Jewish names for God’s attributes that are not found among the 99 names that appear in the Qur’an.
For Jews the most important name of the one God, the name that God himself reveals to Moses at the burning bush, is YHVH: which appears more than 6,800 times in the Hebrew Bible.
In Exodus 3:13-15, Moses said to God, “If I go to the Israelites and tell them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’—what should I say to them?” And God said to Moses, “Ehyeh asher Ehyeh”.
Ehyeh is the verb “to be” future tense singular and means I will/could/might/may be/become Who I may/could/will/might be/become i.e. Ehyeh is The God of Potentialities, The God of Possibilities, The Living God of Becoming and Transforming, the One who can liberate Israel from bondage in Egypt.
Unfortunately, the Greek and Latin translations of this verse were influenced by the Greek philosophical idea that God was similar to a permanent ideal form (like an equilateral triangle) or an unmoved mover and is not like a living personality.
Since they thought God must be a static unchanging being. they mistranslated “Ehyeh asher Ehyeh’ as ‘I am who I am’ rather than its plain future meaning of ‘I can be whatever I should be to redeem you” i.e. God Almighty
The Torah continues, “And God said, “You must say this to the Israelites, “I am” (the usual false translation for God’s self revealed name) has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “You must say this to the Israelites, Ehyeh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and this is my memorial from generation to generation.’ (Exodus 3:13-15)
When Jews speak of God in the third person, God’s name is YHVH– “the One who causes being and becoming, the One who brings potentials into existence.”
This name was spoken publicly from the time of Moses and throughout the centuries of the 1st Temple of Solomon, but it was replaced by Adonai (Lord) before the beginning of the 3rd c. B.C.E., because God’s actual Holy name was eventually considered too holy to utter audibly.
In later centuries even the substitution was considered too holy to utter; and the custom among pious Jews till this day is not to use any name for God at all (except in prayer); but to say HaShem–the name (of God) when speaking about God.
The distinction between the personal intimate name of God that the believer uses in prayer and when reciting his or her holy scripture; and all other names, is a measure of the believers piety and love of the God of his or her own religion.
Some Muslims say Allah is the Arabic word for God; so the word Allah can be used by non-Muslims to refer to their own religious concept of God. Others vehemently oppose this. They maintain that no believing Muslim should translate the English sentence ‘Zeus is a Greek God.’ as ‘Zeus is a Greek Allah’. It is absurd, sacrilegious, and an affront to Islam. Allah is the name of the one and only God and not just a word for a generic divinity.
When Christian believers speak about Jesus, they are referring to the “Divine Son of God” who connects them to God the father. When Jews or Muslims speak about Jesus they are referring not to God, but only to a man of God.
When Jews do not utter the name YHVH they are referring to the God who made a covenant at mount Sinai with the descendants of their ancestors; Abraham, Isaac and Jacob/Israel. Neither Christians or Muslims connect to God this way.
When Muslims use the word Allah they mean the one God they worship and adore; who sent Prophets, speaking their own language to every nation and tribe in the world, and sent Prophet Muhammad to proclaim the Qur’an in Arabic. This is the same one God; who sent Jesus to proclaim the Gospel and Moses to proclaim the Torah. Neither Jews nor Christians connect to God in this very universal way.
Thus, for Muslims the word Allah is both a generic for the one God of all monotheistic religions; and a special personal Islamic name when spoken with devotion and love by a Muslim.
As a neutral outsider, and an American Reform Rabbi, I can understand why many Muslims would object to Christians using the word Allah in the context of saying that Jesus is the son of Allah. Another word for a generic divinity is needed. On the other hand, one could say that Allah spoke to Jesus as the Qur’an itself states, “Allah said: Jesus, I will take you back and raise you up to Myself…” (3:55)
If people of good will use the generic aspect of the word Allah only in a monotheistic context, and use another word for a trinitarian or polytheistic context, we might have more light and less heat in our own religious lives.