Why Does the Old Testament Use the Plural Name for God?

“Why does the Old Testament use the plural name for God and not the singular, because there is only one God?”

Great question, Ava! You’re talking about the word Elohim, which is one word that the Bible uses for God’s name, but God has many names. His special covenant name is Yahweh, but other people called him other things to praise him for the different ways he helped them. Here are just a few of God’s names:

• El Olam—The Everlasting God (Isaiah 40:28)
• El Roi—The All-Seeing God (Genesis 16:13)
• El-Deah—The All-Knowing God (1 Samuel 2:3)
• El-Gibbor—The All-Powerful God (Deuteronomy 10:17)

You’ll notice that these names start with El—that’s the same word as Elohim, but singular. In Hebrew, when you want to say that something is the best out of that category, you use the plural form. In Job 40, God speaks about Behemoth. That’s a plural form of behemah, which means a land animal like an ox or a donkey—something that lives on land. But this is the greatest land animal, so he uses the plural form, but with singular verbs, so we know he’s talking about a singular thing. Behemoth is the “beast of beasts.”

In the same way, in the Old Testament, there were lots of false gods, and one of those would have been called an “el.” Baal, Chemosh, Ashteroth, and more were false gods that Israel was not supposed to worship. Why? Because Elohim, the God of gods, was their God.

So Elohim means that God is the true God, who is far above all the false gods, both back in the Bible times and today!

Learn More:

• Christ: God in Human Form
• Jesus—He Was Before Creation!
• What Are the Other Names of Jesus?

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