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68-660: The chapel was opened in February 1997, and displayed masterworks from the 13th century—a dome with Christ Pantocrator and an apse depicting the Virgin Mary , the Panagia . The frescoes had been stolen from a chapel near Lysi in the Turkish-occupied section of Cyprus in the 1980s, cut into 38 pieces, and shipped to Germany by thieves to sell them in the arts black-market. The 38 fresco fragments were bought from

136-446: A Talmudic opinion ( Shabbat , 10b) asserts that one would greet another with the word shalom in order for the word not to be forgotten in the exile . But one is not permitted to greet another with the word Shalom in unholy places such as a bathroom, because of the holiness of the name. Shekhinah ( שכינה ) is the presence or manifestation of God which has descended to "dwell" among humanity. The term never appears in

204-635: A liturgical context. In casual conversation some Jews, even when not speaking Hebrew, will call God HaShem ( השם ), which is Hebrew for 'the Name' (compare Leviticus 24:11 and Deuteronomy 28:58). When written, it is often abbreviated to ה׳ . Likewise, when quoting from the Tanakh or prayers, some pious Jews will replace Adonai with HaShem . For example, when making audio recordings of prayer services, HaShem will generally be substituted for Adonai . A popular expression containing this phrase

272-484: A 'reliquary box' – which forms a neutral enclosure for a freestanding chapel," according to Christine Slessor in The Architectural Review . "The Byzantine Chapel Museum is a religious building whose purpose is to restore spiritual significance and function to two thirteenth-century Byzantine Frescoes, a dome and an apse, rescued and restored by the owner ... The materiality of the original chapel

340-413: A name, as it may merely describe the presence of God, and not God Himself. In Jewish tradition the sacredness of the divine name or titles must be recognized by the professional sofer (scribe) who writes Torah scrolls , or tefillin and mezuzah . Before transcribing any of the divine titles or name, they prepare mentally to sanctify them. Once they begin a name, they do not stop until it

408-624: A similar name for God, one that the Greeks wrote as Έλιονα . The Eternal One or The Eternal is increasingly used, particularly in Reform and Reconstructionist communities seeking to use gender-neutral language . In the Torah, YHWH El Olam ("the Everlasting God") is used at Genesis 21:33 to refer to God. It is common Jewish practice to restrict the use of the names of God to

476-602: A single monotheistic God at the time of writing, or subsumed under a form of monolatry , wherein the god(s) of a certain city would be accepted after the fact as a reference to the God of Israel and the plural deliberately dropped. The plural form ending in -im can also be understood as denoting abstraction, as in the Hebrew words chayyim ( חיים , 'life') or betulim ( בתולים , 'virginity'). If understood this way, Elohim means 'divinity' or 'deity'. The word chayyim

544-572: A space with no beginning and no end." The depiction of Christ gazing directly forward "has driven time out of space. His gaze is transworldly: not looking but all-seeing." By not depicting the Lord below the bust, he is "universal and ubiquitous." Surrounding the figure of Christ is a double row of angels moving towards the throne prepared by God the Father for the Second Coming of Christ . The throne

612-511: A title of Tammuz (the origin of the Greek Adonis ). It is also used very occasionally in Hebrew texts to refer to God (e.g. Psalm 136:3.) Deuteronomy 10:17 has the proper name Yahweh alongside the superlative constructions "God of gods" ( elōhê ha-elōhîm , literally, "the gods of gods") and "Lord of lords" ( adōnê ha-adōnîm , "the lords of lords": כִּי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם הוּא אֱלֹהֵי הָאֱלֹהִים וַאֲדֹנֵי הָאֲדֹנִים ; KJV: "For

680-522: A way of avoiding writing any name of God out in full. The hyphenated version of the English name ( G-d ) can be destroyed, so by writing that form, religious Jews prevent documents in their possession with the unhyphenated form from being destroyed later. Alternatively, a euphemistic reference such as Hashem (literally, 'the Name') may be substituted, or an abbreviation thereof, such as in B ' ' H ( בְּעֶזרַת הַשֵׁם B'ezrat Hashem 'with

