אלהים

Forms

אֱלֹהִים (ʾĕlōhîm) noun, masculine, plural in form^[1][3] Construct אֱלֹהֵי, with suffixes אֱלֹהַי, אֱלֹהָיו, אֱלֹהֵינוּ; after the prefixes לְ, כְּ, בְּ, וְ the ʾaleph is quiescent (לֵאלֹהִים, כֵּאלֹהִים).^[4][5] The inscriptions spell the construct ʾlhy and the suffixed form ʾlhyk, ʾlhykh.^[6][7][8]

Etymology

It is the plural from Biblical Hebrew אֱלוֹהַּ (ʾĕlôah, “god”),^[3][4] which goes back to Proto-Semitic *ʔil- (“god”) extended with /-āh-/.^[9][4] Kogan describes this longer stem as a Central Semitic extension of the old word for god, kept in Ugaritic ỉlh, Classical Syriac ܐܲܠܵܗܵܐ (ʾalāhā), Arabic إِلَه (ʾilāh) and Sabaean, while the short *ʔil- survives in Akkadian ilu and in אֵל (ʾēl).^{[9][10][11][12]} Aramaic אֱלָהָא (ʾĕlāhā) and, with the Arabic article, Arabic اللّٰه (allāh) belong to the same stem.^[3][4]

How the singular and the plural are related is disputed.^[13][5] Klein reports that some scholars take אֱלוֹהַּ (ʾĕlôah) as a back-formation from the plural, the plural being אֵל (ʾēl) with an inserted /h/, as in אִמָּהוֹת (ʾimmāhôṯ, “mothers”), while others see the singular as the original; he prefers the second view because אֵל (ʾēl) has its own plural אֵלִים (ʾēlîm).^[13] HALOT also raises the back-formation and notes that the singular is rare and late in the Bible.^[4] Gesenius–Buhl lists the older scholars on each side.^[5]

Used of the God of Israel, the plural form is usually construed with a singular verb, as in Genesis 1:1, where the verb בָּרָא (bārāʾ, “he created”) is singular.^[4][1] BDB calls this a plural of intensity and Klein a plural of majesty.^[14][15] HALOT compares the same use of the plural for a single god in the Amarna letters and in Phoenician ʾlm, said of a goddess.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest dated records are letters and graffiti of the sixth century BC: Lachish letter 6 swears ḥy yhwh ʾlhyk “as YHWH your God lives”, and a graffito in the burial cave of Khirbet Beit Lei calls YHWH ʾlhy kl hʾrṣ “God of all the earth”.^[6][7][16] In the Bible the word occurs 2,601 times, 46 of them in the archaic poems, as in the Song of the Sea: ʾĕlōhê ʾāḇî waʾărōmămenhû “my father's God, and I will exalt him” (Exodus 15:2).^[1][17]

Semantic evolution

HALOT and BDB start from the numerical plural, “gods”: the gods of Egypt (Exodus 12:12), ʾĕlōhîm ʾăḥērîm “other gods” (Exodus 20:3), and ʾĕlōhê hāʾĕlōhîm “the God of gods” (Deuteronomy 10:17).^[4][14] Used for one god, it names the god of a people, even a goddess: Ashtoreth is ʾĕlōhê ṣîḏōnîm, the goddess of the Sidonians, and Chemosh the god of Moab (1 Kings 11:33).^[4][14] Above all it names the God of Israel, with or without the article, in free alternation with the name YHWH; in the Elohistic Psalter (Psalms 42–83) it mostly stands for an original YHWH.^[4][14]

It is also used of beings that are not God: Moses is to be “as God” to Aaron (Exodus 4:16), and the ghost of Samuel rising from the earth is an ʾĕlōhîm (1 Samuel 28:13).^[4][14] In the laws of Exodus 21–22, where a case is brought ʾel-hāʾĕlōhîm, the Targum and the Peshitta understood “the judges”, and BDB follows them, while HALOT keeps “God”, comparing the Akkadian phrase “before the god” in Hammurabi's laws.^[4][14] The bənê hāʾĕlōhîm of Genesis 6:2 and Job 1:6 were read as angels by the Septuagint.^[4][14] HALOT asks whether the word also served as a superlative, as in rûaḥ ʾĕlōhîm “a mighty wind” (Genesis 1:2).^[4]

The Septuagint renders it by Ancient Greek θεός (theós), and sometimes by Ancient Greek κύριος (kúrios).^[1] The Dead Sea Scrolls use it 2,131 times.^[18] Today Modern Hebrew אלוהים (elohím) keeps “God” and “gods”.^[3]

