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Elohim (Hebrew: אֱלֹהִים, romanized: ʾĔlōhīm: [(ʔ)eloˈ(h)im]), the plural of אֱלוֹהַּ (ʾĔlōah), is a Hebrew word meaning "gods" or "godhood". Although the word is grammatically plural, in the Hebrew Bible it most often takes singular verbal or pronominal agreement and refers to a single deity, particularly the God of ...
Jews also call God Adonai, Hebrew for "Lord" (Hebrew: אֲדֹנָי ). Formally, this is plural ("my Lords"), but the plural is usually construed as a respectful, and not a syntactic plural. (The singular form is Adoni, "my lord". This was used by the Phoenicians for the god Tammuz and is the origin of the Greek name Adonis. Jews only use ...
The Hebrew word for 'god' is El, which also as a proper noun referred to the chief deity in ancient Semitic religions. In the Hebrew Bible, God is also given a personal name, Yahweh, in contrast to the genetic name, and in origin possibly the name of an Edomite or Midianite deity who was adopted into ancient Israelite religion. [11]
El (/ ɛ l / EL; also ' Il, Ugaritic: 𐎛𐎍 ʾīlu; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤋 ʾīl; [7] Hebrew: אֵל ʾēl; Syriac: ܐܺܝܠ ʾīyl; Arabic: إل ʾil or إله ʾilāh [clarification needed]; cognate to Akkadian: 𒀭, romanized: ilu) is a Northwest Semitic word meaning 'god' or 'deity', or referring (as a proper name) to any one of multiple major ancient Near Eastern deities.
God entered English when the language still had a system of grammatical gender.The word and its cognates were initially neutral but underwent transition when their speakers converted to Christianity, "as a means of distinguishing the personal God of the Christians from the impersonal divine powers acknowledged by pagans."
Also abbreviated Jah, the most common name of God in the Hebrew Bible is the Tetragrammaton, יהוה, which is usually transliterated as YHWH. The Hebrew script is an abjad, and thus vowels are often omitted in writing. YHWH is usually expanded to Yahweh in English. [11] Modern Rabbinical Jewish culture judges it forbidden to pronounce this name.
In the Hebrew Bible, adoni, with the suffix for the first person possessive, means "my lord", and is a term of respect that may refer to God [8] or to a human superior, [9] or occasionally an angel, whereas adonai (literally "my lords") is reserved for God alone.
The first words of the Old Testament are B'reshit bara Elohim—"In the beginning God created." [1] The verb bara (created) agrees with a masculine singular subject.[citation needed] Elohim is used to refer to both genders and is plural; it has been used to refer to both Goddess (in 1 Kings 11:33), and God (1 Kings 11:31; [2]).