In a recent news article it was noted that the U.S. Episcopal diocese has voted to not only start using gender neutral pronouns for God (despite the fact that Jesus chose to call Him Father), but there was even an attendee (the Rev. Linda R. Calkins from a congregation in Maryland) which made the argument that anyone who took the time to look into the Hebrew language would see that the title of God “El Shaddai”, which is always translated “God Almighty” is better translated as “god with breasts”. The reason this kind of thing can happen is because people hear words in a language that they don’t really understand and, because they sound alike, they think that they are related, or maybe even the same. In this instance the two words in question are Shad (שׁד) and Shaddai (שׁדּי). As you can see, the two words appear very similar. There’s even a possibility that both of them may come from related primitive root words. “Shood” (שׁוּד) which has a meaning of to swell up, or to devastate, is the root word for the word that became ‘breasts’. ‘Shawdad’ (שׁדד) is the word that is thought to be the root for ‘Shaddai’, and it means powerful and destructive. Look, I’m sure there are good lexical reasons that these two words grew up around each other, but the truth is that without reading into the etymological history of the words, all we really know is that the two words are as closely related as “sheep” and “sheik”. While those two words do look and sound similar, there are very few people out there who would argue that all sheiks are sheep.
I thought we might take the time and look at every single time that the two words in question occur anywhere in the Hebrew Bible so everyone has the opportunity to see exactly why bad scholarship like this can happen. The first thing we’ll have to call out is that Hebrew is a language which doesn’t really have any letters which are vowels. That’s not to say that the spoken language doesn’t include vowel sounds, it’s just that a native speaker of the language who is reading it doesn’t need the vowels in order to read it accurately. So, in order save space on the ‘paper’ (as paper wasn’t that readily available at the time), they weren’t initially developed. Over the years a system of vowel pointers were developed around the consonants which help out with pronunciation but these are just a series of dots and dashes which end up getting placed around the actual letters. Honestly, I only barely understand this so you’ll get a much better tutorial by looking elsewhere; I’m only mentioning it because it appears that part of the problem with the “god with breasts” translation comes from a poor understanding of Hebrew vowel pointers and grammatical rules attached to them. For instance, in the word ‘Shaddai’ (שׁדּי) you can see a dot in the middle of the dalet (ד). This is called a dagesh lene and it doesn’t technically change the dalet to a different letter but when you see that dagesh lene in every form of Shaddai and you don’t see it in any of the forms of Shad then you should probably be able to conclude that these two words are supposed to be different words. Again, the purpose of this isn’t to be a Hebrew grammar lesson, I just wanted to point out that it’s easy to mistranslate and mispronounce things when you’re not a native speaker of the language you’re intending to translate. So when you see the words ‘shadayi’ (שָׁדַ֖י) and ‘Shaddai’ (שַׁדַּי֙), it’s tempting to think that they’re the same word, but those little dots and dashes mean things, and we can’t change what they mean just because it would help us make an argument that we want to make.
Now we’re going to take a look at each of the words in question (with the Strong’s information) as well as each individual occurrence of both of the words throughout the Hebrew Scriptures. Included with the occurrences will be the address, the actual Hebrew for that occurrence, the transliteration, and the translation that the KJV gives the word. This is going to be tedious and boring and you don’t have to read every one if you don’t want to, but they’re being provided just in case you do want to.
Breasts
Shad (Shode) – שׁד
H7699 – Probably from H7736 (in its original sense) contracted; the breast of a woman or animal (as bulging): - breast, pap, teat.
H7736 – שׁוּד (shood)A primitive root; properly to swell up, that is, figuratively (by implication of insolence) to devastate: - waste.
