The Elohim are not Gods

Psalm 82:1 in its original Hebrew version literally reads, “Elohim stands in the council of El. He judges among elohim”. English translators of the Bible have usually rendered el or eloah and elim or elohim as “god” and “gods”, respectively. Eloah is the long variant of el, and it might have referred to a member of a group of elim.

The appearances of such words in the original Hebrew version of the Bible have been perplexing Christian translators for centuries, since translating them as “god” and “gods” would undermine the cornerstone of Christian belief, monotheism or recognition, belief, and worship of only one God.

To believe in a Bible that acknowledges the existence of many deities is unpalatable, but this need not be the case. The author would take his cue from the works of biblical scholar Michael S. Heiser to formulate a resolution to the dilemma.

Elohim in Hebrew is plural, especially when the plural form of a verb antecedes it, but its grammatical number is still unsure when a singular one does. Most commentators have been regarding it as a plurality of “majesty” or “excellence”, but the author would contend that elohim functions as a collective noun when the singular form of a verb antecedes it. Such a function has a precedent in the Hebrew word for Egyptians: Mizraim.

Mizraim means “Egyptians” when the plural form of a verb antecedes it, but “Egypt” or “Egyptian people” when a singular one does. Therefore, the Hebrew Scriptures have indicated that a divine council (not a pantheon) headed by Yahweh guides the course of the universe, as Heiser argued in his studies.

How would English translators of the Bible render the words el and eloah, as well as, elim and elohim? They must keep in mind that only Yahweh can be God, so what would such words mean? Heiser argued that the words refer to any dweller of the dimension of spirits. He included angels, souls of dead persons, and daemons in his description of elohim.

Linguists have traditionally derived el and eloah from a proto-Semitic root that meant, “To be strong”, conjuring the ideas of leadership and power. Therefore, the author would define an el as a divine master, eloah as a divine manager, and elohim with the singular form of a verb as a divine management.

In the end, Christian believers need not despair whenever they encounter supposedly unpalatable passages in the Bible. Nobody except Yahweh is God. There is only a divine management consisting of divine masters headed by Yahweh.

Kohen and Hiereus Do Not Mean “Priest”

Every Christian denomination affirms of every believer in Jesus to direct access to God, but the denominations themselves have trouble conceiving it correctly. Catholic and Orthodox churches criticize other Christian denominations for supposedly making clergy even of their laities, while the latter have accused the former of denying the right to direct access to God to theirs, just because of the confusion over a simple word: priest.

Christians have translated the Hebrew-Aramaic-Greek Bible into different languages, including English. The word priest comes from the Greek masculine comparative adjective presbuteros, which means “older”. However, English translators of the Bible have used the word to translate not only presbuteros, but also the Hebrew word kohen and its Greek counterpart hiereus, both of which denote a permanent attendant of a deity, since they can find no other better word to translate both. Sacerd, the Anglo-Saxon transliteration of the Latin word sacerdos, has all but disappeared in usage.

As a result, non-Catholic and non-Orthodox Christians have thought that there should no distinction between the clergy and the laity, since they think that all believers have direct access to God. Catholic and Orthodox Christians have the fair share of the blame for overemphasis on clerical ministry at the expense of lay ministry. The right way to perceive Christian ministry is this: every believer has the right to direct access to God, but not all believers can join the clergy.

How can Christians rectify such a problem? They should start to translate more accurately. In ancient Israel, kohanim as representatives of God sprinkled blood on the altar, tore the sacrifices, and burned the pieces. The author would suggest the use of the word “officiant” to translate both kohen and hiereus, leaving “priest” as the only translation of presbuteros.

Words and their denotations do matter, and they change because of how people use them, but they must not sully the actual message of the Bible.