Is Allah Jehovah? Or is Jehovah Allah?

7/30/2019 Is Allah Jehovah? Or is Jehovah Allah?

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Why the Change?

We need to address a topic that is sure to come up when using ArabBible. The

textual foundation forArabBibleis the venerable Van Dyck translation, completed

in Lebanon in March of 1860. You are probably aware that the term used for God

in the Van Dyck version is Allah. However,ArabBibledoes not use this word atall. Instead, the word al-ilaah has been employed (note:no other changes have

been made to the Van Dyck text). Why the change? To answer this question we

should look at several issues...

Whats in a Name?

Someones name is known as a proper noun; it refers to that person alone. A

common noun, on the other hand, is a generic noun that can be applied to more

than one. For example: I may call both Robert and Joseph a man. Since they are

both men, I can call either one a man, and that is right and proper. So man is a

common noun. However, I cannot call Robert by the name of Joseph or vice-

versa. Each one has a unique name to which he answers. And even if there

happened to be two Roberts in the room, Robert #1 would not be the same

person as Robert #2. If I talk about Robert, everyone would ask: Are you

referring to, Robert #1 or Robert #2? They are distinct. That is why in virtually

every culture of the world, people do not give their children identical names.

Different persons having the same name would lead to terrible confusion. It seems

simple enough to understand.

When it comes to God, what do we call Him? Various languages have a number of

ways to deal with this. In English, for example, it is understood that god (with a

lower case g) can refer to one of any number of supposed deities, while God

(with an upper case G) refers to the unique creator of the universe. The

capitalization of that noun is simply our cultures way of dealing with it. However, it

must be clearly understood that neither god nor God is a proper noun; ratherthey are both common nouns, referring to someone: in the case of god, to any

deity; and in the case of God, to a specific deity. The common noun man is a

way of referring to someone without using his name; likewise, using the common

noun God is a way of referring to that unique One, without using His name.

If someone called a person man they would be correct, but generic. And if

someone called him Robert they would also be correct, but personal. Now lets

talk about God.

When we refer to God, the term is true and acceptable. However God is not His

name, just as man is not my name. I have a name by which those who know mecan call me. To others, I might be referred to as that man. Names are more

intimate.

The God of the Bible refers to Himself by a number of common nouns and by one


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proper noun. Please dont misunderstand: the use of the term common noun

when referring to God is not demeaning in any way, but is a linguistic term God

is anything but common! Some of the common nouns He uses when referring to

Himself are: God, Creator, Savior, Lord, Messiah, King, etc. However,

there is also a single proper noun that He uses to refer to himself. So what is that

unique name? The following conversation occurred between Moses and God

sometime around the year 1400 BC:Then Moses said to God, "Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel,

and I will say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you.'Now they may say to me, 'What is His name?'

What shall I say to them?"

God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; and He said,"Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel,

'I AM has sent me to you.'

God, furthermore, said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the sons ofIsrael, 'The LORD(YHWH), 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-name to all generations.

Exodus 3:13-15

The same passage in the original Hebrew is shown below. The red boxescorrespond to the red text above, and the green shaded areas to the green text

above, for those who do not know Hebrew.

God clearly tells Moses what his personal name is: His name is YHWH in Hebrew.And He clearly says that this is His name forever. Remember, were not even to the

translation issue yet; we are just establishing what God calls Himself. To further

clarify, lets look at the words in green: He identifies Himself as the God of

Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Jesus himself quotes this verse


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when speaking to the Sadducees in the Gospel of Mark: But concerning the dead, that they rise, have you not read in the

book of Moses,in the burning bush passage, how God spoke to him, saying,

'I am the God of Abraham,

the God of Isaac,and the God of Jacob'

Mark 12:26The green shaded text again refers to the corresponding English text above, forthose who do not know Greek.

So God identifies Himself as YHWH, and unmistakably clarifies things by

identifying Himself as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God ofJacob.

Now Lets Talk About Islam

Islam deals with the god/God issue as well. The general term for a god is ilaah.

