A simple question yet from what I've seen, one that has multiple answers, almost as many as there are people on this forum...

So who is Elohim?

Isn't it the name of God - or one of the names people call him?

Elohim means God

In the Bible the word for God in the Hebrew that is used most often is Elohim.

Hmm, to my recollection God never said that he was called elohim...

Then it would also be the word used of other Gods mentioned in the bible, they are also termed elohim..

Someone I trust as knowledgeable (on this subject) told me that Elohim is PLURAL; meaning "the gods." The translation of Adonai is "Lord God" (singular). I'm sure there are experts who can confirm or negate this.

Perhaps it is just the name that people gave him then

At least one person I've known used the term to refer to heaven.

The word is comprised of 2 elements..

Eloh and im

In hebrew, the plural is always identified by "im" just as in English we would use an "s" or "es", the point is that contextually the word is used in dozens of places where it clearly and uniquely refers to one person...

Because of this incongruence both applications are used and are justifiable in the bible, "God" and "The Gods" are both used within clear contexts, actually it is the context rather than the word "Elohim" itself that tells us if we are dealing with the singular or the plural form of God/Gods...

It is because of this that bible commentaries refer to the word as pluralistic... but not necessarily plural...

Just a note, whenever we have the term "The LORD God" in the bible it is nearly always translated as "Yehovah Elohim"

and when we have "Lord GOD", the we have the word "Adonai Yehovah"...

It seems that the Capitalization is everything in English...

Elohim - "those that came from the sky"

One of my neighbours is called E.L Ohim. Is this the guy you are looking for?

From EW Bullingers Appendix to the Companion Bible:
This Is Appendix 4 From The Companion Bible.
The Divine Names And Titles

I. ELOHIM occurs 2,700 times. Its first occurrence connects it with creation, and gives it its essential meaning as the Creator. It indicates His relation to mankind as His creatures (see note on 2Chronicles 18:31, where it stands in contrast with Jehovah as indicating covenant relationship). Elohim is God the Son, the living "Word" with creature form to create (John 1:1. Colossians 1:15-17. Revelation 3:14); and later, with human form to redeem (John 1:14 ). "Begotten of His Father before all worlds; born of His mother, in the world." In this creature form He appeared to the Patriarchs, a form not temporally assumed. Elohim in indicated (as in the Authorized Version) by ordinary small type.

My understanding is "El" essentially means "supreme". So: Elohim (the Supremes) El (The Supreme, AKA God). Mi-cha-el, has this also, indicating that many of the angels' names are actually titles of office, thus Michael is "Supreme" in some capacity.

O, Him!

H.

Yes, him! Had no idea the guy was famous until now

Because it is a Hebrew word it would naturally require the word to be defined by Hebrew scholars. E.W. Bullinger wrote the following: "EL is God the omnipotent and Elohim is always viewed as God in relationship to his creation, hence EL is Elohim putting his ominopotence into operation..."

The word itelf is used 2700 times in the OT, it's first usage is in Gen. 1:1 which we see is God referenced in a creative act.

It means gods.

In genesis god is also quoted refering to "himself" in plural.
for example : "oh crap, they ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, now they are like US" (a loose quote)

My understanding (as I described in another thread) is that Elohim is a word
to describe all entities of "heaven".

The two races of "gods" that are most popular in human mythology (both modern and ancient ) are the ones that we were made to look like (the ones that look humans, the race of Gabriel, Immanuel (Jesus), and many more religious figures), and the popular "snake" or "dragon", which seemed to be a favorite in the east. Many Asian nations worshiped the reptilian gods in the past. It is possible they ruled some parts of earth before the flood.
This race is the race of Lucifer (Prometheus), but many of the "humans" are also bad guys, and many of the snake guys serve the divine purpuse, so it's not really a racial thing.
And I also believe the Earth might have been once their heritage (during the era of dinosaurs), and "home base", which some of them were heard saying (or so the people who claim to have talked with some of them say).
The earth is now in an era ruled by these other ones, who made humans.

Some forms of satanism even teach that Jehowah is a thief who destroyed previous gods of earth. Which fits the profile.
And so does ancient Greek mythology who teaches that olympians (current gods) are a generation who had power ever since
the "war of gods" in the beginning.

After the ancient war the reptilians were given a new home in cavities under earth were even today people claim they live.
But this is nothing new really, it's not invented by David Icke or whoever, North American mythology, Ancient Indian and many many other scriptures speak of snake people living under ground.

I just want to mention that this is not new age alien abduction mythology, it is just a new interpretation of massive information
given to use in ancient scriptures from all over the world (which all fit together almost perfectly) in light of recent
encounters.

Elohim backwards sounds like "My holy"

I'm pretty sure english didn't exist back then

In other words, you're saying that Elohim is not so much a name as it is a designation, like human being is for mankind...?

