Elohim

Grammar

Word: אלהים or אלוהים 
Representation: ELHYM
Transliteration: elohim
Translation: [The]-Elohim. (Transliterating)
Strong Concordance: H430

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Exposition

Singular vs Plural

According to theists, Elohim, while in a plural-form (the YM in ELHYM), is treated as a singular (non-plural) when it refers to their God. When it refers to or infers the other Elohim, then it is treated as a collective of powers, typically those that have the power of life and death over others. This collective may or may not be supernatural, based on how they want to read the text.

That is a mistake, and one should be consistent in stating that Elohim always means a plurality, although the collective may express itself in a singular nature, as I shall explain.

In modern Hebrew, the verb form should match the associated noun. So a single object should have a single-person verb form, and a group should have a plural form verb. That is certainly true in modern Hebrew.

In Biblical Hebrew, that is not always the case, and Biblical Hebrew often plays loose with gender and number.

As a collective, Elohim can be properly addressed in the singular. For example, the word for "nation" (AhM), which is a collective of people. We read (Exodus 4:31), "And the nation believed (singular) and they heard (plural)". We have a noun with both a single and plural form of two different verbs attached to it. 

So the form of the verb is not a perfect indicator if the object is plural or singular, while context is. For example, "Water" (mayim) is always written in the plural and has plural verbs even though we normally translate it into the singular English form.

Historical Context

To understand how Elohim is used, one needs to understand its place in early theology.

First of all, Scripture is not a text about one God, and the characters in the text believed in multiple Gods. They simply were loyal to the main protagonist of the story. That form of belief is what I will refer to as "henotheism".

In Exodus 18:11 we read that Yahweh is "greater than all of the Elohim", with Jethro declaring that while there are many Elohim (each nation or tribal group having their own), Yahweh is the most powerful of them all. And in Exodus 12:12 we read that Yahweh will "do judgement amidst the Elohim of Egypt". In these cases, most theologians have no problem with considering Elohim as a collective, since it refers to some other Elohim.

All of the Gods were localized, and each one had His own territory. Scripture takes about the Elohim of Egypt, the Elohim of Canaan, and so forth. Each of these lands had a chief God, and this God may have had a pantheon of other Gods. But Elohim was not a pantheon, but a supernatural tool, a collective expression of powers that did the will of the chief God.

Because of their actions, what they do is often seen as being done by the God. When speaking, they speak for the God. It is as though the God is cloaked in the Elohim, and they are dependent upon Him, do His will, but are not Him.

As the later texts in Scripture show, the Elohim, which had a major role in the text will have less and less importance. And by the time the Book of Isaiah appears, they are nearly gone, and by the end of the book, you only have Lord Yahweh and no Elohim of any form. The expression "Yahweh, He is the Elohim!" declares His independence from them as Yahweh evolves into the sole God of the land, having chased all of the others away, in a form of quasi-monotheism. He will not evolve into the sole God of the world within the Hebrew Scripture, but within the teachings of the Rabbis only.

Such is the way of directed teaching.

For those who deny the henotheistic flavor of the text, one need only count the number of times that "other Gods" appears in the text (actually, "other Elohim"). While Rabbinical Judaism emphasizes the monotheistic content, the henotheistic references in the Torah are to numerous to ignore. It should also be noted that in many places where "Elohim" appears in the text without "Yahweh", Targum Onkelos replaces "Elohim" to "Yahweh" to emphasize the rabbinical view that it only speaks of one God and in Genesis 3:22, Onkelos removes the "us" reference altogether. 

Grammatical Usage

Because of all of this, "Yahweh Elohim" become extremely difficult to translate.

In Hebrew, two nouns beside one another indicate ownership. As in "throne David" (pretend that these are Hebrew words) would be "throne of David" or "ring mother" would be "mother's ring".

The term "Yahweh Elohim" appears quite often in Scripture. Typically it is translated as "Lord God", reducing "Yehweh" to nothing more than a sort of "Mister", rather than what it should be, which is "Yahweh of the Elohim".

But that is not a good translation either.

Yes, if we are to be consistent with our grammar, then it should be "Yahweh of the Elohim" in the manner of "The general of the battalion", where the general has a relationship with the group, they obey him, but they are not him. He also came up through the ranks as they did, and that is not a comparison that I want to make, even though the Book of Lot seems to imply that.

So while the Elohim are operating as a unit, they will normally have singular verbs applied to them. 

And there are exceptions when their plurality comes out.

For example, when they will communicate with each other, as in Genesis 1:26, "Let us make man in our image...". 

And there are times when the chief God, (in our case, Yahweh) will need to give them instructions, "Come, let us go down..." as in Genesis 11:7. Or when He says, "the man has become like us" in Genesis 1:26 before He gives them a command.

There are those who would say that Yahweh was speaking to His angels. I would argue that there is really no difference between them when Yahweh creates angels to do His will, or when the Elohim do the same. They are all supernatural collectives that serve their Source.

And all of the chief Gods had this same setup.

There is no denying their plurality and their separateness when only one of them is being referenced in a verse, either Elohim or Yahweh. 

Another example is in Genesis 20:13 when Abraham tells Avimelech that "the Elohim, they forced me to wander...". 

But when they are together, that clarity is not always so apparent. So much so that apologists will treat Elohim as just another name for Yahweh, while ignoring that "Yahweh Elohim" would make no sense in that context.

This brings me to how does one translate "Yahweh Elohim"?

I have used "Yahweh of the Elohim" in the past, and it has never been satisfactory to me. It is true, however, that Eloha, the singular form of Elohim, appears primarily in the Book of Lot, a book that might be older than the Torah, and Yahweh is being treated as one of the Eloha, part of the collective who has emerged as a Chief God in his own right.

And while that is worth pondering, and "Yahweh the Eloah" is a suitable translation (or, transliteration), it doesn't help with the later texts, those that use Yahweh Elohim. Because of this, when they appear together, I will use "Yahweh-Elohim" for lack of a better way to express that the Elohim is an expression of Yahweh.

And because of its collective nature, it may be a singular expression that should always be considered as part of a plurality.

Therefore, when they are without Yahweh, I will use "The-Elohim", which is proper for plural nouns, and when they are joined to Yahweh, I will not impose "the", since it would be grammatically clumsy.