El Shaddai

El Shaddai (; ) or just Shaddai is one of the names of God in Judaism. ''El Shaddai'' is conventionally translated into English as ''God Almighty'', as ''Deus Omnipotens'' in Latin, and in .

'' El'' means "God" in the Ugaritic and the Canaanite languages. The literal meaning of Shaddai, however, is the subject of debate. Some scholars have argued that it came from Akkadian ''shadû'' ("mountain") or from the Hebrew verb ''shaddad'' שדד meaning "Destroyer". Shaddai may have also come from ''shad'' שד meaning mammary; ''shaddai'' is a typical Biblical Hebrew word (שדי). The plural (''Shaddayim'' -- שדיים) is the typical Modern Hebrew word for human breasts in dual grammatical number. The Deir Alla Inscription contains ''shaddayin'' as well as ''elohin'' rather than ''elohim''. Scholars translate this as "shadday-gods," taken to mean unspecified fertility, mountain or wilderness gods.

The form of the phrase ''El Shaddai'' fits the pattern of the divine names in the Ancient Near East, exactly as is the case with names like ''ʾĒl ʿOlām'', '' ʾĒl ʿElyon'' and ''ʾĒl Bēṯ-ʾĒl''. As such, ''El Shaddai'' can convey several different semantic relations between the two words, among them: the deity of a place called ''Shaddai'', a deity possessing the quality of ''shaddai'' and a deity who is also known by the name ''Shaddai''. Other deities are attested in various cultures. One is Ammonite Šd- Yrḥ.

Occurrence

Third in frequency among divine names, the name ''Shaddai'' appears 48 times in the Bible, seven times as ''El Shaddai'' (five times in Genesis, once in Exodus, and once in Ezekiel).

The first occurrence of the name comes in , "When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, 'I am El Shaddai; walk before me, and be blameless,' Similarly, in God says to Jacob, "I am El Shaddai: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins." According to ''Shaddai'' was the name by which God was known to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

In the vision of Balaam recorded in the Book of Numbers 24:4 and 16, the vision comes from Shaddai, who is also referred to as ''El'' ("God") and ''Elyon'' ("Most High"). In the fragmentary inscriptions at Deir Alla, ''shaddayin'' appear (; the vowels are uncertain, as is the gemination of the ''d''), perhaps lesser figurations of Shaddai. These have been tentatively identified with the ''šēdim'' "demons" () of Deuteronomy 32:17 ( parashah Haazinu) and Psalm 106: 37–38, who are Canaanite deities.

The name ''Shaddai'' is often used in parallel to ''El'' later in the Book of Job, once thought to be one of the oldest books of the Bible, though now more commonly dated to a later period.

The Septuagint often translates ''Shaddai'' or ''El Shaddai'' just as "God" or "my God", and in at least one passage (Ezekiel 10:5) it is transliterated (""). In other places (such as Job 5:17) it appears as "Almighty" (""), and this word features in other translations as well, such as the 1611 King James Version.

Etymology

Shaddai related to wilderness or mountains

According to Ernst Knauf, ''El Shaddai'' means "God of the Wilderness" and originally would not have had a doubled ''d''. He argues that it is a loanword from Israelian Hebrew, where the word had a ''sh'' sound, into Judean Hebrew and hence, Biblical Hebrew, where it would have been ''śaday'' with the sound '' śin''. In this theory, the word is related to the word ''śadé'' "the (uncultivated) field", the area of hunting (as in the distinction between beasts of the field, , and cattle, ). He points out that the name is found in Thamudic inscriptions (as ''ʾlšdy''), in a personal name ''Śaday ʾammī'' used in Egypt from the Late Bronze Age until Achaemenid times, and even in the Punic language name ''ʿbdšd'' "Servant of Shadé or Shada".Article on Shadday by E. A. Knauf in

Another theory is that Shaddai is a derivation of a Semitic root that appears in the Akkadian language ''shadû'' ("mountain") and ''shaddāʾû'' or ''shaddûʾa'' "mountain-dweller", one of the names of Amurru. This theory was popularized by W. F. Albright, but was somewhat weakened when it was noticed that the doubling of the medial ''d'' is first documented only in the Neo-Assyrian Empire. However, the doubling in Hebrew might possibly be secondary. According to this theory, God is seen as inhabiting a holy mountain, a concept not unknown in ancient West Asian religion, and also evident in the Syriac Christianity writings of Ephrem the Syrian, who places the Garden of Eden on an inaccessible mountaintop.

