Adonai (Adonay) & Elohim / El / Eloah

Adonai (Adonay) & Elohim / El / Eloah

Except for "YHWH", the two most-common names/titles for God in the Biblia Hebraica (Hebrew Bible) are "Adonai", which expresses authority or the exalted position of God, and "Elohim", which expresses concepts of creative divinity. Apart from the name "YHWH", it may be argued that the titles "Adonai" and "Elohim" say more about the God of Israel than any other name. Certainly, all that the names embody deserve considerable deliberation.
Because the two words are so similar to each other and "Elohim" is sometimes used as a substitute for "Adonai", I thought it logical to study these two nouns together.
Both "Adonai" and "Elohim" Are Plural Hebrew Nouns
"Adonai" is the plural form of "Adon", meaning "my lord"; and the name "Elohim" is the masculine plural form of "Eloah".
Since "Adonai" and "Elohim" are plural nouns, many Christians have used this as a foundation on which to build the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. However, while these names are written in the plural form, they regularly employ singular verbs in Hebrew grammar and are singular in usage. Therefore, acting in usage as singular nouns with singular verbs, many Bible scholars believe instead that these names represent a plural of majesty, perhaps pointing out that this one God embodies all the attributes of the many pagan gods worshipped by other peoples. [More discussion on the plurality of these words below...]
"Adonai" (Hebrew: Adonay) Read as a Substitute for the Name and "Elohim" Sometimes Read for "Adonay"
As we learned in the previous study, the Tetragrammaton "YHWH" appears approximately 6000 times in the Hebrew Scriptures. To avoid violating the commandment "You shall not take the name of Yahweh your God [Elohim] in vain" (Exodus 20:7), the vowels of "Adonay" — "a", "o", "a" — were inserted between the letters "YHWH" to remind the reader to not pronounce the name "YHWH", but to say "Adonay" instead. In fact, the most-current English versions of the Hebrew Scriptures now use "Adonai" almost exclusively in the place of "YHWH".
Since they substituted the name "Adonay" in place of "YHWH" when reading the Scriptures, then whenever the Hebrew compound name "YHWH Adonay" appeared in the scrolls, they read it as "Adonay Elohim" ("") to avoid the duplication of "Adonay".
And now..... several thousand years later and working only with English transliterations, we are left to sort out when "Lord" or "God" means "Adonai" and when they mean "Elohim". It would be easy to skim over this, rendering only a superficial examination of all that these two names tell us about YHWH and when/where the names have been used — as I did in the original studies I published in 2006 — but YHWH is not permitting that liberty now. He has impressed upon me His desire for me to dig deeper into these names through several Bible translations and versions I've studied, and for me to separate when "Adonai" and "Elohim" are used as originally specified and not as interpretations of other names/titles.
The Origin of the Nouns "Adonai" and "Elohim"
Adonai: The singular "adon" was used by the Phoenicians for their pagan god Tammuz and is the origin of the Greek pagan god Adonis.
"Adonai" (often transliterated "Lord" in English Bibles) means "master", "owner", or "sovereign ruler" and generally denotes the authority and exalted position of God. Primarily, the name Adonai, as it pertains to God, stresses man's relationship to God as his Master, Authority, and Provider (not to be confused with YHWH-Jireh, which means "God Sees" / "God Will Provide"). Elohim: Unfortunately, the precise development of the word "elohim" is unknown. There are many theories, but most Bible scholars believe it is derived from the shorter word "el" — meaning "mighty", "strong" or "prominent" — or the Hebrew form of "eloah". The ordinary singular "Eloah" primarily refers to the pagan polytheistic religions, as well as to powerful men or judges as in Exodus 21:6 — "...then his master [eloah] shall bring him to God, and shall bring him to the door or to the door-post, and his master [eloah] shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him for ever.". The use of "eloah" in the Bible is rare, occurring primarily in poetry and late prose, mainly in Job. The word "El", however, is itself translated "God" ±250 times and frequently in circumstances which especially indicate the great power of God. For example....

• El Shaddai (God Almighty or Almighty God) as in Genesis 17:1 — "And it came to be when Abram was ninety-nine years old, that appeared to Abram and said to him, 'I am El Shaddai – walk before Me and be perfect.'" (TS98)
• El Elyon (God Most High) as in Genesis 14:18 — "Malki-Tzedek (Melchizedek) king of Shalem (Salem) brought out bread and wine. He was cohen (Priest) of El 'Elyon [God Most High]." (CJB)
• El Gibhor (Strong & Mighty God) as in Isaiah 10:21 — "A remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God [El Gibhor]."
• El Tzur (God our Rock) as in 2 Samuel 22:47 — " lives! And blessed is my Rock [El Tzur]! And exalted is my Elohim, The Rock [El Tzur] of my deliverance." (TS98)
• It is also one of the names given to the promised Messiah in Isaiah 9:6 — "For a child is born to us, a son is given to us; dominion will rest on his shoulders, and he will be given the name Pele-Yo'etz El Gibbor Avi-'Ad Sar-Shalom [Wonder of a Counselor, Mighty God, Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace]" (CJB)
• See also Genesis 7:1, 28:3, 35:11; Numbers 23:22; Joshua 3:10; 2 Samuel 22:31-32; Nehemiah 1:5, 9:32; Isaiah 9:6; Ezekiel 10.

