Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Answering Trinitarian Objections to Modalism; Elohim, the Plural Form of God

The Trinitarian Objection:
In the Trinitarian/Oneness debate it is often stated, from the Trinitarian camp, that the word for God appears as a plural (Elohim) over 2000 times in the Old Testament. This, we are told, indicates a plurality of persons in the Godhead. The common word for God in the Old Testament is El, when singular, and Elohim (with the plural suffix “im”) when plural.

Trinitarian’s are fond at pointing to the very first verse of the Bible (Genesis 1:1) and declaring that God is introduced as a Trinity because the first time the word God appears in the Bible it is plural; indicating a plurality of persons in the Godhead.
The Modalist/Oneness Response:
A Plurality of Majesty And Plentitude
The weight of the evidence of a plural noun for God proving plurality of persons in the Godhead has truly been overstated. Because of the following information we conclude that this is a unpersuasive argument for the Trinity; and has been since the time it was first introduced in the twelfth century by Peter Lombard, Roman Bishop of Paris.

A Case Of Eating Ones Cake And Having It Too:
It is amazing to this writer that Trinitarians will use the plural Elohim to attempt a proof of plurality of persons within the Godhead, and, still, while claiming to be sober, profess a belief in one God. Obviously, if Elohim, which literally translates to “gods,” is to be understood as referencing a  plurality of persons, then, the Trinitarians worship “gods,” and not the one God of the Bible. It is beyond me how they can expect the rest of us to take them seriously when they say they believe in one God while, all the while, referencing the word Elohim as proof of a plurality of persons within their Godhead, thereby, advocating “gods.” One cannot escape the charge of tritheism, if Elohim is understood as a plurality of persons. For the Trinitarian, this position is clearly a case of attempting to: Eating Ones Cake And Having It Too.

It is well-known that the Hebrew often expressed a word in the plural to give it a special or technical meaning. As in the case of the words blood, water, wisdom, salvation, righteousness, and life. In these cases it is implied that the word in the singular is not large enough to set forth all that is intended, and so, in the case of the divine name the plural form expresses the truth that the finite word encourages an inadequate idea of the being whom it represents. According to Robert B. Girdlestone, “Synonyms of the Old Testament,” Elohim is a Plural of Majesty and indicates greatness and incomprehensibleness of the Deity.

Furthermore, it needs to be pointed out, at this point, that the Hebrew language could not show comparative degree; such as: good, better, and best; or, much, more, and most. To show strength or to show superlative the Hebrew language simply made the word plural.

