Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Lucian Benigno" <codemaker AT ig.com.br>]

Hi, Shoshanna.

I'm new to this list, but maybe I can help.

About your question,

Many scholars think that Elohim is a plural of Eloah, a name that could
(or
not, as you read the consonantal text) have a "ah" ending (usually a
female
ending). As you know, the female ending is qames gadol + he. Eloah is
written in the Masoretic Text with patah + he. Note that the ending "ah"
is
not necessarily female. There are many words that end in "ah" and are not
female (Eladah, Elasah, Eliatah, Elishah, and so on, are all male nouns
ending with qames + he!).

So, we can not assume that Elohim (with his *male* plural ending) is a
female noun. I never hearded about an Hebrew scholar that said that the
root
of Elohim, "El", is female. We can add that the word Elohim ask for male
pronouns in the Hebrew Bible. If we are to be true to the text, we will
respect Him.

Lucian Benigno
Free Methodist College, São Paulo, Brazil


> Question by way of Ron Sebring "Assuming ELOHIM is a female noun
> with a male plural ending, how should we translate the pronouns
> that refer to it into a gender neutral language like English,
> and still be true to the text?"  Any exegesis?  Harold  Helm
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Who says it is a female noun?
> 
> What is the noun, exactly?
> 
> Sorry, I am new to this list, and familiar with Biblical Hebrew, and 
> fluent in spoken Hebrew, but not from a scientific linguistic point 
> of view
> 
> Shoshanna