god

n.

1. God
   1. A being conceived as the perfect, omnipotent, omniscient originator and ruler of the universe, the principal object of faith and worship in monotheistic religions.
   2. The force, effect, or a manifestation or aspect of this being.
2. A being of supernatural powers or attributes, believed in and worshiped by a people, especially a male deity thought to control some part of nature or reality.
3. An image of a supernatural being; an idol.
4. One that is worshiped, idealized, or followed: Money was their god.
5. A very handsome man.
6. A powerful ruler or despot.

[Middle English, from Old English.]

Idioms beginning with God:
God forbid

See also act of god; for god's sake; honest to god; lap of the gods; mills of gods grind slowly; my god; put the fear of god in; so help me (god); thank god; there but for the grace of god; tin god.

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For more information on God, visit Britannica.com.

The Supreme Being; creator of the world, Lord of the universe. In biblical and rabbinic sources, knowledge of God comes not as the product of philosophic speculation or mystical insight but as inferences gleaned from His actions and self-revelation.

In the Bible God is supreme over all and possesses absolute sovereignty: "For the Lord your God is God supreme and Lord supreme, the great, the mighty and the awesome God" (Deut. 10:17). He is utterly distinct from the world, subject to no laws or limitations, omnipotent and omniscient.

God is One (Deut. 4:35, 6:4), which also means unique and incomparable (see Monotheism). He is the source of everything in the world, including evil (Isa. 45:7). God is above time (Ps. 90:2) and outside space (Isa. 66:1; Jer. 23:24). He is infinite, without beginning and end, and unchanging (Mal. 3:6).

The word kadosh ("holy") applied to God means metaphysical transcendence, while the word kavod ("glory") refers to the indwelling experienced presence of God. Thus the hymn, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts, the whole world is full of His glory" (Isa. 6:3), expresses the paradoxical nature of God's utter transcendence coupled with His constant immanence. God is beyond the world, far removed from it ontologically and conceptually (Ps. 97:9), yet He is very much the ground of all being (Ex. 3:12-15), the "soul of our soul," accessible to man at all times (Ps. 145:18). He is God who reveals Himself to man, yet often appears to be a "hidden God" (Isa. 45:15).

The biblical concept of God is personalistic, i.e., He is portrayed in terms of personality. He appears as a moral will who engages in dialogue with men, demanding and commanding, judging, punishing and rewarding. God contemplates and plans, decides and chooses, and acts purposefully. He is aware of the human condition (Ex. 2:24) and reaches out to man in love.

God is the creator of the universe, which of itself has no Divine quality. He brought all into existence, out of nothing, as a Divine act of will (Ps. 33:9). This implies that the entire universe from subatomic particles to galaxies constitutes a unity, with the same laws of nature holding uniformly throughout the cosmos. However, the universe has no independent existence outside of God, Who constantly infuses it with life. If it could be imagined that God should cease to exist, the universe would collapse into nothingness.

God is the Lord of universal history Who manifests Himself in the affairs of nations and particularly in the history of Israel. After completing the creation of the world of nature, God continues to guide the course of history (Deut. 32:8). Though in fashioning the physical world God had no opposition, in history He must contend with man's freedom, which often turns to rebelliousness. The prophets affirm however, that ultimately in the "end of days," God's Will will be done.

Having given man freedom, God does not overwhelm him, either in personal relationship or in His direction of history. In creating man, God, as it were, accepts a certain self-limitation in order to preserve man's freedom. God relates to man more as a loving father, that is to say, as an educator rather than as a king.

In spite of the theological problem it creates, the Bible describes God in terms of emotions: He is angry (Ex. 22:23), pleased (Gen. 1:31), sad and disappointed (Gen. 6:6), has pity (Jonah 4:11), loves (Deut. 23:6), and hates (Amos 5:21). With reference to these Anthropomorphisms, the rabbis explained that "the Bible speaks in human language" (Ber. 31b) in order to render intelligible God's actions. However, it is not assumed that God experiences the psychic state that man calls emotions.

On the general question of the propriety of describing God in corporeal terms, the evidence of the Bible is ambiguous (Ex. 33:23, 24:10, 15:6). Later philosophical analysis of the type undertaken by Maimonides and others shows that this has implications that are inconsistent with other fundamental principles, such as God's unity and eternity. Therefore, the incorporeality of God is established in such passages as, "The Lord spoke to you out of the fire, you heard the sound of words but perceived no shape, only a voice"; and, "For you saw no shape when the Lord your God spoke to you at Horeb ... lest you act wickedly and make for yourselves a sculptured image ..." (Deut. 4:12, 15-16).

God and Morality The two major theophanies of the Bible take place at Mount Sinai. The first is witnessed by all of Israel and results in the giving of the Tablets of the Covenant<decalogue (Ex. 20). The second is experienced by Moses alone, prior to receiving the second set of Tablets, and consists of the response of God to Moses' request: "Teach me Your ways" and "Show me Your presence" (Ex. 33:13, 18). The essential message of both revelations, however, is a self-disclosure of the moral nature of God.

Six of the nine imperatives contained in the Decalogue are of a moral nature and cover deeds, speech, and thought. God demands of man moral character and behavior, which is the essence of His covenant with Israel. God's disclosure to Moses is not given in terms of a promise of certain kinds of actions but in terms of character traits: "...God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and faithfulness, extending kindness unto the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity ... yet by no means clearing the guilty" (Ex. 34:6).

While the social morality of the Decalogue is contained in a framework that is national, the moral qualities ascribed to God in the encounter with Moses imply universality. Indeed, the account in Genesis suggests that morality was already known to and expected from earliest man. Morality is willed by God because it is in some sense constitutive of Himself. God could not have willed otherwise. Thus morality has intrinsic though not independent value; although grounded in God, and although by being moral man fulfills his humanity and Divine image, it may be said to be valued for its own sake. For, while the Jew may view morality---the good---as a means of reaching God, once he has reached Him, he has once again reached the good. It is because of this special relationship between God and morality that the problem of theodicy (see Reward and Punishment), which challenges God's goodness and justice, takes on such importance and is treated at length in the Book of Job.

