El Shaddai

Third in frequency among divine names,{{sfn|Lutzky|1998|pp=15–36}} 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).{{sfn|Steins|1974|p=424}}

The first occurrence of the name comes in {{bibleref2|Genesis|17:1|ESV}}, "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,'{{Cite book|url= https://www.bible.com/bible/59/GEN.17.1.ESV|title= 'the LORD' replaced with 'El Shaddai' in Genesis 17:1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, 'I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless'|publisher= English Standard Version (ESV) |year= 2016|language= en}} Similarly, in {{bibleref2|Genesis|35:11|ESV}} 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 {{bibleref2|Exodus|6:2-3|ESV}} 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, shaddayinThe word "{{Script/Hebrew|שדין}}" appears in the ketiv of Job 19:29, where it is somewhat obscure ("{{Script/Hebrew|גורו לכם מפני־חרב כי־חמה עונות חרב למען תדעון שדין}}"). Knauf suggests that this may mean "revenger gods" in his article on Shadday, see reference later. appear ({{langx|he|שדין}}; the vowels are uncertain, as is the gemination of the d), perhaps lesser figurations of Shaddai.Harriet Lutzky, "Ambivalence toward Balaam" Vetus Testamentum 49.3 [July 1999, pp. 421–425] p. 421. These have been tentatively identified with the šēdim "demons" ({{langx |he|שדים}}) of Deuteronomy 32:17 (parashah Haazinu) and Psalm 106: 37–38,J. A. Hackett, "Some observations on the Balaam tradition at Deir 'Alla'" Biblical Archaeology 49 (1986), p. 220. 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.{{Cite book |last=Fokkelman |first=J. P. |title=The book of Job in form: a literary translation with commentary |publisher=Brill |year=2012 |isbn=9786613683434 |location=Leiden |pages=20–21}}

{{cite book

|last1 = Mears

|first1 = Henrietta C.

|author-link1 = Henrietta Mears

|date = 15 January 2016

|orig-date = 1953

|chapter = 14: Understanding Job

|title = What the Bible Is All About: KJV Bible Handbook

|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=jdM7CwAAQBAJ

|edition = revised

|publisher = NavPress

|isbn = 9781496416063

|access-date = 17 September 2023

|quote = [Job] is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, books in the Bible.

}}

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 ("{{lang|grc|θεὸς σαδδαΐ}}"). In other places (such as Job 5:17) it appears as "Almighty" ("{{lang|grc|παντοκράτωρ}}"), and this word features in other translations as well, such as the 1611 King James Version.

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.{{rp|750}} 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, {{lang|he|חיות השדה}}, and cattle, {{lang|he|בהמות}}). 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 {{cite book |title=Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible |date=1999 |editor1=van der Toorn |editor-first=Karel |editor-link=Karel van der Toorn |edition=2 |pages=749–753 |asin=B00RWRAWY8 |editor2=Becking |editor-first2=Bob |editor3=van der Horst |editor-first3=Pieter |editor3-link=Pieter van der Horst}}{{rp|750}}

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.{{citation needed|date=April 2021}} 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.{{citation needed|date=April 2021}}

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.

The root word shadad ({{lang|he|שדד}}) 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 ({{lang|ar|شديد}}) "strong",{{cite web|url=http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/Lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H7703&t=KJV|title=Gesenius' Lexicon (Tregelles' translation)|work=Blue Letter Bible|access-date=12 January 2015|archive-date=13 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210513063838/https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?t=kjv&strongs=h7703|url-status=dead}} 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,{{lang|he|כשד משדי יבוא}}, Isaiah 13:6 and Joel 1:15), but Knauf maintains that this is re-etymologization.{{rp|751}}

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.{{cite book|author1=George E. Mendenhall|title=Ancient Israel's Faith and History: An Introduction to the Bible in Context|date=2001|isbn=978-0664223137|page=264|publisher=Westminster John Knox Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7sszoBJFQFoC&q=Thadyen&pg=PA264}}

