Study guide
The Names of God and of Jesus
What God calls Himself, and what Scripture calls His Son. One page, two reference lists: each name with what it says about Him and the passages it comes from.
Why the names matter
In Scripture a name is not a label chosen for its sound; it says what someone is. So God does not leave His naming to us. He tells Moses what He is called, spells out what the name means, and guards it in the commandments. Every name below is one He gave, or one His people used because He had shown them something true. Search either list by name, book, or word.
The names of God
God's name is not information about Him so much as access to Him. It is a strong tower the righteous run into (Proverbs 18:10), the thing His people are to call upon (Genesis 4:26; Joel 2:32), and the thing they may not take in vain (Exodus 20:7). Here are 48 of the names and titles Scripture gives Him, with the passages they come from.
Two cautions as you read. First, a name of God is never a formula: He is a person to be called on, not a word to be used, and the sons of Sceva found out what happens when His name is treated as leverage (Acts 19:13-16). Second, the list is not a complete account of God. No name exhausts Him, and He remains more than He has told us — but what He has told us is true, and enough to know Him by.
The name He gives Himself
God is not named by us. He tells Moses what He is called, and the four Hebrew consonants of that name — YHWH — stand behind every place the ESV prints LORD in small capitals. Out of reverence, Israel read Adonai (“Lord”) aloud instead; the hybrid “Jehovah” comes from later readers combining the consonants of one word with the vowels of the other, and is not a separate name.
| The name | What it says | Where it is used |
|---|---|---|
| The LORD — YHWH | The name God gave at the bush, and the one He refuses to share: I am the LORD; that is my name. | Exodus 3:15; Exodus 6:2-3; Isaiah 42:8 |
| I AM WHO I AM — ehyeh asher ehyeh | He exists of Himself, owing His being to nothing and no one; He will be what He will be. | Exodus 3:14 |
| The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious | God’s own commentary on His name, spoken as He passes before Moses: mercy first, and justice that clears no guilt. | Exodus 34:6-7 |
| The LORD our God, the LORD is one | One God, not one of many — the confession Israel was to teach its children and Jesus called the first commandment. | Deuteronomy 6:4-5; Mark 12:29-30 |
| I AM | The words Jesus takes on His own lips, and His hearers reach for stones because they understand exactly what He has claimed. | John 8:58; John 18:5-6 |
| The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit | One name — singular — for the three persons, given in the words of baptism. | Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14 |
El: the God who is strong to act
El and its plural Elohim are the ordinary Hebrew words for God, usually paired with a second word that says what kind of God He is.
| The name | What it says | Where it is used |
|---|---|---|
| God — Elohim | The word that opens the Bible: in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. | Genesis 1:1; Psalm 19:1 |
| God Almighty — El Shaddai | The name under which He made and kept His promises to the patriarchs, when they had no land and no son. | Genesis 17:1; Genesis 35:11; Exodus 6:3 |
| God Most High — El Elyon | Sovereign over every other power, possessor of heaven and earth — the name Melchizedek blesses Abram by. | Genesis 14:18-20; Psalm 57:2 |
| The God who sees me — El Roi | Named by Hagar, a runaway slave in a desert, who found she had been seen all along. | Genesis 16:13 |
| The Everlasting God — El Olam | He does not begin, tire, or end; the Creator of the ends of the earth does not faint. | Genesis 21:33; Isaiah 40:28 |
| The living God — El Chai | Not carved, not carried, not dead like the idols: the God who acts, and before whom nations tremble. | Joshua 3:10; Jeremiah 10:10; Matthew 16:16 |
| A jealous God — El Qanna | Jealous the way a faithful husband is jealous — He will not share the worship owed to Him. | Exodus 20:5; Exodus 34:14 |
| The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob | He binds His name to particular people, and Jesus argues from the present tense of it that they live still. | Exodus 3:6; Matthew 22:31-32 |
| The God of gods and Lord of lords | Mighty and awesome, taking no bribe, executing justice for the fatherless and the widow. | Deuteronomy 10:17 |
The LORD who — names given where He acted
These are not formal titles so much as memorials: a phrase someone said, or carved on an altar, on the day God met them. They are listed here as what they are — Scripture’s own record of God known in the moment of need.