Divine Attributes While God is unique, transcendent, and completely other than anything in human experience, there is no alternative, in speaking of Him, but to use concepts drawn from human experience. Thus, any qualities ascribed to God must not be interpreted literally. The most appropriate way to speak of God is to attribute to Him certain works or actions. It is perfectly legitimate, according to Maimonides, to say: "God is the creator of the world, the giver of the Torah, the liberator of Israel from Egypt, the healer of the sick, etc.," because this does not suggest how these acts are produced or what element must be contained in the agent in order to produce the act. Similarly, emotional qualities ascribed to God, such as love, mercy, anger, and jealousy, can be analyzed in terms of predicated action. Thus, to say that "God was angry with the people of Sodom" is to assert that the city could expect from God actions associated with anger in human beings.

However, to predicate of God certain actions, such as creation of the world and redemption of the Children of Israel from slavery, implies in the context of the larger story of the Bible that God is in some sense alive, possessing tremendous power and intelligence, and capable of purposive planning. This leads to the positing of what Maimonides calls "God's essential attributes," i.e., qualities which define His primary nature; that which makes a thing what it is: life, wisdom, power. However, the principle of God's unity states that God's essence and His existence are one. Therefore, while man knows his own life, power, will, and understanding to be different things, in God He and His wisdom, His life, His will, and His power are one. But God's essence is unknowable and beyond human comprehension.

Is there anything man can know about God? Since there is no similarity between God and man, the term "know" does not mean the same when predicated of God as it does when predicated of man. Christian theology, following Thomas Aquinas, generally favors the theory of analogical predication. This maintains that when used in reference to God the human term retains some similarity to its original meaning, only allowing for modifications emanating from the Divine context. Thus, it could be said, for example, that God possesses something which does for Him what "knowledge" does for man.

Maimonides, however, preferred the theory of double privative attributes, which employs a complex logical analysis. The statement "God is wise" is to be translated into "God is not not-wise," which means that whatever knowledge man may exclude from God's predicates, man must be able to say that He is wise. In short, the assertion removes the possibility of eliminating wisdom from God.

While Maimonides had logical difficulties in applying the quality of relation to God, modern theologians insist that the richness of religious experience, particularly as it is described in the Bible, necessitates the positing of real relationship between man and God in its fullest existential sense. Indeed, from the perspective of Judaism, what is important is not whether human God-talk is translatable into well-formed logical expressions, but the belief that God has acted in nature and history, which brings Him into relationship with man in ways in which man feels obliged to respond.

In Talmudic Literature The rabbis reinforced the centrality of the concept of God in Judaism and characterized one who denies the existence of God or His awareness of man as kofar be-ikkar, "a denier of the root" (Ar. 15b). They also continued the prophetic struggle against Idolatry and polytheism, which was an elaboration of the biblical concept, "You shalt have no other gods before Me ... for I, the Lord thy God, am an impassioned God" (Ex. 20:3-5), even in the difficult and often dangerous circumstances of pagan Persian and Roman rule. So strong was their conviction of the imperative of eliminating polytheism that they taught: "Whosoever denies idolatry it is as if he acknowledges the entire Torah" (Sif., Deut. 28). The rabbis saw as one of the permanent achievements of history the fact that the strong attraction of paganism for the people of the civilized world had faded by the Second Temple period (Yoma 69b).

Among the moral attributes of God are the traits of mercy and kindness, as well as justice as reward for obedience and punishment for transgression (Ex. 34:5-6). Both mercy and justice are positive moral qualities. However, each is not absolute nor is each complete by itself. Often in the social context they must qualify each other. Justice must sometimes be softened by mercy, while mercy must sometimes be restrained by the requirements of retributive justice. The rabbis developed these two concepts as major aspects of God's behavior, calling them middat ha-din, "His measure of strict justice," and middat ha-raḥamim, "His measure of mercy." In rabbinic usage the word middah, which means "measure," was often applied to the "measure" of reward or punishment that was meted out by the judge. However, these two terms soon became hypostatized as resident attributes of God Himself.

The rabbis found no general formula to determine what proportion of mercy and justice should be applied to a given situation. They therefore pushed this question back into the recesses of the Divine mystery of God's moral self. Sometimes the attribute of justice was seen as an abstract moral ideal or even as an angel external to God, while the attribute of mercy was identified with God Himself (Sanh. 97b). The rabbis actually depicted God as praying to Himself that His compassion should overcome His wrath (Ber. 7a).

In Medieval Jewish Philosophy Under the stimulus of Arab and Greek philosophy, Jewish thought in the Middle Ages turned reflective and developed a theology. Its first fruit was the principle enunciated by Saadiah Gaon that the human reason bestowed by God is a valid source of truth equal to that of Revelation. It is therefore a religious duty to seek to understand by rational means the concepts given in Scripture. Indeed, many medieval Jewish thinkers held that religious convictions based upon rational demonstration were more acceptable before God than those based on faith alone. Thus, they resorted to familiar deductive arguments such as the cosmological (argument from the fact of a contingent world), the teleological (argument from design), and the argument from notion favored by Maimonides.

The biblical concept of God's unity was the subject of intense philosophic scrutiny. It was taken to mean not simply that there is only one God and not two, but that the essence of God could in no way be conceived of as possessing any multiplicity. This logically excluded any attribution of corporeal features to God, which led Maimonides to a systematic reinterpretation of all anthropomorphic passages in the Bible (in the first part of his Guide). This rigorous interpretation of God's unity influenced their understanding of the Divine Attributes, as well as the entire question of God's relation to the world and particularly the notion of Divine Providence. How could the eternal, unchanging, wholly other God be in contact with a universe that is contingent and constantly changing? Maimonides' solution is that God alone knows His own unchanging essence and thus has knowledge of all that results from any of His acts.

There is a vast difference between merely engaging in rational reflection on the existence and nature of God and claiming that the rational reflection itself is the ultimate form of religious experience. Judah Halevi denied the latter and argued that genuine religious relationship is immediate communication between man and God which goes beyond the exercise of the intellect. Only a God-given revelation can teach man how to achieve that communion. Halevi contended that the God discovered in the conclusion of the deductive proofs was not yet the God of Abraham.

In Kabbalah In the mystical tradition of Judaism as in all Mysticism, there is an emphasis on the direct and intimate consciousness of the Divine Presence. In the face of the philosophic insistence up the complete transcendence of God, His unknowableness, and His utter unity, how is one to account for the vibrant, rich, and variegated multiplicity which the mystic experiences?

