Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Randall Buth <randallbuth AT gmail.com>]

vayyish'al Ya`akov
>Could it be that
this name/title of Elohim in some was indicative of YHWH being the whole
pantheon of gods in one almighty god?>

Not really-
the -im idiom is used for various people in a higher position
(so the term 'plural of majesty' can work as long as it is not thought
of as a special word for 'divine'.) Notice:

adonim for a landlord or slave owner
ba`lim for an owner of property or animals

So it is better to see elohim as a special Hebrew idiom functioning
within its own language in a normal pattern.

and be`alim is still used commonly today in modern Hebrew for the
legal owner of a property, including singlular reference.

In mishnaic Hebrew the idiom was even used with a verb with plural
subject when referring to a singular owner. (Cf. Luk 19:33 where be`alim
may have contrasted with ha-adon in 31 and 34 in an underlying story
behind a Greek source--as long as that underlying story was not
in Aramaic, which did not use this idiom) See Buth, "Luke 19:31-34,
Mishanic Hebrew and Bible Translation, Is KYRIOI TOY PWLOY
singular?", JBL 104, [1985] 680-685.

-- 
Randall Buth, PhD
www.biblicalulpan.org
randallbuth AT gmail.com
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