Arguments
Regarding the Use of Different Divine Names
Isaac M. Kikawada
and Arthur Quinn and later Joshua Berman both make the point that the use of different
divine names for the same god is well attested in ancient Near Eastern
literature, so need not imply different sources. However, this is not a
satisfactory explanation of the alternating divine names in the flood story,
since these different divine names sometimes go hand in hand with other
discrepancies in the text. The clearest examples in the flood story are at the
very beginning and end. Thus, in both Gen. 6.9-22 and 7.1-5 God announces the
flood, commands Noah to enter the ark and bring in animals, and in each case it
is reported that he did so. However, the former called God Elohim and two of
every animal are to enter the ark, whereas the latter uses the name Yahweh and
commands that seven of clean animals and two of unclean enter the ark. Then at
the end we have two passages in which God promises never to flood the earth
again, one (Gen. 8.20-22) using the name Yahweh in which the promise seems a
spur of the moment response to Noah’s sacrifices, and the latter (Gen. 9.8-17)
using the name Elohim, where the promise is bound up with a covenant promised
already in Gen. 6.18. (John Day, “The Source Analysis and Redaction of the Genesis Flood
Story,” in From Creation to Abraham: Further Studies in Genesis 1-11 [Library
of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies 726; London: T&T Clark, 2022], 138)
