The Elohim
Notes
Transcript
The Elohim
The Elohim
Today we are going to dive into the Bible Project study we introduced a couple of weeks ago. We are going to take an in depth look at spiritual beings in the bible. To get our feet wet, last time we took a look at how the biblical authors viewed the physical and spiritual world around them.
When they looked up at the stars and moon at night or the sun in the day, they envisioned spiritual beings that had God given authority over the sky and the darkness. The lights in the sky were signs and symbols that pointed to a greater and more important reality.
Put simply, the lights in the sky were seen as God’s heavenly staff team that governed with authority delegated from God. These lights are referred to as “Hosts of Heaven” and “Sons of God.”
Eden is super important when talking about the Spiritual realm because it is depicted as a cosmic mountain where God’s heavenly space and humanity’s earthly space overlap in unity. God placed humanity in the high place of Eden with the purpose of ruling as God’s image over all creation, including over the other spiritual beings.
Let’s look at a passage in Psalm 8 that expresses this thought. I’m going to bounce around with the translations a bit to help this thought connect…
3 When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers— the moon and the stars you set in place— 4 what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?
What are humans? We are made from dirt. We bleed. We have a shelf life. We all sin. What makes us so special? When I, this dirt creature, look up at the sky and see the shiny heavenly rulers reflecting your authority I can’t help but wonder why you would ever want to elevate dirt creatures over the magnificent works of your hands in the heavens…
5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet,
In verse 5, your bible may say “God” instead of “heavenly beings.” That’a the word that we are going to talk about today. The actual word being translated is…
Elohim — God, god, rulers/judges, divine ones, angels
The Hebrew word “elohim” and the Greek word “theos” are often translated as “God” in the Bible. As with this passage we read in Psalm 8, your bible probably says “God” instead of “heavenly beings.” That is the most common way the word is translated. In fact, most modern Bible readers think of “elohim” as another divine title for the God of the Bible. While that is true, it also is not that simple.
In the video about Elohim that we will watch in a few minutes, Tim and Jon give a great analogy for the way this word is treated in the bible. The way the Hebrew authors used the word Elohim in the bible is very similar to the way a child may speak about their mom. For example, if you have a crowd of women in one area and a crowd of their children in another, one child may say, “Look, there is mom!” even though his mother’s name isn’t mom. The other women could also be called “mom,” but when the child speaks of her, he and his friends know who he is referring too.
The word “elohim” is used in similar ways. It can be used to refer specifically to God, but also to other spiritual beings or even other deity’s and “little ‘g’ gods” worshipped by people. And if we want to get technical, the word “elohim” is actually plural. So to plug that thought into the analogy, the child would call his mom “moms” or “mothers.”
I don’t want to get too bogged down in this, but the ancient Semitic word for a divine being is “El.” It most likely derives from a verb that means “to be strong.” The word “el” referred to a chief deity in Canaanite religion and it seems that the Israelites adopted this term to describe Yahweh and they often used it as a proper name for God. There are many examples of this, but one that might stand out the most is “El Shadday,” which is traditionally translated as “God Almighty.”
Another interesting word is “Eloah.” It is just an alternate form of the word “el” that adds the “ah” syllable, but it passed from there into Arabic as “Allah.” They obviously use it to refer to a singular god, but it comes from the same word that means deity or divine being.
By adding “im” to the end of “eloah” you get the plural for divine being. “Elohim” is used to refer to the one God of Israel, and in it’s plural sense it is used to refer to “gods” worshiped by the nations around Israel…
3 “You must not have any other god but me.
12 On that night I will pass through the land of Egypt and strike down every firstborn son and firstborn male animal in the land of Egypt. I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt, for I am the Lord!
15 Manasseh also removed the foreign gods and the idol from the Lord’s Temple. He tore down all the altars he had built on the hill where the Temple stood and all the altars that were in Jerusalem, and he dumped them outside the city.
If we pop out of this ancient text for a minute and fast forward to the end of 2023, it’s easy to look at this and get a little confused. Why refer to God with a plural word? We don’t call God God’s, or Spiritual Beings. Try it the next time you pray, you might feel like you are doing something wrong or even sinning…
“Dear Heavenly Spiritual Beings. Thank you all for loving me.” You might be able to write it off in your mind as if you are thinking about God in the trinity, but I think it still feels weird. “Thank Spiritual Beings for salvation!” Hebrew scholars use the term “plural of majesty” to describe how a singular entity that is intense or large can be referred too with a plural noun.