Gen 49:25 – שָׁדַיִם Shadayim (Breasts), Job 3:12 –שָּׁ֝דַ֗יִם Shadayim (Breasts), Job 24:9 – מִשֹּׁ֣ד Mishod (Breast), Psalm 22:9 – שְׁדֵ֥י Shadayi (Breasts), Son 1:13 – שָׁדַ֖י Shadayi (Breasts), Son 4:5 –שָׁדַ֛יִךְ Shadayik (Breasts), Son 7:3 – שָׁדַ֛יִךְ Shadayik (Breasts), Son 7:7 – וְשָׁדַ֖יִךְ veShadayik (Breasts), Son 7:8 – שָׁדַ֛יִךְ Shadayik (Breasts), Son 8:1 – שְׁדֵ֣י Shedei (Breasts), Son 8:8 – וְשָׁדַ֖יִם veShadayim (Breasts), Son 8:10 – וְשָׁדַ֖י veShadai (Breasts), Isa 28:9 –מִשָּׁדָֽיִם׃ mishShadayim (Breasts), Is 32:12 – שָׁדַיִם Shadayim (Teats), Is 60:16 –וְשֹׁ֥ד veShod (Breast), Isa 66:11 – מִשֹּׁ֣ד Mishod (Breasts), Lam 4:3 –שַׁ֔ד Shad (Breast), Ez 16:7 – שָׁדַיִם Shadayim (Breasts), Ez 23:3 – שְׁדֵיהֶ֔ן Shedeihen (Breasts) (also in this verse is H1717 (teats) where teats is sexualized), Ez 23:21 – שְׁדֵ֥י Shedei (Paps)(this verse also has H1717 in use), Ez 23:34 – וְשָׁדַ֣יִךְ veShadayik (Breasts), Hos 2:2 – שָׁדֶֽיהָ׃ Shadeiha (Breasts), Hos 9:14 – וְשָׁדַ֖יִם veShadayim (Breasts), Joel 2:16 –שָׁדָ֑יִם Shadayim (Breasts)
H1717 – דּד (dad) Apparently from the same as H1730; the breast (as the seat of love, or from its shape): - breast, teat.
Now we’ll look at “El Shaddai”. Or, more realistically the “Shaddai” part of this title for El (God). There are 48 occurrences of the different forms of this word (H7706) in the Old Testament and 31 of them are in the book of Job. That’s right, a full 65% of the times this word is used, it’s being used in the book of Job. There are many reasons for this but to sum it up I’ll just say that Job is the oldest book in the Bible and El Shaddai is one of the more archaic titles for God. In fact, 9 more of the occurrences are in the Torah so 40 out of the 48 time this word is used it’s happening in what are, by far, the oldest books in the Bible.
It should probably also be mentioned that every time the word is used it’s being translated as “Almighty”. Now, I guess you could say that this choice of wording was used because the translators were part of the patriarchy, but a little more study will disprove that. First of all, just like the Hebrew word for ‘breasts’ the root word (which is a different root word, by the way) has a meaning of power and strength (it will be listed below). Secondly, the translators of the Septuagint also translated this word into a Greek word meaning “almighty”, or “lord”, or some derivation we would normally understand as a title of God, and not “breasts”. Now, you could try to argue that those who translated the Septuagint were also part of the patriarchy but on closer inspection this would be a ridiculous claim. It’s ridiculous because they are the same people who you’re claiming intended ‘El Shaddai’ to be ‘the God with Breasts’. If a person were inclined to argue that the Septuagint translators wouldn’t translate it because they were oppressing women, then you undo the entire argument because these same people would’ve never named their god the “god with breasts”. Let’s take a closer look at each of the occurrences now:
El Shaddai
Shadday – שׁדּי
H7706 - From H7703; the Almighty: - Almighty.
H7703 – שׁדד (shawdad) A primitive root; properly to be burly, that is, (figuratively) powerful (passively impregnable); by implication to ravage: - dead, destroy (-er), oppress, robber, spoil (-er), X utterly, (lay) waste.