Because of the foregoing, and the information that is upcoming we conclude
that the word Elohim is a uniplural; much like the English word sheep or deer and may stand for either a single or a plural. When referencing the one God of Israel it is to be understood as a single noun; when referencing the many false gods it would be understood as a plural.
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I would ask you to take notice of the following list of information concerning the word Elohim:
1. Pagan gods are called Elohim: Judges 11:24 Chemosh; Judges 16:23 Dagon; 1 Kings 11:33 Ashtoreth a goddess, Chemosh, and Milcom; 2 Kings 1:2 Baal-zebub; 2 Kings 19:37 Nisroch.
2. Moses is called Elohim in Exodus 7:1. (Is Moses more than one Moses?) Both Exodus 4:16 and 7:1 show God calling Moses "a god" (Elohim). This alone shows the error that the plural Elohim must mean a "plural oneness" unless we want to believe Moses was a multiple-person Moses.
3. The prophet Samuel is called Elohim in 1 Samuel 28:13.
4. Though ELOHIM is plural, it must be accompanied by plural modifiers and plural verb forms to function as a plural noun. If accompanied by singular modifiers and singular verb forms, it functions as a singular noun. Page H. Kelly, BIBLICAL HEBREW: AN INTRODUCTORY GRAMMAR (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Erdmann’s Publishing Company 1992, p. 32). Whenever ELOHIM refers to the one true God, it is always accompanied by singular verbs, although ELOHIM is plural. Whenever ELOHIM refers to more than one false god, it is accompanied by plural verbs.
5. In the first verse of the Bible, the third person masculine singular verb "created:” is used with ELOHIM. Since the verb is singular, it is required that He who did the creating is singular. In this case, the only option left to explain the plural form of ELOHIM is that ELOHIM refers to the fullness and intensity of the many majestic attributes of the one true God. Genesis 1:1 teaches ONE God created the heaven and the earth, repudiating polytheism. Elohim, the uniplural noun, is used with a singular verb, "bara" created.
6. In Exodus 32:4, where ELOHIM is used of a plurality of false gods, the verb "brought...up out: is third person common plural. In this verse the plural verb demands that ELOHIM be referring to more than one false god. Thus the one calf represented to them more than just itself; it represented the gods of the Egyptians.
7. In Deuteronomy 4:28 a series of third person masculine plural verbs, "see," "hear," "eat," and "smell," are used to describe the inabilities of false gods (ELOHIM). This demonstrates that if the intention of Elohim is to indicate more than one, plural verbs will be used. If the intention of ELOHIM is to indicate only one, singular verbs are used.
8. In Genesis 1:26 (“And God (Elohim) said ...”) the verb directly connected with Elohim “said” is third person masculine singular. One person said.
9. If Elohim means a plurality of persons, as Trinitarians suggests, and Father, Son, and Holy Ghost together make Elohim then only one person could not be Elohim. Yet... Jesus alone is called Elohim in Psalms 45:5-7!
10. One person wrestled with Jacob in Genesis 32:30; and, Jacob said, “I have seen Elohim face to face.” Jacob wrestled with but one person; that one person was Elohim.
11. That the Hebrew plural Elohim is often used for a singular noun to denote "a `plural' of majesty or excellence" is well-known by all Biblical Hebrew language experts and has been known from at least the time of Gesenius (1786-1842), who is still regarded as one of the best authorities for Biblical Hebrew. Gesenius' Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament ("long regarded as a standard work for students"), p. 49, shows that elohim, is sometimes used in a numerically plural sense for angels, judges, and false gods. But it also says, "The plural of majesty [for elohim], occurs, on the other hand, more than two thousand times." And that elohim when used in that sense "occurs in a [numerically] singular sense" and is "constr[ued] with a verb ... and adjective in the singular." Gesenius - Kautzsch's Hebrew Grammar, 1949 ed., pp. 398, 399, says: "The pluralis excellentiae or maiestatis ... is properly a variety of the abstract plural, since it sums up the several characteristics belonging to the idea, besides possessing the secondary sense of an intensification of the original idea. It is thus closely related to the plurals of amplification .... So, especially Elohim ... `God' (to be distinguished from the plural `gods', Ex. 12:12, etc.) .... That the language has entirely rejected the idea of numerical plurality in Elohim (whenever it denotes one God) is proved especially by its being almost invariably joined with a singular attribute."
12. More modern publications (Trinitarian Protestant and Catholic) also make similar acknowledgments of the intended plural of majesty or excellence meaning for Elohim. (See the New Catholic Encyclopedia, 1967, Vol. v., p. 287.) 
  • Nelson's Expository Dictionary of the Old Testament, describes Elohim: "The common plural form `Elohim,' a plural of majesty." - Unger and White, 1980, p. 159
  • The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia says: "It is characteristic of Hebrew that extension, magnitude, and dignity, as well as actual multiplicity, are expressed by the plural." - Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1984 ed., Vol. II, p. 1265.
  • Today's Dictionary of the Bible, 1982, Bethany House Publishers, written by Trinitarian scholars, says of Elohim: "Applied to the one true God, it is the result in the Hebrew idiom of a plural magnitude or majesty. When applied to the heathen gods, angels, or judges ..., Elohim is plural in sense as well as form." - p. 208.
