WHO is Elohim?
usually translated "God" in English (and "Díos" in Español).
‘Elohim’ appears in the Protestant Bible 2600 times, about 1/3 as often as the tetragrammaton (YHVH).
Linguistically, ‘Elohim’ comes from the word ‘El’ ('L') which means ‘mighty power’.
(The letter "L" is said to be a pictograph for the horn, signifying generative power which gives the seed of life.)
Elohim is a proper, and beautiful replacement for the vague term ‘god’.
Often people prefer to say ‘Elohim’ because, surprisingly, in Hebrew, 'God' (Gawd/Gaad) often refers to an arch-demon!
In Psalm 82:1-6 human judges in Israel are called ‘gods’ (Hebrew: 'elo-him'; Greek: theoi' [John 10:34]) because a good judge is heaven's representative. YAH delegates judges to speak his law.
Strong's concordance lists the following information on Elohim:
- 430 'elohiym el-o-heem’
- plural of 433; gods in the ordinary sense; but specifically used (in the plural thus, especially with the article) of the supreme ‘God’ (YHWH); occasionally applied by way of deference to magistrates; and sometimes as a superlative:--angels, X exceeding, God (gods)(godess, godly), X (very) great, judges, X mighty.
- #433 'elowahh el-o'-ah; rarely (shortened) eloahh {el-o'-ah
- prolonged (emphat.) from 410; a deity or the Deity:--God, god. See 430.
- 410 'el ale
- shortened from 352; strength; as adjective, mighty; especially the Almighty YHWH (but used also of any deity):--God (god), X goodly, X great, idol, might(-y one), power, strong. Compare names in "-el." see HEBREW for 0352
The word 'Elohim' in ancient Egyptian literally means ‘EL IS MIGHTY’.
EL is the head god in the Egyptian pantheon.
El is in the Egyptian's mind comparable to Yahweh (YHVH) in abilities and attributes.
Egyptians also use ‘EL-SHADDAI’ and ‘ELOHE’ as titles for EL.