God
the Supreme Being. The form ary being, constituting an object of worany other person, yielding great and ship; or for (1) an emperor , king, or despotic power; (2) any person or thing greatly idolized. age tribes exist with no belief in any Ethnic Religions. - Whether any savbeing being higher than man is doubtful. Lubthe first great stages in religious thought : Atheism, understanding by this term, not a denial of the existence of a Deity, but an absence of any definite ideas on Fetichism, the stage in which man supthe subject. with his desires. Nature-worship, or poses he can force the Deity to comply totemism, in which natural objects, trees, shiped. lakes, stones, animals, etc., are worsuperior deities are far more powerful shiped. Shamanism, in which the Their place of abode also is far away, than man, and of a different nature. and accessible only to Shamans. Idolatry or anthropomorphism in which the gods take still nature of men, being, however, more completely the persuasion; they are a part of nature, powerful. They are still amenable to to and not creatures.
They are represented by images or idols. In the next stage as the author, not merely a part of nature. He becomes for the first time a really supernatural morality is associated with religion. being. The last stage is that in which Judaism. Two leading names for the Hebrew Bible; the one generic, the other Supreme Being continually occur in the Eloah, both singular, and ELOHIM (q. v.) specific. The generic term is El, or plural, the specific one is Yehovah, in general written JEHOVAH (q. v.). It is rendering. El, Eloah, and Elohim of the first that God is the appropriate signify Deity in general. Elohim is much more common than the singular or titles used High (Gen. xiv: 18, etc.), Mighty (Neh. of God in the Old Testament are Most ix: 32), Holy (Josh. xxiv: 19), Merciful (Deut. iv: 31), God of Heaven (Ezra i: 2), God of Israel, etc. (Exod. xxiv: 10). chiefly, though not exclusively, in the language occurs GODAVARI poetic parts of the Old Testament (II Chron. xxx: 12, Psa. xx: 3, Deut. viii: 3, Psa. xxix: 4, Isa. xl: 12, liii: 1, lx: 13, Exod. xxxii: 23), but monotheism is enjoined in the first commandment, and idolatry forbidden in the second, while in Isaiah and elsewhere there are most scathing denunciations of the manufacture and worship of images (Isa. xl: 12-26, xlii: 17, xliv: 9-20, etc.). In the New Testament, St. John gives the evermemorable definition of the Divine nature. "God is love" (I John iv: 16).
The Latin Church, the Greek Church, and the several Protestant denominations all essentially agree in their tenets regarding God. See the Apostles', Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds, the first of the Thirty-nine Articles, the Catechism of the Council of Trent, the Confession of Faith (ch. ii.), and the Shorter Catechism, question 4. See THEOLOGY; TRINITY.
The name of God in 47 languages:
Hebrew-Elohim, Eloha.
Chaldaic-Eilah.
Assyrian-Eleah.
Syriac and Turkish-Alah.
Malay-Alla.
Arabic-Allah.
Old Egyptian-Teut.
Armorian-Teuti.
Modern Egyptian-Teun.
Greek-Theos.
Aeolian and Doric-Ilos.
Latin-Deus.
Low Latin-Diex.
Celtic and Gallic-Diu.
French-Dieu.
Spanish-Dios.
Portuguese-Deos.
Old German-Diet.
Provençal-Diou.
Low Breton-Doue.
Italian-Dio.
Irish-Dia.
Olalu Tongue-Deu.
German-Gott.
Flemish-Goed.
Dutch-Godt.
English and Old Saxon-God.
Teutonic-Goth.
Danish and Swedish-Gut.
Norwegian-Gud.
Slav-Buch.
Polish-Bog.
Pollacca-Bung.
Lapp-Jubinal.
Cretan-Thios.
Finch-Jumala.
Runic As.
Zemblain-Fetiza.
Pannonian-Istu.
Hindostanee-Rain.
Coromandel-Brama.
Tartar-Magatal.
Persian-Sire.
Chinese-Prussa.
Japanese-Gezur.
Madagascar-Zannar Peruvian-Puchecammae.
GODAVARI (gō-dä'va-rē), one of the principal rivers of India, and the largest of the Deccan, rising within 50 miles of the Indian Ocean, and flowing S. E. across the peninsula into the Bay of GODFATHER Bengal, which it enters by seven mouths, after a course of 898 miles, its total drainage area being estimated at 112,000 square miles. It has been called the Indian Rhine. The navigation of the upper waters is impeded by three impassable rocky barriers or rapids within a space of 150 miles. The Godavari is one of the 12 sacred rivers of India, and the great bathing festival, called Pushkaram, is held on its banks once in 12 years; each of its seven mouths is esteemed holy, but especially the Gautami mouth, the larger of its two arms, which enters the sea not far from Cocanada.