God (redirected from Biblegod)

God, divinity of the three great monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, as well as many other world religions. See also religion and articles on individual religions.

Names for God

In the Old Testament various names for God are used. YHWH is the most celebrated of these; the Hebrews considered the name ineffable and, in reading, substituted the name Adonai [my Lord]. The ineffable name, or tetragrammaton [Gr.,=four-letter form], is of unknown origin; the reconstruction Jehovah was based on a mistake, and the form Yahweh is not now regarded as reliable. The name Jah occurring in names such as Elijah is a form of YHWH. The most common name for God in the Old Testament is Elohim, a plural form, but used as a singular when speaking of God. The name El, not connected with Elohim, is also used, especially in proper names, e.g., Elijah. The name Shaddai, used with other words and in names (e.g., Zurishaddai), appears rarely. Of these names only Adonai has a satisfactory etymology. It is generally not possible to tell from English translations of the Bible what was the exact form of the name of God in the original. In Islam, the name of God is Allah.

Conceptions of God

The general conception of God may be said to be that of an infinite being (often a personality but not necessarily anthropomorphic) who is supremely good, who created the world, who knows all and can do all, who is transcendent over and immanent in the world, and who loves humanity. By the majority of Christians God is believed to have lived on earth in the flesh as Jesus (see Trinity). In the Hebrew Bible the concept of God is not a unified one. The attitude of believers to this apparent inconsistency has generally been that God, unchanging, revealed Himself more and more to Israel.

Scholars belonging to the rational schools of the 19th cent. developed a view of the Bible as primarily a history of Judaism that evolved naturally without the benefit of divine intervention in the world. They see a series of stages in which God was first held by the Jews as simply the head of a tribal pantheon, then gradually assumed all the attributes of God's fellow divinities, but was still worshiped more or less idolatrously. Gradually, according to these scholars, the Jews considered their God as more and more powerful until they believed God creator and ruler of all humans though preferring Israel as God's chosen people.

God's attributes of goodness, love, and mercy these critics consider as very late in this development. More recent scholars have refuted this latter position, seeing these very qualities in the God of the Exodus. Although the idea of God, through its long acceptance by Jews, Christians, and Muslims, has come to be associated with the concept of a good, infinite personality, in recent times the name has been extended to many principles of an utterly different sort; thus, a philosopher may consider the unifying concept in his philosophy (e.g., cosmic energy, mind, world soul, number) as God.

Arguments for God's Existence

There are several famous arguments for the existence of God. The argument from the First Cause maintains that since in the world every effect has its cause behind it (and every actuality its potentiality), the first effect (and first actuality) in the world must have had its cause (and potentiality), which was in itself both cause and effect (and potentiality and actuality), i.e., God. The cosmological argument maintains that since the world, and all that is in it, seems to have no necessary or absolute (nonrelative) existence, an independent existence (God) must be implied for the world as the explanation of its relations.

The teleological argument maintains that, since from a comprehensive view of nature and the world everything seems to exist according to a certain great plan, a planner (God) must be postulated. The ontological argument maintains that since the human conception of God is the highest conception humanly possible and since the highest conception humanly possible must have existence as one attribute, God must exist. Immanuel Kant believed that he refuted these arguments by showing that existence is no part of the content of an idea. This principle has become very important in contemporary philosophy, particularly in existentialism. The consensus among theologians is that the existence of God must in some way be accepted on faith.

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God

Deity or Supreme Being. Each of the major monotheistic world religions worships a Supreme Being, who is the sole god of the universe, the maker of all things, omniscient and all-powerful. God is also good. In ancient Israel God was named Yahweh. The God of the Hebrew Bible also became the God of Christianity, but generic words, such as theos in Greek or Deus in Latin, were often used to refer to him. In Islam the term is Allah. See also monotheism.