  • The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, Vol. xxi, July 1905 (Aaron Ember) tells us: "Several phenomena in the universe were designated in Hebrew by plural expressions because they inspired the Hebrew mind with the idea of greatness, majesty, grandeur, and holiness." Ember also says: “Various theories have been advanced to explain the use of the plural elohim as a designation of the God of Israel. least plausible is the view of the Old Theologians, beginning with Peter Lombard (12th century A. D.), that we have in the plural form a reference to the Trinity .... that the language of the OT has entirely given up the idea of plurality [in number] in elohim (as applied to the God of Israel) is especially shown by the fact that it is almost invariably construed with a singular verbal predicate, and takes a singular attribute.” “...elohim must rather be explained as an intensive plural denoting greatness and majesty, being equal to the Great God. It ranks with the plurals adonim [`master'] and baalim [`owner', `lord'] employed with reference to [individual] human beings."
  • The famous Trinitarian scholar, Robert Young, (Young's Analytical Concordance and Young's Literal Translation of the Bible) wrote in his Young's Concise Critical Commentary, p. 1, "Heb. elohim, a plural noun ... it seems to point out a superabundance of qualities in the Divine Being rather than a plurality of persons .... It is found almost invariably accompanied by a verb in the singular number."
  • And The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, Zondervan Publishing, 1986, tells us: "Elohim, though plural in form, is seldom used in the OT as such (i.e. `gods'). Even a single heathen god can be designated with the plural elohim (e.g. Jdg. 11:24; 1 Ki. 11:5; 2 Ki. 1:2). In Israel the plural is understood as the plural of fullness; God is the God who really, and in the fullest sense of the word, is God." - p. 67, Vol. 2.
  • The NIV Study Bible says about elohim in its footnote for Gen. 1:1: "This use of the plural expresses intensification rather than number and has been called the plural of majesty, or of potentiality." – p. 6, Zondervan Publ., 1985.
  • And the New American Bible (St. Joseph ed.) tells us in its "Bible Dictionary" in the appendix: "ELOHIM. Ordinary Hebrew word for God. It is the plural of majesty." – Catholic Book Publishing Co., 1970.
  • A Dictionary of the Bible by William Smith (Smith's Bible Dictionary, p. 220, Hendrickson Publ.) declares: "The fanciful idea that [elohim] referred to the trinity of persons in the Godhead hardly finds now a supporter among scholars. It is either what grammarians call the plural of majesty, or it denotes the fullness of divine strength, the sum of the powers displayed by God."
  • And the prestigious work edited by Hastings says: "It is exegesis of a mischievous if pious sort that would find the doctrine of the Trinity in the plural form elohim [God]" ("God," Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics).
13. To show how ancient Jewish scholars themselves understood this we can look at the work of the seventy Hebrew scholars who translated the ancient Hebrew Scriptures (OT) into Greek centuries before the time of Christ. The Greek language did not use the "plural of excellence" that the Hebrew did. So, if we see a plural used in the Greek Septuagint, it was really intended to represent more than one individual.
  • So how is Elohim rendered in the Greek Septuagint by those ancient Hebrew scholars? Whenever it clearly refers to Yahweh, it is always found to be singular in number (just as in New Testament Greek): theos . Whenever elohim clearly refers to a plural (in number) noun, it is always found to be plural in number in Greek (just as in the New Testament Greek): "gods" theoi (nominative) or theois (accusative).
  • For example: "I am the Lord thy God [Elohim - plural of excellence in Hebrew becomes theos - singular in the Greek Septuagint]" - Ex. 20:2. And "know that the Lord he is God [as always, the plural Elohim, as applied to the God of Israel, becomes the singular, theos in the Septuagint] he made us..." - Ps. 100:3.
    • But when Elohim really does mean plural in number, we see it rendered into the Greek plural for "gods" in the Septuagint: "Thou shalt not worship their gods [elohim in Hebrew becomes theois - plural in the Greek Septuagint], nor serve them .... And thou shalt serve the Lord thy God [singular - Greek]." - Ex. 23:24-25.
  • And elohim at Ps. 82:6 is translated in the Septuagint as the plural theoi. This scripture is also quoted in the NT at John 10:34 where Jesus is shown also using the plural theoi. 
14. Elohim and the Faces Argument.
The plural Elohim argument is no more proper than the plural "faces" argument: When the Hebrew scriptures speak of the face of God, they invariably use the plural Hebrew word which is literally "faces" (e.g. Ex. 33:20, Num. 6:25, Ps. 10:11). Obviously, according to this type of Trinitarian reasoning, to have "faces" God must be more than one person!
It is apparent to any competent OT Bible scholar that "faces" is used in a similar manner to the plural "elohim." That is, the plural "faces" is used in a singular sense in the ancient Hebrew idiom.
We only have to look at other uses in the Bible. King David, for example, is described with the plural "faces" usage: 2 Sam. 14:24 uses the plural "faces" twice for King David! This scripture, when translated into the ancient Greek Septuagint hundreds of years before Christ, used the singular "face" in Greek. The same thing has happened in many scriptures, e.g. 2 Ki. 3:14 (Jehoshaphat) and 2 Ki. 18:24 (an official).
Clearly, the Hebrew translators of that time did not understand a "multiple-person God" (any more than a "multiple-person David [or Jehoshaphat]") or they certainly would have translated the plural Hebrew "faces" of God with the plural Greek word for "faces." But they never did!