748-478: Is Baruch HaShem , meaning "Thank God " (literally, 'Blessed be the Name'). Samaritans use the Aramaic equivalent Shema ( שמא , 'the name') in much the same situations as Jews use HaShem . Talmudic authors, ruling on the basis of Gideon 's name for an altar ( YHVH-Shalom , according to Judges 6:24), write that "the name of God is 'Peace'" ( Pereq ha-Shalom , Shabbat 10b); consequently,

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816-506: Is "Ruler of All" or, less literally, "Sustainer of the World". In this understanding, Pantokrator is a compound word formed from the Greek for "all" and the verb meaning "To accomplish something" or "to sustain something" ( κρατεῖν , kratein ). This translation speaks more to God's actual power; i.e., God does everything (as opposed to God can do everything). The icon of Christ Pantokrator

884-416: Is a compound word formed from the Greek words πᾶς , pas ( GEN παντός pantos ), i.e. "all" and κράτος , kratos , i.e. "strength", "might", "power". This is often understood in terms of potential power; i.e., ability to do anything, omnipotence . Christ pantocrator signifies Jesus in his glory during his second coming seated on his throne . Another, more literal translation

952-418: Is best explained as a plural of self-deliberation . The use of the plural as a form of respectful address is quite foreign to Hebrew. Mark S. Smith has cited the use of plural as possible evidence to suggest an evolution in the formation of early Jewish conceptions of monotheism , wherein references to "the gods" (plural) in earlier accounts of verbal tradition became either interpreted as multiple aspects of

1020-524: Is cognate to the 'lhm found in Ugaritic , where it is used for the pantheon of Canaanite gods, the children of El and conventionally vocalized as "Elohim" although the original Ugaritic vowels are unknown. When the Hebrew Bible uses elohim not in reference to God, it is plural (for example, Exodus 20:2). There are a few other such uses in Hebrew, for example Behemoth . In Modern Hebrew ,

1088-425: Is derived from the names אהיה יהוה אדוני הויה . By spelling these four names out with the names of the Hebrew letters ( א לף, ה א, ו ו, י וד, ד לת and נ ון ) this new forty-five letter long name is produced. Spelling the letters in יהוה (YHWH) by itself gives יוד הא ואו הא . Each letter in Hebrew is given a value, according to gematria , and the value of יוד הא ואו הא is also 45. The 72-fold name

1156-523: Is derived from three verses in Exodus 14:19–21. Each of the verses contains 72 letters. When the verses are read boustrophedonically 72 names, three letters each, are produced (the niqqud of the source verses is disregarded in respect to pronunciation). Some regard this name as the Shem HaMephorash . The Proto- Kabbalistic book Sefer Yetzirah describes how the creation of the world

1224-503: Is finished, and they must not be interrupted while writing it, even to greet a king. If an error is made in writing it may not be erased, but a line must be drawn round it to show that it is canceled, and the whole page must be put in a genizah (burial place for scripture) and a new page begun. One of the most important names is that of the Ein Sof ( אין סוף 'Endless'), which first came into use after 1300 CE. Another name

1292-1051: Is guarded by the Archangel Michael and Archangel Gabriel and two seraphim . The Virgin Mary leads one line of angels to the throne, while John the Baptist leads the other. In the apse, the Virgin was depicted as flanked by the two archangels with a medallion on her breast of the infant Christ, symbolizing the Incarnation of Christ. Later exhibits in the Chapel have included The Infinity Machine . This rotating work by Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller incorporates an array of antique mirrors suspended from above, accompanied by sonic elements made from NASA recordings of solar winds interacting with planetary ionospheres. The 4,000-square-foot (370 m) $ 4 million building

1360-666: Is known as Christ in Majesty , which developed a rather different iconography . Christ Pantocrator has come to suggest Christ as a benevolent, though also stern and all-powerful, judge of humanity. When the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek as the Septuagint , Pantokrator was used both for YHWH Sabaoth ( צבאות ) " Lord of Hosts " and for El Shaddai " God Almighty ". In the New Testament , Pantokrator

