Elohim

Problems of plural

The termination in - im of Elohim, which in Hebrew generally applies to a name Pluriel, was prone to many interpretations. One considers, in traditional theology , which it is about ( pluralis majestatis ) or plural a Royal plural of excellence ( pluralis excellentiæ ), of quality, rather than of a numerical plural. This concept of plural of quality is ignored biblical Hebraic grammar like modern without any exception not even baal - > baelim, baelim concepts being able to be owners or owner “of quality”. From the linguistic point of view, Hebraic grammar is unaware of superlative ( very , more… that ). It thus returns any category of augmentative or of intensive by a plural whose adjectives and verbs which are referred to it remain in the singular (Attested by Weingreen grammar, at Beauchesne). This phenomenon is attested in expressions like Shir Hashirim (the Song of Songs), Kippur Kippurim (the Grand Pardon or day of the Atonements )

As neither the Greek nor the Latin uses of plural of quality for the names alone, the translations of the Seventy then the Vulgate return by a singular the original text in the plural.

Genesis, 1:1: “At the beginning, God created the sky and the ground”:

בְּרֵאשִׁיתבָּרָאאֱלֹהִיםאֵתהַשָּׁמַיִםוְאֵתהָאָֽרֶץ׃;
Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἐποίησεν ὁ Θεὸς God τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν;
In principio creavit Deus cælum and terram .

In addition, plurality is confirmed at several places:

Genesis, 1:26: “Elohim known as: let us make to the man with our image, with our resemblance…” If the most frequent interpretation said that the make and the our holds account of what follows, namely a double, male and female humanity, one can forget only EL (in the singular) is also the name of a ougaritic divinity belonging to a Triade. or here:

Genesis, 3:22: “Elohim known as: Here that the man became like one of us …”

Many theories were advanced to explain this plural. Traditional theology affirms that it cannot grammatically come from ʾEl (אֱל; singular form of the word translated by “God”) or of ʾEloah (form used in composition, with female grammatical morphology). She affirms that the form would be thus a plural of a name which does not even exist in the singular in spite of the attested use of these singular in the Bible. Moreover, E BDB Thayer (dictionary Hebrew-English of reputation) announces singular ELA in addition to EL and ELOAH or ELYON with the following comment:

the question is complicated and the dubious conclusions. Indeed, though one traditionally associates each one of these words with the " root; EL" (aleph, Lamed), one is not certain that these words have a relationship with it.

The divergent opinion however in this respect, as well as the reasons of this plural:

as considering below, the form of quality (known as of majesty or excellence) whose one finds other examples in old civilizations (phenician, Ethiopian, etc) is absent from Hebrew;
assumption of primitiveness: the direction is extremely opposite , and later, with Eloah: fear, object of fear, reverence, but also: chief and lord , seen semantic who returns to the intensive or augmentative syntactic form,
the expression of the plurality of the faces of god. This interpretation lévinassienne is often associated with the observation that panaïm, (Fr: face) is a plural without singular;
of the traces of an origin polytheist.
appears in the Haazinou section, penultimate Deutéronome, the form " Elohimo" , and not " Elohav" as that usually appears, " like si" Elohim was finally singular.

At all events, the radical ʾel or ʾil to designate the god finds in Arab, in the name of God, اللّٰه ʾAllāh; in Araméen, the word says ʾāllāhā . The radical finds in others Semitic languages.

When they are the pagan gods who are designated, ʾElohīm returns well in the plural numerical: “gods” (ex: Exodus 20:3).

Lastly, for others also - for which the royal plural does not explain the plurality of the Elohim term but well the expression of a group of distinct people - royal plural is only one recent invention in Europe. This invention of the sovereigns and the men in general perspired in the tradition of the Western Jews bathing in the Western religious culture. This tradition was modified by it.

Indeed, this royal plural was the fact of kings crowned by the church (catholic primarily) and thus, each sovereign claimed " Dieu" since the Church had done it king. Consequently, when this sovereign made a decision, he said " we decided this… " to say in fact: " me, the king, like God, we decided this… ". Even the royal plural expresses an effective plurality. This tradition can have been born only after the creation of the " term; Dieu" appeared towards IXeme century of our era (etymological dictionary).

With the rigor, the Elohim term always preceded by a verb in the singular could be regarded as a " collectif" : a plural subject ordering a verb in the singular to express an innumerable or unnamable collection.

According to the Rabbinical tradition, Not of Elohim results in “Master of all the powers”. D., when it created the world, put in any creature a certain force. For example the man to be able it to build, plant, carry etc the moon to a influance on the tides, the sun to be able it to make push harvests etc All these “forces” were thus created by D. so that the world remains. Having created, he is thus the “Master of all the powers” existing on ground.

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