Language Studies

Difficult Sayings

In the beginning Elohim created
Genesis 1:1

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." (Genesis 1:1's echo of Genesis 1:1 which also lacks the definite article. This takes the theological emphasis away from THE beginning and emphasises the process and creation event rather than the advent of TIME itself. So this verse is not "A Brief History of Time".

The very next Hebrew word in verse 1 is the verb bârâ' (Strong's #1254) "he/it was created" placing the emphasis on the action of "cutting and carving" out a new world, out of nothing, creatio ex-nihilo, since bârâ' signifies something new and never refers to any raw material.

But our first real problem comes with the subject that follow the verb, עלהים 'elôhîym (Strong's #430). This word is generally considered one of the special names of God. It is not, however, some unique Hebrew word or name such as the 4 letter tetragrammaton YHVH (Yahweh or less likely Jehovah — but that's another question!) as it is simply the word for "god" and is virtually the same in Ugaritic, Phoenician, Aramaic and Arabic, although none of these have this exact plural form and stick to a singular noun. See my Hebrew Word Study on 'elôhîym where we note that it is also used, albeit rarely, to describe other gods, angels, judges or even men of might. This word, when written with the suffix —îm, usually indicates the plural implying 'gods'. Now here is the crux of the problem. The opening verse of Scripture in the original Hebrew seems to imply that God had help in creation with His own pantheon of gods.

In about 10% of its biblical uses 'elôhîym is translated "gods" with a small "g". Clearly the contexts do not refer to YHVH God but on what basis can we translate differently in Genesis 1:1 and avoid the idea that a Greek, Roman, Egyptian or Babylonian styled oligarchy of gods rules and created the earth?

Fortunately, the first hint that we don't have a polytheistic creation is another Hebrew grammatical oddity. The preceding verb is in the singular with a verb ending that incorporates an implied pronoun of "he" or "it" not "they". Since the noun in isolation is technically 'gods' a literal translation would be "gods [he]-created" so we cannot have "Gods [they] created". This distinction is lost in the English as we do not distinguish between the verb forms "he created" and "they created" other than by the pronoun.

This unique usage of a plural noun with a singular verb (and also singular pronouns and adjectives) is almost universally used to mark out a Hebrew special case of a context that refers to the one God as opposed to several gods. There are a handful of exceptions when the accompanying verb seems to still be plural and the scribes marked these in the Hebrew text accordingly as nonetheless specifically referring to YHVH God.

These exceptions, noted by the Masoretic scribes (who added the vowels to the Biblical text 600 years after Christ) have an interesting history in themselves. For example, in Genesis 20:13; 31:53; 35:7, Exodus 22:8, 1 Samuel 2:25 and 1 Samuel 7:23 the Hebrew has a plural verb whilst the Samaritan Hebrew version has a singular verb. The scribes marked these texts with קדש qâdhôsh, "Holy", to signify that God Himself was meant. In Exodus 22:28 [Heb.v27] the KJV has "gods" or in the margin "judges" whilst the RSV translates as "God" (cf. similarly in Exodus 31:6).

In addition, we have verses such as Deuteronomy 10:17 that speak of YHVH your-Elohim as Elohim-of Elohim(s).

"For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God..." (Deuteronomy 10:17)

Jeremiah 10:10 also distinguishes YHVH Elohim as "the true God" and "the living God". The other gods are neither true nor alive. In fact this verse uses a singular noun for "true" but inconsistently a plural adjective for "living"^F1 whilst using the plural noun 'elôhîym in both cases.

An exception to the rule that the plural Elohim used with a singular verb indicates the true and living God is 1 Kings 11:33 where it is used of pagan gods, but clearly in a contrast situation where idolatry of worship is being rebuked.

Another reason in favour of a singular translation of 'elôhîym in Genesis 1 is the Hebrew way of implying greatness or magnitude through the use of a plural without necessarily implying more than one in number. In other words it can be an idiomatic suffix suggesting power and majesty - compare the English monarch's royal "we" and Arabic's apparent royal plural, indeed Ezra 4:18 uses "us" of King Artaxerxes. More than a royal "we" though is the idea of strength and unique superiority just as with the fabulous creature Behemoth, which is just a feminine plural (suffix -ôth) of the Hebrew word for beast or cattle but clearly the texts where Behemoth is named are thinking of a large creature, the king of beasts, rather than just a field of cattle.

In addition, it might be considered by some to be a hint at plurality or triunity but not of the angels and heavenly beings helping in creation. But this would already be reading too much Christian theology into an ancient Jewish text that is the basis of its strict monotheism in contrast to the contemporary surrounding nations. A Christian eisegesis (reading something "into" the text rather than exegesis where we interpret "out of" the text) of trinity in Genesis 1:1, despite being interesting, has to be considered as unlikely given Deuteronomy 6:4 "the Lord they God is one", the Shema, and foundational creed and prayer of Judaism.

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FOOTNOTES:
F1: As also in Deuteronomy 5:26 [Heb.v.23]; 1 Samuel 17:26,36; Jeremiah 23:36 — the singular adjective is used in 2 Kings 19:4,16. "Holy God" is singular in 1 Samuel 6:20 and plural in Joshua 24:19.

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KJ Went has taught biblical Hebrew, hermeneutics and Jewish background to early Christianity. The "Biblical Hebrew made easy" course can be found at www.biblicalhebrew.com.

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