1428-633: Is lord (singular) even over any of those things that he owns that are lordly (plural)". Theologians who dispute this claim cite the hypothesis that plurals of majesty came about in more modern times. Richard Toporoski, a classics scholar, asserts that plurals of majesty first appeared in the reign of Diocletian (CE 284–305). Indeed, Gesenius states in his book Hebrew Grammar the following: The Jewish grammarians call such plurals ... plur. virium or virtutum ; later grammarians call them plur. excellentiae , magnitudinis , or plur. maiestaticus . This last name may have been suggested by

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1496-492: Is no scholarly consensus on this point. All surviving Christian-era manuscripts use Kyrios ( Κυριος 'Lord') or very occasionally Theos ( Θεος 'God') to translate the many thousand occurrences of the Name. אֲדֹנָי ( ăḏōnāy , lit. transl.  My Lords , pluralis majestatis taken as singular) is the possessive form of adon ('Lord'), along with the first-person singular pronoun enclitic . As with Elohim , Adonai's grammatical form

1564-403: Is not clear whether these "el"s refer to the deity in general or to the god El in particular. El also appears in the form אֱלוֹהַּ‎ ( Eloah ). A common name of God in the Hebrew Bible is Elohim ( אלהים , ʾĕlōhīm ), the plural of אֱלוֹהַּ ( Eloah ). When Elohim refers to God in the Hebrew Bible, singular verbs are used. The word is identical to elohim meaning gods and

1632-745: Is not used as a divine epithet in the Torah , Joshua , or Judges . Starting in the Books of Samuel , the term "Lord of Hosts" appears hundreds of times throughout the Prophetic books , in Psalms , and in Chronicles . The Hebrew word Sabaoth was also absorbed in Ancient Greek ( σαβαωθ , sabaōth ) and Latin ( Sabaoth , with no declension). Tertullian and other patristics used it with

1700-525: Is one of the most common religious images of Orthodox Christianity. Generally speaking, in Byzantine art church art and architecture, an iconic mosaic or fresco of Christ Pantokrator occupies the space in the central dome of the church, in the half-dome of the apse , or on the nave vault. Some scholars (Latourette 1975: 572) consider the Pantocrator a Christian adaptation of images of Zeus, such as

1768-621: Is one of the names of God in Judaism, with its etymology coming from the influence of the Ugaritic religion on modern Judaism. El Shaddai is conventionally translated as "God Almighty". While the translation of El as ' god ' in Ugaritic / Canaanite languages is straightforward, the literal meaning of Shaddai is the subject of debate. Tzevaot, Tzevaoth, Tsebaoth or Sabaoth ( צבאות , ṣəḇāʾōṯ , [tsvaot] , lit.  "Armies"), usually translated "Hosts", appears in reference to armies or armed hosts of men but

1836-484: Is shattered and made ephemeral through the fragmented, freestanding sandblasted laminated glass structure which is an abstracted evocation of the original chapel. The infinite is evoked through the play of darkness and light." François de Menil, May 1997 The Byzantine chapel is oriented to face the cardinal directions – the facades face directly north, south, east and west. The enclosed space measures approximately 116,000 cubic feet (3,300 m). There are no windows on

1904-461: Is similarly syntactically singular when used as a name but syntactically plural otherwise. In many of the passages in which elohim occurs in the Bible, it refers to non-Israelite deities, or in some instances to powerful men or judges, and even angels (Exodus 21:6, Psalms 8:5) as a simple plural in those instances. El Shaddai ( אל שדי , ʾel šadday , pronounced [ʃaˈdaj] )

1972-584: Is the Aramaic word for God and the absolute singular form of אלהא‏ , ʾilāhā . The origin of the word is from Proto-Semitic * ʔil and is thus cognate to the Hebrew , Arabic , Akkadian , and other Semitic languages ' words for god. Elah is found in the Tanakh in the books of Ezra , Jeremiah (Jeremiah 10:11, the only verse in the entire book written in Aramaic), and Daniel . Elah

2040-609: Is used once by Paul ( 2 Cor 6:18 ) and nine times in the Book of Revelation : 1:8 , 4:8 , 11:17 , 15:3 , 16:7 , 16:14 , 19:6 , 19:15 , and 21:22 . The references to God the Father and God the Son in Revelation are at times interchangeable, but Pantokrator appears to be reserved for the Father except, perhaps, in 1:8 . The most common translation of Pantocrator is "Almighty" or "All-powerful". In this understanding, Pantokrator

