El Shaddai
Preferred meaning
In the passages referred to above, the combined ideas of God as the all-powerful, all-sufficient, transcendent, sovereign ruler and disposer are present. This meaning is generally accepted. The most preferred explanation is that Shaddai is derived from the verb shadad (“to overpower, to deal violently, or to devastate”). A clear connection between shadad and Shaddai is said to be found in Isaiah 13:6 and Joel 1:15. God as El Shaddai is presented as the all-powerful One, totally self-sufficient, absolute ruler, and the One who can and does make final disposition.
The Septuagint (LXX) has adopted this meaning; it translates El Shaddai as Pantokrator, the “All Ruler or Sovereign One.”
G. Vos points out that El and Elohim emphasize God’s relation to nature, and El Shaddai points to God’s overpowering nature in the service of his grace and compelling her to further her designs. L. Berkhof (Systematic Theology) points out that whereas God as El Shaddai is indeed presented as the all-powerful One who overpowers nature, the name, where it occurs in the Bible, does not present God as an object of fear or terror, but rather as a source of blessing and comfort.[1]
Minority views
Some suggest that Shaddai is a composite term of sha (“the one who”) and dai (“is sufficient”). Some later Greek versions of the Old Testament have adopted this meaning. This view is not as well accepted as the view above.
Others believe that Shaddai may be an archaic form for shade = “mountain,” and that El Shadaii may mean “dweller on the mountain.” The “inhabitant of the mountain” would easily become “the mighty one” or “the almighty one,” in consequence of the fixedness of the mountain and the impregnable character of the sanctuary.
The name Ṣuri-shaddai (“my rock is Shaddai”), as well as the later use of ṣuri as an epithet of Yahwe in Ps. 18:2, 31:3, and 2 Sam. 22:2, would add strength to this. Yahwe originally appeared in a mountain — Horeb — so that the two are kindred.
Least accepted meanings
Some have begun with shad as the first concept to be considered; its meaning is “breast, pap, or teat,” and it is considered by them as a metaphor of God who nourishes, supplies, and satisfies. However, the root of shad (shadah) in Semitic usage, is to moisten; this meaning is not appropriate in the context in which El Shaddai appears; nor is shed (demon), which some scholars have sought to use because it appears in Deuteronomy 32:17 and Psalm 106:37 speaking of Israel’s idolatry. In addition to the fact that shed is spelled differently, the connection between the concept of demon and God as all-powerful is difficult to establish.[2]
William Branham got his reference to the breasted god from the Scofield Bible. Scofield was not a Hebrew scholar. It is interesting to note that the recent Scofield revision (1967) recognizes the error of the prior versions and focuses on the meaning as “all sufficient” and to the usual translation of EL SHADDAI as “God Almighty.” [3]
References
- ↑ Walter A. Elwell and Barry J. Beitzel, Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1988), 882–883.
- ↑ Walter A. Elwell and Barry J. Beitzel, Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1988), 882–883.
- ↑ Carl F. H. Henry, God, Revelation, and Authority, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1999), 193.