“In the beginning God [Hebrew: Elohim] created the heaven and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1)
It is the first sentence of the Bible, and we have read it since childhood without noticing how strange it is. In Hebrew, the word translated “God” is Elohim, אֱלֹהִים. Yet Elohim carries the ending -im, the plural ending, as in cherubim or seraphim. And the verb that follows, bārāʾ, “created,” is singular.
A plural noun. A singular verb. The rabbis noticed it. So did the Church Fathers. Our translations, by simply writing “God,” have erased the question.
The usual answers
For two thousand years, three main explanations have been offered. The first is the plural of majesty: Hebrew sometimes puts in the plural a noun that designates a single being, to express his greatness. Joseph, the one governor of Egypt, is called ʾădōnîm, “lords” (Genesis 42:30). The second sees in this plural a foreshadowing of the Trinity. The third thinks that God is addressing his heavenly court, as when he says, “Let us make man” (Genesis 1:26).
Each contains a share of truth. But none answers a simple question: why does the Bible use this same word, elohim, for beings other than God?
What Scripture calls “elohim”
For the word comes back elsewhere, and it does not always designate the God of Israel:
- The gods of the nations. “Against all the gods [elohim] of Egypt I will execute judgment” (Exodus 12:12).
- The heavenly assembly. “God [Elohim] standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods [elohim]” (Psalm 82:1). The same word, twice in the same sentence, with two meanings.
- The sons of God. In the book of Job, the bᵉnê hāʾĕlōhîm, “the sons of God,” come to present themselves before the LORD (Job 1:6) and shout for joy when the earth is founded (Job 38:7).
- A man invested by God. “See, I have made thee a god [elohim] to Pharaoh” (Exodus 7:1), the LORD says to Moses.
Moses sums it all up in one phrase: the LORD is “God of gods” (Deuteronomy 10:17). There is only one Creator God; but he is not alone. He is the Elohim in the midst of the elohim.
The path the book proposes
Elohim does not designate only one person: it designates an order of existence, that of the beings who belong to God’s world. The God of Israel is its source and its head. Around him, Scripture shows sons, present before the creation of man, who sing when the earth is founded.
Where do they come from? The New Testament gives the key: “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him” (Colossians 1:16). The Son, present “in the beginning” (John 1:1), formed these sons to work with him, and they follow him “whithersoever he goeth” (Revelation 14:4).
Most remained faithful. Some, to whom nations had been entrusted, judged unjustly, and Psalm 82 tells of their trial. But those are other chapters of the story.
Why this question concerns us
If the first verse of the Bible speaks of a heavenly family, then Paul’s great promise takes on a new meaning: “For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God” (Romans 8:19). What does not exist cannot be revealed. What is revealed is what was already there, hidden.
That is the whole purpose of the book: to go back from this plural in the first verse to that announced revelation, reading Scripture in its own language, letter by letter.