What does "pantokrator" mean?

Question

Revelation 4:8 refers to God as κύριος, ὁ θεός, ὁ παντοκράτωρ, generally rendered as 'Lord God Almighty.' I'm interested in the last word: ὁ παντοκράτωρ. Would this have connoted omnipotence as the English rendering "Almighty" does?

If it's a compound word, I'm reasonably certain the first half of the word, παντο, means "all." But what does κράτωρ mean? Is παντοκράτωρ a word used outside of the New Testament at all? I'm curious too, for instance, how the LXX translates El-Shaddai, since that is typically rendered in modern English translations as "The Almighty" as well. Are these related?

Can anyone shed light on the meaning of this word in Revelation?

Answer 1

As another member mentioned, the Greek word κράτος (kratos) means "power" or "might" (LSJ, p. 992). However, that is not one of the words in the word παντοκράτωρ (pantokratōr). Rather, παντοκράτωρ consists of two compounds:

1. παντο-
2. -κράτωρ

As @fdb noted, the first compound παντο consists of the athematic stem παντ- plus the thematic vowel -o- (suffixed to the first compound), meaning "all." The second compound is the noun κράτωρ (kratōr), meaning "master, potentate" (ruler) (LSJ, p. 992). Using the Perseus search function, one can find a list of other compound words containing the word κράτωρ in it. For example,

• αὐτοκράτωρ, meaning "ruler of self; self-ruler" (i.e., independent)
• κοσμοκράτωρ, meaning "ruler of the world; world-ruler"
• ναυκράτωρ, meaning "master (ruler) of a ship" (i.e., captain)
• θαλασσοκράτωρ, meanining "master (ruler) of the sea"

Thus, παντοκράτωρ would simply mean "ruler of all." In other words, it refers to one who has dominion over everything (i.e., the entire universe). "Almighty" could be a suitable English equivalent, but a better one would probably be "sovereign." Thus, ὁ παντοκράτωρ is indeed "the Almighty" or "the Sovereign."

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References

Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart; McKenzie, Roderick. A Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996.

Answer 2

The Greek (root) word kratos means "power". So yes, "all powerful" or "almighty" would be a reasonable translation.

Answer 3

Kratos does mean power, but krator means ruler. I'd say pantokrator does not mean quite the same as almighty. In fact, there could be a considerable difference since almighty or omnipotent seems to imply the ability to do anything, but "ruler of all" only seems to refer to all things that actually exist.

Answer 4

In our Bibles, אֵל שָׁדַּי “El Shadai” is most often (mistakenly) translated as “God Almighty”. The main reason for this stems from an opinion that Hebrew word שָׂדַּי ShaDai is connected with the verb לְשְׁדוד liShDoD, which means “to destroy” or “overpower”. For example, Hebrew word for “bandit” has the same root –שׁודֵד ShoDeD.

El Shadai אֵל שָׁדַּי does have another meaning though. The word שָׁד ShaD has a much closer grammatical connection to ShaDai and it means – “breast.” Moreover, when a word ends with an “i”or “ai” it is almost always means “my”. So, literally, “El Shadai” could very well mean “God (is) my Breast/s”.

If we consider this intriguing imagery as interpretive possibility we may see that the breast is one of the key symbols of sustenance and parental love passed on from God, the parent, to humanity, God’s child. So instead of “God Almighty”, El Shadai should probably be translated as “God All-sufficient” instead. El ShaDai (אֵל שָׁדַּי)is just one of the many names of God in Hebrew. El means “God.” The rest, however, is slightly more complicated.

In our Bibles, אֵל שָׁדַּי “El Shadai” is most often (mistakenly) translated as “God Almighty”. The main reason for this stems from an opinion that Hebrew word שָׂדַּי ShaDai is connected with the verb לְשְׁדוד liShDoD, which means “to destroy” or “overpower”. For example, Hebrew word for “bandit” has the same root –שׁודֵד ShoDeD.

El Shadai אֵל שָׁדַּי does have another meaning though. The word שָׁד ShaD has a much closer grammatical connection to ShaDai and it means – “breast.” Moreover, when a word ends with an “i”or “ai” it is almost always means “my”. So, literally, “El Shadai” could very well mean “God (is) my Breast/s”.

If we consider this intriguing imagery as interpretive possibility we may see that the breast is one of the key symbols of sustenance and parental love passed on from God, the parent, to humanity, God’s child. So instead of “God Almighty”, El Shadai should probably be translated as “God All-sufficient” instead.