The Kabbalah distinguishes between "God in Himself, hidden in the depth of His being," generally called the En-Sof ("the Infinite"), about whom nothing can be said except that He exists, and the revealed God who manifests Himself in His creation. It is the latter whom the religious personality encounters in his mystical experiences. The ten Sefirot ("emanations") represent a sort of theosophy of the revealed God or Shekhinah ("Indwelling Presence"). These can be viewed as successive stages in the process of creation or as instruments, powers, or attributes of the revealing God. To avoid suggestions of Dualism, the Kabbalah insists on the complete unity of both aspects of God, the En-Sof as well as the Sefirot.

In Kabbalah, and Ḥasidic thought based on it, there is a strong measure of immanence (which sometimes borders on Pantheism), in which elements of the Divine extend into all of creation including man. Thus the Torah is not merely the historic law of the Jewish people but the living incarnation of the Divine wisdom which eternally sends out new rays of light.

The Kabbalah of Isaac Luria contributed the doctrine of Tsimtsum ("concentration" or "contraction") as an answer to the question: How can there be a world if God is everywhere? This doctrine states that God the infinite (En-Sof), who as plenum fills all space, withdrew into Himself, leaving a primordial space into which He sends His rays of creation (Sefirot). According to Gershom Scholem, this daring and profoundly seminal concept not only elucidated the concept of "creation out of nothing," but was able to explain how there is a touch of the Divine in all beings which nevertheless possesses a reality of its own.

In the Modern Period Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786), committed to the ideals of the German Enlightenment, found no difficulty in representing the biblical idea of God as a Supreme Being who unites within Himself the highest wisdom, righteousness, goodness, and power, who is the creator of the world, and guarantees the immortality of the human soul.

Although Hume and Kant had sought to refute the traditional proofs for the existence of God, and thereby demonstrated the inability of metaphysics to prove the basic truths of religion, a new basis for belief in God was found. Theologies now turned to practical reason or to the religious presuppositions of ethical idealism. Thus Solomon Formstecher (1808-1889) could speak of a divine world-soul, identified with God, who is the ideal ethical being to be emulated by man. Similarly Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888) conceived God as the free and omnipotent spirit who in Judaism teaches man to find self-fulfillment in ethical self-consciousness and concrete freedom.

Mordecai Kaplan (1881-1983) departs completely from the biblical-rabbinic concept of a transcendent God. Committed to the tenets of scientific naturalism, Kaplan speaks of God as the sum total of forces in nature working for human fulfillment.

Franz Rosenzweig (1886-1929), on the basis of his "new thinking," which takes into account the existential condition of the individual and his personal experience, validates and upholds the biblical-rabbinic view of God and the world. Man meets God in direct personal encounter. This revelation is a manifestation of God's love, which turns towards the individual and commands him to love God in return. According to Rosenzweig this love relation between man and God redeems the ego from its isolation and its crippling form of death.

Martin Buber (1878-1965) similarly reinstates the biblical categories in which God is discussed. He speaks of a transcendent reality whose Presence can be encountered in the present as the Eternal Thou. Buber and Rosenzweig disagree on the question of whether an encounter with God yields "commandments" or only a sense of Presence.

Abraham Joshua HESCHEL (1907-1972) develops what he calls "depth-theology," in which the starting point is the human situation and the question is: What are the grounds for man's believing in the realness of the living God? Heschel replies that there are moments when man experiences awe, wonder, and a sense of "radical amazement" at the grandeur and sublimity of the world, at the "immense preciousness" of being, at the fact that there are facts at all. This can lead to intimations of God's Presence and allusions to His concern. The special thrust of biblical thought is caught by Heschel when he emphasizes that it is God who is pursuing man and that faith comes out of an awareness of man's being called upon. (See Theology.)

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"God is love." "God is the eschatological hope." "God is the ground of our being." "God is my co-pilot." "God is a psychological crutch, a human invention." "My God! Did you see that?" "Oh God! What will we do now?"

All these expressions, and many more, have been employed to describe or invoke the name of the deity. Atheists have been known to ask the God in which they do not believe to "damn" someone, or send them to the hell they do not believe exists. The phrase "oh my God," expressed with the proper inflection, is always good for a laugh on the soundtrack of television sitcoms. "Oh God …" can express horror, ecstasy, wonder, awe, and delight.

But who, or what, is God?

The answer depends, of course, on whom you ask. But most definitions may be lumped into one of five general categories.

God As Revealed Personality

This is the God of monotheistic religion, the God who exists outside of time and space but who stepped through the veil to reveal himself to humankind. (The masculine pronoun is used here because in this tradition, God has universally been pictured and referred to as male. Lately there is a movement, especially in traditionally liberal seminaries and denominations, toward gender-inclusive language. Such language would dictate the use of words such as "Godself" rather than "himself." But because of the overwhelming use of masculine language in historical monotheism, it has been retained here to better fit the tradition.)

In spite of the great separation, both of substance and sin, that exists between Creator and Creation, God "appeared."

In Judaism, God used various mediums to shade his appearance. Sometimes he spoke through angels, theophanies, or prophets. He spoke to Moses through a burning bush. Often he communicated to priests at the Tent of Meeting when they "cast the Urim and Thummim," which appear to be some sort of sacred dice. Once he spoke through Balaam's donkey.

All these intermediaries were not used because God was "playing hard to get" or being mysterious. There was a very practical reason God had to "filter" himself. In Exodus 33, Moses pleaded with God, "Show me your glory." God's reply was simple. "No one may see me and live."

Moses was hidden in the cleft of a rock and allowed to see God's "after glow." But from that time on, Moses would wear a veil over his face after he came from meetings with the Almighty because "his face was radiant."

In Christianity, God reveals himself further by "taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men" (Philippians 2:7). "The Word was made flesh and lived for a while among us" (John 1:14). "The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being" (Hebrews 1:3).

The primary revelation of Jesus Christ was followed by another revelation through the written word. "All Scripture is God-breathed, and is useful.…" (2 Timothy 3:16).

Islam recognizes both of these revelations, even calling Jews and Christians "people of the book." The Qur'an reminds us, "We believe in … what has been revealed to Abraham, Isma'il, Isaac, Jacob, and the tribes, and in the books given to Moses, Jesus, and the prophets, from their Lord" (Sura 3:84).

