Elahi

Elahi (אלהי,إلاهي) is Aramaic and means "My God."[1] Elah means God (Name for God as 'Awesome One') in Aramaic.[2] The "-i" after Elah is the first person pronoun and means "my." In the Old Testament Elahi is found only in the books of Ezra and Daniel.[2]

For other uses, see Elahi (disambiguation).

Christian use

Some scholars believe Elahi may be the name of God that Jesus vocalized in his last words on the cross. Science historian Livio Catullo Stecchini and Jan Sammer write, "The limits of Mark‘s knowledge of Hebrew are revealed by the sentence Eloi Eloi Lama Sabachthani which he puts into the mouth of Jesus. It is a confused rendering into Greek lettering of the text of Psalm 22:2, which reads in Hebrew eli eli lama azabtani and in Aramaic elahi elahi lema sebaqtani."[3]

Muslim use

Deemed a heresy or blasphemous by Israelites, the name Elahi would never be taken on as a personal name by adherents of the Jewish tradition. However, the personal name has been gradually popularized within Persian and Indo-Aryan cultural traditions. The name has appeared in Kurdish, Azeri, and Persian languages.

With the arrival of Islam in the Subcontinent, the name migrated into South Asia adding to the etymological progression of the word. Islam, an Abrahamic faith which evolved out of Semitic Arabia, provided the linguistic and cultural conduit for the transfer of the name. The Muslims of medieval South Asia adopted the name in small numbers. For example, the former deputy prime minister of Pakistan, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi. The name is also found in neighbouring Afghanistan or Iran.

See also

References
  1. Discovering the Language of Jesus by Douglas Hamp, Calvary Chapel Publishing (August 12, 2005), p. 50
  2. "The Aramaic Name for God - Elah". Hebrew4christians.com. Retrieved 2013-01-01.
  3. The Gospel According to Seneca, by Livio C. Stecchini & Jan Sammer, 1996
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