The Bible is written as a visionary picture of how imagination operates through many different states of mind. Rather than being a single theological statement, it is a collection of perspectives expressed through men and women, characters and books, each showing how inner assumptions shape outer experience. In this way, Scripture teaches how the Law of Assumption is enacted through imagination and its many faculties.
A key to understanding this lies in biblical names, especially those ending in -yah, -iah, and -el. These are not decorative endings. They point directly to the imaginative power Neville Goddard calls the “I AM”—imagination itself. The characters bearing these names represent specific modes or functions of imagination at work.
This is why genealogies matter so much in the Bible, particularly in the lineage of Jesus. They are not biological records but ordered descriptions of developing mental states, showing how imagination progresses from one assumption to another.
What “-yah,” “-iah,” and “-el” Indicate
-yah and -iah are shortened forms of YHVH, which corresponds to the statement “I AM” in Exodus 3:14 (I AM THAT I AM). Names with these endings indicate that the character represents an active state of self-awareness—the imagination recognising itself as the cause.
-el means “God” or “mighty one” and is connected to Elohim, often understood as imagination expressed. Names ending in -el point to imagination exercising authority, strength, or direction.
Examples as Mental Functions
- Isaiah: “I AM is salvation” — imagination recognising itself as the means of change.
- Jeremiah: “I AM will raise” — a state where imagination lifts or restructures identity.
- Hezekiah: “Strength of I AM” — stabilised confidence in the creative power.
- Michael: “Who is like God?” — affirmation that no external cause rivals imagination.
- Ezekiel: “God strengthens” — imagination being reinforced to sustain a new state.
These are not historical personalities in the psychological sense Neville describes, but named functions of imagination. Each one shows how a particular assumption operates, develops, or stabilises within consciousness. The full sequence of these modes can be seen in the symbolic lineage of Christ.
Jesus as the Central Principle
The name Jesus (Yeshua / Yehoshua) means “I AM saves.” In Neville Goddard’s framework, Jesus is not a separate external figure but the point at which imagination fully recognises itself as the source of reality.
Jesus represents imagination awakened to its own power—the state where assumption is no longer questioned but lived from.
One Law, Many Expressions
Whether a name ends in -yah, -iah, or -el, the meaning always resolves back to the same principle: imagination as the creative cause. The different names simply describe different ways this power functions—initiating, strengthening, directing, or fulfilling an assumption.
Why This Understanding Matters
When biblical names are read symbolically, the Bible stops being a book about distant figures and becomes a manual of inner mechanics. It shows how imagination moves through many mindsets, how assumptions are formed, tested, and stabilised, and how identity itself is reshaped.
Seen this way, Scripture is a structured teaching on the Law of Assumption—expressed through named states of consciousness, each demonstrating how imagination brings experience into form.