Jacob Part 2” in a series of talks titled “In Search of Biblical Revival.” For listening sheets and other resources visit http://warnersmith.org/sermons

¹ When Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said to his disciples, ² “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.” ³ Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, ⁴ and plotted together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him. ⁵ But they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people.” Matthew 26:1–5 (ESV)

LXX., sometimes ???????????). The Hebrew root “shadad,” from which it has been supposed to be derived, means, however, “to overpower,” “to treat with violence,” “to lay waste.” This would give Shaddai the meaning “devastator,” or “destroyer,” which can hardly be right. It is possible, however, that the original significance was that of “overmastering” or “overpowering strength,” and that this meaning persists in the divine name. Another interesting suggestion is that it may be connected with the Assyrian “shadu” (mountain), an epithet sometimes attached to the names of Assyrian deities. It is conjectured also that the pointing of may be due to an improbable rabbinical explanation of the word as (“He who is sufficient”), and that the word originally may have been without the doubling of the middle letter.

According to Ex. vi. 2, 3, this is the name by which God was known to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.