Divine Designations — Why We Never Translate Them

Public source text: WLC (Westminster Leningrad Codex) + Nestle 1904. Translation: Belem-2025 Bible translation — literal, rigid, straight from the public códices.

The greatest invisible problem of biblical translation

Open any Bible in English. Look for the word “God.” It appears thousands of times. Each occurrence seems to refer to the same entity. The reader passes through each “God” without blinking — because the translation uniformized what the original text distinguished.

Now open the Greek códices. The word that was translated as “God” is Θεός (Theos). And Θεός in Koine Greek is not a personal name — it is a functional designation. It means “divinity,” “divine being” — without automatically specifying which one.

This difference is catastrophic for forensic investigation.

The catalog of designations

The Forensic Unveiling School maintains divine designations in their original script with transliteration. Never translated. Never uniformized.

New Testament Designations (Greek)

Old Testament Designations (Hebrew)

The problem of translating Θεός as “God”

When the translator writes “God” in English, the reader automatically assumes it refers to the supreme, unique, and true Creator. But the Greek text does not guarantee this.

In the New Testament, Θεός is used in reference to:

Observe: the same word — Θεός — is used for the Creator, for the Logos, for human beings quoted from Psalm 82, for the adversary, and even for the human belly.

If the translator writes “God” in all these passages, the reader cannot distinguish. If the translator preserves Θεός, the reader realizes they need to investigate: which Θεός?

The LXX confusion: when Κύριος replaced יהוה

The Septuagint (LXX) — the Greek translation of the Hebrew OT made before the Christian era — made an editorial decision that generates confusion to this day: it replaced the tetragrammaton יהוה (yhwh) with the designation Κύριος (Kyrios).

The cascading problem:

Hebrew OT: יהוה (yhwh) — specific personal name
     ↓ LXX translation
LXX Greek: Κύριος (Kyrios) — generic title ("sovereign")
     ↓ NT citation
NT Greek: Κύριος (Kyrios) — but who? yhwh? Jesus? Another?
     ↓ English translation
English: "Lord" — completely indistinguishable

When Paul cites an OT text that originally says יהוה and the citation appears as Κύριος in the NT, the translator who writes “Lord” in English completely erases the original identity. The reader does not know whether the “Lord” of the passage is Yahweh (yhwh), Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, or another entity.

Easter Egg #6: In DES 4:8, the four living creatures say: “Ἅγιος ἅγιος ἅγιος Κύριος ὁ Θεός ὁ Παντοκράτωρ” — three designations stacked in a single phrase. Translations write “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty” — three English words that homogenize three distinct Greek designations. Preserving the original allows the investigator to ask: Κύριος of whom? Θεός of whom? Παντοκράτωρ over what? Each designation is a separate clue.

The forensic ontology: who is who

The Forensic Unveiling School operates with a specific ontology:

1. Conscious beings in the códices: only messengers (ἄγγελοι) and humans
2. Rebel messengers declared themselves Θεός — creators who did not create
3. Ἰησοῦς = the real Creator Θεός — but appears in variations (messenger/spirit, human, Creator)
4. Central objective of the investigation: identify who is who in each passage

If we translate all designations into English, we lose the ability to track identities. Uniformization is the enemy of investigation.

In the left column, everything looks the same. In the right column, each passage is a separate investigation.

The case of אלהים (Elohim)

Elohim deserves special attention. It is morphologically plural (the singular would be אלוה — Eloah or אל — El). Translations write “God” (singular) and resolve the issue grammatically — but the grammatical issue is not so simple:

The four canonical uses of Elohim documented in the WLC —

1. Gênesis 1:1 — Creator (singular verb with plural subject):

בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ

“In the beginning created Elohim (בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים) the heavens and the earth.” — Gênesis 1:1

2. Gênesis 1:26 — Deliberative plural:

וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֔ים נַֽעֲשֶׂ֥ה אָדָ֛ם בְּצַלְמֵ֖נוּ כִּדְמוּתֵ֑נוּ

“And said Elohim: Let us make (נַעֲשֶׂה) human in our image, according to our likeness.” — Gênesis 1:26

3. Exodus 20:3 — Other gods:

לֹ֣א יִהְיֶ֥ה־לְךָ֛ אֱלֹהִ֥ים אֲחֵרִ֖ים עַל־פָּנָֽיַ

“You shall not have other gods (אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים) before my face.” — Exodus 20:3

4. Exodus 21:6 — Human judges:

וְהִגִּישׁ֤וֹ אֲדֹנָיו֙ אֶל־הָ֣אֱלֹהִ֔ים

“And his master shall bring him to ha-Elohim (הָאֱלֹהִים) [= the judges].” — Exodus 21:6

The same word — Elohim — serves for the Creator, for pagan gods, and for human beings in judicial functions. Translating all of them as “God” is an investigative disservice.

The Belem-2025 Bible translation preserves אלהים (Elohim) in all occurrences. The reader sees the original designation and investigates on their own.

What we NEVER write

The list is short and non-negotiable:

Each of these translations removes a layer of information that the investigator needs. It is like wiping fingerprints from a crime scene before the forensic expert arrives.

The practice in the Belem-2025 Bible translation

In practice, a verse from the Belem-2025 Bible translation appears like this:

DES 1:8 (Nestle 1904):

Ἐγώ εἰμι τὸ Ἄλφα καὶ τὸ Ὦ, λέγει Κύριος ὁ Θεός, ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁ ἦν καὶ ὁ ἐρχόμενος, ὁ Παντοκράτωρ.

Conventional translation:

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, the one who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”

Belem-2025 Bible translation:

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, says Κύριος ὁ Θεός, the being and the was and the coming, the Παντοκράτωρ.”

The second version preserves three distinct designations that the first fused into two generic words. The investigator who reads the second version knows exactly which Greek terms are in the codex. The one who reads the first does not.

The sovereignty of the reader — again

Preserving the original designations is not academic preciousness. It is respect for the sovereignty of the reader.

The reader who sees Θεός can research: “Who is Θεός in this passage?” The reader who sees “God” assumes they already know.

The reader who sees Yahweh (yhwh) can investigate: “What is the relationship between Yahweh (yhwh) and Θεός?” The reader who sees “Lord” in both testaments does not even realize they are different designations.

The preservation of original designations transforms each occurrence into an open question — and open questions are the engine of every forensic investigation.

“You read. And the interpretation is yours.”