"Elohim" is the name, or designation, of God that occurs first in Scripture in Genesis 1:1 — "In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth." (TS98) When God is presented interacting with His creation — especially in the Pentateuch — the name "Elohim" is used most often.
"Elohim" is used in Scripture when emphasizing God's might, His creative power, and His attributes of justice and rulership. It denotes the power and pre-eminence (conspicuous glory) of God and is especially used in relation to God's sovereignty, creative work, and mighty works for Israel. Variations of this name include "El", "Eloha", "Elohai" (my God) and "Elohaynu" (our God). In the Pentateuch the name "Elohim" portrays God as the transcendent Being, the Creator of the universe.
Although "Adonai" and "Elohim" are similar, the distinguishing attributes that differentiate between them is that the name "Adonai" affirms the elevated position of authority and rulership of God, whereas the name "Elohim" refers to Him as the Creator who interacts with and reveals Himself to His creation.
"Elohim" Is a Proper Name and a Designation
"Elohim" is an appellative or designation of all that the name embodies. For example, in the frequent expression, "LORD (LORD) thy God" in most English Bibles, "LORD" (or "YHWH") functions as the proper name, while "thy God"/"your God" (or "your Elohim") or "the God of" ("the Elohim of") functions as an adjective or designation defining the deity. Throughout the first two chapters of the Bible, Elohim is used most often as a proper noun/name for the Creator. After Exodus 3, however, the name begins to occur with increasing frequency as a designation. As the Sovereign Authority and Creator over all creation, the name "Elohim" denotes God as the supreme deity of a person or people.
How the Names "Adonai" and "Elohim" Are Translated in English
As "Adonai" was and continues to be substituted for the actual Name of God () in the Hebrew Scriptures, there is some confusion/disagreement among the different Bible translations as to when "LORD" (or "LORD", "GOD", or "GOD") means "" and when it means "Adonai". And.... since the name "Elohim" was substituted for "Adonai" when the compound name "YHWH Adonai" appeared in Scripture, there is added confusion as to when "Lord" or "God" means "Adonai" and when it means "Elohim". For example, we have the following transliterations, the middle column probably representing "YHWH Adonai" and the third column most likely representing "YHWH Elohim":

Bible Translation/Version	" Adonai"	" Elohim"
American Standard Version (ASV)	Lord Jehovah	Jehovah God
Darby's Translation (Darby)	Lord Jehovah	Jehovah Elohim
Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)	Adonai, God	Adonai, God
Contemporary English Version (CEV)	LORD God or LORD All-Powerful	LORD God
English Standard Version (ESV)	Lord GOD	LORD God
Good News Bible (GNB)	Sovereign LORD	LORD God
King James Version (KJV)	Lord GOD	LORD God
Modern King James Version (MKJV)	Jehovah God	Jehovah God
New Century Version	Lord GOD	LORD God
New International Version (NIV)	Sovereign LORD	LORD God
New Living Translation (NLT)	Sovereign LORD	LORD God
The Message (Message)	Sovereign LORD	GOD
The Scriptures (TS98)	Master	Elohim
World English Bible (WEB)	Yahweh God	Yahweh God
Young's Literal Translation (YLT)	GOD Master	Jehovah God

At first glance, the above can be confounding and may even appear to be contradictory. Given that the referenced Bible versions were translated by scholarly linguists either directly from Hebrew or from Latin translations, is it any wonder there is confusion among the rest of us concerning God's name(s) and titles?! I am not a scholar of Hebrew or Latin, nor do I have access to any of the ancient writings. Thus, except by the Holy Spirit's guidance, I hold out little hope of arriving at an indisputable conclusion.
Here are what I consider to be the most logical steps to determining which English transliterations are for "Adonai" and which ones are for "Elohim":

• The one consistency I found among the English translations/versions referenced above is that the ones that do not use the name "Yahweh", "Jehovah", or "Adonai" (in the CJB) for "" all employ the same standard of capitalizing the word they've apparently substituted for "" (i.e., "LORD", "LORD", "GOD", or "GOD"). Thus, I presume that the words in all lower-case letters represent either "Adonai" or "Elohim" as they were originally written in the Hebrew Scriptures.
• In reviewing hundreds of Scripture verses in the Old Testament, different themes started unraveling and coming together to aid in identifying when "Lord" or "God" are used for "Adonai" and when they're used for "Elohim". For example...
• We have learned that "Elohim", as a designation or adjective, represents God's might, creative power, and sovereign authority over creation. We also learned that it's the name used in Genesis for the Creator and it's the name used when God interacts with, or reveals Himself to, His creation (not just humankind, but all creation). For example, Genesis 3:1 — "And the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which Elohim had made, and he said to the woman, 'Is it true that Elohim has said, "Do not eat of every tree of the garden"?'" (TS98) (emphasis added)
• We also learned that "Adonai" represents God as our Master, Sovereign Ruler, and Provider. For example, Judges 16:28 — "And Shimshon (Samson) called to , saying, 'O Master [Adonai] , remember me, I pray! Strengthen me, I pray, only this time, O Elohim, and let me avenge myself on the Philistines with vengeance for my two eyes!'" (TS98) (emphasis added)
• As I searched the Scriptures to try to determine which name/designation God revealed to us, I used a very simple pattern:
1. I disregarded the references that employed the same name/title for both "Adonai" and "Elohim" (CJB, MKJV, and WEB).
2. Using as a guide the Bible versions that actually employ the name "Elohim", I searched several versions of the Old Testament for additional usages of the same and marked them accordingly. (If you don't already have a computer-based electronic Bible, I encourage you to get one. Click here to download e-Sword and several different Bible versions for FREE!)
3. Using the Bible versions that employ the words "Sovereign", "Master" or lower-case "Lord", I concluded that the original name for each of those words was most likely "Adonai"; and I searched the Scriptures for additional usages of the same and marked them accordingly.
4. If the Bible version uses the lower-case "God" and refers to the Creator interacting with His creation, I concluded that the original name was "Elohim" and I marked all of those searches accordingly.