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god

1. a supernatural being, who is worshipped as the controller of some part of the universe or some aspect of life in the world or is the personification of some force

2. an image, idol, or symbolic representation of such a deity

3. the gallery of a theatre

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God

Theol the sole Supreme Being, eternal, spiritual, and transcendent, who is the Creator and ruler of all and is infinite in all attributes; the object of worship in monotheistic religions

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God

created the world in six days. [O.T.: Genesis 1]

See : Creation

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God

transcendant over and immanent in the world. [Christianity and Judaism: NCE, 1098–1099]

See : Omnipresence

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God

knows all: past, present, and future. [Christianity and Judaism: NCE, 1098–1099]

See : Omniscience

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God

Abba

title of reverence for God the Father. [N.T.: Mark 14:36; Romans 8:15]

Adonai

spoken in place of the ineffable Yahweh. [Judaism: NCE, 22]

Aesir

the Teutonic pantheon. [Norse Myth.: Leach, 17]

Ahura Mazda

(Ormuzd, Ormazd) the spirit of good and creator of all things. [Zoroastrianism: Payton, 11]

Allah Arabic

name of the Supreme Being. [Islam: Benét, 24]

Amen-Ra

national and chief god of Egyptians. [Egypt. Myth.: Leach, 42]

Ancient of Days

scriptural epithet for God. [O.T.: Daniel 7:9]

Assur

principal god. [Assyrian Myth.: Benét, 59]

Brahman

supreme soul of the universe. [Hindu Phil.: Parrinder, 50]

Buddha “the Enlightened One”;

mystical supremacy. [Hinduism: Payton, 108]

Creator, the

common sobriquet for God. [Pop. Usage: Misc.]

El

rare Biblical appellation of the Lord. [Judaism: Wigoder, 169]

Elohim

spoken in place of the ineffable Yahweh. [Judaism: NCE, 22]

Huitzilopochtli

supreme war god of the Aztecs. [Aztec Religion: NCE, 1286]

Jehovah

the ancient Hebrew name for God. [Heb. Lang.: NCE, 1407]

Manitou

supreme deity of Algonquin and neighboring tribes. [Am. Indian Religion: Collier’s, X, 91]

Marduk

warrior god, chief of the Babylonian pantheon; creator of heaven, earth, and man. [Babylonian Myth.: Benét, 634]

Ormuzd

supreme deity and embodiment of good. [Persian Myth.: Wheeler, 272]

Osiris

supreme deity and ruler of eternity. [Ancient Egyptian Myth.: Benét, 745]

Quetzalcoatl

god of the Toltecs. [Toltec Religion: NCE, 2258]

rays, garland of

emblem of God the Father. [Christian Iconog.: Jobes, 374]

Sat Nam

true name of the one God inclusive of all others. [Indian Religion: Collier’s, XVII, 304]

Shekinah

equivalent for Lord in Aramaic interpretation of Old Testament. [Targumic Lit.: Brewer Dictionary, 991]

Tetragrammaton Hebrew

word for Lord: YHWH; pronunciation forbidden. [Judaism: Wigoder, 593]

Yahweh

reconstruction of YHWH, ancient Hebrew name for God. [Heb. Lang.: NCE, 3019]

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God

an imaginary figure of a powerful supernatural being, the object of religious worship and faith. The idea of god as personal and supernatural is the distinctive characteristic of theism. By contrast, in pantheism god is conceived of as an impersonal force, inherent in nature and sometimes also identical to it. In the dualistic ancient Iranian religion of Mazdaism, the figure of the light god, Ahura-Mazda, is contrasted to the figure of the dark and evil deity, Angra-Mainyu. In the religions of the ancient Orient (including China, Korea, Japan, and India) and in other polytheistic religions, there appears an assembly of gods, one of whom is seen as chief and most powerful—for example, Marduk among the ancient Babylonians, Zeus among the ancient Greeks, and Perun among the ancient Slavs. In Hinduism and some other religions there is no such clearly expressed superiority of one god over the others; there are revered, alongside the “great” gods, various second-rank, lower gods, which are indistinguishable from local spirits, genies, and demons. In monotheistic religions, belief in a single and omnipotent god is the principal religious dogma. But in Christianity, unlike Judaism and Islam, the one god has three persons (hypostases)—that is, god the father, god the son, and god the holy spirit (the holy trinity).