The Hebrew noun ({{lang|he|שד}}) šād, šādayim, šōd means breast, breasts (dual,) mother's breast.{{Cite web |title=Shad Meaning in Bible – Old Testament Hebrew Lexicon - New American Standard |url=https://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/hebrew/nas/shad.html |access-date=2020-04-13 |website=biblestudytools.com}}{{cite book | last=Militarev | first=A. I︠U︡ | last2=Kogan | first2=Leonid Efimovich | last3=Belova | first3=A. G. | title=Semitic etymological dictionary | publisher=Ugarit-Verlag | publication-place=Münster | date=2000 | isbn=3-927120-96-0 | oclc=46329329 | page=250}}[4] Hbr. šād, dual šādayim 'breast' [KB 1416], šōd 'mother's breast' [ibid. 1418].

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".{{Cite journal|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1062160|title=The God with Breasts: El Shaddai in the Bible|last=Biale|first=David|date=February 1982|journal=History of Religions|volume=21 |issue=3 |pages=240–256 |doi=10.1086/462899 |jstor=1062160 |s2cid=162352850 |access-date=2021-11-25|url-access=subscription}}

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.{{cite book | last=Militarev | first=A. I︠U︡ | last2=Kogan | first2=Leonid Efimovich | last3=Belova | first3=A. G. | title=Semitic etymological dictionary | publisher=Ugarit-Verlag | publication-place=Münster | date=2000 | isbn=3-927120-96-0 | oclc=46329329 | page=250}}{{cite book | last=Ehret | first=Christopher | title=Reconstructing Proto-Afroasiatic (Proto-Afrasian) | publisher=Univ of California Press | publication-place=Berkeley | date=1995-08-30 | isbn=0-520-09799-8 | page=245}} while {{smallcaps|šdh}} means a plain in Canaanite but a mountain in Sumerian.{{sfn|MacLaurin|1962|pp=439–463}} The reconstructed common root in Semitic Etymological disctionary is "*ṯVdy- / *čVdy- (woman's breast)".

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).{{cite book |last1=Marks |first1=John |title=A Beginner's Handbook to Biblical Hebrew |last2=Roger |first2=Virgil |publisher=Abingdon Press |year=1978 |place=Nashville, Tennessee |page=60, par. 45 |section=Relative pronoun}} The noun containing the dagesh is the Hebrew word dai meaning "enough, sufficient, sufficiency".{{cite encyclopedia |year=1964 |title=dai |dictionary=Ben Yehudah's Pocket English-Hebrew/Hebrew-English |publisher=Pocket Books, Simon & Schuster |place=New York, New York |page=44}} 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.It is understood as such by {{cite book |title=The Stone Edition of the Chumash (Torah) |publisher=Art Scroll / Mesorah Publications |year=1994 |editor1-last=Scherman |editor1-first=Nosson |edition=2nd |place=Brooklyn, New York City, New York |page=319 |section=Exodus 6:3 commentary |editor2-last=Zlotowitz |editor2-first=Meir }} Art Scroll is an Orthodox Jewish publisher. The Talmud explains it this way, but says that Shaddai stands for Mi she'Amar Dai L'olamo (Hebrew: {{script/Hebrew|מי שאמר די לעולמו}}) – "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.{{cite Talmud|b|Chagigah|4=12a.1–36}}

There is early support for this interpretation, in that the Septuagint translates Shadday in several places as {{math|ὁ ἱκανός}}, 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."{{sfn|Day|2000|p=32}}

