{"id":1883,"date":"2020-10-28T05:30:50","date_gmt":"2020-10-28T10:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/?p=1883"},"modified":"2020-10-30T03:45:46","modified_gmt":"2020-10-30T08:45:46","slug":"the-name-el-shaddai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/the-name-el-shaddai\/","title":{"rendered":"The Name El Shaddai&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1884 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/nmom2.jpg?resize=115%2C127&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"115\" height=\"127\" \/>When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to him and said, &#8220;I am El Shaddai (\u05d0\u05b2\u05e0\u05b4\u05d9\u05be\u05d0\u05b5\u05dc \u05e9\u05c1\u05b7\u05d3\u05bc\u05b7\u05d9); walk before me, and be made whole&#8221; (Gen. 17:1). Since the compound name \u201cEl Shaddai\u201d depicts the image of a nursing mother (i.e., the word <em>shadayim <\/em>(\u05e9\u05d3\u05d9\u05d9\u05dd) means &#8220;breasts,&#8221; symbolizing sufficiency and nourishment, e.g., Gen. 49:25), perhaps this revelation was meant to remind Abram and Sarai that the LORD would be the Womb, the Sustenance, and the Substance of the coming promised Seed. Only God can bring life out of death &#8211; even life from the deadness of Sarai\u2019s womb (see Rom. 4:19). For this reason, both Sarai and Abram were renamed by adding the letter Hey (\u05d4) to their original names, symbolizing the Holy Spirit of God. The promised Seed was to be born miraculously, not unlike the virgin birth of the Messiah reported in the Gospels (i.e., just as Sarai was &#8220;without a womb&#8221; yet enabled to bear the promised seed (of Isaac), so was Mary, a virgin who was enabled to bear God&#8217;s promised Seed &#8211; the Messiah).<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1885\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/gen17-1b-analysis.gif?resize=559%2C535&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"559\" height=\"535\" \/><\/p>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-1883-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/gen17-1b-jjp.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/gen17-1b-jjp.mp3\">https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/gen17-1b-jjp.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/Blessings\/Blessing_Cards\/gen17-1-lesson.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Genesis 17:1b Lesson Card (pdf)<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Most English translations render El Shaddai as \u201cGod Almighty,\u201d probably because the translators of the Septuagint (i.e., the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament) thought <em>Shaddai<\/em> came from a root verb (<em>shadad<\/em>: \u05e9\u05c1\u05b8\u05d3\u05b7\u05d3) that means &#8220;to overpower&#8221; or &#8220;to destroy.&#8221; The Latin Vulgate likewise translated Shaddai as &#8220;<em>Omnipotens<\/em>&#8221; (from which we get our English word omnipotent). In other words, the translators regarded this term to suggest that God is so overpowering that He is considered &#8220;Almighty.&#8221; According to the Jewish sages, however, Shaddai is a contraction of the phrase, \u201cI said to the world, <em>dai<\/em> (enough)\u201d (as in the famous word used in the Passover Haggadah, <em>Dayenu<\/em> &#8212; &#8220;it would have been sufficient&#8221;). God created the world but \u201cstopped\u201d at a certain point. He left creation &#8220;unfinished&#8221; because He wanted us to complete the job by means of exercising <em>chesed<\/em> (love) in repair of the world (<em>tikkun olam<\/em>).<\/p>\n<p>Jacob\u2019s blessing given in Genesis 49:25, however, indicates that Shaddai is related to the word for breasts (<em>shadayim <\/em>), indicating sufficiency and nourishment (i.e., \u201cblessings of the breasts and of the womb\u201d (\u05d1\u05bc\u05b4\u05e8\u05b0\u05db\u05ea \u05e9\u05c1\u05b8\u05d3\u05b7\u05d9\u05b4\u05dd \u05d5\u05b8\u05e8\u05b8\u05d7\u05b7\u05dd)). In this case, the Name might derive from the contraction of <em>sha<\/em> (\u201cwho\u201d) and <em>dai<\/em> (\u201cenough\u201d) to indicate God\u2019s complete sufficiency to nurture the fledgling nation into fruitfulness. Indeed, God first uses this Name when He refers to multiplying Abraham\u2019s <em>offspring<\/em> (Gen. 17:2). Understood in this light, the name El Shaddai provides a picture of God&#8217;s nurturing love for our lives&#8230; God sustains us and loves us, like a mother loves her newborn child&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>El Shaddai is used almost exclusively in reference to the three great patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and (according to Exodus 6:2-3) was the primary name by which God was known to the founders of Israel (the name YHVH given to Moses suggests God\u2019s absolute self-sufficiency, whereas the name Elohim suggests God\u2019s sovereign power). The word &#8220;Shaddai&#8221; (by itself) was used later by the prophets (e.g., Num. 24:4; Isa. 13:6, Ezek. 1:24) as well as in the books of Job, Ruth, and in the Psalms. In modern Judaism, Shaddai is also thought to be an acronym for the phrase <em>Shomer daltot Yisrael<\/em> &#8211; \u201cGuardian of the doors of Israel\u201d &#8211; abbreviated as the letter Shin on most <em>mezuzot<\/em>:<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1887\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shin-mezuzah2.jpg?resize=355%2C136&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"355\" height=\"136\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shin-mezuzah2.jpg?w=355&amp;ssl=1 355w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/shin-mezuzah2.jpg?resize=300%2C115&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 355px) 100vw, 355px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to him and said, &#8220;I am El Shaddai (\u05d0\u05b2\u05e0\u05b4\u05d9\u05be\u05d0\u05b5\u05dc \u05e9\u05c1\u05b7\u05d3\u05bc\u05b7\u05d9); walk before me, and be made whole&#8221; (Gen. 17:1). Since the compound name \u201cEl Shaddai\u201d depicts the image of a nursing mother (i.e., the word shadayim (\u05e9\u05d3\u05d9\u05d9\u05dd) means &#8220;breasts,&#8221; symbolizing sufficiency and nourishment, e.g., Gen. 49:25), [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hebrew-reading-practice","category-torah"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1883"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1926,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1883\/revisions\/1926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hebrew4christians.com\/training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}