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To: Restorer
I'm not sure what supposed error in my post you're correcting. I am aware that God's personal name in the OT is YHWH.

What you are apparently unaware of is that by the time of Mohammad Jews had ceased using YHWH out of respect for the divine name and used other names like Adonai (Lord) and Elohim.

Delitzsch's etymology of Allah is hotly contested by Semitists like Lambdin, Muraoka and others. The Catholic Encyclopedia, while it is an extremely well-researched work, was published more than 80 years ago. Some of the most groundbreaking work in Semitic studies has taken place since WWII, including the discovery of entirely new Semitic languages and grammars like those of the Nabataeans and Ugarits.

The name El was the name of many local gods in the Middle East, it's true. But many of these gods had compound names in which El was a prefix meaning divinity. Which divinity was "El-Lah"? It's certainly not a name of God used by the Jews.

60 posted on 10/16/2001 3:27:34 PM PDT by wideawake
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To: wideawake
I do not know the derivation of the word Allah. It is, however, plainly simply the Arabic word for God. It is used in Arabic Christian texts predating Mohammed. That it is not a Jewish name for God is neither here nor there: neither "God" nor "Dieu" is "YHWY" or "Adonai" or "Elohim". either.
65 posted on 10/16/2001 10:58:36 PM PDT by The_Reader_David
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To: wideawake
Adonai and Elohim are not proper nouns or names, they are common nouns or titles. Even the Bible uses the same words to refer to other gods, false pagan gods. (I'm not sure whether Elohim is used this way, I think it's restricted to the One True God.)

As others have pointed out, allah is and was the common noun in Arabic for god. Capitalized as Allah, it is a direct translation of our word God. What difference does it make that a term formerly used to refer to a pagan god is now applied to God? The terms used in the NT for God were titles or common nouns used to refer to the pagan gods. Does that mean that the NT somehow was not referring to the One True God?

Similarly, Mohammed makes very plain that when he uses the term Allah he means the One True God Creator of the Universe. I happen to not agree with his claim to inspiration by this God, but he certainly was not referring to any other.

70 posted on 10/17/2001 5:37:45 PM PDT by Restorer
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