the Hebrew God has a name and it isn't allah

Submitted by Oliver (United States), Dec 30, 2007 at 23:40

Thank you for sharing John 3:16 with us and I'll take your word that the word allah appears where the english word god or the greek word theos would normally be in their respective versions. This begs the question, which version of the NT was this arabic version translated from? Was it the Greek NT? The Peshitta NT? Or an English NT? The 'english' wording you provided appears to be from the English Standard Version [ESV] which reads:

16 لأَنَّهُ هَكَذَا أَحَبَّ اللَّهُ الْعَالَمَ حَتَّى بَذَلَ ابْنَهُ الْوَحِيدَ لِكَيْ لاَ يَهْلِكَ كُلُّ مَنْ يُؤْمِنُ بِهِ بَلْ تَكُونُ لَهُ الْحَيَاةُ الأَبَدِيَّةُ.

I would lke to point out that the english and greek words in the above texts are generic in nature and are in no way suggestive that they are the 'name of god' they are merely words that refer to a god or the God. I hope I am in full agreement with what you had intended to say.

On the other hand, the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob told Moses His personal name just before He sent Moses to lead the Hebrews out of Egypt. This name is represented by 4 Hebrew letters, the vocalization of which has been lost to memory because the Jews stopped pronouncing His name out of holy respect. These 4 letters are recorded in Exodus 3 : 14. [God] said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" [ESV]

14 καὶ εἶπεν ὁ [θεὸς] πρὸς Μωυσῆν Ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ὤν· καὶ εἶπεν Οὕτως ἐρεῖς τοῖς υἱοῖς Ισραηλ Ὁ ὢν ἀπέσταλκέν με πρὸς ὑμᾶς.

14 ויאמר [אלהים] אל־משׁה אהיה אשׁר אהיה ויאמר כה תאמר לבני ישׂראל אהיה שׁלחני אליכם׃

14 فَقَالَ اللهُ لِمُوسَى: «اهْيَهِ الَّذِي اهْيَهْ». وَقَالَ: «هَكَذَا تَقُولُ لِبَنِي اسْرَائِيلَ: اهْيَهْ ارْسَلَنِي الَيْكُمْ».

Note that the generic words for god appear in the english [God] greek [θεὸς] and hebrew [אלהים] also I underlined the actual 'Name of God' in the same versions. I would be most interested in 'seeing' how the arabic renders these words ...

οὕτω γὰρ ἡγάπησεν ὁ Θεὸς τὸν κόσμον, ὥστε τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ τὸν μονογενῆ ἔδωκεν, ἵνα πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων εἰς αὐτὸν μὴ ἀπόληται, ἀλλ᾿ ἔχῃ ζωὴν αἰώνιον.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

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