Abstract

From the observation that God is “ineffable and formless”, this article analyzes the use of the name of God in popular sayings of the Bible and of the present days. Although the Bible forbids making graven images of divinity, it abuses in the usage of the divine name and the metaphors of his attributes and his actions. This study aims to analyze the extensive use of the name of God in proverbs, both of biblical antiquity as of today life. After the introductory considerations about the name of God in some religions, in the Bible and in the mouth of the people, it explains the wide citation of the name of God in the biblical book of Proverbs, in the context of all the Hebrew Bible. To analyze this reality, in parallel, the proverbs are grouped around the following issues: God in spontaneous popular interjections, God as provident creator, God as retributive for good and evil, and God as partner of humans in his ethics proposal for a good coexistence.