As a Jew, I’ll take this one.
From a Jewish perspective, the whole idea of God having “names” like people do is a false idea. Names are things used to differentiate between equals; I use “red” to differentiate that color in language from the color I call “blue.” Similarly, I am called “Gil” so that I am distinguished from my peers. God, having no equal, can not therefore have a name…
…in the conventional sense. A name can also a description of the named entity, the means by which a person relates to that entity. For example, the surname “Chayit” means “tailor” - people referred to that entity (in this case, a person) as a “tailor,” because that’s what he did for a living. Similarly, the name “window” is actually an evolution of the word
vindauga (“wind eye”) which replaced the word
eagduru (“eye door”) in the Old English vernacular; you can see that the word “window” is actually meant to be a description of the named entity - a “door” through which the “eye” can see. This aspect of names is the more conceptual aspect, and therefore the more important aspect.
Names of Gods are merely discriptions of Him, by which we can relate to Him with our puny minds. “Elohim” is the description of God as a Judge; “Tzevaos” is the description of God as the all-powerful; “HaMakom” is the description of God as the Omnipresent (whatever that means; it’s tangential to this point); “HaBorei” is the description of God as the Creator; and so on and so forth. The Ineffable Name - aka the Tetragrammaton - is not to be pronounced, or written completely; it is referred to as “HaShem” (“the Name”) and we have lost the knowledge of how it was vowelized. Attempts by modern scholars to vowelize it as Jehovah or Yahweh are misguided; those are no more the correct vowelizations of HaShem than “Bongo the Clown” is. Additionally, it is important to note that angels do not exist as people commonly believe them to; when an angel is named, it is really referring to a description of God, as He interacts with Man and the Universe. Thus, “Michael” (lit. “Mi Cha-El,” “Who is like God?”) refers to Man’s understanding that God is unique; “Gabriel” (lit. “Gavar El” “God is the Strength”) refers to Man’s understanding that his power and importance depend on God; “Rafael” (lit. “Rafa El” “God is the Healer”) refers to Man’s understanding that his physical well-being depends on God; and so on and so forth. All angels mentioned in the Torah are merely references to the different forces/ways through which God interacts with the Universe and Man.
There are some important things to remember. A) God doesn’t have names, but rather descriptions of Him by which we can relate to Him (we call them Names), B) there are very esoteric Names, which represent complex true ideas about God, and C) Hebrew is the only language in which Names of God are composed - thus,
God is not a Name of God and
Lord is not a Name of God.
Shalom!
Gil
. The One and Only God of Christians and Jews does not.
