But, after several years of using “G-d”, won’t the letters “G-d” represent the name of God just as much as the letters “God” do?
After all, the name of God was originally written in Hebrew, so the latin characters “God” had nothing to do with the name of the Hebrew God. It now seems that after centuries of usage, people consider the letters “God” to be sufficiently representing the name of God that they avoid writing it.
Does this mean that the letters “G-d” will one day be considered to sufficiently represent the name of God that people will start using some other letters?
I believe that the basic idea is to provide an English equivalent to YHWH, which is what Jews use instead of Yahweh for the Name, to avoid the sin of saying or writing it. If thousands of years of using YHWH in place of Yahweh hasn’t rendered the two equivalent, I doubt that G-d will ever be considered unwriteable. Hopefully, one of our knowledgeable Jewish posters will be along to provide a more detailed explanation.
I’ve often wondered this myself. G-d is God with different symbols used. If it is a sin to write or utter Yahweh, then how do we know it. How are children taugh this and are they left to learn the real word on the street (no sarcasm I am genuinely interested)
I guess my basic problem with that is that “God” is no more “YHWH’s”, “Jehovah’s” (or any of the many derivations) name than my name is “Man.”
And the bible bears that out—Satan himself is called a “god.” (2 Cor 4:4)
It makes perfect sense to me to Caplitalize God when referring to the Sovereign of the universe. However, His name is not “God.”
I’m pretty sure I’ve read something that not only used “G-d” but “J—s” and “Chri–”. Is this Jewish practice as well? Why, if they don’t believe in a divine Jesus?
Where did you see that? Most Orthodox Jews avoid referring to Jesus as “Christ,” the Greek word for ‘annointed’ (aka “Messiah”, which is the Anglicised Hebrew word), as we don’t believe the Jesus was the Messiah, but I can’t imagine that any Orthodox Jew would use the word but leave out some letters. Perhaps some branch of Christianity has adopted the practice?
I still don’t get why you can get away with defacing or destroying “substitute” names for God.
If my boss is called Joe, and we all start referring to him as Bob, that doesn’t mean I can go around saying “fuck Bob, he’s an asshole”, without any consequences.
“Bob” now refers to the entity that is my boss, and whatever I do with “Bob” (e.g. print the name out and spit on it) is indistinguishable from doing the same thing to “Joe” (especially if my boss knows everyone now calls him “Bob”)
And I assume God knows people are referring to him as G-d.
The problem with your analogy is that you and your co-workers didn’t just create a new, unique name for Joe. You picked a name that is used by other workers to describe their bosses, not just within your company (think the various flavors of Judaism) but for bosses the world over. (Islam, Christianity)
You may make the claim that "your B-b"is the only valid use of the name Bob, to which I reply “nonsense”. And in fact note that your B-b, on more than one occasion, dissed other Bob’s—while using the name "bob.’
Dunno about English, but this has already happened in Hebrew – it had been customary to write a single letter Heh with a following apostrophe (thus in Hebrew – 'ה ), presumably as a short version of Hashem. By the time I was finishing high school, this was considered too much of a “God’s Name”, and was beginning to be rendered instead as a single letter Daleth (thus – 'ד )(presumably in order to invoke the sound of the word Adonai [?]).
As a lifelong Atheist, this always made me laugh… but to each their own, I guess.
From James Cahill’s The Gifts of the Jews (which I just happened to read the other day):
Ancient Hebrew was written without vowels; and by the time vowel subscripts were added to the consonants in the Middle Ages, the Name of God had become so sacred that it was never uttered. Even in classical times, as early as the Second Temple period, only the high priest could pronounce the Name of God—and only once a year in the prayer of the Day of Atonement. Once the Temple was destroyed in A.D. 70, no Jew ever uttered the Name again. From that time to this, the devout have avoided this word in the text of their Bible, reading “Adonai” (“the Lord”) when they come to the word YHWH. Many Orthodox go a step further, refusing even to say “Adonai” and substituting “ha-Shem”(“the Name”). So, after such a great passage of time, we have lost the certain knowledge of how to pronounce the word that is represented by these consonants.
I’d consider that YHWH and Yahweh are equivalent. After all, YHWH would never mean anything other than Yahweh.
Noone Special’s post made me laugh. And I think it provides the answer the OP was looking for. Yes, G-d might be the equivalent of God, but you’ve got to cling to it as a bulwark, because what happens if you don’t? You’ll find yourself going from “G-d” to “G–” to “—” and by the end you’ll only be able to refer to the deity by a slight twitch of your left eyelid.
