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b-hebrew - Psalm 97:7; Psalm 138:1 "the gods"

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  • From: "Tony Costa" <tmcos AT hotmail.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Psalm 97:7; Psalm 138:1 "the gods"
  • Date: Mon, 02 Oct 2000 19:43:32 GMT


Dear Friends,

My question although of a grammatical nature does bend however towards a theological side. In Psalms 97:7 and 138:1 I notice that 'elohim' is translated in English in the plural as "gods", although in Hebrew it is a 3rd person masculine plural noun. It is believed that the "gods" here is a reference to the angels. In Psalm 8:5, while the MT has 'elohim', and it is translated "...made him [man] a little lower than God." (NASB), the LXX of Psalm 8:5 has 'anggelos', "angels". Obviously, the LXX compositors took 'elohim' in the MT to be the equivalent of "angels".
In Psalm 97:7, "Worship Him, all you gods." (NASB) may appear as a reference to the supremacy of YHWH over the "idols" that were worshipped as gods. However, in Psalm 138:1, "I will sing praises to Thee before the gods."(NASB) is quite different.
Can anyone spare some light on this issue? Were the angels regarded as "gods" and if so, would this not constitute polytheism, or at least henotheism, which affirmed belief in one God without the exclusion of other gods? Or does this confusion lie in the ambiguity of the various meanings and translations of 'elohim'? I think Rolf Furili (I apologize if I have the name mispelled) commented on this subject a while back. Any comments would be appreciated. Many thanks in advance.

Tony Costa
University of Toronto
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