Pantokrator

The Ancient Greek Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible used the word pantokrator (παντοκράτωρ) or “Ruler of All” as a translation of the second part of the Hebrew term YHWH Tz’vaót (יְהוָ֨ה צְבָא֜וֹת) or “Lord of hosts” (see here) and occasionally ʼĒl Šadạy (אֵל שַׁדַּי‎), translated in English commonly as “God Almighty.” In the deuterocanonical/apocryphal books, pantokrator might have also been used in the original writing. The New Testament uses it one time in the writings of Paul (2 Cor. 6:18) and several times in the book of Revelation (see esp. Rev. 1:8).

One of the most influential icon styles of the Orthodox church has developed from this concept: Christ Pantocrator. In this icon style, Christ is looking straight at the viewer, his right hand is typically spelling a short form of “Jesus Christ” (see the bottom of the entry on Jesus and icons for an explanation), and his left hand holds a New Testament. His head is often surrounded by a halo.

The earliest preserved icon is found in the Greek Orthodox Saint Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai from the 6th century:

In order to express the two natures of Christ, the two sides of the face are not symmetrical. The right side might represent the qualities of his divinity, while his left side represents human nature. (Source )

Orthodox icons are not drawings or creations of imagination. They are in fact writings of things not of this world. Icons can represent our Lord Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the Saints. They can also represent the Holy Trinity, Angels, the Heavenly hosts, and even events. Orthodox icons, unlike Western pictures, change the perspective and form of the image so that it is not naturalistic. This is done so that we can look beyond appearances of the world, and instead look to the spiritual truth of the holy person or event. (Source )

See also LORD of hosts.

Translation commentary on Job 32:8

But it is the spirit in a man: Elihu is saying in this verse that years alone, or having lived many years, does not give a person wisdom; it is rather the spirit which gives it. Elihu will conclude in verse 10 that he has such wisdom.

The problem in this verse is the unclear relation between spirit in line a and breath of the Almighty in line b. There is, of course, some connection with the story of man’s creation, Genesis 2.7, but that does not clarify this verse completely. One way to resolve the problem here is to make spirit refer to “the spirit of God,” as in New English Bible, “But the spirit of God himself is in man and the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding,” so that the two lines are then fully parallel. Good News Translation accepts the parallelism but for clarity brings the two terms together: “It is the spirit of the Almighty God.” However, some feel that parallelism should not be imposed here, and take spirit in a man to refer to his “intelligence” which he receives from God’s spirit. In that case we may translate, for example, “It is true that everyone has intelligence, because the Almighty God has breathed it into him,” or as Bible en français courant says, “It is true that what makes a person intelligent is the Spirit, the inspiration of God Almighty.” If spirit is taken as in Bible en français courant, some translations will prefer to write “Spirit” with a capital “S.” Good News Translation has translated man as “men.” Elihu is speaking generally here, and man is to be understood as “a person,” or even more generally, as “people.”

Although the interpretation in Bible en français courant seems preferable, it is not possible to rule out the implied parallelism of New English Bible. Translators are free to choose. However, it may be advisable to place the alternative rendering in a footnote.

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, Wiliam. A Handbook on Job. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .