THE FIRST NAME OF GOD

 

 

The very first Name employed by God to identify Himself to the Jewish people and to the World is revealed in the very first sentence of the Hebrew Bible:  

 

בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא  אלהים  אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ,

 

which is traditionally transliterated into the English language and traditionally pronounced as: “Bereshit bara Elohim et HaShamayim v'et HaAretz”, and

 

which is traditionally translated into the English language as: “In the Beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth.” (Genesis 1:1).

 

Although neither the Torah nor the remainder of the Hebrew Bible was written with diacritical symbols to represent vowels, disputes over pronunciation and meaning were originally nonexistent because, for generations thereafter, the Jewish people continued to read, write and converse with each other -- on an everyday basis -- in the Hebrew language.  However, once increasing numbers of the Jewish people, under successive foreign Occupations, began to use a series of foreign languages (e.g., Aramaic, Farsi, Greek, Latin, and Arabic) amongst themselves in place of Hebrew, the vast majority of them eventually lost their inherent and intimate familiarity with the Hebrew language.  This, in turn, led to differences of opinion as to the proper pronunciation of certain words in the Hebrew Bible that were susceptible of variant pronunciations and sometimes, on account thereof, of disparate meanings.  During the Islamic Occupation of the Land of Israel (which began in the 7th Century CE), a group of resident Jewish scholars known as the Masoretes created and added diacritical symbols to the text of the Hebrew Bible, so that all issues with respect to pronunciation and meaning would be settled and would thereafter be beyond disputation. 

 

The diacritical symbols that the Masoretes added to the Name of God אלהים rendered this Name as אֱלֹהִים, which dictated that this Name be pronounced in the Hebrew language as Elohim.

 

Although, in Genesis 1:1, the Name of God אלהים, traditionally pronounced as Elohim, is the grammatical subject of the past tense, third person masculine, singular form of the Hebrew-language verb “to create” (to wit: ברא), there are those who, for very different reasons, have historically denigrated the singular Nature of the God of Israel by asserting that -- despite the Hebrew Bible’s use of ברא (meaning:  He created) instead of בראו (meaning:  They created) in Genesis 1:1 -- the Name of God אלהים is nonetheless plural.  The basis for this assertion is the fact that, although God is beyond gender, the Hebrew-language suffix ים, pronounced as im, is indeed the plural suffix for virtually all masculine (and some feminine) nouns in the Hebrew language.  Consequently, the Name of God אלהים would appear to be the masculine plural form of the Name of God אלוה (first appearing in Deuteronomy 32:15), which is traditionally transliterated as Eloah.  Strengthening this assertion is the fact that the Hebrew Bible does indeed sometimes employ the word אלהים as a plural noun in order to describe, inter alia, the many gods of the pagan World (e.g., “You shall not have other gods (אלהים) in My Presence” in Exodus 20:3; “For, he will cause your child to turn away from [following] after Me, and they will worship other gods (אלהים) …” in Deuteronomy 7:4; and “And the curse:  If you do not hearken to the Commandments of HaShem, your God, and you stray from the Path that I command you Today, to go after other gods (אלהים) …” in Deuteronomy 11:28).

 

This circumstance has allowed atheists to claim that the presumed plural structure of the Name of God אלהים is conclusive proof that the God of the Hebrew Bible is merely the remnant pagan deity of an ancient Mesopotamian pantheon, while it has simultaneously allowed most sects of Christianity to claim that the presumed plural structure of this Name is conclusive proof that their triune god (i.e., the Christian godhead consisting of “God the Father”, “God the Son” and “God the Holy Spirit”) is, in fact, the God of the Hebrew Bible.

 

Yet these polemicists ignore the fact that, sometimes, a singular Hebrew-language word possesses what appears to be a plural suffix. An example of the foregoing is the word פנים (which is transliterated as “panim”, meaning: “face”) -- a word that, despite possessing what appears to be a male plural suffix, is indisputably singular.  Another example is the word בהמות (which is transliterated as “behamot”, meaning: “Behemoth” or “beasts”) -- a word that, despite its female plural suffix, is nonetheless singular when employed to mean the “Behemoth” (see, e.g., Job 40:15).

 

However, perhaps in pronouncing the Name of God אלהים as “Elohim”, the Masoretes deliberately misapplied their diacritical symbols to the Name of God אלהים. 

 

I raise this possibility, because although the Hebrew Bible employs the suffix ים, which is pronounced as im, to represent the typical plural form of the masculine noun, it also employs the same suffix (or its variant יים) to represent the plural form of any noun (whether masculine or feminine) which (a) identifies a body part that always exists as a pair (e.g., hands, feet, eyes and ears) or (b) constitutes the doubling of a quantity (e.g., two socks, two shoes, two days, two weeks, two years, two hundred, and two thousand).  However, whenever the Hebrew Bible employs the suffix ים (or its variant יים) in this way, the suffix is not pronounced as im, but rather as ayim.

 

Moreover, there is one additional category of nouns to which the Hebrew Bible applies the suffix ים (or its variant יים), which is pronounced as ayim.  This category consists of certain rarefied things, each of which exists in the form of a continuum (e.g., life - חיים - chayim, water - מים - mayim and sky/heaven - שמיים - shamayim).  Specifically, when this suffix is employed to identify something that exists in the form of a continuum, the suffix does not refer to something that is plural.  Rather, it refers to something that is beyond classification as either singular or plural. 

 

God is certainly in this category.  He is the Ultimate Continuum, as He is Incorporeal, Omnipresent, Omnipotent, Omniscient and Eternal.  And He would be beyond classification as either Singular or Plural, but for the fact that He has declared -- repeatedly -- to the Jewish people and to the World that He is Singular (see, e.g., Deuteronomy 4:39 & 6:4; Isaiah 44:6 & 45:21-23; and Zechariah 14:9). 

 

Consequently, I believe that the proper pronunciation of the first-revealed Name of God אלהים is not Elohim (which suggests a plural nature), but rather Elohayim(which suggests a Continuum).  Conversely, whenever the word אלהים is employed to describe the many gods of the Gentile nations, it should, indeed, be pronounced as elohim.

 

Yet, if this be the case, then why does the Hebrew Bible also identify God by a Name which appears to be the singular form of אלהים -- namely, אלוה (Eloah)?  The answer is that the Name of God אלוה is not the singular form of the Name of God אלהים, but rather a shortened version thereof.  Moreover, אלהים is not the only Name of God for which the Hebrew Bible sometimes employs a shortened version.  For, the second Name employed by God to identify Himself to the Jewish people and to the World, which is the Ineffable Name יהוה (first appearing in Genesis 2:4), is sometimes shortened in the Hebrew Bible to יה (first appearing in Exodus 15:2), which is traditionally transliterated as Yah.

 

Yet, does not the Hebrew Bible’s employment of the word אלהים, in its plural sense (as elohim), to describe the many gods of the Gentile nations, imply the existence of a singular form thereof?  Yes.  In that circumstance, the singular form of the word אלהים (meaning: “gods”) is the word אל (meaning: “a god”), which is traditionally transliterated as el.  Nonetheless, with appropriate adornment or context, even אל often refers to the One God (e.g., אל עליון, transliterated as “El Elyon”, meaning: “God Most High”, in Genesis 14:18; and אל שדי, transliterated as “El Shadai”, meaning: “God Almighty”, in Genesis 17:1; and אל עולם, transliterated as “El Olam”, meaning: “Eternal God”, in Genesis 21:33; and place names such as בית-אל, transliterated as “Bethel”, meaning: “House of God”, in Genesis 28:19; and personal names such as דניאל, transliterated as “Daniel”, meaning: “God is My Judge”, in Daniel 1:6; and those circumstances in which it is otherwise clear that אל, standing alone, is the Name of God אל, such as the employment of that Name by the gentile prophet Balaam in Numbers 23:8, 19, 22 & 23). 

 

Finally, why would the Masoretes deliberately create a mispronunciation -- Elohim -- for the first-revealed Name of God אלהים?  Perhaps the Masoretes desired to keep the true pronunciation of this Name a secret for the same reason that they chose not to create any pronunciation for the second-revealed Name of God יהוה, which, due to its lack of meaningful diacritical symbols, is known as the Tetragrammaton (meaning: the “Four Letters”), and is reverentially pronounced as “Adonai” (in light of the royal plural usage, meaning: “My Lord”), while being rendered for translation purposes as “HaShem” (meaning: “The Name”).  Perhaps, by use of this subterfuge, the Masoretes sought to protect both Names from being abused.

 

 

© Mark Rosenblit

    

 

 

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