Well I don't remember anyone ever claiming it's a name.
In all interpretations of Bible that I know about it is just a word with a translation (usually translated God)

The word was used by Jews as the word for God.

Eloah was the word for god
El or Eli was the short version (used by Jesus on the cross)
And Elohim is plural of Eloah (or Eloh)

So I don't think there is any doubt that this word refers to god in general, or
gods in plural.

It's basically the same word as Ilah (which is also Arabic for "a god" or deity in general)
from which came Allah which means literally ("the god").
Because Al is something like english "the"

So yes, in quite a few languages does this word exist and it is refering to a god , deity,
while in the Bible it is in plural Elohim (gods)

It's not just the name, that is in plural, as I said, a large number of times in genesis
god is refered to as "they" or "us" or even in a literal case.

When god came down to talk to Abraham before the destruction of two cities, he came as 3 men.
It is described sort of like:
and he saw god, 3 man standing.

I haven't seen original texts of that part, but I'd bet again word Elohim is used,
in plural, in this case there is obviously 3 beings that he saw and he talked with one
of them.

In many cases a group of angels or entities from heaven is refered to as "god" in Bible.

It's sort of like saying "police" came and I talked to the "police"
Obviously police is not a person, but a force.

Not saying that there isn't one chief god there, I'm just saying that a lot of places where
we have "god" in english is actually gods, or sometimes it is even the style of the original author
to describe various angels and their work as god and gods work , because they are obviously working for "him"

It's just that the christian culture has so much been influenced by Deism, that little details like these are lost because they don't fid the "big picture" of current christian theology, which is trying to reach out to the general "common sense" in hopes of making more sense to the general half-believer by offering a watered down concepts of original teachings from scriptures.

I believe that a more adequate example for an English word like Elohim is "sheep". When we refer to the word sheep, are we reffering to the animal in singular form or in plural form?.

The only thing that will help us determine whether the word is singular or plural is the context.

The sheep is eating, refers to the singular because of the verb form "is".
The sheep are eating, refers to the plural form because of the verb "are".

We can easily identify within biblical context when the form is used in singular or plural because of context, in the same way as the examples above.

but sheep is a word which sounds the same in plural and in singular

Elohim can not be used as singular, because it sounds different in singular.

The only way you can get away with a one-god interpretation of this word is , for example if
you say that Jews used a plural word to express grateness, which in some languages is
even curtesy (to refer to unknown people in plural, sort of like mister for english)
but I never heard a theory like that yet.

All I heard is people ignoring it and translating it to singular.

But there is no question about it being the plural word for Eloah.
It can be attributed to style and expression, but it can't be confused for the singular word

The Jews interpret the word as both singular and plural, depending on the context. A good example of usage within context of both singular and plural can be found in Psalm 82.

1. God (elohim) stands in the divine assembly; He judges among the gods (elohim).
2. How long will you judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah.
3. Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.
4. Deliver the poor and needy: rid [them] out of the hand of the wicked.
5. They (the elohim) know not, neither will they (the elohim) understand; they (the elohim) walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.
6. I have said, you [are] gods (elohim); and all of you [are] the sons of the most High (bene 'elyon).
7. But you shall die like Adam, and fall like one of the Shining Ones.
8. Arise, O God (elohim) , judge the earth: for you shall inherit all nations.

I would love for you to get around the wording here so that you can suceed in your point of view, but according to the linguistic analysis of the text, some of the instances in the wording here can only be singular and others can only be plural, otherwise the text becomes gibberish.

Like I said the word is used maybe for singular usage, but that doesn't mean the direct translation is singular.

I believe they used the plural word to express how great and big something is, like saying heavens instead of heaven.
There is obviously only one heaven, but it is said in plural to express the greatness of it.

But that's just my theory, I never really heard anyone explain it like that

though that doesn't really have to do much with my idea of what the word Elohim in genesis means

Simply because, genesis is not the only creation story. Every part of the world has one.

The only problem is you can't divorce Genesis from the rest of the bible context, unless your theory is more important than keeping things in context.



You know, you were on the right track when you said that elohim is and I quote you:

My understanding (as I described in another thread) is that Elohim is a word to describe all entities of "heaven".

I never departed from that theory

that is MY belief

the plural usage for one god case, is THEIR way of describing things, and I'm just saying sometimes
they probably used plural word for the purpuse of describing a single god.

But that doesn't mean I am a traditional monotheist.
You could say I'm a Quasy-christian-polytheistic-new-age-alien-bull*hit-his-own-theories-muslim-frickin' -kind of a guy

Well, you certaiinly are free to adjectivise yourself but I would reconsider just exactly how my theory can be harmonized with the bible insteaf of going my own way in search of original meanings for the word "elohim".

If you are interested in what the word actualy means and how it can be applied in a biblical context, read the following link.