The simple fact is that the lesser titles "Lord" and "God" reveal so little about our Sovereign Most High God. It's only in learning what HE revealed to us and wants us to know about Himself in the names/designations He used that we can render to Him "all the glory due His name!" (cf. Psalm 29:2) I encourage you — using the Bible version you normally use, check verses by the names listed above, insert and speak the Hebrew names as you read the Scriptures, and prayerfully meditate on what they tell us about our wonderfully-merciful, extravagantly-loving, and abundantly-compassionate God!
When and Where the Names "Adonai", "YHWH Adonai", "Elohim", and "YHWH Elohim" Are Used in Scripture
Using the pattern above, I determined that the name/title "Adonai" represented as "Master", "Sovereign", or "Lord" — not as a substitute for "" — appears in the Old Testament ±325 times, especially in Isaiah (30 times), Jeremiah (14 times), and almost exclusively in Ezekiel and Amos (208 times and 18 times respectively). Obviously, I can't list all them here, so I am presenting only a sampling of the verses that use the name "Adonai" to describe our Most High God.

• Psalm 8:1 — O , our Master [Adonai], how excellent is Your Name in all the earth, You who set Your splendour above the heavens!" (TS98)
• Psalm 109:21 — "But you, God [Adonai], Adonai [YHWH], treat me as your name demands; rescue me, because your grace is good." (CJB)
• Psalm 114:7 — "Tremble, earth, at the presence of the Lord [Adonai], at the presence of the God [Elohim] of Ya'akov" (CJB)
• Psalm 147:5 — "Our Lord [Adonai] is great, his power is vast, his wisdom beyond all telling." (CJB)
• Isaiah 3:15 — "What do you mean by crushing My people and grinding the faces of the poor?" declares the Master [Adonai], of hosts. (TS98)
• Isaiah 6:8 — "I heard the Lord's [Adonai's] voice, saying, 'Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?' Then I said, 'Here I am. Send me!'"
• Isaiah 25:8 — "He will swallow up death forever. Adonai [YHWH] Elohim [Adonai] will wipe away the tears from every face, and he will remove from all the earth the disgrace his people suffer. For Adonai [YHWH] has spoken. (CJB)
• Jeremiah 14:13 — "But I said, 'Ah, Master [Adonai] ! See, the prophets say to them, "You are not to see a sword, nor have scarcity of food, for I give you true peace in this place."'" (TS98)
• Ezekiel 39:25 — "Therefore thus said the Master [Adonai] , 'Now I am going to bring back the captives of Ya'aqob. And I shall have compassion on all the house of Yisra'el, and shall be jealous for My set-apart (holy) Name.'" (TS98)
• Malachi 3:1 — "'Look! I am sending my messenger to clear the way before me; and the Lord [Adonai], whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple. Yes, the messenger of the covenant, in whom you take such delight — look! Here he comes,' says Adonai [YHWH]-Tzva'ot." (CJB)

Using the same pattern as above, I learned that the name "Elohim"/"Eloah" appears in ±1300 verses in the Old Testament: the compound name "-Elohim" in ±75 verses, "your Elohim" in ±470 verses, "our Elohim" in ±175 verses, "the Elohim of" in ±350 verses; and the name "Elohim" alone — usually transliterated "God" — in 233 verses.

• Genesis 2:15-16 — "Yahweh [] God [Elohim] took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. Yahweh [] God [Elohim] commanded the man, saying, 'Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat'"
• Genesis 9:17 — "And Elohim said to Noah, 'This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.'" (TS98)
• Exodus 6:7 — "I will take you as my people, and I will be your God [Elohim]. Then you will know that I am Adonai [YHWH] your God [Elohim], who freed you from the forced labor of the Egyptians." (CJB)
• Deuteronomy 5:24 — "...Yahweh our God [ our Elohaynu] has shown us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice out of the midst of the fire..."
• Deuteronomy 8:11 — "Be careful not to forget Adonai [] your God [Elohim] by not obeying his mitzvot (commands), rulings and regulations that I am giving you today." (CJB)
• Psalm 68:1 — Let God [Elohim] arise! Let His enemies be scattered! Let them who hate Him also flee before Him."
• Isaiah 45:18 — "For thus says Adonai , who created the heavens, God [Elohim],who shaped and made the earth, who established and created it not to be chaos, but formed it to be lived in: 'I am Adonai []; there is no other'" (CJB)
• Isaiah 54:5 — "For your Maker is your husband, of hosts is His Name, and the Set-apart (holy) One of Yisra'el is your Redeemer. He is called the Elohim of all the earth." (TS98)
• Jeremiah 32:27 — "'See, I am , the Elohim of all flesh. Is there any matter too hard for Me?'" (TS98)

More about the Plurality of "Adonai and "Elohim"
As mentioned previously, since "Adonai" and "Elohim" are plural nouns, many Christians have used this as a foundation on which to build the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. However, while these names are written in the plural form, they regularly employ singular verbs in Hebrew grammar and are singular in usage. For instance...

• Deuteronomy 10:17 — "For your Elohim is Elohim of mighty ones and Master [Adonai] of masters [adonai], the great El, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe." (TS98)
  [If using plural verbs and pronouns along with the plural "Adonai" and "Elohim", the verse would read: "For your Elohim are Elohim of mighty ones . . . who show no partiality nor take a bribe."] (TS98)
• 2 Samuel 7:22 — "You are great indeed, O Master [Adonai] . For there is none like You, and there is no Elohim but You, according to all that we have heard with our ears."
  [If using plural verbs and pronouns along with the plural "Adonai" and "Elohim", the verse would read: "You are great indeed, O Master [Adonai] . For there are none like You, and there are no Elohim but You..."]
• Psalm 35:23 — "Stir up Yourself and awake to my right-ruling — To my cause, my Elohim and my Master." (TS98)
  [If using plural verbs and pronouns along with the plural "Adonai" and "Elohim", the verse would read: "Stir up Yourselves and awake..."

