Forget it, Wrangler. He's already proved that he is not open to honest discussion or real evidence.
Post #3 above:
Elohim
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia says:
“It is characteristic of Heb[rew] that extension, magnitude, and dignity, as well as actual multiplicity, are expressed by the pl[ural].” - 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.
Both
Exodus 4:16 and 7:1 show God calling Moses "a god" (
elohim). This alone shows the error of some that the plural
elohim must mean a "plural oneness" unless we want to believe Moses was a multiple-person Moses!
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 about this:
"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).
EVIDENCE
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 several 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 Jehovah God, 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):
theoi or
theois (“gods”).
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.
We see exactly the same thing happening for translations of the plural
elohim in the ancient Septuagint and
in the Christian NT.
Yes, all the NT Bible writers, whether
quoting from the OT or writing
their own God-inspired NT scriptures, always used the singular “God” (
theos) in NT Greek when speaking of the only true God of the Bible. (If the plural form had been used for the only true God, we would even discover a new “trinity” at
John 10:34.)
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!