2108-839: Is used to describe both pagan gods and the Abrahamic God. In the Book of Genesis , Hagar uses this name for the God who spoke to her through his angel . In Hebrew, her phrase El Roi , literally, 'God of Seeing Me', is translated in the King James Version as "Thou God seest me." The name Elyon ( עליון ) occurs in combination with El , YHWH , Elohim and alone. It appears chiefly in poetic and later Biblical passages. The modern Hebrew adjective 'Elyon means 'supreme' (as in "Supreme Court": Hebrew : בית המשפט ה עליון ) or 'Most High'. El Elyon has been traditionally translated into English as 'God Most High'. The Phoenicians used what appears to be

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2176-560: Is usually explained as a plural of majesty . In the Hebrew Bible, the word is nearly always used to refer to God (approximately 450 occurrences). As pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton came to be avoided in the Hellenistic period , Jews may have begun to drop the Tetragrammaton when presented alongside Adonai and subsequently to expand it to cover for the Tetragrammaton in the forms of spoken prayer and written scripture. Owing to

2244-754: The Holy of Holies of the Temple in Jerusalem on Yom Kippur . He then pronounces the name "just as it is written." As each blessing was made, the people in the courtyard were to prostrate themselves completely as they heard it spoken aloud. As the Temple has not been rebuilt since its destruction in 70 CE, most modern Jews never pronounce YHWH but instead read אֲדֹנָי ( Adonai , Hebrew pronunciation: [ʾăḏōnāy] , ' My Lords ' , Pluralis majestatis taken as singular) during prayer and while reading

2312-408: The Septuagint , and Philo , and Revelation or, "I am The Existing One"; Latin , ego sum qui sum , "I am Who I am." The word asher is a relative pronoun whose meaning depends on the immediate context, so that "that", "who", "which", or "where" are all possible translations of that word. Baal meant ' owner ' and, by extension, 'lord', ' master ', and 'husband' in Hebrew and

2380-516: The Torah and as HaShem 'The Name' at other times. Similarly, the Vulgate used Dominus ('The Lord') and most English translations of the Bible write "the L ORD " for YHWH and "the L ORD God", "the Lord G OD " or "the Sovereign L ORD " for Adonai YHWH instead of transcribing the name. The Septuagint may have originally used the Hebrew letters themselves amid its Greek text, but there

2448-529: The Torah explicitly prohibits speaking the name and the Book of Ruth shows that it continued to be pronounced as late as the 5th century BCE. Mark Sameth argues that only a pseudo name was pronounced, the four letters יהוה (YHVH, YHWH) being a cryptogram which the priests of ancient Israel read in reverse as huhi , 'he–she', signifying a dual-gendered deity, as earlier theorized by Guillaume Postel (16th century) and Michelangelo Lanci (19th century). It had ceased to be spoken aloud by at least

2516-564: The chumras of writing "G-d" instead of "God" in English or saying Ṭēt - Vav ( טו , lit.  '9-6') instead of Yōd - Hē ( יה , '10-5', but also ' Jah ') for the number fifteen or Ṭēt- Zayin ( טז , '9-7') instead of Yōd-Vav ( יו , '10-6') for the Hebrew number sixteen. The names of God that, once written, cannot be erased because of their holiness are the Tetragrammaton , Adonai , El , Elohim , Shaddai , Tzevaot ; some also include I Am that I Am . In addition,

2584-521: The we used by kings when speaking of themselves (compare 1 Maccabees 10:19 and 11:31); and the plural used by God in Genesis 1:26 and 11:7; Isaiah 6:8 has been incorrectly explained in this way. It is, however, either communicative (including the attendant angels : so at all events in Isaiah 6:8 and Genesis 3:22), or according to others, an indication of the fullness of power and might implied. It

2652-474: The 3rd century BCE, during Second Temple Judaism . The Talmud relates, perhaps anecdotally, that this began with the death of Simeon the Just . Vowel points began to be added to the Hebrew text only in the early medieval period. The Masoretic Text adds to the Tetragrammaton the vowel points of Adonai or Elohim (depending on the context), indicating that these are the words to be pronounced in place of

