|
HOUSMAIL HM134 February
2012 IS GOD PLURAL
IN GREEK? In the Old Testament, the most common Hebrew
word for “God” is “elohim”. (Strongs 0430 Myhla ‘elohiym el-o-heem’) It is (sometimes) used as the plural form
of the singular noun (Strongs 0433 hwla ‘eloah). Trinitarians commonly make the mistake of
claiming that this plural appearance of the word is “proof” of their Trinitarian
doctrine. However, this claim is seriously wrong! It
is an abuse of the Hebrew Grammar. We must NOT ignore the fact that although “elohim”
looks plural because of its suffix “IM”, it is most often singular
in its own right. To distinguish between the singular and plural uses
of “elohim” you have to be able to read Hebrew and know a little bit of Hebrew
grammar. (or know someone who does!) When it is meant to be understood as singular,
it is accompanied by SINGULAR verbs and pronouns. And when it is meant to be understood
as plural it is accompanied by PLURAL verbs and pronouns. (Hebrew is a complicated
language. There are a very few instances where this rule does not apply. However,
these relatively rare cases do not affect our main conclusions here) When ELOHIM is used as a proper name, or
when referring to Israel's ONE God, it is treated as a singular noun. WHEN ELOHIM IS TRANSLATED INTO GREEK It helps to look at how “elohim” is translated
into the Greek language The Greek language doesn’t have this same
“singular/plural appearance” problem. In the Septuagint version of the Old Testament,
and the Greek New Testament, when Old Testament references to “elohim” as the
ONE God of Israel are translated into Greek the word Θεός – Theos is used. “Theos"
is always a SINGULAR noun. You can’t ever mistake it for plural!! When plural “elohim” meaning (idol) “gods”
is translated into Greek the plural form "thea"
or "theoi" is easy to distinguish. And when
elohim refers to “goddess” or goddesses”, the singular is translated by “thea”. and the plural by “theai”. LATIN The same happens in the Latin translations.
When “elohim” refers to plural (idol) “gods” (note the lower case) the term “deus”
(singular) or “dei” (plural) is used, when it means
“goddesses, “dea” (singular) or “deai” (plural) is used, while for the Christian God the Latin
uses simply “Deus” (singular). From this it ought to be clear that when
the Old Testament Hebrew “elohim” refers to the ONE God of Israel, BOTH the Greek
and the Latin recognize that it is a singular noun. There is no possible justification for claiming
that it supports the doctrine of the trinity. Allon |