Gen 17:1 – שַׁדַּ֔י Shaddai (Almighty), Gen 28:3 – שַׁדַּי֙ Shaddai (Almighty), Gen 35:11 – שַׁדַּי֙ Shaddai (Almighty), Gen 43:14 – שַׁדַּ֗י Shaddai (Almighty), Gen 48:3 – שַׁדַּ֛י Shaddai (Almighty), Gen 49:25 – שַׁדַּי֙ Shaddai (Almighty), Exo 6:3 – שַׁדָּ֑י Shaddai (Almighty), Num 24:4 – שַׁדַּי֙ Shaddai (Almighty), Ruth 1:20 – שַׁדַּ֛י Shaddai (Almighty), Ruth 1:21 – וְשַׁדַּ֖י veShaddai (Almighty), Job 5:17 – שַׁ֝דַּ֗י Shaddai (Almighty), Job 6:4 – שַׁדַּ֡י Shaddai (Almighty), Job 6:14 – שַׁדַּ֣י Shaddai (Almighty), Job 8:3 – שַׁ֝דַּ֗י Shaddai (Almighty), Job 8:5 – שַׁ֝דַּ֗י Shaddai (Almighty), Job 11:7 – שַׁדַּ֣י Shaddai (Almighty), Job 13:3 – שַׁדַּ֣י Shaddai (Almighty), Job 15:25 – שַׁ֝דַּ֗י Shaddai (Almighty), Job 21:15 – שַׁדַּ֛י Shaddai (Almighty), Job 21:20 – שַׁדַּ֣י Shaddai (Almighty), Job 22:3 – לְ֭שַׁדַּי leShaddai (Almighty), Job 22:17 – שַׁדַּ֣י Shaddai (Almighty), Job 22:23 – שַׁ֭דַּי Shaddai (Almighty), Job 22:25 – שַׁדַּ֣י Shaddai (Almighty), Job 22:26 – שַׁדַּ֣י Shaddai (Almighty), Job 23:16 – וְשַׁדַּ֖י veShaddai (Almighty), Job 24:1 – מִ֭שַּׁדַּי mishShaddai (Almighty), Job 27:2 – וְשַׁדַּ֖י veShaddai (Almighty), Job 27:10 – שַׁדַּ֛י Shaddai (Almighty), Job 27:11 – שַׁ֝דַּ֗י Shaddai (Almighty), Job 27:13 – מִ֭שַּׁדַּי mishShaddai (Almighty), Job 29:5 – שַׁ֭דַּי Shaddai (Almighty), Job 31:2 – שַׁ֝דַּ֗י Shaddai (Almighty), Job 31:35 – שַׁדַּ֣י Shaddai (Almighty), Job 32:8 – שַׁדַּ֣י Shaddai (Almighty), Job 33:4 – שַׁדַּ֣י Shaddai (Almighty), Job 34:10 – וְשַׁדַּ֖י veShaddai (Almighty), Job 34:12 – וְשַׁדַּ֖י veShaddai (Almighty), Job 35:13 – וְשַׁדַּ֖י veShaddai (Almighty), Job 37:23 – שַׁדַּ֣י Shaddai (Almighty), Job 40:2 – שַׁדַּ֣י Shaddai (Almighty), Ps 68:14 – שַׁדַּ֓י Shaddai (Almighty), Ps 91:1 – שַׁ֝דַּ֗י Shaddai (Almighty), Isa 13:6 – מִ֭שַּׁדַּי mishShaddai (Almighty), Ez 1:24 – שַׁדַּי֙ Shaddai (Almighty), Ez 10:5 – שַׁדַּ֖י Shaddai (Almighty), Joel 1:15 – מִ֭שַּׁדַּי mishShaddai (Almighty)
One of the first things I noticed as I was putting each one of these in is that there are very few form changes when compared to ‘shad’ (שׁד), and the transliteration almost never changes. But the biggest thing that you notice is that while the two words at question in this blog are very similar they are also very different. Also, it’s very easy to use peoples lack of understanding against them when you’re telling them about a different language. I’m not saying that the woman in the article was intentionally tying to deceive people by telling them that ‘El Shaddai’ should be translated as the “god with breasts”. It’s entirely possible that she was told the same thing, and she’s just repeating it. But… we need to be able to look into things and research them, and not just take the things we read on the internet as ‘gospel’, and I think that’s something that a lot of us are guilty of. I can admit that I’ve done this. As representatives of our King, we need to hold ourselves to higher standards, for His sake.
I would like to add here that I tried my best to make sure that I got the correct form of each of the Hebrew words but it's possible that I flipped some of them. If there's anyone out there who actually wants to look into each occurrences, and then you find that I messed up one of them, you truly do deserve a cookie, and I wish that I could give it to you! ;-)
This was first posted at my personal blog at the following address:
http://thepoiema.blogspot.com/2018/02/god-almighty-vs-god-with-breasts.html