The Prophetic Telegraph - No.108
EL - SHADDAI
There are many titles
ascribed to our Lord in the Hebrew text of the Old Testament. These have been
variously translated by Lord and God using different type faces. It would have
served English readers better if in a forward an explanation had been given,
and a transliteration used instead of a translation. For example, the sacred
name YHVH, known as the holy tetragrammaton, and which no one knows how to
pronounce because the Rabbis have kept it a secret over the ages - the A.V.
Bible uniformly translates as LORD. It would have been more convincing to have
left it as JEHOVAH, or VAHVEH. A single example will show how much better this
would make the text, as follows. Elijah was reproving the Israelites for their
"fence-sitting" and (according to the A.V.) he says, "If
the LORD be God, follow him, but if Baal, then follow him." (1
Kings
EL is the most basic Hebrew
word for GOD. From it is derived the word ELOAH, also translated God, and
ELOHIM, the plural word, which again is translated God. From EL comes the
Arabic word ALLAH, of universal usage by the Moslems. But what about the word
SHADDAI? Have the translators done justice to the word by using the expression
ALMIGHTY? Having done a bit of searching in the various dictionaries and
lexicons at our disposal, we have found something more precious, more
meaningful and more revealing than the word ALMIGHTY can convey. It is this
that we would like to share with our readers.
The root of SHADDAI must be
a word using the Hebrew letters SHIN and DALETH. We find the simplest root in
SHED (pronounced SHAYD), which Gesenius tells us means "lord", but
its two occurrences in the O.T. refer to demons, which 'lord it' over human
beings. There is obviously no connection here.
Realising the futility of
these suggestions, the article then proceeds to scour other languages for a
root. For example the Assyrian word SHADU is brought forward, meaning
"mountain." It is perplexing in the extreme, however, to think of
"God the Mountain" having anything useful to convey to us. Finally,
the root SHADAH is entertained, but immediately dismissed, simply because the
word means "wife".
That is a summary of the
information we found in
"It is God (El) not as the source of
strength, but of grace; not as Creator, but as the Giver. Shaddai is the
All-bountiful. This title does not refer to His creative power, but to His
power to supply all the needs of His people. Its first occurrence is in
Gen.7:1, and is used to show Abraham that He who called him out to walk alone
before Him could supply all his need."
This we believe to be the
crux of the matter. EL - SHADDAI is GOD ALL BOUNTIFUL. But still it doesn't satisfy the
student of Hebrew as to the origin of the word. Is there something that has
been overlooked? Turning to the Encyclopaedia Judaica, the simple root SHAD is
alluded to. Although this might have seemed to be the obvious choice to the
writers of Dictionaries, it was not even entertained by them. And for why?
Because SHAD means the female human breast. Combined with DAI, meaning
"sufficiency" we get something like "GOD THE SUFFICIENCY OF
THE BREAST". On the surface this seems meaningless, but a moment's reflection causes
one to think otherwise. In Genesis 49:25, Jacob is speaking about the future
for his sons, and referring to Joseph he says,
"EL - SHADDAI will bless
you with the blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep beneath, and
blessings of the BREASTS and the womb."
To a baby, the human breast
is the child's "all sufficiency". It could be that
Bullinger accepted this in translating EL - SHADDAI as "God the
All-bountiful." Here we have a warm and meaningful expression,
depicting God as the One who "suckles" all mankind, providing him
with air to breathe, water to drink, food to eat, homes in which to dwell, and
the Inspired Word to know the meaning of life.
If the idea of the female
breast being used by God should seem out of place, then we might profitably
consider such verses of Scripture as Isaiah 60:16, where the prophet says,
"Whereas you have been
forsaken and hated - - you shall suck the milk of the Gentiles, and suck the
BREAST of kings, and you shall know that I am JEHOVAH, your Saviour and your
Redeemer, the mighty one of Jacob."
Such idiomatic and
picturesque language is very much a part of the Hebrew tongue. An interesting
statement is found in Exodus 6:2-3, which needs examination. It reads as
follows.
"And God (ELOHIM) spoke
to Moses and said to him, 'I am JEHOVAH, and I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac,
and to Jacob as EL - SHADDAI, but by my name JEHOVAH I did not reveal myself to
them."
But the name JEHOVAH
appears in Genesis as far back as chapter two! One is left with the impression
that Moses was commanded to edit the family records he possessed, and to insert
the holy Name wherever the Lord told him to. A possible proof of this is found
in the book of Job, where EL - SHADDAI occurs 31 times. This writing, often
attributed to Moses, who was contemporary with the events of that time, perhaps
relates to the days when Moses was in the
We should like to take these
thoughts about EL - SHADDAI one step further. Can it be that the female aspect
of SHADDAI is not so out of place as one might first suspect? We have written
in the past about our understanding of the Trinity as being God the Father, God
the Holy Spirit, the Mother, and God the Son, thereby being the Divine Family
Pattern, by which all humanity is formed. Regardless of the opposition we have
received from some quarters about the possibility of a Female being in the
Godhead, we stand by what we believe the Lord conveyed to us directly in 1968,
that the Holy Spirit is truly God the Mother. If this be so, then the noun
SHADAH, meaning "wife" may not be so unacceptable as the Dictionaries
made it out to be.
Even if the ancient
patriarchs never had the full revelation, there is no reason why it should not
now be accepted. Still we may speak about EL - SHADDAI as God All-Bountiful,
but can we not also understand that the expression refers to the Holy Spirit,
as God the Wife of Jehovah? In the book of Proverbs, the Holy Spirit is spoken
about under the title of WISDOM. In chapter 8 we are told that She was "constituted
at the outset of God's ways, before His works of old." She
was there before the world was established on its corner stone. We believe that
She was "brought forth" from within the Godhead in a manner
exemplified by the creation of Eve from within Adam. The earthly was a picture
of the heavenly. And just as a son is born of a woman, having conceived from
the man, so the Lord Jesus was "brought forth" from within the
Godhead, so to speak, from God the Father and God the Mother. All Three are
essentially God. All are uncreated. God was presenting Himself to His angelic
and human creation in the form of a family, easily understood and continually
enacted as generation follows generation on earth.
It is quite amazing how
much opposition there is from some quarters to the suggestion that there may be
females in heaven. Are we to believe that in the resurrection all our women
folk will become men? And why should we think that all the angels are male?
That is another rather unintelligent conclusion that has no basis in fact.
Angels have appeared to human beings throughout all history, both male and
female. We'll conclude with a quotation from Clement of Alexandria (Paidagogus
1.6) "The word is everything to the child, both father and mother,
teacher and nurse - - The nutriment is the milk of the Father - - and the word
alone supplies us children with the milk of love, and only those who suck at
this breast are truly happy. For this reason seeking is called sucking; to
those infants who seek the Word, the Father's loving breasts supply milk."