Before I go into any details about the Godhead Divine Names, perhaps I should first list them.

El Shaddai meaning the all sufficient One or Lord God Almighty

El Elyon meaning the most high God

Adonai meaning Lord, Master

Yahweh or the variant spelling YHWH meaning Lord, Jehovah

El Olam meaning the everlasting God.

Elohim meaning God, Judge, Creator

Qanna meaning Jealous, Zealous

The difficulty in trying to identify the differences between all the other names of God and these names for God is in separating who God is on His throne alone verses how we see Him and interact with Him. Our tendencies will always be to define God by what we see and understand and God is so much more than that. Our expressions of things we can only glimpse of from this side are murky at best.

1 Corinthians 13:12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

Our glimpses into eternity are nothing more than those things which the Godhead allows us to see for reasons only the Godhead can explain. Anything else that we think we might see is merely vanity and will disappear in the presence of His glorious light.

Ecclesiastes 1:8-11 All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us. There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.

I left off with the Jehovah names promising to address the Divine Names. Once again I find myself having to explain why this is significant and how it differs from any previous effort. I begin with a biblical definition of divinity from Vine’s Expository Encyclopedia of New Testament Words.

Divinity: “divinity,” the RV rendering in Romans 1:20 (AV, “Godhead”), is derived from theios and is to be distinguished from theotes in Colossians 2:9, “Godhead.” In Romans 1:20  the Apostle “is declaring how much of God may be known from the revelation of Himself which He has made in nature, from those vestiges of Himself which men may everywhere trace in the world around them. Yet it is not the personal God whom any man may learn to know by these aids; He can be known only by the revelation of Himself in His Son;… But in the second passage (Colossians 2:9), Paul is declaring that in the Son there dwells all the fullness of absolute Godhead; they were no mere rays of Divine glory which gilded Him, lighting up His Person for a season and with a splendor not His own; but He was, and is, absolute and perfect God; and the Apostle uses theotes to express this essential and personal Godhead of the Son” (Trench, Syn. ii). Theotes indicates the “Divine” essence of Godhood, the Personality of God; theiotes, the attributes of God, His “Divine” nature and properties.

I know that is a lot of information to absorb and could use some explaining. Here are my observations. Consider the Godhead as being the Trinity, The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit. They are One and can act as One. The Divine Names of God might best be described as how the Godhead acts alone. When we as created beings observe God in personality and character it is always in one or two of the persons of God.

Messengers were sent to speak giving voice to the identity of God, His will to be known. The Word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit, is just one part of the Godhead. Jesus Christ came down from the Godhead and became flesh, this is another part of the Godhead. Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit worked together as two parts of the Godhead to evoke God the Father’s salvation plan.

When the three work together as One, it is divine and what I like to call the Divine Names.