“Thus they answered us, saying, ‘We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth and are rebuilding the temple that was built many years ago, which a great king of Israel built and finished.’” (Ezra 5:11)

The term “elah” is an Aramaic designation for God. While the major languages in which the Bible was originally penned were Hebrew (OT) and Greek (NT), a few short passages were actually written in Aramaic, a cognate language to Hebrew. “Elah” occurs only in those passages and seems to be equivalent to the Hebrew term “elohim.” The prophet Jeremiah declared unequivocally in Hebrew, “The LORD is the true God [Elohim]; He is the living God [Elohim] and the everlasting King. At His wrath the earth quakes, and the nations cannot endure His indignation” (Jer 10:10). But then in the next breath, he switches to Aramaic so that pagans can read in their own language the indictment against the worship of any other gods: “Thus you shall say to them, ‘The gods [elah] that did not make the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth and from under the heavens’” (Jer 10:11). Aramaic was the “lingua franca” of the day, the universally spoken language at that time, and so it would have been easy for Jeremiah to slip into that language for its emotional impact. In contrast to the Creator and living Yahweh Elohim of Israel who controls all, the elah of the pagans are nothing.

However, the term elah is used elsewhere of Yahweh Himself. The more frequent use of the term comes in the Aramaic sections of Daniel (chapters 2-7) and Ezra (4:8–6:18 and 7:12–26), who wrote during and at the end of the Babylonian-Medo-Persian captivity of Israel. Again, Aramaic was the common language at that time, and these two prophets chose to write much of their prophecies in that language.

The prophets had no problem adopting the terms for deity used by the surrounding culture. Some “purists” might argue against this, thinking it causes confusion. But the prophets made sure there was no ambiguity. In fact, Ezra uses the term LORD (Yahweh) 38 times and Daniel 29 times. They were saying in effect, yes, there is an Elah, and His name is Yahweh. Paul did something similar, as the book of Acts records: “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects … For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you” (Acts 17:22–23). A parallel today might be the use of “Allah” as a reference to God when witnessing to Muslims.

Lord, by any other name, You are still the LORD, Creator of everything.