The Hebrews had a name for the Divine Being, which was, most strictly speaking, a proper name, since it was never applied in any sense or in any circumstances to any other being. This was the name Jehovah, But the word or words existing in their language, and equivalent to our word God, or the Deity, may also be correctly considered as proper names, although used as appellatives, or class terms, denoting Deity in the abstract. The word God, therefore, in their language, in its primary and principal use, represented a personal Being, known to them in His personality and unity by express revelation.
The word God is represented in the Hebrew Scriptures by three terms, Elohim, El, Eloah. Elohim is a plural form, as its termination im denotes; and according to our author, its singular is not El, but Eloah. For his reasons we must refer to the volume, only this may be mentioned, that the plural of El is Elim, as in Exodus xv. 11: "Who is like unto Thee, O Lord, among the gods?" As to Eloah, it is supposed, for good reasons, to be derived from the participle of a verb of the form of Alah. No such form exists in the Hebrew language; it is common, however, for verbal nouns to exist which cannot be traced to any verb in Hebrew which could originate their meaning; while the exact form of the verb wanted is found in the Syriac or Arabic. Such is the case with Eloah. In the Arabic we have a verb of the exact form required, pronounced as the Hebrew verb Alah would be. Its meaning is to fear, to adore, to worship. Eloah will thus signify "the Adorable," "the Worshipful One," a most suitable name for God, and a name of a highly practical character.
The next thing to be observed is the signification of im in the word Elohim. Since this term is the plural o! Eloah—God—it must signify gods, and is so used in various instances. The inquiry, therefore, presses itself upon us, How did the Hebrews, who recognised one living and true God, come to employ a plural term to designate the object of their worship? Some have attempted to account for it on the hypothesis that it is meant to indicate what is known by the doctrine of the Trinity. But if so, how is it that such an idea did not form an article of faith under the patriarchal or Mosaic dispensation? Besides, the termination im expresses mere plurality, not a trinity. Again, this word Elohim is frequently used to denote a single false deity. Thus the word is applied to Dagon (Judges xvi. 23) and his image (1 Sam. v. 7), and when the Lord said to Moses, "See I have made thee a god to Pharaoh " (Exod. vii. 1), the word for god is Elohim.
The majority of grammarians are agreed to consider the words as an instance of a peculiarity in the Hebrew and its cognate languages, namely, the use of the plural ending when a single person or object is spoken of, to denote excess, excellence, dignity, or, indeed, superlativeness of any kind. On this point the learned Hindu, Rajah Ramahun Roq, in his "Defence of the Precepts of Jesus," remarks that in the Hebrew, Arabic, and almost all Asiatic languages, the plural form is often used in a singular sense when the superiority of the subject of discourse is intended to be kept in view. [It is a circumstance worthy of notice also that in the Koran, when God is represented as speaking, the plural is often used for the singular. But it is well known that the Koran denounces as impious the doctrine of a plurality of persons in the Godhead. "Behold, we declare unto them the signs of God's unity, and then behold how they turn aside from the truth."]
A few examples out of many are these:—Psalm xlix. 3, "My mouth shall speak of wisdom; and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding." The words for "wisdom" and "understanding " are both plural, and denote wisdom and understanding of the highest kind. In Isaiah liv. 5, "Thy Maker is thine husband," both nouns have a plural ending. Thus also Adonim, the plural form of the Hebrew term for lord, is in constant use as a title of dignity when speaking of a single person, and is so applied to Pharaoh, to Joseph, to Saul, to David, and to many others.
If we now compare the use of the word Elohim as the name of God with these examples, it will appear that the plural form is most naturally accounted for by the idiom which employs a plural termination to increase the force, importance, or extent of significance of the noun to which it is attached. Its original meaning, therefore, as an augmented form of Eloah, God, would be "the great God"; or reverting to the participle sense of the word as derived from the verb Alah, it might be understood to express "the most worshipped," the Being to whom reverence and adoration are supremely due.
On the same principle, grammarians account for the few instances in which plural verbs and pronouns are associated, otherwise than in close grammatical construction, with the word Elohim or Adonim, used in the singular. In Genesis i. 26, we read "God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness," the verb said is singular. Isaiah vi. 8: "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" The employment of the plural in proclamations by royal personages and others in high office among ourselves illustrates this idiom of the Hebrew.
For the most part, however, Elohim, when employed to designate the one true God, is joined with a verb or pronoun in the singular. Thus Genesis i. 1, "Elohim created the heaven and the earth," the verb created is in the singular, so that we know that only one person is represented by the noun. Again, Isaiah xxv. 9, "This is our God " (Elohim). The Hebrew word for this is singular.
Such information regarding the use of this designation of our Almighty Father by the Hebrew will enable us the better to understand the import of the words, "Hear, O Israel, Jehovah our Elohim is One Jehovah" (Deut. vi. 4). He is called Elohim, not because He is constituted of three, or a multitude of persons, but because He is beyond compare, The Great Adorable One. Blessed be His name for ever and ever, and let the whole earth be filled with His glory, Amen.
The term which is strictly the "proper name" of our Father, and never, like El and Elohim, given to idols, angels, or men, is Jehovah. It occurs frequently in the Hebrew Scriptures in two forms, Jehovah and Jah, and in numerous combinations. It is the word which in our English Bible is translated Lord, when that word is printed in capitals, otherwise the word in the Hebrew text is Adon, Adonim, or Adonai. Many passages would be more clear and forcible if, in reading them, we substitute for Lord the Hebrew term Jehovah. Thus, Psalm cx. 1, "Jehovah said unto my Lord, Sit Thou at My right hand."
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