- Why cannot God have many names, the word "God" itself one of them?
Might I point out the difference between "the name" and "a name", please. And also the subtle difference between a or the name of something (or someone) and what it gets called. Semantic hair-splitting, possibly, but I feel it worth mentioning.
- But, then, there is also how Jesus refered to God as "Elohim" (sp?).
Hebrew has several words for their god which describe different aspects of him. A short list: Elohim, Elshaddai, Abba. Short of borrowing them directly, English does not have equivalents for these words*. In fact, modern editions of the Bible often have an introduction with several paragraphs detailing how they addressed this issue. It's a bit like the old saw about Inuit having dozens of words for "snow". :-)
- I'd also be interested in seeing if anyone claims "Yahweh" or "Jehovah" as names for God. Particularly since these are based on errors.
Well, "Yahwah" is, but really only in Ancient Hebrew. Again, English does not carry the requisite language construct to translate it correctly.
Wade.
* I understand this is largely because they are a linguistic construct English does not have.