| The name | What it says | Where it is used |
|---|---|---|
| The LORD will provide — Yahweh Yireh | Abraham names the mountain where God supplied the ram in place of his son. | Genesis 22:13-14 |
| The LORD your healer — Yahweh Rapha | Spoken at the bitter water of Marah, over a people who needed healing in more than their bodies. | Exodus 15:26 |
| The LORD is my banner — Yahweh Nissi | Moses’ altar after Amalek: the standard the people rally to is God Himself. | Exodus 17:15 |
| The LORD who sanctifies you — Yahweh Mekaddishkem | He does not only command holiness; He is the one who makes His people holy. | Exodus 31:13; Leviticus 20:8 |
| The LORD is peace — Yahweh Shalom | Gideon’s altar, built by a frightened man who expected to die for seeing God and was told, Peace be to you. | Judges 6:23-24 |
| The LORD of hosts — Yahweh Sabaoth | Commander of the armies of heaven — the name David answers Goliath with. | 1 Samuel 17:45; Isaiah 6:3; Psalm 46:7 |
| The LORD is my shepherd — Yahweh Roi | A king who had been a shepherd says what it is to be kept, fed, and led by God. | Psalm 23:1; Psalm 80:1 |
| The LORD is our righteousness — Yahweh Tsidkenu | The name of the promised King from David’s line — the righteousness His people wear is His own. | Jeremiah 23:5-6; 1 Corinthians 1:30 |
| The LORD is there — Yahweh Shammah | The last words of Ezekiel, and the name of the city to come: God present with His people. | Ezekiel 48:35; Revelation 21:3 |
His titles: what He is to His people
Names that describe rather than identify — how Scripture speaks of God when it wants to say what He is like, and what He is to those who are His.
| The name | What it says | Where it is used |
|---|---|---|
| Lord — Adonai | Master and owner; the word a servant uses, and the one Israel read aloud in place of the divine name. | Genesis 15:2; Psalm 8:1 |
| The Holy One of Israel | Isaiah’s own name for God: set utterly apart, and bound by covenant to a people who are not. | Isaiah 1:4; Isaiah 43:14-15 |
| The Rock | His work is perfect and His ways just; a God of faithfulness and without iniquity. | Deuteronomy 32:4; Psalm 18:2 |
| Judge of all the earth | Abraham’s appeal over Sodom: shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just? | Genesis 18:25; Psalm 94:2 |
| The King of glory | The LORD strong and mighty, before whom the ancient doors are told to open wide. | Psalm 24:7-10; 1 Timothy 1:17 |
| The Ancient of Days | Daniel’s vision of the throne, white as snow, with thousands upon thousands serving Him. | Daniel 7:9-10 |
| My refuge and my fortress | Shelter for the one who dwells in the shadow of the Almighty. | Psalm 91:1-2; Proverbs 18:10 |
| The Redeemer | The kinsman who pays the price himself to buy back what His relatives lost. | Job 19:25; Isaiah 41:14 |
| The Potter | We are the clay, and He the potter; we are all the work of His hand. | Isaiah 64:8; Romans 9:20-21 |
| Our Father | The name Jesus teaches His disciples to begin with, which no one may presume on and no child of His need fear. | Isaiah 63:16; Matthew 6:9 |
| Abba | The Aramaic word Jesus prays in Gethsemane, put by the Spirit into the mouths of adopted children. | Mark 14:36; Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6 |
| The Father of mercies and God of all comfort | He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we can comfort others with the comfort we received. | 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 |
| The Father of lights | Every good and perfect gift comes down from Him, and with Him there is no variation or shadow of change. | James 1:17 |
| The blessed and only Sovereign | King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light. | 1 Timothy 6:15-16 |
The names of the Holy Spirit
The Spirit is God — Peter tells Ananias that lying to the Holy Spirit is lying to God — so His names belong on this list, and they describe what He does in those God saves.
| The name | What it says | Where it is used |
|---|---|---|
| The Spirit of God | Hovering over the waters at creation, and at work in every making since. | Genesis 1:2; Job 33:4 |
| The Holy Spirit | God present and personal — grieved, resisted, or obeyed, never an impersonal force. | Psalm 51:11; Acts 5:3-4; Ephesians 4:30 |
| The Helper — Parakletos | The one called alongside, whom Jesus sends so that His people are not left as orphans. | John 14:16-18; John 14:26 |
| The Spirit of truth | He guides into all truth, and takes what is Christ’s and declares it to us. | John 16:13-14 |
| The Spirit of Christ | The Spirit of Jesus, sent by the Son as well as the Father; anyone without Him does not belong to Christ. | Romans 8:9; 1 Peter 1:11 |
| The Spirit of adoption | Not a spirit of slavery leading back to fear, but the Spirit by whom we cry, Abba, Father. | Romans 8:15-16 |
| The Spirit of life | The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from the law of sin and death. | Romans 8:2; Ezekiel 37:14 |
| The eternal Spirit | Through whom Christ offered Himself without blemish to God. | Hebrews 9:14 |
| The Spirit of grace | The one outraged when His work is treated as common — and the one poured out with a spirit of pleas for mercy. | Zechariah 12:10; Hebrews 10:29 |
| The seal and the guarantee | The promised Holy Spirit, marking believers as God’s own and pledging the inheritance still to come. | Ephesians 1:13-14; 2 Corinthians 1:22 |
The names of Jesus
The angel told Joseph what to call the child and why, and the New Testament has been unpacking that name ever since. These 55 names run from the manger to the throne — what He was called by His neighbors, what He called Himself, what His apostles wrote, and what is written on His robe when He returns.