This Arabic word is a common noun, and can either refer to any supposed god, or

may also refer to the unique one. This is universally accepted among all Arabic-

speaking peoples. Next, we can talk about the proper noun, or his actual Arabic

name. The name universally accepted among Muslims that refers to the deity of

Islam is Allah. There is a swirl of controversy these days about the linguistic

origins of that name, but the fact remains that there is no controversy whatsoever

about what Islams deity is named. Allah is his proper name, the name that he

calls himself, and expects others to call him. If someone would like to contest this

claim, let him consider the words of Edward William Lane, the sole author of

the Arabic-English Lexicon. This eight-volume authoritative series not only took

thirty years to compile, but is said to far surpass everylexicon everproduced

in anylanguage. Concerning the word "Allah", Lane says that according to the

most correct opinions of Arab grammarians, which are more than thirty in number,

Allah "is a proper name". Also, Abdul Mannan Omar, the editor of theEncyclopedia

of Islam, and translator of the Qur'an into English, says directly that Allah "is not a

common noun" and, like Lane, declares it to be a "proper name" ( The Dictionary of

the Holy Qur'anp.28, 29).

We immediately face a dilemma. The Hebrew Scriptures tell us that the eternal

proper name of the one true deity is YHWH, while Islam and the Quran itself tells

us that the eternal proper name of the one true deity is Allah. We must make a

choice; it cannot be both. There is no room for fence-sitting here. The word ilaah

is the universally accepted Arabic name for a god. Thats why it is called

acommonnoun. However, our problem is not there, but rather in the decision of

what propername to use for the eternal deity. Remember, the Hebrew Scriptures

clarify who this is: He is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of

Jacob. And the New Testament also reinforces the Old Testament revelation, that

God still identifies Himself with these three men, by virtue of an eternal covenant.In fact, Jesus himself reminds the Samaritan woman that Salvation is of the Jews

(John 4:22). How should we think about this? Could it be that when we talk about

YHWH and Allah, we are actually talking about two different gods? One god who

may identify himself with Abraham, but certainly not Isaac, and absolutely not


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Jacob (Israel); and the other who unquestionably identifies Himself as the God of

all three. Their personal names with which they identify themselves are clearly

different (note that YHWH is never even mentioned in the Quran); and it is likewise

obvious that even their character and actions are different, so why do we insist

that they must be the same?

Perhaps we are making more of this Abraham, Isaac and Jacob thing than weshould? Perhaps Gods identifying Himself with all three of these men is not so

important? But like it or not, this is what He calls Himself, and whether its in the

Biblical Hebrew of the Old Testament or the Koine Greek of the New Testament,

both clarifications makes sure that we do not mistake Him for the god of any other

nation. It turns out that indeed this is a critical distinction, because in the Psalms,

it tells us who the gods of all the other nations actually are:

For all the gods of the nations are (worthless) idols:but the LORD (YHWH) made the heavens.

Psalm 96:5

Its interesting that He contrasts His name, the proper noun YHWH, with the

common noun gods. The God of Israel, in fact, utterly contrasts Himself with the

gods of allother nationsallof them. YHWH stands apart from them all, including

Allah, who never once identifies himself as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,

and the God of Jacob.

What to Do? Follow the Precedent!

What is the translators job when handling the Scriptures? It is to communicate as

faithfully as possible, taking a word that is used in the source language, and

utilizing its equivalent (if there is one) in the target language. Its as simple as that.

Or so it seems. First, lets look at the situation with the Arabic Old Testament.

Whenever the proper noun is utilized in the original text, we should mirror that in

the target language. To do that is just being faithful. So whenever the word YHWH

appears in the original Hebrew, we should translate with its equivalent. Remember,

this is a name, a proper noun. In this case, since there is no equivalent, we had

better keep it as is (note: the Jews never changed YHWHs name to Adonai,

meaning Lord. They simply substituted Adonai for it when reading aloud,

initially out of not wanting to desecrate the sacred Name, but later out of tradition).

Most English translations attempt to keep a sense of this unpronounceable name

(called the Tetragrammaton) by translating YHWH as LORD (four letters, all being

capitalized) throughout the Old Testament. We should never take liberties when

dealing with the precious Scriptures.

Lets take one diversion for a moment. The Septuagint is the Greek version of the

Old Testament, translated from ancient Hebrew, somewhere around 280 BC. This is

the version that most New Testament Jews were familiar with. The writers of the

Septuagint faced a similar dilemma as other translators do now: how to translate

words relating to God, both the common nouns and the unique proper noun. We

believe they set a safe and acceptable precedent for the rest of us. The propernoun, YHWH, was translated as Kurios. This word means lord or master, and

is the equivalent of the substitute reading word used by the Jews, i.e. Adonai.