Therefore, acting in usage as singular nouns with singular verbs, some Bible scholars reject the idea of the Trinity in the words "Adonai" and "Elohim". They suggest that the plural "Adonai" and "Elohim" are plurals of majesty, such as used by rulers and kings. However, apart from God intentionally referring to Himself as more than One (Genesis 1:26, Genesis 3:22, Isaiah 6:8), there's no record of any earthly king speaking of himself as "we" or "us" 4000-6000 years ago. Thus, I maintain that it's highly improbable that the original Hebrew texts would employ such usage in the names "Adonai" and "Elohim" unless YHWH deliberately intended to convey the concept of plural identities in the one God.
Other scholars call it a plural of intensity. They argue that the Hebrews often expressed a word in the plural to give it a stronger meaning (such as in Isaiah 6:3 with "Holy" being expressed three times). But as one Theologian points out, the use of the plural "only implies (even in the plural of majesty) that the word in the singular is not full enough to set forth all that is intended."
Thus, whether plural of majesty . . . plural of intensity . . . or implying a Triune God . . . the plural words "Adonai" and "Elohim" teach us that no finite word(s) can adequately define the infinite personality of God!
As Nathan Stone wrote concerning the name "Elohim": "There is blessing and comfort in this great name of God signifying supreme power, sovereignty, and glory on the one hand . . . and on the other hand signifying a covenant relationship which He is ever faithful to keep. Thus He says to us, 'I will be to you Elohim,' that we may say, 'My Elohim; in Him will I trust.' (Psalm 91:2)."

 http://www.myredeemerlives.com/index.html

Who is Jesus? God, or Unique Man? or What’s in a Vowel Point? The Difference between God and Man

Who is Jesus? God, or Unique Man?

or

What’s in a Vowel Point? The Difference between God and Man

Anthony Buzzard

 

"The form ADONI (‘my lord’), a royal title (1 Sam. 29:8), is to be carefully distinguished from the divine title ADONAI ('my Lord') used of Yahweh" (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, "Lord," p. 157).
"Lord in the OT is used to translate ADONAI when applied to the Divine Being. The [Hebrew] word…has a suffix [with special pointing] presumably for the sake of distinction" (Hastings Dictionary of the Bible, "Lord," Vol. 3, p. 137).
"Adonai and Adoni are variations of pointing to distinguish divine reference from human" (Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Brown, Driver, Briggs, under adon)

Please consider how language works. In English you have no difficulty in recognizing the difference between HE and SHE. One letter S makes a big difference. You recognize also a big difference between god (small g) and God (big g). What about "employer" and "employee"? One letter makes all the difference. In Hebrew the words for he and she contain only a difference in the vowel sound — hoo (he) and hee (she).
Few questions could be of greater importance than knowing who in the Bible is entitled to be called God (capital G).
In Hebrew there is a word for "lord." It is ADON. This word refers 300 times to human lords (superiors) and 30 times to THE Lord, i.e. God Himself.
There are two very special forms of this word ADON. Sometimes the letters -AI are added to the end, giving you the word ADONAI (sometimes written ADONAY). This word is known to the public because it rhymes with El Shaddai in the well-known song. El Shaddai is another name for the One God. ADONAI means "the Supreme Lord."
The word ADON may also have the letter -I added to it, giving the form ADONI (pronounced adonee).
Now in Psalm 110:1 we have a unique verse. This verse appears in the New Testament 23 times. (Ps. 110:4 is quoted or alluded to another 10 times.) The importance of these verses is shown by the fact that no other verses come near to that number of allusions/quotations in the NT. Many verses are cited once or twice in the NT. But these verses — Psalm 110:1, 4 — are mentioned 33 times! Psalm 110:1 is a key to the identity of God and Jesus, and to the coming Kingdom (the heart of the Gospel - Luke 4:43; Acts 8:12, etc.)
Jesus quoted this verse, Psalm 110:1 (reported in Matt., Mark and Luke), as the verse which put an end to the counter-arguments of the religious authorities of his day, the Pharisees (see Matt. 22:41-46).
Psalm 110:1 is quoted in the NT as follows:

Jesus: Matt. 22:44; Matt. 26:64; Mark 12:36; Mark 14:62; Mark 16:19; Luke 20:42, 43; Luke 22:69.

Peter: (Luke) Acts 2:33; Acts 2:34, 35 (in this verse Peter introduces Christianity to the crowd at Pentecost and tells us that Jesus has been made "Lord" on the basis of Ps. 110:1); Acts 5:31; Acts 7:55-56.

Paul: Rom 8:34; 1 Cor. 15:25; Eph. 1:20; Eph. 2:6; Col. 3:1; Heb. 1:3; Heb. 1:13; Heb. 8:1; Heb. 10:12-13; Heb. 12:2

