The cited Hebrew word, גד, only coincidentally somewhat
matches the pronunciation of the ENGLISH word "God". The actual origin of the English word
"God" is somewhat lost but there is no doubt that it means "our
Creator". Since most English
Bibles originated from the Greek, it is a simple matter to discover that the
English word "God" matches the Greek word "θεός " (theos).
גד, Gad, is the name of the 7th son of Jacob, but we don't
see a meme claiming American coinage really carries the phrase "In the son
of Jacob we trust"!
ותאמר לאה
בגד ותקרא את־שׁמו גד׃ (Gen 30:11) English: "And
Leah said, “With Gad!” So she called his name Gad." The Strong's number associated with this
verse is #1410 "Gad, a son of Jacob, including his tribe and its
territory; also a prophet: - Gad". The
Strong's number I see associated with Isaiah 65:11 is #1409 (not #1408) which
is taken to mean "fortune". Thus,
Leah named Gad because she saw his birth as a "good fortune" and certainly
not as a "Babylonian deity". In Strong's #1408, "Gad" is taken to
mean the Babylonian deity which goes by the name "Fortune", but look at the whole phrase of Isaiah 65:11
which says "… who prepare a table
for Fortune (Gad), and who furnish the drink offering to Fate (Meni)",
clearly a play on words using the names of Babylonian deities to make
"fortune" and "fate" into entities for humans to interact
with rather than human "conditions".
Indeed, the Stone's Tanach says in a footnote about Isaiah 65:11 "Gad
and Meni are either the names of deities (Kara); the planets Jupiter and Mercury
(R' Moshe HaKohen); or general names for the stars and constellations (Ibn
Ezra). But the English word "God" in no way refers to any Babylonian deity.
So this meme is simply nonsense. Shame on the person who created it.
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