But Muhammad taught that both Jews and Christians rejected the revealed God. Islam teaches that a final revelation was given, that revelation being the holy Qur'an, dictated to Muhammad, who could neither read nor write, by an angel. The Qur'an obtained its final form over a period of only eighteen years after the Prophet's death. Allah, "the God," has made his final revelation, has called for the world to submit to his will ("Muslim" means "one who submits" to the will of Allah), and awaits the world's response.

Other world religions, to a lesser degree, contain an element of revelation. The "thirty-three million Gods" of Hinduism are all revelations of the face of the Unknowable. Ahura Mazda spoke through the prophet Zarathustra. Indigenous religions often communicate with God through animal spirits.

But the common denominator of this expression of divinity is that such a great gulf exists between Creator and Creation that intermediaries, sent from the one who wishes to reveal himself, are necessary.

God As First Cause

This definition, often referred to as Deism, was popular in the eighteenth century and among the founding fathers of the United States. Although they are usually thought of as men of Christian convictions, Thomas Jefferson and the rest generally thought of God in terms described today as that of a watchmaker.

If you are walking down a lane and find a watch keeping perfect time, you have to assume someone made that watch, wound it up, got it going, and then, for whatever reason, walked away. It's simply too big a leap to think the watch was made by accident or somehow pulled itself together out of raw materials. Its function is obvious, and it works perfectly. The only conclusion any logical person can reach is that somewhere, hidden from view, is a watchmaker who made the watch and set it to working. Perhaps he is hiding somewhere behind a tree and watching to see what you do with his masterpiece. But since you can't see him anywhere, it could be that he simply left his creation behind and walked away to another task. You don't know anything about him except that he makes good watches. There is no evidence except for the watch he left behind. Even his existence is pure deduction. There seems to be no better way of explaining the watch you hold in your hand. The watchmaker is revealed only by his craftsmanship.

This theory illustrates the belief that God must be the first cause, the one before and behind the "Big Bang" of Creation. "The heavens reveal the glory of God," says the psalmist. "The skies proclaim the work of his hands" (Psalm 19: 1). Those who hold this position believe it is too great a leap to conceive of Creation without a Creator. The universe is simply too complex not to have been planned by a mind. There may not be evidence that God is in communication with us. After all, we have only the word of prophets and preachers for that. But any logical person has to deduce that if a simple thing like a watch can't pull itself together out of nothing, certainly it's too much to expect of a universe.

This position has a way of creeping unnoticed into our minds. No less a scientist than Stephen Hawking, one of the preeminent astrophysicists of our day, ends his book, A Brief History of Time, with these words:

However, if we do discover a complete theory [of Creation], it should in time be understood in broad principle by everyone, not just a few scientists. Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists, and just ordinary people, be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason-for then we would know the mind of God.

God As Cultural Phenomenon

Man makes religion, religion does not make man.… Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.…

The religious world is but the reflex of the real world.

These words, written by Karl Marx, represent the view that God is a human invention, cast in different shapes by different cultures, usually to buttress systems of social power hierarchies. Sigmund Freud wrote that belief in God was a "universal obsessional neurosis." He considered God to be a cosmic projection of our love/hate relationship with our parents.

Others picture God as a cultural crutch, noting that when a president wants to persuade people that he means well, he ends his speech with the stirring words, "God bless America!" The president probably isn't being hypocritical. He really does want God to bless America. But the obligatory cheer doesn't hurt, either. After all, in the United States, where some polls say 88 percent of the people believe in God, who is going to argue against asking God to bless the "good guys"? It's subtle and sincere. And it works.

There are many reasons that some consider such cultural use of God harmful. In India, belief in God produced a caste system that kept people in their social place. The same thing happened in pre-Civil War America when many plantation owners believed God ordained slavery. Some believe the Roman Catholic Church culture and Islam's Allah invented a male God to subjugate women.

Because every culture has arguably produced a God created in its own image, it's easy to come to the conclusion that God is a cultural invention. Those who hold to this belief generally refer to themselves as atheists, declaring, just like Marx, that God is an invention of humankind, a cultural phenomenon.

God As Myth

Myths are guide paths into human experience, left by those who have gone before. They are stories illustrating truths, often richly layered. Adults often read highly entertaining children's stories on quite another layer than that of adventure story. Like poetry, sometimes they express the inexpressible.

Western society's math-and-science craze has produced a very literal-minded group of readers whose common conception is that myths are really nothing more than entertaining lies, and that the recording of history has always been a factual endeavor. Many insist, for example, that those who wrote scripture either were lying outright or must have been recording fact, even though the authors may have been writing within a mythological or metaphorical genre and didn't intend for their stories to be taken literally. Ample evidence supports the theory that even the author of Genesis did not think God really created the world in six days.

Jesus used to teach with great insight when he began his parable-myths with the phrase, "A certain man went out to.…" He didn't warn his listeners he was making up the story. They knew that. What he was interested in was the truth the story conveyed.

So all this doesn't mean myths are not true. It means instead that they can be at least as true as literal fact. Poets and artists understand this. But many others do not. Myths can convey more insight through an "Aha!" experience than a straight telling of the facts because facts do not always convey the essence of the reality they are trying to express.

Such is the case, some believe, with the idea of God. It is not that calling God a myth means God does not exist. It just means that God exists in a form less expressible than mere facts can convey.

In Hindu thought, for instance, Brahman is completely indescribable (See Brahman/Atman). "No tongue can spoil it," is how the sages put it. Brahman is not even a God. Brahman is more a principle. Brahman came before language, so how can words pin him/her/it down? Even pronouns fail because Brahman is not just a noun. The thirty-three million gods of India are merely faces of the indescribable.

When Moses spoke to God at the burning bush, he asked, in essence, "Who are you?" The answer came back, "I Am."

Later, more literal scholars tried to insist God was really saying, "I cause to be." In other words, "I am the Creator." But that kind of scholarship misses the point and only confuses the insight of the original myth by adding a layer of cultural baggage.

Those who claim God is a myth are saying that God exists in a form we are unable to understand and describe, because God comes before language and patterns of thought. The only way to see God, according to this view, is to come at God obliquely through the lens of mythology. Not "God is …" but "God is like.…"

God As Expression of the Unknown

Historically, unanswered questions have been left to God. What caused a mountain to rise from a plain? Manitou. How did we get fire? Agni. What force was responsible for the disappearance of strange animals? Noah's flood. Who causes lightening? Thor.