Peter: 1 Pet. 3:22

Jesus: (John) Rev. 3:21

This Psalm covers the whole range of the NT and Jesus is recorded as quoting it no less than 8 times. It is a favorite "proof-text" of the NT Christians.
The Psalm is a special divine oracle. The text reads (Ps. 110:1): "The oracle of YAHWEH (LORD) to my lord: ‘Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.’"
The first Lord is the word YAHWEH which appears in many English versions as LORD (all capitals).
The second lord is ADONI (my lord). We have already noted that the Hebrew word ADON (lord) has a special ending on it when it refers to the One God — ADONAI (449 times in the OT). But when the word has the ending ‘I’, i.e. ADONI (adonee), it never refers to God but always to a human superior (occasionally an angel). So we know that the Messiah is not ADONAI (God) but the human superior of David, David’s lord, adoni.
This Psalm was believed to be a Messianic oracle both by Jesus and by the rabbis of his day. Jesus knew that he, the Messiah, was David’s lord as well as David’s son. The Pharisees were not prepared to recognize Jesus as the lord of David, though they knew he was a descendant of David.
The Hebrew language is precise and the rabbis always held the name of the One God in the highest reverence. That is why they reserved the form ADONAI for God alone. (Jews to this day read the word ADONAI when they come to the personal name for God — Yahweh. No one knows exactly how that word is to be pronounced. The Jews gave up saying it about 300 BC.)
Another Example
The OT has little ways of distinguishing words, which have momentous importance in terms of their meaning. Let me give you another example. The word AVEER (=strong or powerful). From the New International Dictionary of OT Theology and Exegesis, Vol. 1, p. 232: "It is widely believed that the reason why the OT has two forms of the adjective AVEER is that the guardians of the text (Massorites) wished to distinguish the use of the word when applied to Yahweh from its use in other contexts."
When not used of the One God, the form has an extra dot inside the ‘V’ and is then pronounced ABEER. ABEER (with the dot) always refers to a mighty man, sometimes to the "stout of heart," once to an angel and sometimes to a bull or a mighty steed.
The lack of a dot makes a huge difference. AVEER refers to God. ABEER is a non-divine reference.
So with the forms of Lord, ADONAI and ADONI. ADONAI is reserved for the One God alone. No human is addressed as ADONAI. On the other hand ADONI (adonee) is reserved for human superiors. The Messiah is called ADONI, the lord of David, but never ADONAI, the One God.
Now note this interesting fact. The KJV always wrote ADONAI as Lord (with initial capital ‘L’). It wrote YAHWEH as LORD (all capitals).
On 191 occasions it wrote ADONI as lord (lower-case 'l') or master. But on four occasions it broke its own rule and put a capital on Lord. They are Joshua 5:14, Judges 6:13, Daniel 12:8 and Psalm 110:1. But the word in these verses is not ADONAI, but ADONI. The RV corrected the error and wrote "lord" (lower-case letters).
Jesus is ADONI the Messiah, not ADONAI, the One God. The One God is one person only. How do we know this (apart from Ps. 110:1)? The One God of Hebrew monotheism (the monotheism of Jesus, Mark 12:28ff) is described by personal pronouns in the singular ("I, me, him, thou, thee, thy, my, his") thousands upon thousands of times.
The One God is distinguished as ADONAI (449 times) from adoni, a human lord (195 times). This gives you 644 hundred opportunities to see the difference between God and man, based on the word "lord." The Messiah, Son of God, is designated as adoni, not Adonai.
Singular personal pronouns always tell you a simple fact. They describe a being who is ONE PERSON, not three. God is one singular and single Person.
"There is one God, the Father" (Paul, 1 Cor. 8:4, 6). There are two Lords (Ps. 110:1). The Father is the one Lord God and Jesus is the Lord Messiah, the Son of God (Matt. 16:16). Belief that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, is the whole point of John’s Gospel (John 20:31). It is also the whole point of the whole Bible.
And Jesus describes the One God, his Father, as "the only true God" (17:3) and "the one who alone is God" (5:44). "The one who alone is God" is another way of saying "the only one who is God." Jesus was talking about the Father. If the Father is "the only one who is God," and Jesus is a different person, Jesus cannot be the One God.
Do you believe with Jesus that the Father is "the only one who is God"? (John 5:44).
The Father is called God 1326 times in the NT. The word "God" is used of Jesus twice for certain. But don’t forget that in the first century AD elevated humans were sometimes called "God." This is also true in the Bible. The judges of Israel were called "Gods" (Ps. 82:6). Jesus used that verse to demonstrate that he was claiming to be the Son of God, not God Himself (John 10:34-36).
Psalm 2 is a perfect parallel to Psalm 110:1. In that psalm the One God Yahweh speaks to "my King/my Son." That person, who is as distinct from Yahweh as any son is distinct from his father, is also called "the Lord’s Messiah." That is the Jesus of the Bible: the Son of the One God, "the Lord Messiah" (Luke 2:11), "the Lord’s Messiah" (Luke 2:26). Note that in the NT God is called "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ." That should tell you that they are not coequal! There is one Lord God and one Lord Messiah.
In Scripture they are separate individuals, working in the closest harmony. The Messiah is the obedient Son of his Father, the One God.

 http://focusonthekingdom.org/articles/adoni.htm

Adonai and Adoni (Psalm 110:1)

The Bible’s supreme proof text for telling the difference between the One God and the Messiah who is not God

     This verse was referred to the Messiah by the Pharisees and by Jesus. It tells us that the relationship between God and Jesus is that of Deity and non-Deity. The Messiah is called adoni (my lord) and in every one of its 195 occurrences adoni (my lord) means a superior who is not God. Adonai on the other hand refers exclusively to the One God in all of its 449 occurrences. Adonai is the title of Deity and adoni never designates Deity.

If the Messiah were called Adonai this would introduce “two Gods” into the Bible and would be polytheism. Psalm 110:1 should guard us all against supposing that there are two who are God. In fact the Messiah is the supreme human being and agent of the One God. Psalm 110:1 is the Bible’s master text for defining the Son of God in relation to the One God, his Father.

Why is it that a number of commentaries misstate the facts about Psalm 110:1? They assert that the word for the Messiah in Psalm 110:1 is adonai. It is not. These commentaries seem to obscure a classic text defining God in relation to His Son. The Hebrew text assigns to the Messiah the title adoni which invariably distinguishes the one addressed from the Deity. The Messiah is the supreme human lord. He is not the Lord God (cp. I Tim. 2:5; I Cor. 8:4-6; Mark 12:28ff).

 Why is the Messiah called adoni (my lord) and never adonai (my Lord God)?

 “Adonai and Adoni are variations of Masoretic pointing to distinguish divine reference from human.”

Adonai is referred to God but Adoni to human superiors.

Adoni — ref. to men: my lord, my master [see Ps. 110:1]  

Adonai — ref. to God…Lord (Brown, Driver, Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, under adon [= lord]).