Likewise, as with the plural elohim, the New Testament writers never followed the Hebrew plural usage for "face," but always used the singular "face" for God (e.g., Heb. 9:24). How extremely strange if they really believed God was more than one person.

We see exactly the same thing happening for translations of the plural elohim in the ancient Septuagint and in the Christian NT.

“It is absolutely incredible that John, Paul, and the other inspired NT writers would not have used the plural Greek form to translate the plural Hebrew form of "God" if they had intended in any degree to imply that God was in any way more than one person!”


Amen

Apostolically Speaking
☩☩ Jerry L Hayes
(Mar David Ignatius)

The above article is excerpted from the author's book entitled "Godhead Theology." Published by Seven Millennium Publications, (614 pages). Order your personal copy today at the link provided here: 
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Read other essays from the Bishop on the subject of the Godhead:

"The Dual Nature Of Jesus Of Nazareth"

"The Worlds, Made By The Son"

"Hebrews 13:8 vs 1 Corinthians 15:28"

"Glory With The Father"

"Philippians 2:6-8, Answering Trinitarian Objections"

"How Is God One?"

"Hebrew Monotheism"


"The Apostolic Creed"

"Jesus Is Father God"

"Homoousia And The Creed Of Nicaea"

"The Triquetra And Modalism"

"Modalism, Simultaneous Or Sequential?"

"Micah 5:2-4, An Exegesis"


"Elohim, the Plural form For God"

"Can the Deity of Jesus Be called The Son Of God?"

"Mathematical Equation For The Godhead"

"Hebrew Monotheism, Second Edition"

"Jesus, On God's Right Hand"

"The Name of the Deity" (The Tetragrammaton)

"Christology of the Apostolic Church Fathers"

"Christian Modalism challenged by the Greeks"

"The Apologists and the Logos Christology"

"Logos Christology"

"The Seven Spirits of God"

"Historical Numerical Superiority of the Monarchians"

"How Is God One?" Second Edition

"Creed of Nicæa (Creed of the 318) Affirmed"

"Another Comforter (Answering Objections to Modalism)"

"Echad vs Yachid (Answering Objections to Modalism)"

"The Godhead Teaching of Ignatius of Antioch"

"Hebrews 1:8, (Answering Objections to Modalism)"

"Godhead Theology of the Tabernacle of Moses"

"Proper Biblical Understanding of the Word 'Person'"

"Defense of Isaiah 9:6, Answering Objections to Modalism"
https://bishopjerrylhayes.blogspot.com/2017/04/defense-of-isaiah-96.html

Defense of 1 Timothy 3:16 (Answering Objections to Modalism)


Godhead Theology is a study of Christian Godhead theology. ... Was He God or not? In Godhead Theology Bishop Jerry Hayes follows that debate through the first 300 years of the Church's history. Our book is in five sections: Section One ... demonstrates Modalistic Monarchianism as the original orthodoxy of the Chruch; Section Two introduces the Apostolic Creed ... ; Section Three is an affirmation of Modalistic Monarchianism; Section Four is Modalism's responses to objection from the pluralists Trinitarians, Binitarians, Arians and Semi-Arians. Included are two comprehensive indexes: Subject Index and Scripture Index. 613 pages.

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