The most obvious answer is that the plural is used as God is made up of three persons, the Holy Trinity, this is one of the mysteries of our Faith, no one wil accept it unless God gives them the Grace to have Faith, no amount of arguing on your part will convince someone of this, paticularly those who hate Christ so much as to deliberately choose to misinterpret the meaning of this word out of sheer malice. Do not waste your time trying to explain the Trinity to these heathens, as Christ says: "Give not that which is holy to dogs; neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest perhaps they trample them under their feet, and turning upon you, they tear you. "
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 Jєωιѕн 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 Jєωιѕн 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.
As you can see from the above the meaning of this word is anything but clear, these people have chosen to use such a false interpretation purely out of spite. Even if it could be proven that the Jєωs did worship many Gods at one time this would not mean anything to Christians, it is well docuмented that the Jєωs took to worshipping false gods and where punished for it by the One True God on several occasions.
Only the Church has the authority to interpret the Bible, and it must be interpreted in light of what the rest of the whole of the Scriptures say, the Scriptures are clear that there is one God, and this must influence our understanding of what is wirtten, Moses wrote Genesis and at the same time it is clear he worshipped One God so I do not see how he could at the same time believe in many God's, all other "gods" are not God's but demons, that is made quite clear in scripture, and God punishes those who wpuld worship these false gods.
Topic: Elohim? (Read 890 times)