 “The form ADONI (‘my lord’), a royal title (I Sam. 29:8), is to be carefully distinguished from the divine title ADONAI (‘my Lord’) used of Yahweh.” “ADONAI — the special plural form [the divine title] distinguishes it from adonai  [with short vowel] = my lords” (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, “Lord,” p. 157).

 “Lord in the OT is used to translate ADONAI when applied to the Divine Being. The [Hebrew] word…has a suffix [with special pointing] presumably for the sake of distinction…between divine and human appellative” (Hastings Dictionary of the Bible, “Lord,” Vol. 3, p. 137).

 “Hebrew Adonai exclusively denotes the God of Israel. It is attested about 450 times in the OT…Adoni [is] addressed to human beings (Gen. 44:7, Num. 32:25, II Kings 2:19 [etc.]). We have to assume that the word adonai received its special form to distinguish it from the secular use of adon [i.e., adoni]. The reason why [God is addressed] as adonai, [with long vowel] instead of the normal adon, adoni or adonai [with short vowel] may have been to distinguish Yahweh from other gods and from human lords” (Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, p. 531).

 “The lengthening of the ā on Adonai [the Lord God] may be traced to the concern of the Masoretes to mark the word as sacred by a small external sign” (Theological Dictionary of the OT, “Adon,” p. 63 and Theological Dictionary of the NT, III, 1060ff. n.109).

 “The form ‘to my lord,’ l’adoni, is never used in the OT as a divine reference…the generally accepted fact that the masoretic pointing distinguishes divine references (adonai) from human references (adoni)” (Wigram, The Englishman’s Hebrew and Chaldee Concordance of the OT, p. 22) (Herbert Bateman, “Psalm 110:1 and the NT,” Bibliothecra Sacra, Oct.-Dec., 1992, p. 438).

 http://focusonthekingdom.org/articles/adonai.htm

The Myth and Cult of Adonis

Adon, Adonis or Adonai and Hebrew

When Jews encounter the consonants of "Yahweh' (YHWH) in prayer, they pronounce it "Adonai." They might be shocked to learn that this substitution word is related to the Phoenician "Adon" and "Adonis." Further, Muslims, Jews and Arabic-speaking or Aramaic/Syriac-speaking Christians might be shocked also to learn that their words for God come from the Phoenician god's name of "El" as in "Elah," "Allah," "Elahona," "Eloh," "Elohaino," "Eli," "Eloi," "Elohak"...etc .

Adonis (Eshmun)

