YWHW Elohim

Names of God – part 15

LORD God

The YWHW name of God, Gods actual name, usually written Yahweh or Jehovah, has a number of forms, some of them, which I am tackling in the next few months, also combine with the El form, which is the word for God.

YHWH Elohim is simply a combination of the two forms. It is usually translated in English as LORD God, with LORD in small capitals. It combines of God’s unique name YHWH and the generic Lord, one explanation I have found says that it signifies that He is the Lord of Lords, or chief of the many gods, as Elohim is the male plural.

Biblical scholar Mark D Futato would disagree. saying that proper nouns like YHWH, the actual name of Israel’s God, do not combine like this, so you cannot deduce Lord of Lords from YHWH Elohim. The title Lord of Lords is however used in Psalm 136:3 where adown, meaning master or owner rather than the name of God is used. The New Testament uses Lord of Loerds of Jesus in Revelation 17:14.

What we are left with is that YHWH, the personal God of Israel is also Elohim, the creator God. God is both Totally other than us, the great creator, and also personal. The use of YHWH Elohim in Genesis 2 and 3, where the God of creation walks with the man and woman in the garden of Eden, bears out the awesomeness of the creator with the personal God who walks with man.

Take time to worship the awesome God who makes himself known.