yummyfur

Just some clarifications

In Hebrew the word lord is adonay or adown, it is used sometimes in reference to god, for example "Lord YHWH". Another example several times when Moses speaks he calls god just Adonay by itself, by the way Moses often describes himself as god's slave. Isaiah is pretty big on just using Adonay for god, either completely by itself or as Adonay YHWH, that is Lord YHWH, or Lord YHWH of hosts, or just Lord(Adonay) of hosts. Ezekiel also uses the phrase "Lord YHWH" considerably, but unlike Isaiah doesn't seem to use Adonay by itself for god. Probably it is common for writers, when they write something spoken by a man, not to use the word YHWH, as this would imply that the speaker in the text actually said the ineffable name, so they use Adonay instead.

Also when the Hebrew Tanakh was spoken, the tradition was for the speaker to substitiute the word Adonay for the ineffable tetrgrammaton YHWH.

I beleive in the early Septuagint(LXX) manuscripts, there is evidence that before the first century CE, it actually had a Hebrew YHWH, or a transliterated tetrgrammaton, which was only later substituted with the Greek Kyrios, probably based on the tradition of substituting Adonay when speaking the text.

robto

I agree, johno, I've been looking for an explanation of how the plural elohim came to mean God singular, and have yet to find one. Any help out there?

yummyfur

Well often the singular El is used, also the verbs in sentences with Elohim are usually in singular form. By the way Adonay is often in the plural form in the Bible, were it is clear the subject is singular, this is regardless of wether it is in reference to god or some human master. This would seem to suggest to me that there is some reason other than plurality, to use a plural noun in a sentence. For example "Lord YHWH" is often used with the plural form of Adonay, but this occurs many times for human masters as well. I'm not sure anyone has proposed that there might have been multiple YHWH's.

Of course one can always go with the explanation of Trinitarian Christians.

Amaleq13

IIUC, it is best understood to be analogous to the "Royal We" in English. It indicates status rather than literal plurality.

Chris Weimer

My response from b-Greek.