Adonis is a young fertility god, a comely youth beloved by Astarte, and represents death and rebirth in an oriental vegetation cult. He is also known as the agricultural divinity named Eshmun.
Adonis is derived from the Canaanite title, Adon. It is the Semitic word for master or ‘lord’ and i means ‘my’, therefore Adonai (Adonis is the Hellenized version of the same) translates as ‘my lord’; similarly the meaning of Baal, with whom he shares traits, is also ‘lord’ or ‘master’.
The myth of Adonis suffers from a lot of confusion. This study will show that he had two origins, several fathers and mothers, in some ways. His mother was Greek Aphrodite, the equivalent of Phoenician Astarte and Roman Venus. However, his lover was also Astarte and Venus; while his fathers were several kings and gods.
The Greeks knew the cult of Adonis in the sixth century BC, unquestionably through contact with Cyprus. In the same period Ezekiel (8:4) notes his existence in Jerusalem under the Babylonian name of Tammuz, who saw the women of Jerusalem weeping for him at the north gate of the temple. Adonis parallels the eastern companion god Dumuzi/Tammuz and the Hittite Telipinu. He is a Semitic immigrant to the Greek pantheon and is therefore not counted among the greater gods. His cult was established in Greece by 600 BC and his worship was known to Sappho and her circle.
Adonis has two origins: Cyprus and Byblos. On Cyprus, his father is either Canaanite/Phoenician king Theias or Cinyras, king of Paphos, or Pygmalion; his mother was Myrrha, the king's daughter. At Byblos, it is Phoinix, father of the Phoenicians. Paphos sees him linked to the goddess Aphrodite, with whom a tie has already been established. The worship of Adonis, a cult especially popular with women, was celebrated on flat rooftops by the planting of plants and the offering of incenses. It also involved lamentations for the dead god. The incense and wailing of women are identical practices to those found in Baal worship. In Greece, the goddess Persephone fulfills much of his role. In Phoenicia, his worship supplanted that of Aleyin, a vegetation god and son of Baal, who was killed by Mot.
According to legend the king of Canaan, Theias, had a daughter named Myrrha or Smyrna who was cursed by Aphrodite. She was forced to commit incest with her father when she was twelve; with the complicity of here nurse she succeeded in deceiving him for eleven nights, but on the twelfth night Theias discovered whom she really was and prepared to kill her. Myrrha fled, and the gods taking pity on her, turned her into a tree, the myrrh tree. Ten months later the bark peeled off and an infant emerged and was named Adonis. Aphrodite was very moved by the beauty of the child, placed him into a coffin and she gave him to Persephone, goddess of the Underworld, to bring up. Becoming infatuated with the beautiful child Persephone refused to give him back. When Aphrodite returned to retrieve the coffin she discovered that Persephone had opened it and claimed the handsome child for herself. Zeus became the arbitrator in settling the dispute between the two goddesses, and it was decided that Adonis should live one-third of the year with Aphrodite on earth, one-third with Persephone in the Underworld, and the final third with whichever he pleased. Adonis chose to spend two-thirds of the year with Aphrodite and one-third with Persephone in the Underworld.
Adonis was an avid hunter. Astarte fell deeply in love with him. She tried to persuade him to give up the dangerous sport. Adonis refused. The story goes that while out hunting, Adonis was killed by a wild boar. The Phoenician goddess Astarte tried to save him but she was too late. And so it is the blood of Adonis that each spring turns to red the torrential river, the Adonis River (modern Nahr Ibrahim in Lebanon) . Afqa is the sacred source where the waters of the river emerge from a huge grotto in a cliff 200 meters high. It is there that the myth of Astarte (Venus) and Adonis was born. 
Across from the grotto are the remains of the Roman Temple of Venus. The temple was destroyed by the Christian Emperor Constantine (285 - 337 AD), it was later rebuilt by Julian the Apostle (362 - 363). His most important temples were at Byblos and Paphos. The temple of Astarte, in Byblos, celebrated the annual death and resurrection of Adonis.
His Cult
This Phoenician festival appears to have been a vernal one, for its date was determined by the discoloration of the river Adonis, and this has been observed by modern travelers to occur in spring. At that season the red earth washed down from the mountains by the rain tinges the water of the river, and even the sea. The blood-red hue and the crimson stain were believed to be the blood of Adonis. Again, the scarlet anemone is said to have sprung from the blood of Adonis, or to have been stained by it. The anemone blooms in Canaan/Phoenicia may be thought to show that the festival of Adonis, or at least one of his festivals, was held in spring.
His death appears to have been annually mourned, to the shrill music of flutes, by men and women about midsummer in the month named after him, the month of Tammuz (July). The dirges were seemingly chanted over an effigy of the dead god, which was washed with pure water, anointed with oil, and clad in a red robe. At the same time the fumes of incense rose into the air, as if to stir his dormant senses by their pungent fragrance and wake him from the sleep of death. Women bewail him, because his lord slew him so cruelly, ground his bones in a mill, and then scattered them to the wind. The women (during this festival) eat nothing which has been ground in a mill, but limit their diet to steeped wheat, sweet vetches, dates, raisins, and the like. Images of him, dressed to resemble corpses, were carried out as to burial and then thrown into the sea or into springs; and in some places his revival was celebrated on the following day. The red anemone marked his reappearance on earth.
Laments for the death of Adonis is contained in several hymns, which liken him to plants that quickly fade.
"A tamarisk that in the garden has drunk no water,
Whose crown in the field has brought forth no blossom.
A willow that rejoiced not by the watercourse,
A willow whose roots were torn up.
A herb that in the garden had drunk no water."
The voices of the singers chanting the sad refrain and to catch, like far-away music, the wailing notes of the flutes:
"At his vanishing away she lifts up a lament,
‘Oh my child!’ at his vanishing away she lifts up a lament;
‘My Damu!’ at his vanishing away she lifts up a lament.
‘My enchanter and priest!’ at his vanishing away she lifts up a lament,
At the shining cedar, rooted in a spacious place,
In Eanna, above and below, she lifts up a lament.
Like the lament that a house lifts up for its master, lifts she up a lament,
Like the lament that a city lifts up for its lord, lifts she up a lament.
Her lament is the lament for an herb that grows not in the bed;
Her lament is the lament for the corn that grows not in the ear. Her chamber is a possession that brings not forth a possession,
A weary woman, a weary child, forspent.
Her lament is for a great river, where no willows grow;
Her lament is for a field, where corn and herbs grow not.
Her lament is for a pool, where fishes grow not.
Her lament is for a thickest of reeds, where no reeds grow.
Her lament is for woods, where tamarisks grow not.
Her lament is for a wilderness where no cypresses (?) grow.
Her lament is for the depth of a garden of trees, where honey and wine grow not.
Her lament is for meadows, where no plants grow.
Her lament is for a palace, where length of life grows not."   

Source: Frazer, Sir James George. "The Golden Bough." Ch. 29. The Myth of Adonis, New York, 1922.

In the great Phoenician sanctuary of Astarte at Byblos, the death of Adonis was annually mourned, to the shrill wailing notes of the flute, with weeping, lamentation, and beating of the breast. On the next day he was believed to come to life again and ascend up to heaven in the presence of his worshippers. The disconsolate believers, left behind on earth, shaved their heads as the Egyptians did on the death of the divine bull Apis. Women who could not bring themselves to sacrifice their beautiful tresses had to give themselves up to strangers on a certain day of the festival, and to dedicate to Astarte the wages of their shame.  In Phoenician temples women prostituted themselves for hire in the service of religion, anyway, believing that by this conduct they propitiated the goddess and won her favor. "It was a law of the Amorites, that she who was about to marry should sit in fornication seven days by the gate."
In Cyprus it appears that before marriage all women were formerly obliged by custom to prostitute themselves to strangers at the sanctuary of the goddess and to dedicate to the goddess the wages earned by this sanctified harlotry. The sacred precinct was crowded with women waiting to observe the custom. Some of them had to wait there for years. At Paphos the custom of religious prostitution is said to have been instituted by King Cinyras, and to have been practiced by his daughters, the sisters of Adonis, who, having incurred the wrath of Aphrodite, mated with strangers and ended their days in Egypt. In this form of the tradition the wrath of Aphrodite is probably a feature added by a later authority, who could only regard conduct which shocked his own moral sense as a punishment inflicted by the goddess instead of as a sacrifice regularly enjoined by her on all her devotees. At all events the story indicates that the princesses of Paphos had to conform to the custom as well as women of humble birth.
But at different places the ceremonies varied somewhat in the manner and apparently also in the season of their celebration. At Alexandria images of Aphrodite and Adonis were displayed on two couches; beside them were set ripe fruits of all kinds, cakes, plants growing in flowerpots, and green bowers twined with anise. The marriage of the lovers was celebrated one day, and on the morrow women attired as mourners, with streaming hair and bared breasts, bore the image of the dead Adonis to the sea-shore and committed it to the waves. Yet they did not mourn without hope, because they sang that the lost one would come back again. The date at which this Alexandrian ceremony was observed is not expressly stated; but from the mention of the ripe fruits it has been inferred that it took place in late summer. 
There were continuous classical and patristic proofs that existed throughout the Mediterranean world of this touching cult, in which the joy of Adonis' and Astarte's reunion was succeeded by the grief of his sudden death and the women's funeral lament. Ephemeral gardens symbolized the grace and prompt decline of the deity.
The Adonis-Astarte fertility rite continued in Lebanon into the 5th century AD.