The name Shaddai often appears on the devices such as amulets or dedicatory plaques.{{Cite journal |last=Sabar |first=Shalom |year=2009 |title=Torah and magic: The Torah scroll and its appurtenances as magical objects in traditional Jewish culture |journal=European Journal of Jewish Studies |volume=3 |pages=154–156 |doi=10.1163/102599909X12471170467448}}{{Cite book |last=Schniedewind |first=William Michael |year=2009 |section=Calling God names: An inner-Biblical approach to the tetragrammaton |title=Scriptural Exegesis: The shapes of culture and the religious imagination – essays in honour of Michael Fishbane |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=76}}{{cite book |last=Trachtenberg |first=Joshua |url=https://archive.org/details/jewishmagicsuper0000josh |title=Jewish Magic and Superstition: A study in folk religion |publisher=Temple Books / Antheneum |year=1975 |isbn=0-689-70234-5 |place=New York, New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/jewishmagicsuper0000josh/page/n81 148] |lccn=39-14212 |access-date=23 Sep 2023 |orig-date=1939 |url-access=limited}} 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. [The letter] shin He put in the nose, dalet – on the hand, whereas yod on the {circumcised} [membrum]. Accordingly, {when} He goes to {His eternal home} (Ecclesiastes 12:5), there is an angel {appointed} in the garden of Eden who picks up every son of which is circumcised and brings him {there}. And those who are not circumcised? Although there are two letters of the name Shaddai present on them, {namely} shin from the nose and dalet from the hand, the yod (...) is {missing}. 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").{{cite book |last=Kosior |first=Wojciech |year=2016 |section=The apotropaic potential of the name "Shadday" in the Hebrew Bible and the early rabbinic literature |title=Word in the Cultures of the East: Sound, language, book |publisher=Wydawnictwo Libron |isbn=978-83-65705-21-1 |location=Cracow |pages=33–51 |url=https://www.academia.edu/31468482}} 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.{{cite journal |last=Aviezer |first=Hillel |year=1997 |title=Ha-Mezuzah – beyn Mitzvah le-Qamiya |journal=Ma'aliyot |volume=19 |page=229}}

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.

The SeptuagintJob 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".{{cite book | title=New Jerusalem Bible Standard Edition | year=1985 | pages=908 | publisher=Dartman, Longman & Todd | location=London | isbn=0-232-51650-2}}

"Almighty" is the translation of Shaddai followed by most modern English translations of the Hebrew scriptures, including the popular New International Version{{cite book | title=The NIV Exhaustive Concordance | year=1990 | pages=1631 | publisher=Hodder & Stoughton | location=London | isbn=0-340-53777-9 | author=Goodrick, Kohlenberger}} 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.{{cite book | title=New Jerusalem Bible Standard Edition | year=1985 | pages=35 | publisher=Dartman, Longman & Todd | location=London | isbn=0-232-51650-2}}

The translation in the Concordant Old Testament is 'El Who-Suffices' (Genesis 17:1).

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.{{cite book |last1=Gelbert |first1=Carlos |url=https://livingwaterbooks.com.au/product/ginza-rba/ |title=Ginza Rba |publisher=Living Water Books |year=2011 |isbn=9780958034630 |location=Sydney, Australia }}

{{reflist|25em}}

• {{cite encyclopedia |url=http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=52&letter=N#167 |encyclopedia=Jewish Encyclopedia |article=Names of God: Shaddai and 'Elyon}}
• {{cite book | last=Day | first=John | title=Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan | publisher=Burns & Oates | publication-place=London | date=2000 | isbn=1-85075-986-3}}
• {{cite journal |last=Lutzky |first=Harriet |year=1998 |title=Shadday as a Goddess Epithet |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/1585459 |journal=Vetus Testamentum |publisher=Brill |volume=48 |issue=1 |pages=15–36 |doi=10.1163/1568533982721839 |issn=0042-4935 |jstor=1585459 |access-date=2023-10-28|url-access=subscription }}
• {{cite journal |last=MacLaurin |first=E. C. B. |year=1962 |title=YHWH, the Origin of the Tetragrammaton |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/1516934 |journal=Vetus Testamentum |publisher=Brill |volume=12 |issue=4 |pages=439–463 |doi=10.2307/1516934 |issn=0042-4935 |jstor=1516934 |access-date=2023-11-08|url-access=subscription }}
• {{cite book |title=Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament |last=Steins |first=G. |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing |year=1974 |isbn=978-0-8028-2345-8 |pages=418–446 |editor-last=Botterweck |editor-first=G. Johannes |volume=XIV |chapter=שדי šadday |editor-last2=Ringgren |editor-first2=Helmer |editor-last3=Fabry |editor-first3=Heinz-Josef |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dMidce6H4WYC&pg=PA420}}

• {{wiktionary-inline|שד}}
• {{wiktionary-inline|El Shaddai}}
• {{wikiquote-inline}}

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