Free English Translation
On the Ten Names of God
Capitulum de Decem Dei Nominibus
~1 min read · by Anonymous
About On the Ten Names of God
This short chapter is an anonymous appendix piece traditionally printed among Jerome's works. It sets out the ten names by which God is called among the Hebrews, explaining several of them in turn: Adonai, meaning Lord; Ia, likewise rendered Lord in Greek; and the Tetragrammaton, the ineffable name, called Adonai among the Hebrews and Lord among Christians. The text notes a tradition that the Tetragrammaton was inscribed on a golden plate worn on the forehead of the high priest, citing the biblical instruction for the engraving of the seal, "Holiness to the Lord." It then begins listing a fourth group of names — Jao, Eloi, Adonai, Sabaoth, Sedai, and Jeai-echeai — before breaking off. The piece is brief and fragmentary, offering a Hebrew-to-Greek-to-Latin gloss on divine names rather than a developed theological treatise, and belongs to the miscellaneous appendix material gathered with Jerome's writings in the Patrologia Latina.
By Anonymous. Collected in Patrologia Latina, Volume 23.
The Ten Hebrew Names of God
On account of the Hebrew notation concerning the Lord, these things must be said. God is called by ten names among the Hebrews. One is Adonai, which is Lord. Another is Ia, which is likewise translated into Greek as Lord. Besides these there is another name, the Tetragrammaton, which is ineffable, which among the Hebrews is called Adonai, but among us Lord. This, they say, was written on a golden plate which was placed upon the forehead of the high priest, according to what is said in the Law: The shaping of the seal, holiness to the Lord. The fourth is Jao, Eloi, Adonai, Sabaoth, Sedai, Jeai-echeai.
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