The term ''El Shaddai'' may mean "god of the mountains", referring to the Mesopotamian divine mountain. Harris, Stephen L., Understanding the Bible. Palo Alto, California: Mayfield. 1985. This could also refer to the Israelite camp's stay at biblical Mount Sinai where God gave Moses the Ten Commandments. According to Stephen L. Harris, the term was "one of the patriarchal names for the Mesopotamian tribal god". In Exodus 6:3, El Shaddai is identified explicitly with the God of Abraham and with Yahweh. The term ''El Shaddai'' appears chiefly in Genesis, only with a fertility association.

Shaddai meaning destroyer

The root word ''shadad'' () means to plunder, overpower, or make desolate. This would give Shaddai the meaning of "destroyer", representing one of the aspects of God, and in this context it is essentially an epithet. The meaning may go back to an original sense which was "to be strong" as in the Arabic ''shadid'' () "strong", although normally the Arabic letter pronounced ''sh'' corresponds to the Hebrew letter sin, not to shin. The termination ''ai'', typically signifying the first person possessive plural, functions as a pluralis excellentiae like other titles for the Hebrew deity, ''Elohim'' ("gods") and '' Adonai'' "my lords". The possessive quality of the termination had lost its sense and become the lexical form of both Shaddai and Adonai, similar to how the connotation of the French word Monsieur changed from "my lord" to being an honorific title. There are a couple of verses in the Bible where there seems to be word play with ''Shadday'' and this root meaning to destroy (the day of YHWH will come as destruction from Shadday,, Isaiah 13:6 and Joel 1:15), but Knauf maintains that this is re-etymologization.

Shaddai as a toponym

It has been speculated that the tell in Syria called Tell eth-Thadeyn ("tell of the three breasts") was called Shaddai in the Amorite language. There was a Bronze-Age city in the region called Tuttul, which means "three breasts" in the Sumerian language.

Shaddai meaning breasts

The Hebrew noun () šād, šādayim, šōd means breast, breasts (dual,) mother's breast.

David Biale notes that five of the six times that the name El Shaddai appears in the Book of Genesis are in connection with fertility blessings for the Patriarchs, but ultimately argues for the meaning "almighty".

The Afrasian to pre-proto-Semitic source meant "to extend (lengthwise)". This led to soundalikes to the Hebrew in Ugaritic, Judaeo-, Syriac, and standard Aramaic, Harari, Jibbali, Soqotri, Mehri, and more. while means a plain in Canaanite but a mountain in Sumerian. The reconstructed common root in Semitic Etymological disctionary is "*ṯVdy- / *čVdy- (woman's breast)".

Shaddai in the later Jewish tradition

God that said "enough"

A popular interpretation of the name Shaddai is that it is composed of the Hebrew relative particle ''she-'' (Shin plus vowel segol followed by dagesh), or, as in this case, as ''sha-'' (Shin plus vowel patach followed by a dagesh). The noun containing the dagesh is the Hebrew word ''dai'' meaning "enough, sufficient, sufficiency". This is the same word used in the Passover Haggadah, Dayeinu, which means "It would have been enough for us." The song Dayeinu celebrates the various miracles God performed while liberating the Israelites from Egyptian servitude. The Talmud explains it this way, but says that ''Shaddai'' stands for ''Mi she'Amar Dai L'olamo'' (Hebrew: ) – "He who said 'Enough' to His world." When he was forming the earth, he stopped the process at a certain point, withholding creation from reaching its full completion, and thus the name embodies God's power to stop creation. The passage appears in the tractate Hagigah 12a.

There is early support for this interpretation, in that the Septuagint translates ''Shadday'' in several places as , the "Sufficient One" (for example, Ruth 1:20, 21).