Read the second group slowly. Name after name that the Old Testament had reserved for the LORD alone — the first and the last, the light, the shepherd, the judge, the one every knee bows to — the New Testament hands to Jesus of Nazareth without flinching. Either that is blasphemy, or He is God. There is no third reading, and God has given Him the name that is above every name (Philippians 2:9-11).
The name He was given
The angel does not suggest a name; he reports one, with the reason attached.
| The name | What it says | Where it is used |
|---|---|---|
| Jesus — Yeshua, the LORD saves | Call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins — the work is in the name. | Matthew 1:21; Luke 1:31; Acts 4:12 |
| Christ — Messiah, the Anointed One | Not a surname but an office: the prophet, priest, and king God promised and anointed. | John 1:41; Matthew 16:16; Acts 2:36 |
| Immanuel — God with us | The sign given through Isaiah, and the plainest statement of what the incarnation is. | Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:22-23 |
| Jesus of Nazareth | A real man from a real town, so ordinary that Nathanael asked whether anything good could come from it. | John 1:45-46; John 19:19; Acts 2:22 |
| The Son of Man | His own favorite name for Himself — both fully human and, in Daniel’s vision, given everlasting dominion. | Daniel 7:13-14; Mark 10:45; Mark 14:61-62 |
| The Son of God | Confessed by Peter, declared at the baptism, and the reason John says he wrote his Gospel. | Matthew 16:16; Matthew 3:17; John 20:31 |
| The only Son from the Father | One of a kind: the Son who is at the Father’s side and has made Him known. | John 1:14; John 1:18; John 3:16 |
| Son of David | The royal line and the rightful throne; the title blind Bartimaeus shouted and would not stop shouting. | Matthew 1:1; Mark 10:47-48 |
Names that belong to God alone
The most striking thing about the names of Jesus is how many of them the Old Testament had already used of the LORD. The New Testament does not apologize for this or explain it away; it is the point.
| The name | What it says | Where it is used |
|---|---|---|
| I AM | Before Abraham was, I am — God’s own self-naming, claimed by a carpenter from Nazareth. | John 8:58; Exodus 3:14 |
| The Word | In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God — and then became flesh. | John 1:1; John 1:14; Revelation 19:13 |
| Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace | Isaiah’s names for the child who is born; no prophet, priest, or king could carry them. | Isaiah 9:6-7 |
| The first and the last, the Alpha and the Omega | What the LORD says of Himself in Isaiah, the risen Christ says of Himself in Revelation. | Isaiah 44:6; Revelation 1:17; Revelation 22:13 |
| The image of the invisible God | In Him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily; to see Him is to see the Father. | Colossians 1:15; Colossians 2:9; John 14:9 |
| The radiance of the glory of God | The exact imprint of His nature, upholding the universe by the word of His power. | Hebrews 1:3 |
| My Lord and my God | Thomas’s confession a week after the resurrection — worship Jesus receives rather than corrects. | John 20:28 |
| Our great God and Savior | The blessed hope: the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. | Titus 2:13; 2 Peter 1:1 |
| The Lord — Kyrios | The Greek word the Old Testament used for the divine name, and the confession that saves. | Romans 10:9-13; Philippians 2:9-11 |
The “I am” sayings
Seven times in John’s Gospel, Jesus takes God’s name and finishes the sentence with something we need.
| The name | What it says | Where it is used |
|---|---|---|
| I am the bread of life | Whoever comes to Him will not hunger; the manna in the wilderness was only a picture of this. | John 6:35; John 6:48-51 |
| I am the light of the world | Whoever follows Him will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. | John 8:12; John 9:5 |
| I am the door of the sheep | If anyone enters by Him he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. | John 10:7-9 |
| I am the good shepherd | He knows His own, His own know Him, and He lays down His life for the sheep. | John 10:11-15 |
| I am the resurrection and the life | Said at a grave, four days too late by every human reckoning, and then proved. | John 11:25-26 |
| I am the way, and the truth, and the life | No one comes to the Father except through Him — not one way among several, but the way. | John 14:6 |
| I am the true vine | Apart from Him we can do nothing; the branch that abides is the branch that bears fruit. | John 15:1-5 |
Savior, sacrifice, and priest
What He is called on account of the cross — the work He came to do and finished.
