Chapter I:
CHAPTER I: TREATING THOROUGHLY THE ETYMOLOGY OF THE NAMES OF GOD
First, the etymology of the word “Jehovah.”
§ 7. “Jehovah,” the proper name of God, is drawn from 
(“he was, he existed”). God Himself reveals this derivation in Exod. 3:14 when He was asked about His name by Moses and answered: 
, “I shall be what I shall be.” The Septuagint reads: 
, “I am the one who is. And He said, ‘Say this to the people of Israel: 
, I shall be, 
, He who is has sent me to you.’ ” V. 15: “God also said to Moses: ‘Say this to the people of Israel: “Jehovah, the 
, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is 
My name forever.” ’ ” From this we understand that 
(“I shall be”) and 
(“being” or “essence”) are the same thing. To this we should add a third element: 
, which is a contraction from “Jehovah.” Therefore just as the proper name 
[“Isaac”] is formed from 
through the he’emantic letter 
(yod) and just as in the same manner the name 
[“Jacob”] is drawn from 
, so also the name “Jehovah,” which belongs to the true God alone, is drawn from the root 
or 
(the letters ehevi [
] being changeable as the letter 
is changed into 
) through 
, the formative letter of proper names. The Portuguese Hieronymus Oleaster omits this etymology that God Himself has revealed and draws the name from 
(“contrition, destruction”) so as to be an etymology from a state of mind. However, we correctly reject that etymology. In Rev. 1:4 this name is explained with three expressions: “… who is, who was, and who is to come” or “will be.” Because the Hebrews quite often use the preterite for the present and the future, therefore 
can be expressed in regard to all three tenses. According to grammatical propriety, 
means “he was,” 
means “he will be,” and 
means “being.”
§ 8. Therefore the word “Jehovah” denotes: (1) The self-existence of God, that He exists of Himself and that He has existence neither from nor in another because all other things that exist are from, in, and through Him. Jerome, on Ephesians 3: “I am who I am. I alone am, because I alone have My being from Myself. I alone am, because I have not been created by another.” God is said to be in the most truthful and proper manner because He has being from Himself, which is nothing other than His own being.
(2) His eminence over all creatures. A mode of essence is determined by any name at all, but this name “Jehovah” (
, “he who is”) determines no mode of being but is indeterminate to signify that God is a being above and beyond all created things.
(3) The dependency of creatures on God. Whatever has being [est] of and through itself is the cause of those things that have being [sunt] by participation. God, then, is called “Jehovah” and 
not only because He is but also because He is the cause for being of all things that are. He is the limitless and vast sea of being. Bernard, De consid. ad Eugen., bk. 5: “He is God because He is, that is, He Himself is the being of Himself and of all other things, He Himself is [present] to all, and through this, in a certain manner, is alone.” (Cf. Nazianzen on the passage, “I am who I am.”)
(4) The immutability of God. Things that change cease to be what they were and begin to be what they were not. Because God alone is unchangeable, He is the absolute being. Augustine, De civ. Dei, bk. 8, toward the end of c. 11: “He who is has sent me. That is, so to speak, in comparison with Him who truly is (because He is unchangeable), those things that are created and changeable are not.” No creature can say, “I am because I am,” because it does not have being [est] of itself nor in itself but is susceptible to constant change. Ps. 102:[26]: “The heavens will perish, but You will endure. Those things will be changed, 
but You are the same.” Heb. 1:12: 
, “You are the same.”
(5) The eternity of God. That alone is which is eternal. Past things have perished in time; present things fly away; future things are not yet present. Therefore only God, because He is eternal, simply is being. Consequently, Rabbi Moses of Girona says: “ ‘Jehovah’ signifies the sort of existence that neither has passed nor will pass” (commentary on Exodus 3). Also, God’s infinity is indicated in that, because He has being of Himself, He could not also have been limited.
(6) The simplicity of God. All created things are composed if not of matter and form, then at least of actuality and potentiality, of being and essence. But only God’s being is His essence. Therefore the name of His essence befits Him alone. Just as the verb “I am” is irresoluble and the simplest of all verbs (for all verbs can be reduced into it, but it can be reduced into nothing), so all things are referred to God but He to nothing. Whatever exists in God is not an accident of God but is His very being. Therefore He is the simplest being.
(7) The truth of God, because God gives His being as strength and fulfillment to His promises. The rationale for this etymology is presented in Exod. 6:3 and Isa. 43:19.
(8) The difference of God from idols. Idols are 
, “not gods,” but God alone is Jehovah, the God who truly exists. Justin, Paraenet. ad gentes, p. 15: “I am the Existing One, that is, the one who opposes Himself to things that do not exist so that those who before this had been misled into error would understand that they had turned their minds to things that did not exist but certainly not to gods that exist.”
(9) In his commentary on Deuteronomy 23, Drusius indicates that this name denotes the property of compassion and that through the name Elohim one reads the property of judgment. This means that God is merciful in judgment.
§ 9. In Egypt, Plato heard something about this name of God and consequently teaches in his Timaeus: “God alone properly has being [est], but the remaining things that spring up change and perish. With respect to them, not being is more true than being.” In his Sophista and Parmenides, he calls God 
[“that which is”], and in the Theaetetos he says: “Every created thing has more nonbeing than being.” Thus a man only has the being of a man but not the being of heaven, of an angel, nor of all other created things. Only God has the being of all things. On the doors of the temple of Apollo at Delphi these words had been engraved: (1) 
[“Know thyself”]—by which the god was admonishing those who were entering his temple that they should know themselves. (2) 
, “thou art”—by which those who were about to enter (responding, as it were) were confessing that the god alone exists. (See Luis Vives, on bk. 8 of Augustine’s De civ. Dei, c. 11.) Eugubinus mentions that in the temples of the Egyptians these words of the god were inscribed: “I am everything which was, which is, and which will be. No one has ever pulled back my veil.”