Religions form along the borders of the unknown. The whole science vs. religion argument often has at its core the unstated assumption that as science pushes back the boundary of human knowledge, there is no longer any need for God. The expression "God of the gaps" arises from this notion: God resides in the gaps of human knowledge-gaps that are gradually decreasing in size as knowledge increases. People who hold this view generally believe God is the historical answer to questions better answered by scientific research. The place to find truth, they imply, is not in the church, synagogue, or mosque, but in the laboratory.

But another category of folks, who also see God as an expression of the unknown, see no threat from scientific knowledge to the notion of God. There exists in the cosmos, they say, that which cannot be analyzed under a microscope. What is love? Why does compassion still exist in this Darwinian survival-of-the-fittest universe? Why are some poems "better" than others? What is quality? Why, in spite of everything, do some people believe they actually talk to God? And, wonder of wonders, that God talks back? They aren't all crazy. How can it be explained?

These questions point to answers existing in the realm of the spiritual, not the material. And science is not equipped to examine things it cannot replicate in the laboratory under carefully prepared conditions.

This leads some people to the conclusion that there must be something out there greater than humans. To these people, "God" becomes a term to explain the unexplainable. Miracles, answered prayer, and coincidences compel us, according to this view, to believe we are not alone. God is not to be explained under this way of thinking. God's existence is simply to be accepted.

Many who belong to organized religions hold this belief, even when confronted by theologians and orthodox teachers. "In the unknown, God exists. And that settles it for me."

Sources: Armstrong, Karen. A History of God. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993. Fisher, Mary Pat. Living Religions. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1991. Hawking, Stephen W. A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes. New York: Bantam Books, 1988. Miles, Jack. God, A Biography. New York: Vintage Books, 1995. Miller, Kenneth R. Finding Darwin’s God. New York: HarperCollins, 2000.

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The creator of the universe and redeemer of its creatures. Rarely does the Bible reflect on the divine being such, although discussions of God's essential nature do occur: e.g., Abraham's probing into the appropriateness of wholesale destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 18:16-33); the prologue to the Book of Job (Job chaps. 1-2); the interchange between Jonah and God over the justice of sparing a wicked, though repentant, city (Jonah 4:2-11); the divine proclamation to Moses of the 13 attributes of the deity (Ex 34:6-7). The common theme of these reflections on God's nature is the problem of the theodicy. Given the fundamental goodness of God, how can life's anomalies be explained ? The Bible is full of attempts to find an adequate solution to this vexing issue.

Perhaps nothing speaks so eloquently about the personal bond between the biblical God and human beings as these passages which wrestle with divine justice (cf Jer 12:1; Hab 1:1-3). The complaints of injustice assume a loving deity, and the protest concerning God's absence presuppose the deity's desire to dwell among humans. That is why moments of apparent injustice are acknowledged to be temporary and educative. Even when the prevalence of evil seems to compromise God's wisdom, goodness, or power, the Israelite and the Christian find comfort in a hopeful certainty that is grounded in the nature of God.

Above all else, God wishes to be known. That is, the deity takes the initiative and unveils the mystery of holiness. Otherwise, nothing could be known about God, for the human intellect cannot penetrate the veil. A few texts do intimate that a tiny aperture exists through which the naked eye can catch fleeting glimpses of truth (e.g. Rom 1:18-25), but such general revelation is declared to be inadequate for salvation. Some texts go further in denying the appropriateness of penetrating the darkness which shields the deity (Deut 29:29; cf Ecc 7:24; 8:17, where it is said that the intellect cannot even understand God's activity on earth).

Special revelation is therefore necessary for genuine knowledge of God, but the deity's voluntary self-limitation does not compromise transcendence. Nothing in all of creation accurately portrays the divine likeness – hence the prohibition of images – and sin results in human blindness vis à vis God. Only the pure in heart can hope to see the Father (Matt 5:8), who mercifully protects the viewer from harm (Ex 33:22). Although Christians spoke of incarnation, they were careful to preserve the otherness of God even at the expense of a subordinate view of Jesus.

The knowledge which God reveals is personal; it creates a relationship of trust. The Bible uses the word "know" in an intimate sense; it can even have the connotation of election (Amos 3:2). To know God is to act faithfully within an intimacy often symbolized by marital or familiar imagery. The prophet Hosea described the bond between Israel and God in terms of a husband-and-wife relationship. Divine pathos is nowhere depicted so poignantly as in Hosea's attempt to express the effect of infidelity on the deity's benevolence (Hos 11:8-9). Jesus took over this language of intimacy to indicate his special relationship with the Father, whom Jesus addressed with the child's expression of absolute trust: Abba. Only once in the NT is the abstract word for deity used, and it occurs in a philosophical context (Acts 17:29) where the purpose is to locate a point of contact between the biblical God and pagan understandings of deity.

How did the hidden one communicate the basis for personal relationship? The chief medium of revelation was the spoken word, which often accompanied theophanies but also came to chosen individuals apart from spectacular manifestations such as earthquake, wind and fire (compare the theophanies to Moses and Elijah at Sinai with prophetic oracles). In ancient Israel the Lord's presence was associated with specific objects (the ark and the tent of meeting, which represented presence and distance respectively), persons (the angel as messenger) and qualities (the face of God, the glory and the name, the latter of which is characteristic of Deuteronomy). Occasionally, divine attributes were almost personified (for instance, word and spirit). In the case of wisdom, personification is actually achieved (Prov chap. 8; Eccl chap. 24; Wisd of Sol chap. 7). The NT understands Jesus as the self-revelation of God; in some circles this revelation is described as an emptying, by which it is meant that God freely became incarnate (cf the Gospel of John in particular, but also Pauline interpretations of the Christ event).

