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Originally Posted by Gurthang
[*]Is Eru the Elvish name for God (Jehovah)?
This may look like the same question, but is entirely different. Eru might very well mean God in Elvish, but that doesn't point to it meaning God(Jehovah) exclusively. Iluvatar is truly God in M-E, and so will be called Eru.
Think about our own world today: Allah vs. Jehovah(I'm using Jehovah to avoid confusion.). Muslims call Allah God. Christians call Jehovah God. The names might be the same, so does that make them the same? I'd say no, because there are fundamental differences between them.
Likewise in Iluvatar vs. Jehovah. Iluvatar is Eru(which means God), in which case Jehovah could also be called Eru. But that does not make Iluvatar and Jehovah the same. It simply means that Tolkien translated God into Elvish rather than translating Jehovah.
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Some interesting thoughts there, Gurthang, but I believe that your definitions are flawed.
First of all, Eru is not simply Elvish for "God". It is Elvish for "the One". (See the definition in the Silmarillion of the root "er", which is defined as meaning "one, alone"). In this context, it is more similar to Yahweh (also translated as Jehovah), meaning "I am" than it is to "God".
Next, Iluvatar means "All-father", and is thus much closer in meaning to our refering to God as "Father".
Finally, your reference to "Allah" is also somewhat flawed, since "Allah" is simply Arabic for "The God".
Furthermore, many Christians, Catholics anyway, will tell you that the Muslims believe in the same God as us, they simply don't have the same beliefs concerning how to live under Him here on earth.