| The name | What it says | Where it is used |
|---|---|---|
| The Lamb of God | John the Baptist points and says: behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. | John 1:29; Revelation 5:6-12 |
| Our Passover lamb | Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed — the blood that makes judgment pass over a house. | 1 Corinthians 5:7; Exodus 12:13 |
| The Savior of the world | Confessed first by Samaritans, who had heard Him for themselves. | John 4:42; 1 John 4:14 |
| The propitiation for our sins | The one who bears the wrath our sin deserved, so that God is both just and the justifier. | Romans 3:25-26; 1 John 2:2 |
| A ransom for many | He came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as the price of ours. | Mark 10:45; 1 Timothy 2:6 |
| The one mediator between God and men | One God, one mediator, and He is Himself a man — the only bridge, and He is both ends of it. | 1 Timothy 2:5; Hebrews 8:6 |
| Our great high priest | Able to sympathize with our weaknesses, tempted as we are yet without sin, and always living to intercede. | Hebrews 4:14-16; Hebrews 7:25 |
| The advocate with the Father | When we sin, the defense counsel at the Father’s side is Jesus Christ the righteous. | 1 John 2:1 |
| The last Adam | Where the first man’s disobedience ruined a race, the second man’s obedience makes many righteous. | 1 Corinthians 15:45-49; Romans 5:18-19 |
| The founder and perfecter of our faith | He begins it and He finishes it; we look to Him, not to the strength of our looking. | Hebrews 12:2 |
| The firstborn from the dead | First out of the grave, and the guarantee that His people follow. | Colossians 1:18; Revelation 1:5; 1 Corinthians 15:20 |
Shepherd, teacher, and head of His church
What He is to the people He bought — while they wait for Him.
| The name | What it says | Where it is used |
|---|---|---|
| Rabbi, Teacher | What His disciples called Him daily, and what Nicodemus called Him at night. | John 1:38; John 3:2; John 13:13 |
| The prophet like Moses | God said He would raise up a prophet from among the people, and require an answer of anyone who would not listen. | Deuteronomy 18:15-19; Acts 3:22-23 |
| The chief Shepherd | Under-shepherds tend the flock now; when He appears they give account and receive the crown. | 1 Peter 5:2-4; Hebrews 13:20 |
| The Shepherd and Overseer of your souls | We were straying like sheep, and have now returned to the one who keeps us. | 1 Peter 2:25 |
| The head of the body, the church | Not its founder only but its living head, holding it together and supplying its growth. | Colossians 1:18; Ephesians 1:22-23 |
| The bridegroom | The church is His bride, bought at a price, and there is a wedding supper coming. | Mark 2:19-20; Revelation 19:7-9 |
| Friend of tax collectors and sinners | Meant as an insult, and true: this man receives sinners and eats with them. | Matthew 11:19; Luke 15:1-2 |
| The carpenter | His neighbors could name His trade, His mother, and His brothers — and took offense at Him. | Mark 6:2-3; Matthew 13:55 |
| The apostle and high priest of our confession | Sent from God to us, and standing before God for us. | Hebrews 3:1 |
King, judge, and the one who returns
The names the Bible ends with, and the ones the church still waits to see proved in front of everybody.
| The name | What it says | Where it is used |
|---|---|---|
| King of kings and Lord of lords | Written on His robe and on His thigh as He comes to judge and make war in righteousness. | Revelation 19:11-16; 1 Timothy 6:15 |
| The Lion of the tribe of Judah | The one worthy to open the scroll — and when John turns to look at the Lion, he sees a Lamb. | Revelation 5:5-6; Genesis 49:9-10 |
| The root and the descendant of David | David’s offspring and David’s Lord at once, as Jesus pressed the Pharisees to explain. | Revelation 22:16; Matthew 22:41-45 |
| The bright morning star | The star out of Jacob, and the light that says the long night is nearly over. | Revelation 22:16; Numbers 24:17; 2 Peter 1:19 |
| Faithful and True | The rider on the white horse, who judges and makes war in righteousness. | Revelation 19:11 |
| The Amen, the faithful and true witness | Every promise of God finds its Yes in Him, and through Him we say our Amen. | Revelation 3:14; 2 Corinthians 1:20 |
| The cornerstone | Rejected by the builders, laid by God — precious to those who believe, a stone of stumbling to those who will not. | Psalm 118:22; Ephesians 2:20; 1 Peter 2:6-8 |
| The sun of righteousness | Malachi’s last promise: He rises with healing in His wings. | Malachi 4:2; Luke 1:78-79 |
| The Author of life | Peter’s charge to the crowd: you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. | Acts 3:15 |
| The judge of the living and the dead | God has fixed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by a man He has appointed. | Acts 10:42; Acts 17:31; 2 Timothy 4:1 |
| The heir of all things | Appointed heir of everything, through whom also God created the world. | Hebrews 1:2 |
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