Saadia Gaon’s Judeo-Arabic translation of the Tanach, the Tafsir Rasag, has been available at Sefaria for years now, and it’s fascinating in many ways. Today I want to talk about how the Gaon translates the word “Elohim” and the tetragrammaton.
As would be expected by any unbiased person, the Hebrew word אלוהים (Elohim, God) is rendered with אללה (Allah, God). For example, Bereishit 1 contains the word Elohim in Hebrew, but Allah in Judeo-Arabic:
אול מא כ̇לק אללה אלסמאואת ואלארץ̇.
اول ماء خلق الله السماوات والأرض.
ʔaw.wal mā ḵalaqa allāhu as-samāwāti wal-ʔarḍa.
When God first created the heavens and the earth…
Side note: Jewish translations of the Tanach generally begin this way, “when God first created the heavens and the earth,” as opposed to “in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Isn’t it incredible how far back this goes?
But Saadia Gaon doesn’t just render Elohim with אללה. He also translates the shem, God’s name, the tetragrammaton, with אללה. Let’s take a look at Exodus 3:15 (partial):
וקאל לה איצ̇א כד̇א קל לבני אסראיל אללה אלאה אבאיכם אלאה אברהים ואסחק ויעקוב בעת̇ני אליכם.
وقال له ايضا كذا قل لبني إسرائيل الله إله ابكم إله إبراهيم وإسحق ويعقوب بعثني اليكم.
waqāl lahu ʔayḍan kaḏā qul libani ʔisrāʔīla kaḏā allahu ʔilāhu abukum ʔilāhu ʔibrāhīma wa-ʔisḥāqa wa-yaʕqūba baʕaṯani ʔilaykum
And he also said, “Tell the children of Israel that God, the god of your fathers, the god of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, sent me to you.”
You’d expect to see something like אלרב (ar-rabb, the Lord), but Saadia doesn’t bother with this most of the time.
This makes the Shema interesting, because it contains both Elohim and the tetragrammaton one after the other. How did Saadia Gaon get around this?
אעלם אלאסראיל אן אללה רבנא אללה אלואחד.
اعلم الإسرائيل ان الله ربنا الله الواحد.
iʕlam al-ʔisrāʔīlu an allāhu rabbuna allāhu al-wāḥidu.
Know, Israel, that God is our Lord, God is the one.
This time Saadia Gaon replaces Eloheynu (our god) with rabbuna (our lord). Interesting, right?
If I was going to translate the Bible, I would make sure to translate Elohim and the Shem separately. Bible translations usually do this. But a Jewish genius of Torah, such as no longer exists today, didn’t think it was important.
Anyway, I hope that if you couldn’t before, you can now see how silly it is when people act like Muslims worship a god named Allah, or that he’s a moon deity or whatever.