The God of Israel was both holy and compassionate; hiddenness and presence characterized the deity. The qualities of justice and mercy generate considerable tension within the Bible. Whenever one aspect seems to be threatened, the other comes to the forefront for a time. To some extent the historical situation dictates the emphasis: in periods of prosperity and neglect of common decency prophets like Amos and Isaiah emphasized the judgment of God, while periods of defeat at the hands of enemies evoked prophetic comfort (Second Isaiah; cf the changes in Ezekiel's message after Jerusalem's fall). The NT also recognizes both divine attributes, wrath and love. As a matter of fact, the frequent claim that the God of the OT is wrathful and that of the NT is loving completely distorts the truth. The loving-kindness of God pervades the Hebrew Bible, and wrath is fully at home in the NT (besides the frequent threats of hell, the awful portents in Revelation show just how pervasive was the theme of punishment for sinners).

A remarkable feature of biblical revelation is its exclusivity. Although ancient Israel acknowledged the existence of deities other than Yahweh, they were subordinated to the level of ministering angels. In time the claims that the biblical God was unique (cf Second Isaiah's formula for divine incomparability, Is 45:21ff) resulted in a denial that any other deity existed. That conviction, taken for granted in NT times, became the occasion for martyrdom at the hands of Romans. During the early days of the Maccabean revolt, many Jews likewise gave their lives because of a refusal to acknowledge the claims of Seleucid deities. Those peoples accustomed to allegiance to numerous gods found it difficult to appreciate what they interpreted as obstinacy and irreverence on the part of Jews and Christians.

The unique God was thought to have chosen a specific people through whom the divine purpose for humanity would become known. It follows that an incipient eschatology lies at the heart of all knowledge of God. The aim of revelation was to establish community, and no effort on the part of sinful creatures could ultimately prevent God's attainment of the desired goal. The sovereign of the universe controls historical events, using foreign nations as instruments of punishment for faithlessness of Israel's part. Eventually, God will inaugurate an era of peace on earth. This vision continues into the NT, which speaks of God's kingdom as present reality and future hope. The goal is not mystical absorption into the deity, but a dwelling with God in circumstances where perfect obedience is possible. It is noteworthy that Israelites and Christians described themselves as children, thereby recognizing a relationship of absolute dependence on the Father.

NAMES OF GOD: Although God was believed to have been unique, many names were used to designate this reality. The exclusive name for God, known as the tetragrammaton, was Yahweh. Within the Bible various theories exist about its precise origin (during the days of Enosh [Gen 4:26] or later still in Moses' day [Ex 3:6; 6:2-3]). Moreover, the explanation of this name may conceal something at the same time it divulges truth, so that it is capable of more than one meaning (e.g., "I am", "I cause to be", "I shall be present", Ex 3:14.). It is also possible that a shorter form of the name was original (Yah or Yahu) and that it arose as an exclamation. "Oh that one!" This would identify the deity as the self-revealing Lord who appears in theophany. Second Isaiah seems to echo such usage in the expression: "I am he" (Is 41:4).

Numerous other names for God occur in the Bible, many of which call attention to an attribute; this is especially true of combinations with El: Shaddai (strength, Gen 17:1), elyon (majesty, Gen 14:17-21), olam (eternity, Gen 21:33), ro'i (protective watchfulness, Gen 16:14; 22:14), elohe yisrael (patronage, Gen 33:20); others point to a relationship: Rock (Deut 32:18; Ps 18:31), Father (Is 63:16; Jer 31:9), Shield (Ps 3:3; 84:11), Redeemer (Ps 19:14; Is 63:16), Fear (Gen 31:42, 53), King (Ps 47:7, cf Judg 8:23), Judge (Is 33:22) and Shepherd (Gen 49:24; Is 40:11). The numerous epithets and metaphors indicate how the biblical faith drew from personal and national experience in order to describe Yahweh.

In addition to the above names, God was described by certain expressions such as, "The Living God" (I Sam 17:26; II Kgs 19:4), "The First and the Last" (especially Is 41:4; 44:6), "The alpha and Omega" (Rev 1:8), "The Ancient of Days" (Dan 7:9, 13, 22) and "Rider of Clouds" (Deut 33:26; Is 19:1). Some of these descriptive titles were shared with other peoples of the ancient world (e.g. "Rider of Clouds" in Ugaritic literature). A distinct characteristic of the biblical religion, as reflected in the numerous titles of God, was its revelatory capacity of the "God of Israel".

IMAGE OF GOD: Genesis 1:26-27; 5:1-3; 9:6 affirm that God created man in his own image and likeness. This is clearly a positive statement about man, but the texts do not specifically define what constitutes the image of God in man, and numerous opinions about the exact meaning of this expression have been suggested.

Some, based on the usual meaning of the Hebrew word tzelem "image", conclude that the image refers to a physical similarity between man and God; others, nothing that God is a spiritual being, reject the physical interpretation and identify the image with immaterial aspects or functions of man such as reason, will, moral perception, the capacity for relationship, self-determination, immortality or dominion over creation.

The use of "image" in this positive affirmation about man is surprising. Israel's religion prohibited images and both the Torah and the Prophets strongly denounced their use. There seems to be nothing in the biblical understanding of images that would give substance to this statement about man, and some content for understanding the term may have to come from the concept of images that existed outside Israel. Both in Egypt and Mesopotamia the king was sometimes referred to as the image of God. It is very possible that Israel's use of this term stemmed from familiarity with ancient Near-Eastern imagery applied to kings; however, the Bible emphasized that all men, not merely royalty, were created in God's image.

While there is disagreement over what in man constitutes the image of God, there is general agreement as to the significance of this description of man. A number of indicators make it clear that the creation of man is the climax and crown of God's creative activity. Man alone is said to be "in the image of God"; the image of God sets man apart from everything else that God created, giving him a preeminent position and, no doubt, establishing both his right and ability to exercise dominion over creation (Gen 1:28). In Genesis 9:6 the image of God in man clearly gives man a dignity and worth not possessed by the animals; man may kill animals for food but the life of another human being is not to be taken because "in the image of God he (God) made man."

Genesis 5:1-3 and 9:6 indicate that the image of God in man was not lost because of the Fall. Genesis 5:1-3 affirms that both male and female are in the image of God. By recording that Adam fathered a son in his likeness and image, the passage suggests that succeeding generations inherited the image of God.

