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THE NATURE OF GOD AND CHRISTDoctrinal Study Papertimes for its singular. But as one commentator has noted, why this ‘plural form for “God” is usedhas not yet been explained satisfactorily.’” 58After Genesis 1:26 we have three more examples of plural pronouns associated with God(Elohim) in the Old Testament. They are Genesis 3:22, Genesis 11:7 and Isaiah 6:8. We see thatdifferent authors—Moses and Isaiah—use plural pronouns. What can we learn from these fourexamples? Why would the authors from the Old Testament choose to use a plural pronoun withthe plural form of God (Elohim) when the option of a singular pronoun with a singular form forGod (Eloah) was conveniently available? It must be made clear that in the majority of cases theterm Elohim is used as a “plural intensive—with a singular meaning.” 59 But this “singularmeaning” in the majority of cases does not negate the plurality that exists as well, nor does itexplain the use of the plural pronouns. This was the dilemma that Maimonides struggled with,but he never came to a good solution.Peter Hayman in his article “Monotheism—A Misused Word in Jewish Studies?” Journalof Jewish Studies 42 (1991) explains that it isn’t just in plural pronouns that we see the pluralityof God, there are also several instances where plural verbs and plural adjectives are used withElohim. The following paragraphs are from his article:Elohim with Plural Verbs: The first instance of Elohim with a plural verb is in Gen20:13. In this passage Abraham explains to Abimelech how he plotted with Sarah to lieabout her being his sister: “And it was when God caused me to wander (hit‘u otiElohim…) from the house of my father, that I said to her, this is the righteousness thatyou shall do with me, to every place which we come, say about me, he is my brother.”The phrase “God caused me to wander” hit‘u oti Elohim…has the plural verb hit‘u…meaning “they caused to wander” (hif‘il past 3rd pl…). So contrary to the expectedrule of Elohim getting a singular verb, here Elohim gets a plural verb. Because of thisplural verb, we could literally translate this phrase “gods caused me to wander.”However, in Gen 35:7 we find a second instance of this phenomenon. In this passage, weread about how Jacob built an altar at Bethel after his vision of the ladder: “And he builtthere an altar, and called the place, El Bet El, because there God revealed himself (pl) tohim (niglu elav ha’elohim…) when he fled from his brother.”The phrase “God revealed himself (pl) to him” (niglu elav ha’elohim…) has the pluralverb niglu…meaning “they revealed themselves” or alternatively “they were revealed”(nif‘al past 3rd pl…). We could literally translate this phrase as “the gods revealedthemselves to him.” Again, we find Elohim accompanied by a plural verb contrary to theexpected rule for a majestic plural. Here we can hardly say that someone is trying to58 G. Johannes Botterweck and Helmer Ringgren, eds., “Elohim,” Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, rev.ed., Grand Rapids, 1977, Vol. 1, pp. 267-84.59 Francis Brown, Edward Robinson, S.R. Driver and Charles A. Briggs, The New Brown-Driver-Briggs-GeseniusHebrew and English Lexicon With an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic, Peabody, MA: HendricksonPublishers, 1993.Page 53September 2005© 2005 United Church of God, an International Association