However, Day's overview says a "rabbinic view understanding the name meaning 'who suffices' (Se + day) is clearly fanciful and has no support."

Apotropaic usage of the name ''Shaddai''

The name ''Shaddai'' often appears on the devices such as amulets or dedicatory plaques. More importantly, however, it is associated with the traditional Jewish customs which could be understood as apotropaic: male circumcision, mezuzah, and tefillin. The connections of the first one with the name Shaddai are twofold: According to the biblical chronology it is El Shaddai who ordains the custom of circumcision in Genesis 17:1 and, as is apparent in midrash Tanhuma Tzav 14 (cf. a parallel passages in Tazri‘a 5 and Shemini 5) the ''brit milah'' itself is the inscription of the part of the name on the body:

The Holy One, blessed be He, has put His name on them so they would enter the garden of Eden. And what is the name and the seal that He had put on them? It is ''Shaddai''. he letter''shin'' He put in the nose, ''dalet'' – on the hand, whereas ''yod'' on the embrum Accordingly, He goes to ' (Ecclesiastes 12:5), there is an angel in the garden of Eden who picks up every son of which is circumcised and brings him . And those who are not circumcised? Although there are two letters of the name ''Shaddai'' present on them, ''shin'' from the nose and ''dalet'' from the hand, the ''yod'' (...) is . Therefore it hints at a demon (Heb. ''shed''), which brings him down to Gehenna.

Analogous is the case with mezuzah – a piece of parchment with two passages from the Book of Deuteronomy, curled up in a small encasement and affixed to a doorframe. At least since the Geonic times, the name ''Shaddai'' is often written on the back of the parchment containing the ''shema‘'' and sometimes also on the casing itself. The name is traditionally interpreted as being an acronym of ''shomer daltot Yisrael'' ("the guardian of the doors of Israel") or ''shomer dirot Yisrael'' ("the guardian of the dwellings of Israel"). However, this notarikon itself has its source most probably in Zohar Va’ethanan where it explains the meaning of the word Shaddai and connects it to mezuzah.

The name ''Shadday'' can also be found on tefillin – a set of two black leather boxes strapped to head and arm during the prayers. The binding of particular knots of tefillin is supposed to resemble the shape of the letters: the leather strap of the ''tefillah shel rosh'' is knotted at the back of the head thus forming the letter ''dalet'' whereas the one that is passed through the ''tefillah shel yad'' forms a ''yod''-shaped knot. In addition to this, the box itself is inscribed with the letter ''shin'' on two of its sides.

Biblical translations

The Septuagint Job 5:17, 22:25 (παντοκράτωρ Pantocrator) and 15:25 (Κύριος παντοκράτωρ) (and other early translations) sometimes translate ''Shaddai'' as "(the) Almighty". It is often translated as "God", "my God", or "Lord". However, in the Greek of the Septuagint translation of Psalm 91:1, ''Shaddai'' is translated as "the God of heaven".

"Almighty" is the translation of ''Shaddai'' followed by most modern English translations of the Hebrew scriptures, including the popular New International Version and Good News Bible.

The translation team behind the New Jerusalem Bible (N.J.B.) however, maintains that the meaning is uncertain, and that translating ''El Shaddai'' as "Almighty God" is inaccurate. The N.J.B. leaves it untranslated as ''Shaddai'', and makes footnote suggestions that it should perhaps be understood as "God of the Mountain" from the Akkadian ''shadu'', or "God of the open wastes" from the Hebrew ''sadeh'' and the secondary meaning of the Akkadian word.
The translation in the Concordant Old Testament is 'El Who-Suffices' (Genesis 17:1).

In Mandaeism

In Book 5, Chapter 2 of the '' Right Ginza'', part of Mandaean holy scripture of the '' Ginza Rabba'', El Shaddai is mentioned as ''ʿIl-Šidai''.

References

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{{Names of God

Book of Genesis
Book of Exodus
Book of Ezekiel
Names of God in Judaism
Deities in the Hebrew Bible
Names of God in Christianity
El (deity)