The term is also found in the NT where several passages employ it after the manner of the OT (I Cor 11:7; james 3:9). It is applied to Jesus in II Corinthians 4:4; Colossians 1:15, and the context makes it clear that the term refers to the mode of Jesus' revelation to man of the attributes and character of God. A similar idea is expressed in Hebrews 1:3 where Jesus is said to reflect the glory of God and to bear the very stamp of his nature. Believers are said to "be conformed to" the image of Christ in several passages (Rom 8:29; Eph 4:24 and Col 3:10). This last use of the term in the NT implies that the image of God in man, while not lost as the result of the Fall, was damaged.

---

Buddhism is atheistic and does not believe in the existence of a Supreme Being or Creator God. However, it acknowledges the existence of a wide range of supernatural beings known as devas, many of whom were incorporated into Buddhist mythology from Hinduism.

goddess

There is no pantheon in Celtic mythology. The very use of the English words ‘god’ or ‘goddess’, denoting a superhuman, immortal entity who is venerated and propitiated and who has power over human affairs, misrepresents surviving records. Yet language habits die hard; we conventionally speak of the Dagda as the ‘Good God’ or Cernunnos as the ‘Horned God’. Escaping death is not sufficient to be considered divine; the Tuatha Dé Danann of the pseudo-history Lebor Gabála [Book of Invasions] are usually seen as immortals but not as gods. Several personages from the Continental Celts, like Borvo or Glanis who were venerated at ancient healing springs, or the unnamed entities behind Gaulish Apollo or Mercury, probably were worshipped as gods; but our incomplete knowledge of them prevents us from knowing their importance to their societies or their relationship with one another. Informed opinion today, however, is more likely to find a shadowy divine figure behind the kings and warriors of heroic narrative than to look for a historical antecedent as earlier commentators were wont; see FIND; FIONN MAC CUMHAILL.

According to the ancient magical conception of God in the scheme of the universe, evil is the inevitable contrast and complement of good. God permits the existence of the shadow in order that it may intensify the purity of the light. He has created both and they are thus inseparable, the one being necessary to and incomprehensible without the other.

The very idea of goodness loses its meaning if considered apart from that of evil—Gabriel is a foil to Satan and Satan to Gabriel. The dual nature of the spiritual world penetrates into every department of life, material and spiritual. It is typified in light and darkness, cold and heat, truth and error, in brief, the names of any two opposing forces will serve to illustrate the primary law of nature—namely, the continual conflict between the positive or good and the negative or evil.

For a scriptural illustration of this point, the story of Cain and Abel can be used. The moral superiority of his brother is at first irksome to Cain, finally intolerable. He murders Abel, thus bringing on his own head the wrath of God and the self-punishment of the murderer. For in killing Abel, Cain has done himself harm. Cain has not done away with Abel's superiority, but has added to himself a burden of guilt that can end only by much suffering.

Suffering is shown in the Judaeo-Christian scriptures to be one means evil is overcome by good. Cain reappears in the story of the prodigal son, who after deprivation and suffering is restored to his father who forgives him fully and freely.

It is believed that the possibility of sin and error is consistent with and inseparable from life. The great sinner is a more vital being than the colorless character, because having greater capacity for evil he has also greater capacity for good, and in proportion to his faults so will his virtues be when he turns to God. "There is more joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth than over ninety and nine just persons," because more force of character, more power for good or evil is displayed by the sinner than by the feebly correct. And that power is the most precious thing in life. The apostle Paul specifically rejected this approach to understanding sin and redemption in Romans 6: 1-2.

This dual law of right and wrong, two antagonistic forces, is designated by the term "duad." It is the secret of life and the revelation of that secret means death. This secret is embodied in the myth of the Tree of Knowledge in Genesis. At death the discord will be resolved, but not until then.

From the duad is derived the triad based on the doctrine of the Trinity. Two forces producing equilibrium, the secret of nature, are designated by the duad, and these three—life, good, and evil—constitute one law. By adding the conception of unity to the triad the tetrad is produced, the perfect number of four, the source of all numerical combinations.

According to orthodox theology there are three persons in God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and these three form one Deity. In occult speculations, three and one make four, the fourth reality being the unity required to explain the Three. Hence, it is suggested, in many languages (most notably Hebrew), the name of God is symbolized by four letters. Again, two affirmations make two negations either possible or necessary. According to the Kabalists the name of the Evil one consisted of the same four letters spelled backward, signifying that evil is merely the reflection or shadow of good—"The last reflection or imperfect mirage of light in shadow." Everything exists in light or darkness, good or evil, and exists through the tetrad. The triad or trinity, then, is explained by the duad and resolved by the tetrad.

Such occult interpretations of God echo the ancient mysticism such as the Eastern religion of Hinduism, where the pairs of opposites like good and evil are regarded as twin poles of a larger reality, where anthropomorphic concepts of God the creator are considered legal fictions for a divine infinity, beyond time, space, and causality.

Sources:

Achad, Frater. The Anatomy of the Body of God. Chicago: Collegium ad Spiritum Sanctum, 1925.

Akiba ben Joseph Rabbi. The Book of Formation. (Sepher Yetzirah). London: William Rider, 1923.

Angeles, Peter A. The Problem of God; A Short Introduction. Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1981.

Arya, Ushbarbudh. God. Honesdale, Pa.: Himalayan International Institute, 1979.

Brightman, Edgar S. The Problem of God. New York: Abingdon Press, 1930.

Goblet D'Alviella, E. F. Lectures on the Origin and Growth of the Conception of God. London, 1892. Reprint, New York: AMS Press, 1982.

Pereira, Jose, ed. Hindu Theology: A Reader. Garden City, N.Y.: Image Books, 1976.

IN BRIEF: n. - The supernatural being conceived as the perfect and omnipotent and omniscient originator and ruler of the universe.

"In God We Trust" is the national motto of the United States of America.