2720-594: The Almighty ' ) is a specific depiction of Christ . Pantocrator or Pantokrator , literally ruler of all , but usually translated as "Almighty" or "all-powerful", is derived from one of many names of God in Judaism . The Pantokrator is largely an Eastern Orthodox or Eastern Catholic theological conception and is less common under that name in Latin Catholicism . In the West, the equivalent image in art

2788-525: The Hebrew Bible is the Tetragrammaton, יהוה , which is usually transliterated as YHWH. The Hebrew script is an abjad , and thus vowels are often omitted in writing. YHWH is usually expanded to Yahweh in English. Modern Rabbinical Jewish culture judges it forbidden to pronounce this name. In prayers it is replaced by the word אֲדֹנָי ( Adonai , Hebrew pronunciation: [adoˈnaj] ' My Lords ' , Pluralis majestatis taken as singular), and in discussion by HaShem 'The Name'. Nothing in

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2856-827: The Hebrew Bible; later rabbis used the word when speaking of God dwelling either in the Tabernacle or amongst the people of Israel. The root of the word means "dwelling". Of the principal names of God, it is the only one that is of the feminine gender in Hebrew grammar. Some believe that this was the name of a female counterpart of God, but this is unlikely as the name is always mentioned in conjunction with an article (e.g.: "the Shekhina descended and dwelt among them" or "He removed Himself and His Shekhina from their midst"). This kind of usage does not occur in Semitic languages in conjunction with proper names. The term, however, may not be

2924-424: The L ORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords"). The final syllable of Adonai uses the vowel kamatz , rather than patach which would be expected from the Hebrew for 'my lord(s)'. Professor Yoel Elitzur explains this as a normal transformation when a Hebrew word becomes a name, giving as other examples Nathan , Yitzchak , and Yigal . As Adonai became the most common reverent substitute for

2992-427: The Tetragrammaton (see Qere and Ketiv ), as shown also by the pronunciation changes when combined with a preposition or a conjunction. This is in contrast to Karaite Jews , who traditionally viewed pronouncing the Tetragrammaton as a mitzvah because the name appears some 6800 times throughout the Tanakh; however, most modern Karaites, under pressure and seeking acceptance from mainstream Rabbinical Jews, now also use

3060-457: The Tetragrammaton, it too became considered un-erasable due to its holiness. As such, most prayer books avoid spelling out the word Adonai , and instead write two yodhs ( יְיָ ) in its place. The forms Adaunoi , Adoinoi , and Adonoi represent Ashkenazi Hebrew variant pronunciations of the word Adonai . El appears in Ugaritic , Phoenician and other 2nd and 1st millennium BCE texts both as generic "god" and as

3128-579: The conventional rhetorical gesture that represents teaching. The left hand holds a closed book with a richly decorated cover featuring the Cross , representing the Gospels . An icon where Christ has an open book is called "Christ the Teacher", a variant of the Pantocrator. Christ is bearded, his brown hair centrally parted, and his head is surrounded by a halo . The icon usually has a gold ground comparable to

3196-496: The expansion of chumra (the idea of "building a fence around the Torah "), the word Adonai itself has come to be too holy to say for Orthodox Jews outside of prayer, leading to its replacement by HaShem ('The Name'). The singular forms adon and adoni ('my lord') are used in the Hebrew Bible as royal titles, as in the First Book of Samuel , and for distinguished persons. The Phoenicians used it as

3264-430: The generic "god". In theophoric names such as Gabriel ("Strength of God"), Michael ("Who is like God?"), Raphael ("God healed"), Ariel ("My lion is God"), Daniel ("My judgment is God"), Ezekiel ("God shall strengthen"), Israel ("one who has struggled with God"), Immanuel ("God is with us"), and Ishmael ("God hears/ will hear / listens/ will listen") it is usually interpreted and translated as "God", but it

3332-494: The gesture of teaching or of blessing with his right. The typical Western Christ in Majesty is a full-length icon. In the early Middle Ages , it usually presented Christ in a mandorla or other geometric frame, surrounded by the Four Evangelists or their symbols. The oldest known surviving example of the icon of Christ Pantocrator was painted in encaustic on panel in the sixth or seventh century, and survived

