Q&A: The Origin of the Names of God
Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.
The Origin of the Names of God
Question
Hello. There is a claim that religions older than ours invented the names of God. I understood that ancient Egypt influenced the Torah in this way, as well as some of their words that symbolized uses similar to ours, such as the word “tpt,” which resembles the word “totafot” and has a similar usage. Or the god “Ra,” etc. Does the Rabbi know where one can read about this, particularly about the influence of ancient Egypt on us? And is there any truth to all this, and does it undermine the truth of the Torah?
Answer
I’m not knowledgeable about this, also because in my opinion it really is not important for faith in the Torah. You can direct the question to the site “Ladaat Lehaמין.” There are people there who deal with these topics.
There are articles and also some nice talks by Yoel Elitzur about this. (There’s a nice talk of his with a group of professors.) One significant point (among many) that comes up a lot אצליו is that in scholarship there is a tendency to present things very decisively on the basis of sound similarities, comparisons between languages, and so on, but usually the conclusions are really not necessary.