Second, the etymology of the word Elohim.
§ 10. Elohim [“God”] (which Rabbi Aben Ezra says is a name of power, not of substance) comes from the singular Eloah, which we find in Job 4:9; 12:4; etc., as “under the guidance of Eloah.” (1) Some take it from 
(“strong”; Elim in the plural) and insert the letter 
[he] from the Tetragrammaton to make Elohim because God is the strongest and most powerful of all. (2) Some take it from 
(“he swore”) because one must swear by God if God’s glory should demand that. (3) Some think that the name Eloah was formed from 
and 
taken jointly because through His power God preserves the things He has created and thereby binds them to Himself, as if by oath, to obedient servanthood. (4) Some think it comes from 
(“fortitude, strength”). (5) Rabbi Nachaman thinks it was spoken as if it were 
, “the strength of those,” that is, of those things that were created, because He is the power of powers.
None of these etymologies, however, exactly fits the rules of grammar. The pointing does not permit it to be derived from 
because a tsere is not changed into a segol, and the mappiq
at the end of the word 
shows that the 
is a root letter. Thus these are merely allusive, and we are more correct in saying that 
is a primitive [nonderived] noun. Rabbi Menahem Recanatensis thinks it is composed of El and Jah, and he adds the ridiculous observation: “If you remove the letters of the Tetragrammaton, there remains 
, ‘mute,’ for a person without God is as mute as a fish.”
The rabbis distinguish the name Elohim from Jehovah in such a way that Elohim signifies 
, the quality or property of judgment, but Jehovah signifies 
, the property of mercy. They conclude this from Ps. 56:[10]: “In Elohim whose word I shall praise, in Jehovah whose word I shall praise,” that is, I shall praise God whether He chastises me with His just judgment or shows me mercy in His benefits. It is more correct to say that Jehovah indicates His essence but Elohim His attributes because the former is absolute while the latter is relative. As a result, in Exod. 3:15 and here and there elsewhere, Jehovah elohe are joined together, for God is called Elohim to the extent that He is the Creator, Ruler, and Preserver of all things, the avenging Judge of all things, who shows gracious help to the devout and just vengeance to the wicked. For this reason, in his description of the creation, Moses calls God Elohim so that we may understand that the same God is the Creator of the world who is the Preserver of it and the Ruler of all things, that we may be taught that He has arranged all things in His creation wisely and justly, and that this Judge has attributed to each its own appropriately.
Third, the etymology of the word 
§ 11. Some derive the Greek 
[“God”] from the Hebrew 
, “sufficiency,” because God says to Abraham in Gen. 17:1: “I am 
,” God Almighty, sufficient of Myself, in need of nothing. Others prefer to seek a Greek origin for the Greek word, but they, too, differ much in their opinions.
Some form it from 
, which means “to run.” Plato, Cratylos, p. 314: “The first Greek people seem to have thought that the sun, moon, and stars were gods and called them 
[“gods”] because they saw them being carried around on a never-ending course. Then they seemed to have called the rest by the same name.”
Some derive it from 
, “to watch.” Basil (Epistle 141, vol. 2, p. 111) and Gregory of Nyssa (Ad Ablabium, p. 94) do this because God is the watcher and prefect of all things. In his De div. nomin., c. 12, Dionysius ties both etymologies together: “God is called 
because He watches over all things with His marvelous providence and goodness, because He runs over all things and contains all things, and because He fills all things with Himself and transcends all things that use His providence.”
Some take it from 
, “to burn,” such as Nazianzen, Orat. 2. de Filio, p. 262: “… because God consumes wicked behavior.” In Orth. fid., bk. 1, c. 12, the Damascene connects three derivations: “The name 
is named from 
[“to run”] and 
[“to handle”] all things” because He runs through and arranges all things (Ps. 138:8; Isa. 66:1; 8:1) and because He encompasses all things, embraces all things, hurries to bring help to all things. “Or it is from 
[“to burn”], which is 
[“to kindle a fire”], for God is a fire that consumes all wickedness” (Deut. 4:24; Heb. 12:29). “Or it is from 
[“to watch over”] all things, for nothing escapes His detection, and He is the overseer,” etc.
Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, bk. 1, toward the end, believes that 
is from 
(“position, order, and administration”), for He arranges all things according to number, measure, and weight (Wisdom 11:[20]).
Some draw it from the Aeolic 
, which corresponds to the word 
, the name by which the heathen call their chief god. Many derive the Latin deus [“god”] from the Greek 
, “timidity, fear,” etc., because the devout and the wicked fear God—the former as His children, the latter as His slaves; the former because of His blessings and judgments, the latter because of His punishments. Ambrose, De fide, bk. 1, c. 1: “Thus the true God is called ‘the fear of Isaac,’ that is, the God whom Isaac fears and worships (Gen. 31:53).” Others prefer to take it from dando [“giving”], because every good and perfect gift comes down from God (James 1:17). Some run back to the Hebrew 
, “sufficiency.” It is more correct, however, to say that the Greek 
and the Latin deus are primitive words,3 something we also say about the German word Gott [“God”].
3 That is, words not derived from others.