3400-542: The gilded grounds of Byzantine mosaics . Often, the name of Christ is written on each side of the halo, as IC and XC . Christ's fingers are depicted in a pose that represents the letters IC, X and C, thereby making the Christogram ICXC (for "Jesus Christ"). The IC is composed of the Greek characters iota (Ι) and lunate sigma (C; instead of Σ, ς)—the first and last letters of 'Jesus' in Greek ( Ἰησοῦς ); in XC

3468-560: The great statue of Zeus enthroned at Olympia . The development of the earliest stages of the icon from Roman Imperial imagery is easier to trace. The image of Christ Pantocrator was one of the first images of Christ developed in the Early Christian Church and remains a central icon of the Eastern Orthodox Church . In the half-length image, Christ holds the New Testament in his left hand and makes

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3536-548: The head of the divine pantheon. In the Hebrew Bible, El ( אל , ʾel ) appears very occasionally alone (e.g. Genesis 33:20, el elohei yisrael , 'Mighty God of Israel', and Genesis 46:3, ha'el elohei abika , 'El the God of thy father'), but usually with some epithet or attribute attached (e.g. El Elyon , 'Most High El', El Shaddai , 'El of Shaddai ', El 'Olam 'Everlasting El', El Hai , 'Living El', El Ro'i 'El my Shepherd', and El Gibbor 'El of Strength'), in which cases it can be understood as

3604-499: The imperfect denotes any actions that are not yet completed, Accordingly, Ehyeh asher ehyeh can be rendered in English not only as "I am that I am" but also as "I will be what I will be" or "I will be who I will be", or "I shall prove to be whatsoever I shall prove to be" or even "I will be because I will be". Other renderings include: Leeser, "I Will Be that I Will Be"; Rotherham, "I Will Become whatsoever I please", Greek, Ego eimi ho on ( ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ὤν ), 'I am The Being' in

3672-1013: The letters are chi (Χ) and again the lunate sigma—the first and last letters of 'Christ' in Greek ( Χριστός ). In many cases, Christ has a cruciform halo inscribed with the letters Ο Ω Ν, i.e. ὁ ὤν "He Who Is" . Names of God in Judaism Judaism has different names given to God , which are considered sacred: יהוה ( YHWH ), אֲדֹנָי ( Adonai transl.  my Lord[s] ), אֵל ( El transl.  God ), אֱלֹהִים ( Elohim transl.  God[s] ), שַׁדַּי ( Shaddai transl.  Almighty ), and צְבָאוֹת ( Tzevaoth transl.  [Lord of] Hosts ); some also include I Am that I Am . Early authorities considered other Hebrew names mere epithets or descriptions of God, and wrote that they and names in other languages may be written and erased freely. Some moderns advise special care even in these cases, and many Orthodox Jews have adopted

3740-527: The meaning of "Army of angels of God". Ehyeh asher ehyeh ( אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה ) is the first of three responses given to Moses when he asks for God's name in the Book of Exodus . The King James Version of the Bible translates the Hebrew as " I Am that I Am " and uses it as a proper name for God. The word ehyeh is the first-person singular imperfect form of hayah , 'to be'. Biblical Hebrew does not distinguish between grammatical tenses . It has instead an aspectual system in which

3808-475: The name Jah —because it forms part of the Tetragrammaton—is similarly protected. The tanna Jose ben Halafta considered "Tzevaot" a common name in the second century and Rabbi Ishmael considered "Elohim" to be one. All other names, such as "Merciful", "Gracious" and "Faithful", merely represent attributes that are also common to human beings. Also abbreviated Jah , the most common name of God in

3876-432: The name of God. The general halachic opinion is that this only applies to the sacred Hebrew names of God, not to other euphemistic references; there is a dispute as to whether the word "God" in English or other languages may be erased or whether Jewish law and/or Jewish custom forbids doing so, directly or as a precautionary "fence" about the law. The words God and Lord are written by some Jews as G-d and L-rd as