It’s almost as if people in that day looked at the plural of something to describe it’s size, not necessarily it’s population. There are other examples in scripture of this. Proverbs 9:1 says “1 Wisdom[s] has built her house; she has carved its seven columns.” There are also extra-biblical examples in Canaanite and Mesopotamian texts where Pharaoh is addressed in the plural by his subjects.
If “Elohim” refers to gods and spiritual beings, does that mean that there are other God’s out there and we are supposed to pick one? Even God said that “you must not have any other god but me.” We read that just a minute ago. No, what it means is that Yahweh is an elohim (a spiritual being), but not the only elohim. He is the most powerful and authoritative, and he alone is the creator of all things, including the other elohim.
Professor Michael Heiser says it this way…
“An elohim is by definition and by nature a disembodied entity, so the word can refer to many different beings who inhabit that realm.”
— Michael Heiser
In the Old Testament, Deuteronomy puts it this way…
17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes.
Paul says it like this…
5 There may be so-called gods both in heaven and on earth, and some people actually worship many gods and many lords. 6 But for us, There is one God, the Father, by whom all things were created, and for whom we live. And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things were created, and through whom we live.
The idea of a populated spiritual universe is sometimes thought to contradict the concept of monotheism, which is the belief that there is only one God. As English speakers, the confusion is largely created by the fact that we use the same word to describe God the creator, and all other gods that maintain the same spelling (G-O-D), but differentiate by the use of a capital letter.
That is one reason I really like to use the name Yahweh to refer to the God of the universe if possible. I know that it can come off strange or culty, so I try not to do it too much.
Acknowledging the existence of spiritual beings in the world is not a challenge to monotheism. It isn’t an endorsement of polytheism. Polytheism is a religious worldview that believes that deities rival one another in the spiritual realm for status and power. Monotheism is knowing that God is the Elohim of Elohim, the God of gods, the ruler of the physical and the spiritual realms. It is simply a recognition that the God of the universe created humanity and this physical realm, as well as spiritual beings in the spiritual realm.
9 For you, Lord, are the Most High over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods.
After reading a verse like that, you might wonder about verses that say “the LORD is God; besides him there is no other.” Is the bible contradicting itself? Does that mean there are other gods or not?
I am sure we all know what is going on in passages that say “The LORD is God. There is no other.” The context around these passages also speak of the existence of other spiritual beings. The phrase “no other” doesn’t refer to the existence of other spiritual beings, but to their comparability. (This language is used to describe Babylon. Isaiah 47:8 ...You [Babylon] say, ‘I am the only one, and there is no other.” It isn’t a claim that no other cities exist, but a comparison.)
I like this quote by Michael Heiser in regard to these passages…
“The focus is on Yahweh’s incomparable status and the impotence of the other gods. It would be empty praise to compare Yahweh to beings that did not exist. The biblical authors assume they do exist, but that they are “nothing” compared to Yahweh.”
— Michael Heiser
To finish up on this topic before we watch the video and close, I just want to talk for a second about why I believe it is an important thing for us to study. It’s very easy for us to expend large amounts of energy fighting one another. As humans we point fingers at who is wrong, who is right, and who’s fault it is. We get distracted with arguments about things that, in the end, probably won’t even matter. In our “spiritual battles” we build large walls from which we can protect and defend. We dig large divides to separate us from someone or some group. We pull out the sword of truth and aim it at each other. All the while the real enemy is laughing.
An old saying made popular by the film, “The Usual Suspects” says that “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” When David was worshiping with us, he consistently quoted Paul’s well known warning in Ephesians…
12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Some of these “elohim” are at war with us. At some point in this study we will talk specifically about these spiritual beings, but until then it is important to know that they want to come between us and God and tear us apart. They want to influence us and corrupt us. Paul had a similar warning for the Corinthians. When talking about food and sacrifices to idols he said that even though the food and idols don’t carry any power, we still must serve God with purpose and diligence. For us there is ONE God, and we don’t want to unwittingly end up under the influence of corrupt spiritual powers…
5 For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”), 6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.
19 What am I trying to say? Am I saying that food offered to idols has some significance, or that idols are real gods? 20 No, not at all. I am saying that these sacrifices are offered to demons, not to God. And I don’t want you to participate with demons.
Paul uses the Greek word that is translated to demons to refer to evil spiritual beings. This word was a normal term to refer to lower-level spiritual beings. They are by no means rivals to the one creator God, but they are spiritual beings who exist in a realm parallel to our earthly realm. A spiritual realm where spiritual beings exist. Some are loyal to God, and some are rebels.
Let’s go ahead and close in prayer, but don’t get up just yet. The Bible Project has a three minute video that wraps all of this into a nice package that is easy to understand. I’ll pray and then we’ll watch that video to close…