1) It is a fact that Elohim can be plural.
2) Proverbs wasn’t written until much, much later. Nothing in Genesis can refer to something in Proverbs.
Sticking your head in the sand and claiming that highly-regarded scholars are “lying” just to cover your own ignorance on the subject doesn't change facts.
ELOHIM
Elohim when used for God is not plural in a numerical sense.
Today’s Dictionary of the Bible, 1982, Bethany House Publishers, written by trinitarian scholars, says of
elohim:
“Applied to the one true
God, it is the result in the Hebrew idiom of a plural magnitude or
majesty. When applied to the heathen gods, angels, or judges ..., Elohim is plural in sense as well as form.” - p. 208.
The New American Bible (St. Joseph ed.) tells us in its “Bible Dictionary” in the appendix:
“
ELOHIM. Ordinary Hebrew word
for God.
It is the plural of majesty.” – Catholic Book Publishing Co., 1970.
A Dictionary of the Bible by William Smith
(Smith’s Bible Dictionary, p. 220, Hendrickson Publ.) declares:
“The
fanciful idea that
[elohim] referred to the
trinity of persons in the Godhead hardly finds now [1865] a supporter among scholars. It is either what grammarians call
the plural of majesty, or it denotes the
fullness of divine strength, the
sum of the powers displayed
by God.”
Gesenius - Kautzsch’s
Hebrew Grammar, 1949 ed., p. 399, says:
"That the language has
entirely rejected the idea of
numerical plurality in
Elohim (whenever it denotes one
God) is proved especially by its being almost invariably joined with a singular attribute.”
The NIV Study Bible says about
elohim in its footnote for Gen. 1:1:
“This use of the plural expresses intensification
rather than number and has been called the
plural of majesty, or of potentiality.” – p. 6, Zondervan Publ., 1985.
The New American Bible (St. Joseph ed.) tells us in its “Bible Dictionary” in the appendix:
“
ELOHIM. Ordinary Hebrew word for
God.
It is the plural of majesty.” – Catholic Book Publishing Co., 1970.
To show how ancient Jewish scholars themselves understood this we can look at the work of the seventy Hebrew scholars who translated the ancient Hebrew Scriptures (OT) into Greek several centuries before the time of Christ. The Greek language did not use the “plural of excellence” that the Hebrew did. So, if we see a plural used in the Greek Septuagint, it was really intended to represent more than one individual!
So how is
elohim rendered in the Greek Septuagint by those ancient Hebrew scholars? Whenever it clearly refers to Jehovah God, it is always found to be
singular in number (just as in New Testament Greek):
theos ! Whenever
elohim clearly refers to a plural (in number) noun, it is always found to be
plural in number in Greek (just as in the New Testament Greek):
theoi or
theois (“gods”).
For example: “I am the Lord thy
God [elohim - plural of excellence in Hebrew becomes
theos - singular in the Greek Septuagint]” - Ex. 20:2. And “know that the Lord
he is God [as always, the plural
elohim, as applied to the God of Israel, becomes the singular,
theos in the Septuagint]
he made us...” - Ps. 100:3.
But when
elohim really does mean plural in
number, we see it rendered into the Greek plural for “gods” in the Septuagint: “Thou shalt not worship their gods
[elohim in Hebrew becomes
theois - plural in the Greek Septuagint], nor serve them .... And thou shalt serve the Lord thy God [singular - Greek].” - Ex. 23:24-25.
We see exactly the same thing happening for translations of the plural
elohim in the ancient Septuagint and in the Christian NT.
Yes,
all the NT Bible writers, whether quoting from the OT or writing their own God-inspired NT scriptures, always used the
singular “God”
(theos) in NT Greek when speaking of the only true God of the Bible. (If the plural form had been used for the only true God, we would even discover a new “trinity” at John 10:34.)
It is absolutely incredible that John, Paul, and the other inspired NT writers would not have used the
plural Greek form to translate the
plural Hebrew form of “God”
if they had intended in
any degree to imply that God was in
any way more than one person!