What is an "elohim"?

If you feel like discussing how this can apply to the "alien connection", we can certainly debate that.

Every commentary so far and analytical Hebrew lexicons are defining Elohim as a characteristical usage of the root word EL. What designates a singular usage of the word Elohim is the Hebrew accent "Athnach" This can be seen in Gen. 1:1 if you are using a study aid that show the Hebrew script. Elohim is translated "gods" in some verses of the OT but there will be no accent associted with the usage of Elohim.

Jor-el

interesting reading.

but I don't see the need for such clinging to details when it comes to Bible, because I find it to be written very "roughly",
through many styles, and even different understandings.
Of course that would be obligatory for those who consider Bible to be the holy book perfectly written , but I don't, I just consider it a human account of events which was deemed an acceptable testimony of truth by those from heaven.

I cannot help but disagree... if that puts me with those that consider the bible to be Holy writ, then that's okay with me. At least from this standpoint, I can see just how much people tend to ignore what is not in their interest to see and how they consistently grab at what intersts them so they can then further then own little theories...

I am still not sure how does any of this have to do with fitting or not fitting my theories?

What parts am I intentionally ignoring here?

The part about what elohim actually means.

Also I'm feeling out of sorts today, I apologize for having come off as being rude in my last post...

................................Elohim is the Hebrew word for (GOD)--Yehovah is the Hebrew word for (LORD)--El. is the Hebrew word for (GOD)--Eloah is the Hebrew word for (GOD)--Elyon is the Hebrew word for (MOST HIGH)--Adon is the Hebrew word for (LORD)--I Am is a word for (GOD). These are some of God's names from the Hebrew language that has been translated. I hope this will help someone......

Elohime IsFather's Father,
He along with the Universe Gave Father this world to create as he wished, and here we are.

Love Omnaka

I think this translation is more accurate . ( Henotheism in Judaism )

Didn't we have a quite long thread about that last month?

Interesting ! Although i never heard that .

Hahahahahahaha

Does he look like a dragon ?

Funny how people in almost every religion do "name" their Gods . Like no known God ( to me !! ) .. came forward and said .. My name is so and so ...

No, Acording to the Cannanite stories adapted by the Hebrews, Yaw (Yahweh) is the dragon, and El (Elohim) is the Creator God, and these dragon assistants were assigned to each human cultere. The Hebrews got Yaw. Actually it makes sense as virtually every ancient cultures acknowledged dragon gods, but that they were subservient to a non-dragon Creator/Great Spirit/Elohim/unnamed god, etc.

In fact there are two different creation stories in Genesis. One is attributed to Yahweh and one is attributed to El. Originally in the bible they were two different entities just as in the cannanite religion.

From what I always read and what ive been told. Elohim refers to the hosts that dwell in heaven, or what I usualy see it refered to as God's Sons.

Are God's sons gods , too?

Well, if we are trading stories, here's what I hear. The following supports, in its own way, much of Jor-el's "divine council" interpretation of Elohim, but based upon a totally secular argument.

The Hebrews lived in two separate nations, Israel in the north and Judah (or Judea) in the South. The two nations enjoy different climates, largely seperate histories, and distinct national "characters."

They earned their livings differently, the north being a trading nation (and so in frequent close contact with neighboring customs and culture), the south being the home of relatively insular desert herders.

The big and enduring thing they had in common, of course, was the religion of temple-centered Judaism. That temple (whichever one was standing at the moment, if any) was located in Jerusalem, in the northern reach of the southern nation.

But, there were two different inflections of the shared religion. Northerners tended to be cosmopolitan. To them, their neighbor's gods were gods, and interesting ones at that. Just not their own single lord god.

Southerners tended to be fundies. Their god's personality was reminiscent of the desert, a tad harsh by northern standards, and no frills. If god had wanted there to be more than one god, then he would have created men with more foreskins.

All of which was fine, until around 450 BCE when it was time to canonize the scripture. There can be only one text. Compromises had to be reached between a northern view where God was the only lord god, but nevertheless one god among many, versus a southern view where there was exactly one god.

People who hold the compromise theory point to things like the two distinct creation stories in Genesis, and the conspicuously lawyerly phrasing of the first two commandments.

Elohim is plural in this view because for the northerner, the one Hebrew lord god is acting for himself and for all other gods (similar to the secular reason why royals, newspaper editors, and the Pope refer to themselves as we on official occasions).

In contrast, Yahweh is a southern-style desert dweller in all things, even style of speech. No effete city-slickerisms for him.

Great comprehensive study ! Thanx eight bits !!

I found this website and thought it very interesting and helpful to this conversation.
http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Names_of_...him/elohim.html
Basically, I believe that God referring to Himself as Elohim points to the trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and separate yet one, like a triangle).
~Apostle