# Why does God need a name?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-god-need-a-name/495484>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [May 6, 2009, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-god-need-a-name/495484 "2009-05-06T00:40:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\
**Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-god-need-a-name/495484/21 "2009-05-08T18:29:00Z")

</div>

God doesn’t need a name, God hungry for Hot Pockets.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![xnylder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/bbce88/32.png) [@xnylder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xnylder)\
**Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-god-need-a-name/495484/22 "2009-05-08T19:23:00Z")

</div>

> [@jinty](#):
>
> Well first of all he was called El ([El (deity) - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_(god))), back when he had a wife called Asherah ([Asherah - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asherah)). And lo they begat seventy little godlets, including Yahweh ([Yahweh - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahweh)) and Baal ([Baal - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baal)).  
> Each of the gods and godlets had a three-letter name, described in the Shemhamphorasch ([Shem HaMephorash - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shemhamphorash)) aka the Divided Name.  
> Then one day a king called Hezekiah ([Hezekiah - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hezekiah)) rose in Jerusalem and instituted some kick-ass religious reforms. He merged El and Yahweh, disbanded Asherah (heck, she was a chick! can’t have chicks in charge!), discredited Baal and downgraded the other godlets to “angels”. Sort of like a modern leader merging & disbanding government departments and dispensing promotions to his chums.

No reply for the OP, just a thank you for posting this. This kind of vulgarization of fascinating concepts that would otherwise take me ages to research is why I read this message board.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-god-need-a-name/495484.md?page=1)