“Gods Created”? (Genesis 1:1)

Asher Chee |

“A little learning is a dangerous thing.” This famous saying warns us that we should not assume that we know a lot about a subject just because we recently learnt a few things. Christians should take this warning seriously, since false teachers often use half-truths in order to make their false teachings seem true.

Elohim = Many Gods?

Consider the following facts:

  1. In Genesis 1:1, the Hebrew word for “God” is Elohim (אֱלֹהִים).
  2. The Hebrew word Elohim is plural in form.

Now, imagine that a self-proclaimed “expert” tells you the following:

Therefore, the word Elohim in Genesis 1:1 implies that there were multiple gods; not just one God. Thus, the correct translation of Genesis 1:1 is, “In the beginning, gods created the heavens and the earth.”

What would you think? If those two earlier-mentioned facts were the only things that you knew about Biblical Hebrew, then what this “expert” says would seem very convincing.

Of course, these false teachers would not tell all the facts, since their false teachings make no sense in light of the whole truth. In the case of this falsehood, a basic knowledge of Biblical Hebrew is needed to refute it.

It Could Be Either!

As mentioned earlier, it is certainly true that the Hebrew word Elohim is plural in form, and so it can refer to multiple gods. However, Elohim can also refer to a singular god—despite its plural form.

This happens for other Hebrew words as well. For example, the Hebrew word adon (אָדוֹן) means “lord; master”. Its plural form is adonim (אֲדוֹנִים). Because adonim is plural in form, it often refers to multiple “lords” or “masters”. However, it is also used in the Jewish Scriptures to refer to singular persons. For example,

In each of these examples, the plural word adonim refers to a singular entity.

So, Which is It?

Thus, on its own, the Hebrew word Elohim does not necessarily mean multiple gods; it could also refer to a singular god. So then, how can we know if the word Elohim in Genesis 1:1 was intended to mean a singular god or multiple gods? For this, we need to know some basics on how Hebrew verbs work.

Hebrew verbs take different forms depending on how many entities are doing the action of the verb. For example, let us consider the verb qārāʾ (קרא), meaning “to call out”.

If we wanted to say, “The boy called out,” in Hebrew, then we would say,

הַיֶּ֫לֶד קָרָא

Hayyeleḏ qārāʾ.

However, if we wanted to say, “The boys called out,” then we would say,

הַיְּלָדִים קָרְאוּ

Hayyəlāḏiym qārəʾuw.

Different forms of the verb qārāʾ are used depending on how many boys are doing the action. For one boy, the form qārāʾ (קָרָא) is used, but for multiple boys, the form qārəʾuw (קָרְאוּ) is used.

Back to Genesis 1:1

In Genesis 1:1, the Hebrew verb for “create” is bārāʾ (בָּרָא). Remember that a Hebrew verb takes different forms depending on how many entities are doing the action.

If the text was intended to mean that multiple “gods created”, then the form bārəʾūw (בָּרְאוּ) would be used. However, in the Hebrew text of Genesis 1:1, the form bārāʾ (בָּרָא) is used. This indicates that in Genesis 1:1, the word Elohim must refer to a singular entity. Hence, the text must mean that a singular “God created”. It cannot mean that multiple “gods created”.

Conclusion

False experts often smugly claim that mainstream Christian teachers and pastors are spreading lies about what the Bible “really says” in the original languages. They often show their followers only a small selection of facts, but they do not tell the whole truth. In most cases, a person with a basic knowledge of the biblical languages would be able to see through these false teachings. However, it is not always easy to explain it in a manner that others can understand.