what is Elohim?

Question

I was told that Elohim is the name of God. why is it Elohim and YHVH and Yahweh (Or Yeshua, or however you spell it) Does God have mutiple names?

Answer 1

Elohim is the Hebrew word normally translated "God". Yahweh is his proper name. Elohim is often shorted to just "El", and used as part of many Bible names (Elijah, Elisha, Eli, Joel, Samuel, etc.)

It was a tradition among the Jews not to speak the name Yahweh out of respect for God. They did not want to mispronounce it. So they would often substitute the word Adonia (Lord) or Elohim for the word Yahweh when speaking the scriptures. This is carried over to the Bible, where the word Yahweh is most often translated "LORD" (all in caps) rather than Yahweh or Jehovah.

God is called by many "names" in the Bible. Or more accurately by many titles. Each shows a different part of his personality and/or power.

Yeshua is the Hebrew spelling of the name Jesus.

Answer 2

That is the Hebrew name for the Supreme Being, as we call Him, God. Yes, He has several names. The Hebrews out of respect and for fear of mispronouncing His name. They would not speak it. The four letters that you included. Represent what is called the Tetragrammaton (The four letters). The Hebrew language has no vowels, just accent points. Neither Yahweh or Jehovah are correct pronunciations of the Sacred Name. There is not "J" in Hebrew. Jehovah is a 16th century invention. You can inter space the 4 regular vowels in English, A,E,I,O,U. And the addition of the rarely used "Y". Place them in any order between the Tetragrammaton, and you could come up with over 150 possible combinations. Unless you were fluent in Hebrew, you could not pronounce the right name!
The word Yeshua or Joshua, is how you would say the name of Jesus in Hebrew. Again, the Hebrews, to protect themselves from blasphemy's, used the word Adonai (Lord) when they came to the Sacred Name in their writings.
Both Elohim and Adonai are in the plural.
The name God is a title, like King or President. It is the word most of us use when referring to the Supreme Being.
Jesus, said we should call God, Father.
Hope this gives you some clarification.

Answer 3

Elohim is a plural term that literally means "the deities" but is often used when referring to a singular god, much the way a King or Queen might say, "We are not amused" even though only one person is speaking! At first I thought the term Elohim proved that there were multiple gods in the Bible, until I discovered that the Babylonians and other ancient civilizations used the term the same way!

Answer 4

Elohim is plural for Eloh meaning God or god. The word is also translated as angel, mighty, high, etc.
YHVH is simply Yahweh w/o the vowels in the Hebrew language.
Joshua and Jesus are the same for Hebrew to Greek.
The name of God in the Bible is a gradual revelation. The key recipients of the "name" were Abraham, Jacob, and Moses. In the NT book of Revelation, Jesus is said to have a secret name, the believers receive a new name, and Nero is designated w/ the name of 666.
God hears whoever calls upon God. Frequently people have named God after significant events in their lives. Cf. Hagar - Gen.
Thus, we might correctly pray in this post to The Great Answer.

Answer 5

Elohim, is a title, and depending on who is using that title in the bible, It can refer to the 'Supreme God', Gods, angels, human judges.

Moses is called Elohim at Ex 7:1, This does not make him the Supreme God,

Jehovah's angel at Judges 13:21,22 is called Elohim.

Human judges at Ps 82:6 are called Elohim.

Jehovah in english, and Yahweh in Hebrew is God's only personal name. He does not share this name with anyone, not even Jesus. Jesus means 'Jehovah is Salvation',

"I am" is a poor translation of the hebrew YHWH, Strongs points to "to become, to exist"

So a better translation of Ex. 3:14 is 'I will prove to be' or 'He causes to become'

The fact that Ex 3:15 re-empasis the fact that Jehovah or Yahweh is his name.

We call Jehu, Jehu, and not the meaning of the word, which is "Jehovah is he".

You don't read in the bible that "Jehovah is Salvation walked on water." You read Jesus walked on water, Why Jesus is his name. Jehovah is the name of God Almighty.

Answer 6

Elohim (אֱלוֹהִים , אלהים) is a Hebrew word which expresses concepts of divinity. It is apparently related to the Hebrew word ēl, though morphologically it consists of the Hebrew word Eloah (אלוה) with a plural suffix. Elohim is the third word in the Hebrew text of Genesis and occurs frequently throughout the Hebrew Bible. Its exact significance is often disputed.

In some cases (e.g. Ex. 3:4 ...Elohim called unto him out of the midst of the bush...), it acts as a singular noun in Hebrew grammar (see next section), and is then generally understood to denote the single God of Israel. In other cases, Elohim acts as an ordinary plural of the word Eloah (אלוה), and refers to the polytheistic notion of multiple gods (for example, Ex. 20:3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.).

Answer 7

It is from the name of the great god El. The Elohim actually refers to his childrten. The other Gods like Astarte and Ba'al. The word appears as the suffix in a lot of names meaning "of God"
When the crucifixion of Jesus is described he cries out, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?", in English, "My God, My God, Why hane you forsaken me?"

Answer 8

Anthropomorphic language is the answer, which is human language that attributes human characteristics to divinity. Thus, the numerous names the Hebrews used for God helped describe the various characteristics that they saw in their God. YHWH (Yahweh) was the primary name of the Jewish God, but they never pronounced the name out of reverence and fear. The Hebrew language didn't use vowels either, only consonants.

Answer 9

Just a nick name. Kidding, I think it means lord or something. The word Elohim, in Hebrew expresses a "concept of God" and not god himself. In English God (proper name) is a god (concept)

Answer 10

Someone has been looking in the Old Testament. Some refer to God the Father and some to God the Son, or Jesus. And the Holy Ghost is always either the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit. Don't sweat it. A rose by any other name...