Elohim

Elohim (אֱלוֹהִים , אלהים) is a Hebrew word which expresses concepts of divinity. It is apparently related to the Hebrew word ēl, though morphologically it consists of the Hebrew word Eloah (אלוה) with a plural suffix. Elohim is the third word in the Hebrew text of Genesis and occurs frequently throughout the Hebrew Bible. Its exact significance is often disputed.

In some cases (e.g. Exodus 3:4, "... Elohim called unto him out of the midst of the bush ..."), it acts as a singular noun in Hebrew grammar (see next section), and is then generally understood to denote the single God of Israel. In other cases, Elohim acts as an ordinary plural of the word Eloah (אלוה), and refers to the polytheistic notion of multiple gods (for example, Exodus 20:3, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me."). This may reflect the use of the word "Elohim" found in the late Bronze Age texts of Canaanite Ugarit, where Elohim ('lhm) was found to be a word denoting the entire Canaanite pantheon (the family of El אל, the patriarchal creator god).

In still other cases, the meaning is not clear from the text, but may refer to powerful beings (e.g. Genesis 6:2, "... the sons of Elohim saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them for wives... ," Exodus 4:16, "... and you [Moses] will be as Elohim to him [Aaron]... ," Exodus 22:28, "Thou shalt not revile Elohim, or curse a ruler of your people... ," where the parallelism suggests that Elohim may refer to human rulers). See Sons of God for more insight into this suggestion.

Hebrew grammar

Elohim has plural morphological form in Hebrew; while it tends to be used with singular verbs and adjectives in the Hebrew text when the particular meaning of the God of Israel (a singular deity) is traditionally understood, there are several examples where we see plural verbs and adjectives with the "singular" God of Israel. Thus the very first words of the Bible are breshit bara Elohim, where bara ברא is a verb inflected as third person singular masculine perfect. If Elohim were an ordinary plural word, then the plural verb form bar'u בראו would have been used in this sentence instead. Of course, the fact that we see it occur with both singular and plural syntax only adds to the mystery of the form. Plural grammatical forms tend to be found in cases where Elohim has semantically plural reference, though the vast majority of these, however, are adjectives; only 13 times do "foreign" plurals occur with Elohim.

In most English translations of the Bible (e.g. the King James Version), the letter G in "god" is capitalized in cases where Elohim refers to the God of Israel, but there is no distinction between upper and lower case in the Hebrew text.

The Hebrew text is also puzzling in that it writes the form at times with either the definite article or indefinitely. What difference this made did not become clear to any of the translators of the Bible, and remains unknown.

Significance in the documentary hypothesis

The choice of word or words for God varies in the Hebrew Bible. Some scholars view these variations as evidence of different source texts, the "documentary hypothesis." According to many proponents of this theory, Elohim is consistently used in texts that reflect the early northern traditions of the Kingdom of Israel, whereas Yahweh ('Jehovah', Latin 'Iéhova') is consistently used in texts that derive from the early southern traditions, of the Kingdom of Judah and Jerusalem. Biblical scholars have found it useful to distinguish between "E" traditions and "J" traditions, the "Elohist" and the "Yahwist." Elohim is a plural from the same root as singular El and Eloah. However, the phrase "YHWH Elohim," found 915 times in the Old Testament from Genesis 2:4 to Malachi 2:16 and generally translated "LORD God," casts some doubt upon this line of reasoning. In some of eastern languages unlike latin origin languages, the plural is used for a respect of single person also. Therefore Elohim is a single but used as a plural only for respect. For example, when children call one of the parents either mother or father or any elder in eastern languages, they use plural. They don't use "He" or "She" but use plural "You" or "they" showing respect to elders.

Etymology

The etymology of the word Elohim is unknown. There are many theories, however, including the following:

The most commonly accepted root of this source among Jewish scholars is that the word literally translates to "powers" meaning God is the One in control of these powers.
The most likely derivation comes from the word Elohim ('lhm) found in the Ugarit archives, meaning the family or pantheon associated with the Canaanite father God El.
Hebraist Joel M. Hoffman derives the word from the common Canaanite word elim, with the mater lectionis heh inserted to distinguish the Israelite God from other gods. He argues that elohim thus patterns with Abram/Abraham and Sarai/Sarah.^[1] (See also Yahweh.)
Karel van der Toorn repeats the common claim that elohim is the plural of eloah, but D. Pardee notes the lack of any clear etymology for eloah.^[2]
Some trace its origin in el or ul which may mean ("to be strong") or possibly ("to be in front"), from which also are derived ayil ("ram", the one in front of the flock) and elah (the prominent "terebinth"); Elohim would then be an expanded plural form of El. (However, Semitic etymologies are generally based on triconsonantal roots, which this proposal completely ignores.)
Others relate the word (and Eloah, "a god") to alah ("to terrify") or alih ("to be perplexed, afraid; to seek refuge because of fear"). Eloah and Elohim, therefore, would be "He who is the object of fear or reverence," or "He with whom one who is afraid takes refuge".
Some Biblical scholars tend to resist making connections with the father god of Ugarit, El, due to the uncertainty of religious links between Canaanite and Israelite religion. Instead they focus on the common Semitic linguistic background of these two cultures. Others find the similarities between texts of Ugarit and the Bible useful evidence of a common tradition.