What about translating into Greek the common noun God (or Elohim in

Hebrew)? How do we translate that? The Septuagints translators set another good


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precedent for the New Testament writers by using an equivalent common noun in

the Greek, theos. The word theos, like its English counterpart god, can refer

either to any supposed god, or it can also refer to the one true God. Remember that

this is perfectly acceptable, because He is ultimately identified by name, rather

than just by title. It is critically important to notice that neither the Septuagints

translators nor the New Testament writers used a proper noun to translate a

common noun. None of them ever translated the common noun Elohim by aproper noun (e.g. Zeus, Baal, etc.), but rather by the equivalent, generic

common noun theos. The principle is this: that when referring to God, you may

use the generic cultural word for god, but not the proper name of a specific god

from that culture (e.g. Baal, Zeus, Allah, Thor, etc.) for the Name belongs to the

Holy One of Israel alone.

So where does that leave us? We wish to follow this precedent as well. The word

for Lord in Arabic is the common noun rabb. When referring to "the Lord" in

New Testament passages, we can follow the New Testaments precedent in usin g

the common noun with the definite article, al-rabb (pronounced ar-rabb: the

Lord). And this is precisely what has been already done by the translators of the

Arabic New Testament. Lets apply the same principle to the word for God. We

want to translate the Greek generic common noun theos into Arabic (note: the

word "theos" is never used as a proper noun, neither for a god nor for a human).

So we can confidently use the equivalent Arabic generic common noun, ilaah.

And just as the Septuagints translators did, and the New Testament writers also

did, lets attach the definite article to it, to refer to the one creator God. Therefore,

just as theos may refer to any god, and hotheos (thegod) refers to the one

God of Israel, so we can use ilaah to refer to any god, and al-ilaah (theGod) to

refer to the one God of Israel.

What could be some consequences of using the common noun al-ilaah (the god)

to refer to God? First, since the word ilaah is entirely Arabic, there is nointroduction of some culturally confusing terminology. Every Arab knows this

word can refer to a god. And when we add the definite article to it, it immediately

narrows the field to a single god. But it will also cause Muslims to wonder why the

Islamic term Allah is notused, while at the same time, help him to realize that al -

ilaah is actually a perfectly acceptable Arabic word referring to God. This may

indeed be an opportunity to share the fact that we worship different deities

altogether. Certainly this is a radical idea for some, but just as certainly, there is a

New Testament precedent for it. Paul, in Athens, told his listeners that he was

about to tell them about the God (ho theos) who made the world (Acts 17:24).

Remember, he did not use the actual name of a foreign god, and tell them that it

was Zeus who made the world, even though it was Zeus whom Greek culture

considered the creator and greatest god in the Greek Pantheon. In fact, he did not

even bother mentioning Zeus (in case you were wondering, "theos"

isnot etymologically related to Zeus. The Indo-European root of "theos" is most

probably *dhes-. The same root becomes fes- in Latin and so appears in words like

'festival'). Likewise, Arabic-speaking people need to be told about the God (al -

ilaah) who made the world, without even referring to Allah. Any Arabic speaker

can immediately connect with al-ilaah. We just have to tell them the Good News

of who this God is!

Finally, what about our precious Christian brothers and sisters who have been

using the term Allah for years? Does this change leave them out, or make them

less in our eyes? Absolutely not! There are many fine believers who use the nameof Allah. This change is not meant to question or denigrate their genuine love for

the true Savior, Jesus Christ. There is no hint of condemnation for them. This

change is being made with an eye to the future. There are now many Muslims

discovering Jesus, and we believe this will only accelerate in the monumental days


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to come. Following the Lamb of God and making a clean break with Islam will

require a tremendous amount of painful sacrifice on the part of many believers. But

there are some things worth suffering for.

and when they had called the apostles, and beaten themthey commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus,

and let them go. So they departed from the presence of the council,rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His

name

Acts 5:40-41

In summary, ArabBibleuses the definite, common noun, al-ilaah to refer to God,

rather than the Islamic proper noun, Allah. We believe this is based on good

Biblical and linguistic precedents. Though this will certainly cause some shock

wavesLet us know, let us press on to know the LORD; His going forth is

sure as the dawn; He will come to us as the showers,as the spring rains that water the earth.

Hosea 6:3

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Is Allah Jehovah? Or is Jehovah Allah?