3944-482: The other Northwest Semitic languages . In some early contexts and theophoric names , it and Baali ( / ˈ b eɪ ə l aɪ / ; "My Lord") were treated as synonyms of Adon and Adonai. After the time of Solomon and particularly after Jezebel 's attempt to promote the worship of the Lord of Tyre Melqart , however, the name became particularly associated with the Canaanite storm god Baʿal Haddu and

4012-486: The overpainting was cleaned in 1962, the ancient image was revealed to be a very high-quality icon, probably produced in Constantinople . The icon, traditionally half-length when in a semi-dome , which became adopted for panel icons also, depicts Christ fully frontal with a somewhat melancholy and stern aspect, with the right hand raised in blessing or, in the early encaustic panel at Saint Catherine's Monastery,

4080-478: The passage in Exodus where God names himself as " I Will Be What I Will Be " using the first-person singular imperfective aspect, open to interpretation as present tense ("I am what I am"), future ("I shall be what I shall be"), or imperfect ("I used to be what I used to be"). Rabbinic Judaism teaches that the name is forbidden to all except the High Priest of Israel , who should only speak it in

4148-633: The period of destruction of images during the Iconoclastic disputes that twice racked the Eastern church, 726 to 787 and 814 to 842. It was preserved in Saint Catherine's Monastery , in the remote desert of the Sinai . The gessoed panel, finely painted using a wax medium on a wooden panel, had been coarsely overpainted around the face and hands at some time around the thirteenth century. When

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4216-503: The singular word ba'alim ('owner') looks plural, but likewise takes a singular verb. A number of scholars have traced the etymology to the Semitic root * yl , 'to be first, powerful', despite some difficulties with this view. Elohim is thus the plural construct 'powers'. Hebrew grammar allows for this form to mean "He is the Power (singular) over powers (plural)", just as the word Ba'alim means 'owner' (see above). "He

4284-501: The surface area of the building, except for a skylight of 1,012 square feet (94.0 m) of clear, double glazed glass, which permits natural light to pervade the interior. A rough limestone wall on the outside of the building evoked the rough construction of the original chapel in Cyprus. Christ Pantocrator In Christian iconography , Christ Pantocrator ( ‹See Tfd› Greek : Χριστὸς Παντοκράτωρ , lit.   ' Christ

4352-635: The term Adonai instead. The Beta Israel pronounce the Tetragrammaton as Yahu , but also use the Geʽez term Igziabeher . The Tetragrammaton appears in Genesis and occurs 6,828 times in total in the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia edition of the Masoretic Text . It is thought to be an archaic third-person singular of the imperfective aspect of the verb "to be" (i.e., "[He] is/was/will be"). This agrees with

4420-638: The thieves by the Houston-based Menil Foundation on behalf of the Church of Cyprus, the rightful owner of the frescoes. The Menil Foundation then funded a careful restoration of the paintings. These intact frescoes were unique in the western hemisphere. The major part of the collection consisted of the frescoes of the dome and apse. According to the guide to the museum, "the Lysi dome represents Christ Pantokrator, 'All sovereign'. It defines

4488-427: Was achieved by manipulation of these 216 sacred letters that form the names of God. 3 And ye shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and burn their Asherim with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods; and ye shall destroy their name out of that place. 4 Ye shall not do so unto the L ORD your God. From this it is understood by the rabbis that one should not erase or blot out

4556-465: Was designed by architect François de Menil . The interior combines rough stone, opaque glass, and rich woods, to create a space that is both art museum and spiritual space. The suspended-glass "walls" are not replicas of the chapel that the frescoes were removed from, but created a new context for displaying the icons. In order not to simply replicate the original chapel, de Menil designed "a mediating external building with an embedded steel structure –

4624-589: Was gradually avoided as a title for Yahweh. Several names that included it were rewritten as bosheth ("shame"). The prophet Hosea in particular reproached the Israelites for continuing to use the term: "It will come about in that day," declares the Lord , "That you will call Me Ishi And will no longer call Me Baali." Elah ([אֱלָה] Error: {{Lang}}: invalid parameter: |3= ( help ) , pl. Elim or Elohim ; Imperial Aramaic : אלהא‏ )

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