The form of the word Elohim, with the ending -im, is plural and masculine, but the construction is usually singular, i.e. it governs a singular verb or adjective when referring to the Hebrew god, but reverts to its normal plural when used of heathen divinities (Psalms 96:5; 97:7). There are many theories as to why the word is plural:

In one view, predominant among anthropomorphic monotheists, the word is plural in order to augment its meaning and form an abstraction meaning "Divine majesty".
Among orthodox Trinitarian Christian writers it is sometimes used as evidence for the doctrine of the Holy Trinity.
In another view that is more common among a range of secular scholars, heterodox Christian and Jewish theologians and polytheists, the word's plurality reflects early Judaic polytheism. They argue it originally meant "the gods", or the "sons of El," the supreme being. They claim the word may have been singularized by later monotheist priests who sought to replace worship of the many gods of the Judean pantheon with their own singular patron god YHWH alone.

A plural noun governing a singular verb may be according to oldest usage. The gods form a heavenly assembly where they act as one. In this context, the Elohim may be a collective plural when the gods act in concert. Compare this to English headquarters, which is plural but governs a singular verb: there are many rooms or quarters, but they all serve one purpose. Thus, it is argued, the meaning of Elohim therefore can mean one god, with many attributes.

The alternative polytheist theory would seem to explain why there are three words built on the same stem: El, Elohim, and eloah. El, the father god, has many divine sons, who are known by the plural of his name, Elohim, or Els. Eloah, might then be used to differentiate each of the lesser gods from El himself.

While the words El, Elohim, and eloah are clearly related, with the word El being the stem, some have claimed it is uncertain whether the word Elohim is derived from El through eloah. These have suggested that the word Elohim is the masculine plural of a feminine noun, used as a singular. This would imply indeterminacy in both number and gender, although, as mentioned above, from Canaanite texts in Ugarit, this is what appears to be intended in this case. However, to many this is speculative and confusing, although consistent with many other Jewish and Christian views of the nature of the Godhead.

Note that contrary to what is sometimes assumed, the word Eloah (אלוה) is quite definitely not feminine in form in the Hebrew language (and does not have feminine grammatical gender in its occurrences in the Bible). This word ends in a furtivum vowel (i.e. short non-syllabic [a] element which is part of a lowering diphthong) followed by a breathily-pronounced final [h] consonant sound — while feminine Hebrew words which end in "ah" have a fully syllabic [a] vowel which is followed by a silent "h" letter (which changes to a [t] sound in the grammatical "construct state" construction, or if suffixes are added). The pronounced [h] (or he mappiq) of Eloah never alternates with a [t] consonant sound (the way that silent feminine "h" does), and the [a] "furtivum" element in Eloah is actually a late feature of masoretic pronunciation traditions, which wouldn't have existed in the pronunciation of Biblical times.

The meaning of Elohim is further complicated by the fact that it is used to describe the spirit of the dead prophet Samuel, raised by Saul in 1 Samuel 28:13. The witch of Endor tells Saul that she sees 'gods' (elohim) coming up out of the earth; this seems to indicate that the term was indeed used simply to mean something like 'divine beings' in ancient Israel.

Elohim in Islam

In the context of Islam, some scholars have highlighted that the divine name Allah, used in the Qur'an, has a linguistic cognate relationship with the word "Eloah (אלוה)".

Elohim in Mormonism

In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (sometimes referred to as the LDS Church or "Mormons"), the term Elohim (also spelled "Eloheim") is often used to distinguish God the Father as a distinct member of the Godhead.

The plural sense of "Elohim" is generally recognized by the LDS Church as meaning "the council of the gods" in the creation story. This is particularly evident in chapter 4 of the Book of Abraham in the Pearl of Great Price.

Elohim in Anthroposophy

In anthroposophy, based on the teachings by Rudolf Steiner, the Elohim represent the 6th realm of the Hierarchy of angels of the Roman Catholic tradition. Using the terminology of Dionysius the Areopagite, this hierarchic level of divine spirits is referred to as Exousiai (Greek) or Potestates (Latin) and is immediately above the three levels comprising the Angels, Archangels and Archai/Principati. The role of the Exousiai/Elohim in spiritual evolution is essential, since the human Self has emanated from them. Having their residence in the spiritual spheres of the Sun, the Exousiai/Elohim are specially devoted to the development of Earth and humanity. Yahweh is one of them, who moved to the Moon spheres for the sake of humanity and took up the task as the divine ruler of the biblical Israelites, destinied to receive the incarnation of Christ in the man Jesus. Christ, himself originating from Trinity (which supersedes all hierarchies), is the direct leader of the Exousiai.

Elohim in Raëlism

According to Raëlians, in 1973, a former French journalist named Raël (which is claimed to mean The Messenger of the Elohim) was contacted by Yahweh, the leader of an advanced extra-terrestrial race known as the Elohim. Yahweh informed Rael about humanity's origins and purpose, and that the word Elohim had been mistranslated as the singular word "God", and is actually a plural word which means "those who came from the sky".

Notes

^ Hoffman, Joel M. In the Beginning: A Short History of the Hebrew Language. ISBN 0-8147-3654-8.
^ Both Karel van der Toorn's and D. Pardee's claims are found in "Elohim", in Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible ISBN 90-04-11119-0.

[1] Hoffman, Joel M. In the Beginning: A Short History of the Hebrew Language. ISBN 0-8147-3654-8.

[2] Both Karel van der Toorn's and D. Pardee's claims are found in "Elohim", in Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible ISBN 90-04-11119-0.

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