Quotes:

"If God would have wanted us to live in a permissive society He would have given us Ten Suggestions and not Ten Commandments." - Zig Ziglar

"All your Western theologies, the whole mythology of them, are based on the concept of God as a senile delinquent." - Tennessee Williams

"God gets you to the plate, but once your there your on your own." - Ted Williams

"I rarely speak about God. To God, yes. I protest against Him. I shout at Him. But to open a discourse about the qualities of God, about the problems that God imposes, theodicy, no. And yet He is there, in silence, in filigree." - Elie Wiesel

"In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass, I find letters from God dropped in the street, and every one is signed by God's name. And I leave them where they are, for I know that wherever I go, others will punctually come for ever and ever." - Walt Whitman

"In relation to God, we are like a thief who has burgled the house of a kindly householder and been allowed to keep some of the gold. From the point of view of the lawful owner this gold is a gift; Form the point of view of the burglar it is a theft. He must go and give it back. It is the same with our existence. We have stolen a little of God's being to make it ours. God has made us a gift of it. But we have stolen it. We must return it." - Simone Weil

See more famous quotes about God

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - gud, afgud, idol

idioms:

• a man of God    en Guds mand
• for God's sake    for Guds skyld
• God Almighty    du gode Gud, du godeste, almægtige Gud
• God forbid    må Gud forbyde det
• God help    Gud hjælpe
• God knows    kun Gud ved det
• God willing    med Guds hjælp
• God's gift to    Guds gave til
• in God's name    i Guds navn
• play God    lege Gud

Nederlands (Dutch)
God, afgod, engelenbak, Mijn god!, verafgoden

Français (French)
n. - (Relig) dieu, Dieu, idole (qn, qch)
int. - grands dieux

idioms:

• for God's sake    pour l'amour de Dieu
• for God's sake!    pour l'amour de Dieu (excl)
• God Almighty    Dieu Tout-Puissant
• God forbid    grands dieux, non
• God help    avec l'aide de Dieu
• God knows    Dieu sait
• God willing    avec la volonté de Dieu
• God's gift to    (se croire) le/la meilleur(e) qui ait jamais existé (iro)
• in God's name    au nom de Dieu
• man of God    un prêtre
• play God    jouer au Bon Dieu

Deutsch (German)
n. - Gott
int. - Gott

idioms:

• for God's sake    um Himmels willen
• for God's sake!    um Gottes willen
• God Almighty    Allmächtiger
• God forbid    Gott behüte
• God help    Gott stehe .. bei
• God knows    weiß der Himmel, weiß Gott
• God willing    so Gott will
• God's gift to    ein Geschenk Gottes
• in God's name    um Gottes willen
• man of God    Priester, Geistlicher
• play God    sich zum Gott aufwerfen

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - θεός
int. - Θεέ μου!

idioms:

• a man of God    άνθρωπος του Θεού
• for God's sake    για (τ') όνομα του Θεού!
• God Almighty    ο Παντοδύναμος, Θεέ και Κύριε!
• God forbid    Θεός φυλάξοι!
• God help    Θεός φυλάξοι!
• God knows    ένας θεός ξέρει
• God willing    Θεού θέλοντος!
• God's gift to    (ειρων.) δώρο που έκανε ο Θεός
• in God's name    στ' όνομα του Θεού
• play God    κάνω το Θεό

Italiano (Italian)
Dio

idioms:

• a man of God    uomo di Dio, sacerdote
• for God's sake    per l'amor di Dio
• God forbid    Dio non voglia
• God help    Dio mi aiuti
• God knows    Dio solo lo sa
• God willing    il volere di Dio
• God's gift to    dono di Dio per
• in God's name    in nome di Dio
• play God    fare il padreterno

Português (Portuguese)
n. - deus (m), ídolo (m)
int. - Meu Deus!

idioms:

• a man of God    sacerdote (m) (Rel.)
• for God's sake    pelo amor de Deus
• God forbid    Deus me (te, nos) livre
• God help    Deus me (te, nos) ajude
• God knows    Deus sabe
• God willing    se Deus quiser
• God's gift to    dádiva (f) de Deus para
• in God's name    em nome de Deus
• play God    fazer o papel de Deus

Русский (Russian)
Бог

idioms:

• a man of God    божий человек, монах
• for God's sake    ради Бога
• God forbid    Боже сохрани!
• God help    Бог в помощь
• God knows    Бог его знает
• God willing    с Божьей помощью
• God's gift to    дар Божий
• in God's name    ради Бога
• play God    важничать

Español (Spanish)
n. - Dios
int. - Dios

idioms:

• for God's sake    por Dios, por el amor de Dios
• for God's sake!    ¡por Dios!, ¡por amor de Dios!, por lo que más quieras!
• God Almighty    Todopoderoso, Omnipotente, Dios Todopoderoso
• God forbid    ¡no lo permita Dios!, ¡Dios me libre!
• God help    con la ayuda de Dios
• God knows    sólo Dios sabe, ¡sabe Dios!, ¡vete a saber!
• God willing    si Dios quiere, con la voluntad de Dios
• God's gift to    un regalo inesperado, cosa llovida del cielo, lo mejor que hay
• in God's name    en nombre de Dios
• man of God    hombre santo, siervo de Dios, cura, rabino
• play God    darse aires de superioridad, jugar a ser Dios

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - Gud, avgud
int. - Herre Gud!

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
神, 神像, 上帝

idioms:

• a man of God    圣徒, 牧师
• for God's sake    拜托, 务必
• God Almighty    全能的神
• God forbid    但愿上帝阻止这样的事!, 但愿不发生这样的事
• God help    愿上帝保佑
• God knows    天知道, 天晓得
• God willing    如果上帝许可的话
• God's gift to    上帝给...的礼物
• in God's name    以上帝的名义, 我的天哪
• play God    想当上帝装做无所不能

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 神, 神像, 上帝

idioms:

• a man of God    聖徒, 牧師
• for God's sake    拜托, 務必
• God Almighty    全能的神
• God forbid    但願上帝阻止這樣的事!, 但願不發生這樣的事
• God help    願上帝保佑
• God knows    天知道, 天曉得
• God willing    如果上帝許可的話
• God's gift to    上帝給...的禮物
• in God's name    以上帝的名義, 我的天哪
• play God    想當上帝裝做無所不能

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 신, 숭배, 입석 관람객

idioms:

• a man of God    (기도의 끝 말) 아멘
• God's gift to    확실히 좋다고 생각하다
• in God's name    신의 이름으로! (화가 났을 때 무언가를 단언하는 말)

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 神, 男神, 崇拝されるもの, 非常に重要なもの, 神様, 天井桟敷の観客

idioms:

• God Almighty    全能の神
• God forbid    とんでもない
• God help    かわいそうに哀れな奴め
• God knows    神しか知らない, 神が知っている
• God willing    もし事情が許せば

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) اله, رب (نداء) يا الهي‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮אלוהים, הבורא, אל, אליל, אלוהות‬

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