Adon, Adonis or Adonai and Hebrew

The Phoenicians settled in Cyprus around 900 B.C. They conquered Cypriot Idalion, and brought their cultic practices to it. In Phoenician the two words that mean "Lord": Ba'al and Adon, as indicated earlier. Ba'al had a very specific identity for Phoenicians -- including the Phoenician Cypriot community at Kition -- as the primary male deity. Thus Ba'al was not available as an appellation for the native Cypriot deity encountered by Phoenician traders at Idalion. Since the local Cypriots called their god the Wanax -- that is, the Lord -- the Phoenicians likely called this native god by their other word for "Lord": Adon.
The name "Adon" appears in a number of Phoenician inscriptions in Cyprus, including one from Idalion. The title "Adon" must have been used to designate the local deity by Phoenician visitors who happened to worship in this shrine.
The Greeks took over the administration of Idalion from the Phoenicians around 300 B.C. The primary language when the Greeks arrived was Phoenician. So it would have been natural for the Greeks to assume that "Adon" was the name of the local deity rather than a title. The name "Adon" was then Hellenized by adding the Greek ending "IS" -- Creating the familiar "Adonis."
Later, after the Romans conquered Cyprus in the first century B.C., a number of poets cited lovely Idalion as the place where Venus had her fabled affair with Adon or Adonis.
In the Bible the Israelite god Yahweh is sometimes referred to as Adon, though the term is used as a title, not as the personal name of Yahweh. Eventually, the appellation "Adonai" (my Lord) became a substitution name for pronouncing in prayer the unutterable name Yahweh, which by the early rabbinical period (first and second centuries A.D.) had become too sacred to pronounce. To this day, when Jews encounter the consonants of "Yahweh' (YHWH) in prayer, they pronounce it "Adonai." They might be shocked to learn that this substitution word is related to the Phoenician "Adon" and the Greek Cypriot "Adonis." Further, Muslim, Jews and Arabic-speaking, Aramaic/Syriac-speaking Christians might be shocked also to learn that their words for God come from the Phoenician god's name of "El" as in "Elah," "Allah," "Elahona,""Eloh," "Elohaino," "Eli," "Eloi," "Elohak"...etc .
Aniconism (the prohibition against graven images) and the use of a standing stone (massabah in Hebrew) -- are characteristic of Israelite cultic practices. Therefore, if is there a connection between worship in ancient Cyprus and worship in ancient Israel, the link is the Phoenicians. Popular religion among the Israelites as opposed to the "official" religion promoted in the Hebrew Bible, especially the Book of Deuteronomy-was similar to Phoenician religion. The Bible presents a purified, elite monotheism devoted exclusively to the worship of Yahweh. The orthodox, nationalistic parties that produced the Hebrew Bible proscribed the worship of Ba'al and suppressed all but the faintest traces of a theology that included a consort of Yahweh. But both Ba'al and this female goddess continued to live on in Israelite popular religious practices as well as in Phoenician (formerly Canaanite) practice.
The local Cypriot god the Wanax, or the Lord, was worshiped by the Phoenicians as Adon and then later by the Greeks as Adonis. This god had a female consort, much like the Phoenician Asherah -- a goddess whom the official Israelite religion had much difficulty in suppressing.
For information about other Phoenician gods, please see the assay in this website entitle "Phoenician Canaanite Religion -- Pagan."

Sources:

1. Grimal, Pierre, Larousse World Mythology, Secaucus, New Jersey, Chartwell Books, 1965, pp. 94, 132
2. Cotterell, Arthur, A Dictionary of World Mythology, New York, G. P. Putman's Sons, 1980, p. 23 
3. Frazer, James George The Golden Bough, 1922
4. "The History of Ancient Idalion in the Light of Recent Excavations," in Paul Wallace, ed., Visitors, Immigrants, and Invaders in Cyprus (Albany: State Univ. of New York, Albany Press, 1995), pp. 32-39.
5. See, for example, inscription nos. 31, 32, 39, 40. 41 and 43 in H. Donner and W. Rollig, Kanaanaische and Aramaische Inschrifien, vol. 1, Texte (Wiesbaden, Germany: Harrassowitz, 1971), pp. 4-10. Inscription no. 39 (p. 8) is the bilingual inscription from the Adonis temenos at Idalion. Both Adon and Reshef Mikal appear in this inscription. Inscriptions 33-37 are from Kition and mention Ba'al.
6. For example Propertius 2.13.51.
7. See Donner and Rollig, Kanaanaische and Aramaische Inschrifien, pp. 7-8. Inscriptions 32-37 are from Kition.
8. For the evidence, see Frank Moore Cross, Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic: Essays in the History of Religion in Israel (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 1973), pp. 28-35; and William G. Dever, "Asherah, Consort of Yahweh? New Evidence from Kuntillet 'Ajrud," Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 255 (1984), pp. 28-29 and references there.
9. See Dever, "Asherah, Consort of Yahweh?"
10. See Ruth Hestrin, "The Lachish Ewer and the Tree 'Asherah,"' Israel Exploration Journal 37 (1987), pp. 212-223, and "Understanding Asherah- Exploring Semitic Iconography," Biblical Archaeology Review (September/October 1991), pp. 50-59; and S.M. Olyan, Asherah and the Cult of Yahweh in Israel (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1988).

Read more: Phoenician Adon (Adonis) became Lord of the Hebrews http://phoenicia.org/adonis.html#ixzz29pDTLaHi