“God” is the English word that stands in for several different words in the Bible’s original languages — and the differences matter. The text opens with it: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).
In the Hebrew of the Old Testament — the Hebrew Bible — the word is most often Elohim, alongside the related El (from a root meaning “to be strong”) and the poetic singular Eloah; in the Greek New Testament it is theos. Elohim is grammatically plural, which Jewish and Christian interpreters have long read not as a sign of many gods but as a plural of majesty — a single God named in a weighty, honorific plural — though some in the Christian tradition have also heard in that plural an early hint of the Trinity.
Not just another word for “the LORD”
Set apart from all of these is the personal name YHWH (often written Jehovah or Yahweh), which English Bibles conventionally render “the LORD” in small capitals to signal that a name, not the title, stands underneath — much as, in Jewish practice, Adonai (“Lord”) was read aloud in its place. So “God” and “the LORD” are not quite synonyms: one is the category, the other the Name. (The glossary keeps a separate entry for the Names of God.)
The Bible never sets out to prove that God exists; it assumes it from the first verse and calls the denial of God folly (Psalm 14:1). What it offers instead is description — most famously God’s own self-portrait to Moses as “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love” (Exodus 34:6).
Explore God and related terms in the full glossary → a.fortt.com/glossary-app
How this is made · A Fortt Media project, created & edited by Jon Fortt. Grounded in a curated Scripture database and carefully drafted and audited with the help of AI — described plainly, and written to assume no particular denomination or doctrine. Read the full approach → · Report a correction →