Timeline

• 6th century BC – ʾlhyk “your God” in Lachish letter 6 and ʾlhy in the Khirbet Beit Lei graffiti.^[16][6][7]
• Archaic Hebrew poetry – ʾĕlōhê ʾāḇî “my father's God” in the Song of the Sea (Exodus 15:2), and 46 occurrences in all in the archaic poems.^[17][1]
• Late Biblical Hebrew – BDB counts hāʾĕlōhîm “the (true) God” 38 times in Chronicles and 31 times in Qohelet, and bêṯ hāʾĕlōhîm “the house of God” 52 times in Chronicles.^[14]
• 3rd–2nd century BC – the Septuagint translates it as Ancient Greek θεός (theós).^[19][1]
• 2nd century BC – 2nd century AD – 2,131 occurrences in the Dead Sea Scrolls.^[20][18]

Meanings

Noun

1. (plural) gods: the gods of the nations, ʾĕlōhîm ʾăḥērîm “other gods”, and gods of silver and gold.^[4][14]
2. a god or goddess, the deity of a people or a land.^[4][14]
3. God, the God of Israel, construed as a singular; with the article, hāʾĕlōhîm “the true God”.^[4][14][21]
4. a godlike or superhuman being: the ghost of Samuel, Moses in relation to Aaron;^[21] bənê hāʾĕlōhîm the divine beings or angels.^[4][14]
5. (disputed) judges or rulers, in the traditional reading of Exodus 21:6 and 22:7–8.^[14][21]
6. (perhaps) used as a superlative: “mighty”, “very great”.^[4][21]

Descendants

• Modern Hebrew אלוהים (elohím)^[3]

Related words

• אֵל (ʾēl)
• אֱלוֹהַּ (ʾĕlôah)

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Clear Bible (2023–), MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets (Westminster Leningrad Codex, with Greek alignment), github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-hebrew, CC BY 4.0
2. ^ Højgaard, Christian Canu; Naaijer, Martijn; Schorch, Stefan (2023), Text-Fabric Dataset of the Samaritan Pentateuch, Zenodo, doi:10.5281/zenodo.7734632
3. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Koehler, Ludwig; Baumgartner, Walter; Stamm, Johann Jakob (1994–2000), The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, transl. and ed. M. E. J. Richardson, 5 vols, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. אֱלוֹהַּ
5. ^ a b c Gesenius, Wilhelm; Buhl, Frants (1915), Hebräisches und aramäisches Handwörterbuch über das Alte Testament, 17th ed., Leipzig: F. C. W. Vogel, p. s.v. אֱלוֹהַּ
6. ^ a b c Davies, Graham I. (1991), Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions: Corpus and Concordance, vol. 1, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 1.006.12
7. ^ a b c Davies, Graham I. (1991), Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions: Corpus and Concordance, vol. 1, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 15.005.1
8. ^ Davies, Graham I. (1991), Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions: Corpus and Concordance, vol. 1, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 15.006.1
9. ^ a b Kogan, Leonid (2015), Genealogical Classification of Semitic: The Lexical Isoglosses, Berlin: De Gruyter, p. 179
10. ^ del Olmo Lete, Gregorio; Sanmartín, Joaquín (2015), A Dictionary of the Ugaritic Language in the Alphabetic Tradition, 3rd ed., transl. W. G. E. Watson, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. ỉlh
11. ^ Sokoloff, Michael (2009), A Syriac Lexicon, Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns; Piscataway: Gorgias Press, p. 47
12. ^ Lane, Edward William (1863–1893), An Arabic-English Lexicon, 8 parts, London: Williams and Norgate, p. 82
13. ^ a b Klein, Ernest (1987), A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English, Jerusalem: Carta; Haifa: University of Haifa, p. s.v. אֱלוֹהַּ
14. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Brown, Francis; Driver, S. R.; Briggs, Charles A. (1906), A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, with an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. אֱלֹהִים
15. ^ Klein, Ernest (1987), A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English, Jerusalem: Carta; Haifa: University of Haifa, p. s.v. אֱלֹהִים
16. ^ a b Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 76–77
17. ^ a b Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 69
18. ^ a b Abegg, Martin G.; Jacobs, Jarod; Roorda, Dirk (2022), The Dead Sea Scrolls, Text-Fabric dataset, version 2.0.2, github.com/ETCBC/dss
19. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 93
20. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 143
21. ^ a b c d de Blois, Reinier, ed. (2000–), Semantic Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew, United Bible Societies, sdbh.org, p. s.v. אֱלֹהִים