Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Shoshanna Walker <rosewalk AT concentric.net>]

But it ought not be doubted that the Biblical writers
conceived of more than one god and that the word Elohim
can indicate more than one god.


Okay, I cannnot keep my mouth shut any longer, when this blashpemy 
continues.  The Torah was the revelation given to the Jewish people, 
just as the Koran was given to a different people in a different time 
and place and the Gita given to a different people in a different 
time and place - I don't see anyone telling the Muslims and the 
Hindus that the revelations that they received are wrong and 
outdated.  But here you want to discount the HEART of the revelation, 
which everyone knows - that there is only ONE G-d.

Elohim in the Torah, can not indicate more than one G-d, it is 
impossible.  There ARE no other gods, the Torah would not have spoken 
of something which does not exist.  The Torah was revealed to teach 
mankind davka that there is only one G-d, one source for everything. 
Elohim is one of the names of G-d, which, if you must search for a 
linguistic meaning, refers to the aspect of G-d as the force of all 
forces.

Every name of G-d refers to a different aspect of G-d, and is used in 
the Torah when and where it is used, for a particular reason.  It is 
proper and fitting and makes perfect sense, without having to ask the 
Greeks, that the Torah tells us by the use of this particular name 
that the G-d who created the world, including all the light, and 
energy, and forces, is the origin and source and sum total of all 
these forces!

Shoshanna