Why do Christians use the name "God" to describe YHVH?

Question

I mean the word 'God' distinctly refers to a specific ancient Germanic pagan deity, Godan, who was later renamed Odin. (Who's famous in comic books, Hiter's metaphysics and Gaiman's literature) Is this inconsistent with the prohibition of the worship of pagan deities? Shouldn't you call God (the father) one of the "pronunciations" of YHVH, like Yahweh or Jehovah? Because I'm pretty sure Godan's son wasn't Jesus of Nazareth.

Corrosion: Where do you think the "Gott" sprung up from? From the God of the proto-Germans, Gudan.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_%28word%29
I'm just pointing out what name I think might be more appropriate for YHVH, unless of course I'm proven wrong. Do we really want to be invoking (the meaning of god) a pagan deity when meaning another deity entirely?

Hoosier: If you follow the father of "Gaut" the same deity becomes Odin. I didn't mean to oversimplify so much it seemed false to one with a bit of education.

Answer 1

These are just words. Words don't have meanings independent of what people assign to them.

So, if a person uses the word "God" to mean the Judeo-Christian deity, then that's what it means. It doesn't mean "Odin."

Similarly, saying "Yahweh" or "Jehovah" isn't any different than using the word "God." They are all English words. The ancient Hebrews did not use those words, they used Hebrew words. Those words may have sounded similar, but they aren't the same.

Answer 2

Christians generally don't work from Hebrew texts, which is one of the reasons why they do not use Hebrew names for God. Early Christian texts were written in Greek, then translated to Latin, and the Latin versions were what was used in the West for a very long time. Christians became so divorced from their Hebrew roots that by the time they started looking at Hebrew texts again, they mistranslated YHWH as Jehovah. I'm with Frau Hunter on the witch/Wiccan thing. The name YHWH as NO place in Wiccan ritual, and in my experience very few people calling themselves witches use it either. Where you do find it is in various kinds of ceremonial magic, often Christian-based. Frau Hunter also did not call Crowley shallow. She called modern New Agers that go to a bookstore, grab a couple random books, smash them altogether and call themselves a witch to be shallow. If you're going to insult answerers, kindly stop asking questions here. People like Frau Hunter are going to give answers to the best of their ability and are going to presume your question is legit rather than a cry to find other people who agree with you. Edit: I don't understand the first link you reference toward me. It doesn't appear to have anything to do with Wicca. The second book is one I'm not familiar with. There's a lot of silly stuff out there about Wicca. Because one author writes about Wicca and mentions YHWH doesn't mean all Wiccans, or even most Wiccans, or even a sizable minority do. It appears that this particular author is fusing a lot of ceremonial magic with Wicca.

Answer 3

Last time I check, English was still a germanic based language. So it has words that come from German. One of those words is "god", which (suprise) comes from the German word for "god". That once upon a time hundreds of years ago that German word for "god" came from the name of a specific diety is pointless. Every word came from somewhere.

Even within the Bible, you will find that YHWH is refered to at times by his name, but also by the word "elohim" (or its shorter version "el") which means the same as the English word "god".

While the origin of the word "elohim" is unknown, some scholars, such as Joel Hoffman, believe it may have come from the Canaanite word "elim", which refered to their entire pantheon of gods. Yet the possible origin of the word from the name of another set of "gods" did not prevent the Jews from using it. In fact, "elohim" is used far more often them YHWH in the scriptures.

So to use the word "god" does not imply in any manner that Jesus was related to Godan. Especially since the earliest records we have of the Norse legends date from 1000AD, a full millinuem AFTER the time of Jesus. Odin ( Woden or Goden) was not invented until AFTER the time of Jesus. That is why ther are so many similarities in their stories. The Norse "borrowed" from the Christian faith which they had embraced nearly 200 years before any of the legends were recorded.

Answer 4

Wrong, typically wrong. There never has been a "Godan". The word "god" comes from the Indo-European root *gheu, meaning "to invoke" or "to call upon". "Odin", on the other hand, comes from the root *wōþuz, meaning "fury". There was no such thing as "Godan", no matter what propaganda you have decided to swallow.

Answer 5

Well I can tell you it comes from a old belief in humility. To speak God's name is to attempt to call attention to yourself...and as people are not worthy of trying to get God's attemntion they do not address it by name.

The funny thing is then you design a whole ritual intedned to basically be a big shout up to heaven to get God's attention when maybe should have just used God's name

Answer 6

It's from the German word for god, "gott", as in "Mein gott!"

English is made up of many languages.

Answer 7

No, God's cooler cos neither Yahweh, nor Jehovah become 'dog' when flipped.

And anyway, even the latin form Deus comes from another god, Dyeus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyeus

Answer 8

It's a funny inconsistency, i'll agree with you there....

but then christians are usually simple minded, and like single syllable words....

Answer 9

maybe to you that is true....but not to the rest of the world...

god is a general term for deity

Answer 10

It's not Anglosized enough for them.