Concepts of the gods have developed over a long period of time and reflect the historical evolution of the peoples that revere them. In the early forms of religion a belief in gods is not yet present, but rather a veneration of lifeless objects (fetishism) or belief in spirits and demons (animism) and other imaginary figures. Some traits of these mythological personalities were subsequently intertwined with the figures of gods or of the one god. The idea of a tribal god arose with the disintegration of the primitive communal structure and the subsequent development of tribal units. He was, above all, a god of war, leading his tribe in the struggle with other tribes and their gods—for example, Ashur with the Assyrians, Yahweh with the ancient Hebrew tribe of Levi (or, as many suppose, of Judah). For many settled peoples, upon the formation of city-states these gods become the patron gods of their city—for example, Enlil, the god of Nippur; Marduk, god of Babylon; still other such gods among the ancient Sumerians and Babylonians; Horus, god of the Idfu region, Ptah of Memphis, Amon of Thebes, and others among the ancient Egyptians; Pallas Athena of Athens, As-clepius of Epidaurus, and others among the Greeks. With the union of several tribes or cities around a more powerful tribe or city-state, the god of the latter became the statewide or national god, elevated above the other tribal gods. Thus, Marduk became the national god of Babylon; in Egypt, the gods Horus, Ptah, Amon, and Ra in turn occupied the position of chief god. The gods of subjected tribes and cities took a subordinate place in the polytheistic pantheon.

Among the ancient Hebrews, with the unification of the Hebrew tribes and the formation of the state of Judah, Yahweh, originally a tribal and local god, was transformed into a god of all the Hebrews and subsequently into the only creator god and lord god. The concept of the Christian god was formed in the first century A.D. At its foundation is the Hebrew Yahweh (god the father), but with it was fused the concept of the suffering savior-god of Oriental religions (god the son, Jesus Christ) and the abstract universal mind (logos) of the gnostics (god the holy spirit). The monotheistic religion of Islam arose among the Arabs in the early seventh century. Characteristics of the ancient Arabic tribal gods were transformed into the image of the Muslim god, Allah, which was in particular influenced by the Hebrew Yahweh. The religion of early Buddhism rejected the worship of gods; however, Buddha himself subsequently became a god, and Buddhism came to include many other gods besides him.

Theology, the religious and philosophic teaching about god, developed upon the completion of the historical process involved in the formation of the major monotheistic religions. God now became not only the principal subject of faith and worship but also a concept of idealist philosophy. Specific proofs of god’s existence were advanced—for example, the cosmological argument (since there exist effects, that is, the world of cosmos, there must exist also a source setting it into motion, a first cause of all things; Aristotle, afterward Leibniz, Wolf, and others); the teleological argument (purposefulness in nature as proof of the existence of a rational creator; Socrates, Plato, the Stoics, Cicero, and others); the ontological argument (the very concept of god as the perfect being presupposes his existence; Augustine, An-selm of Canterbury). Kant refuted these three principal arguments, demonstrating the impossibility of any theoretical proof of the existence of god, but advanced a new ethical argument, viewing god as a necessary postulate of practical reason.

In contemporary bourgeois philosophy the approach to the idea of god is founded either on post-Kantian irrationalism or on a revival of archaic philosophical systems of the past, such as ancient Indian or medieval metaphysics (neo-Thomism, theosophy, and others). Both these tendencies are often combined.

Concepts of gods in their various forms have been repeatedly subjected to criticism by atheists and promoters of enlightenment in antiquity and modern times, particularly by the French materialists of the 18th century and Feuerbach. The proponents of Marxism have proved that social conditions cause the development of false forms of consciousness and have connected the disappearance of various irrational ideas, including the idea of god, with the abolition of social antagonisms and the building of a classless communist society.

REFERENCES

Marx, K. “K kritike gegelevskoi filosofii prava; Vvedeni.” In K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 1.
Lenin, V. I. “Sotsialismi religiia.” Pol. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 12.
Tokarev, S. A. Religiia v istorii narodov mira, 2nd ed. Moscow, 1965.
Schmidt, W. Der Ursprung der Gottesidee, vols. 1–12. Münster, 1912–1955.
Jacobi, H. Die Entwicklung der Gottesidee bei den Indern und deren Beweise für das Dasein Gottes. Bonn-Leipzig, 1923.
Söderblom, N. Das Werden des Gottesglaubens, 2nd ed. Leipzig, 1926.
Bertholet, A. Götterspaltung und Göttervereinigung. Tubingen, 1933.
Dumézil, G. Les dieux des indo-européens. Paris, 1952.
Glasenapp, H. von. Buddhismus und Gottesidee. Mainz, 1954.
Schulz, W. Der Gott der neuzeitlichen Metaphysik. Berlin, 1957.
Schulz, W. Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 3rd ed., vol. 2. Tubingen, 1958. Pages 1701–1809.

S. A. TOKAREV