Eloah - Bible Topic

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Elōah
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This is a study and interpretation of Strong’s #433, “Eloah.” In order to understand this word, we must interpret the meaning of Yahweh and Elohim from the Pentateuch. This interpretation begins in Genesis and moves to Exodus. Some New Testament “parallel” references are also used, but they are “not essential” to understanding the Hebrew word structure interpretation.
1. In the Genesis 1 Creation report, the “spirit” of Elohim “hovers over” the face of the “darkened water.” In the Genesis 1 report, the only discernible orientation is a “direction,” and that direction is “above or below,” and we will call “above, up.” (Slide 1)
a. In Genesis 1:2, Elohim “appear above” the “front” of the waters.
b. Time is marked by a “sequence” of events of Elohim.
c. Their actions are caused by a “voice that speaks.”
2. In Genesis 3, the voice travels in “holy places” of the Garden of Eden. The voice comes from “inside” the Garden. The name given to the “source” of the voice is Yahweh Elohim. (Slide 2)
a. The word, “Yahweh,” is “added” to the name Elohim used in Genesis 1. There is “no reason” given for this “new addition” to this holy name.
b. The “deliberate insertion” of the source of the voice as Yahweh is “important.” But it will “not” be until Moses “ascends” Mt. Sinai that humans will be able to “distinguish” Yahweh from Elohim.
3. At the time of the life of Abram in Genesis 12, it is Yahweh who speaks to him. This verse has a “parallel” account in the New Testament in Acts 7. The “equivalent” word in Greek is “Theos,” translated in English as “deity.” (Slide 3)
a. Later in Genesis 15, Yahweh “identifies” Himself to Abram, but He refers to Himself as “El Shaddai.”
b. Humans are meant to understand Yahweh’s revelation of Himself and His name as a “progressive” description.
4. The Pentateuch’s use of multiple names for God continues in the life of Isaac, Abraham’s son. (Slide 4)
a. In Genesis 26, Isaac is told that the Elohim of Abraham “speak” to him. Elohim is the “exclusive” name used in Genesis 1.
b. In Genesis 26, Isaac calls on the name of Yahweh. And when Isaac speaks to Jacob, he asks for asks for a “blessing” from El Shaddai. Like the narration of the life of Abraham, it is “unclear” how Yahweh and Elohim might be related.
5. It is during the adult life of Jacob that we begin to see the “distinction” between Yahweh and Elohim. (Slide 5)
a. In Genesis 28, Jacob sees something like a “ladder” that “points upward” into the sky. The Genesis’ report says that the “angels of Elohim” travel “up and down” the ladder.

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b. The name, Yahweh, translated as Lord, is said to be “above” the ladder. The angels travel between the earth and Elohim. Yahweh is “above” the ladder. This infers that Yahweh is “above” Elohim in direction. However, we must be careful “not” to infer too much from this. The evidence is not yet conclusive.
6. It is when we consider the “life of Moses” that the “relative direction” of Yahweh and Elohim is clear. In Exodus 3:2, an “angel” of Yahweh “appears” to Moses in the “middle of the burning bush” on Mt. Horeb, also named, Mt. Sinai. The “same angel” is referred to as an “angel of kurios,” translated as Lord in English, in a “parallel” account in Acts 7 of the New Testament. (Slide 6)
a. In Exodus 3, the angel of Yahweh is “renamed,” Elohim, and he calls Moses from the middle of the bush. The “parallel” account in the New Testament refers to this sound as “voice of kurios,” voice of the Lord, in Acts 7. Even though the Pentateuch account “changes” the name of the being at the center of the burning bush, the New Testament “keeps” the same name: “kurios.”
b. Once again, we can only infer that Yahweh is “above” Elohim, but the Pentateuch does “not yet” show us Yahweh and Elohim as being “separated” and by what direction they are “relative” to each other. Our inference is because an angel of Yahweh is sent and is “renamed” Elohim and occupies a place on earth that is a holy place. We recall that Moses was told to remove his sandals because he walked on holy earth. Like Jacob’s account, this infers that Yahweh is “above” Elohim.
7. In Exodus 6, we begin to get an explanation of the “separation” in the names between Yahweh and Elohim. It is Elohim that “speak” to Moses who tell him that Elohim is Yahweh. This “paradoxical” statement is followed up with an explanation that Elohim, who is Yahweh, appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as El Shaddai: El, the “Mighty One.” But the name of Yahweh, He did “not make” Himself “known” to them. (Slide 7)
a. Let us now take a look at a hemistich from Nehemiah 9 in comparison to Exodus 6, verse 3c to make the point that consonants for the “constructive form” of the “heavens and my name” are the “same.” This “interplay” between the words “heavens and name” is of “deliberate” design in the word structure in the Pentateuch.
b. C. C. Walker, in writing in Theophany, has the “right sense” of the meaning when he says that Yahweh had “not manifested” Himself, He means that Yahweh had “not yet separated” Himself from Elohim. Humans were “not yet” able to “distinguish” Yahweh from Elohim.
c. This “separation first appears” on Mt. Sinai and is fully represented in the Tabernacle Structure.
8. It is Elohim who deliver the words from the “top” of Mt. Sinai in Exodus 20:1-2. Elohim tell the people He is “Yahweh your Elohim.” But later when Moses “ascends” Mt. Sinai, he enters the “darkness” where Elohim are. (Slide 8)
a. Moses is “among” the Elohim, but it is Yahweh who “speaks” to Moses. The “separation between” Moses and the people and Yahweh and Elohim becomes clearer
b. Now they are “separated” by physical space on Mt. Sinai, and the “source” of their voice becomes apparent.
9. Moses is the “priest” of Mt. Sinai. After “activating” the mountain for “human ascendancy,” we can now “finally” see the “separation between” Yahweh and Elohim. It is “now clear” on Mt. Sinai that Yahweh is “above” Elohim. (Slide 9)

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a. The 70 elders, Aaron, and his sons and Joshua are “allowed” to “ascend” to Elohim, but they are told that “only Moses” may “ascend” to Yahweh. At some place “below the top” of the mountain, humans see Elohim but not Yahweh. Their vision of Elohim is recorded in Exodus 24:9.
b. Moses “alone ascends” to Yahweh. At Mt. Sinai, Yahweh Elohim can now explain to humans how they are to understand them “separately.” Yahweh “speaks” to Moses “above,” and the people see Elohim “below.”
10. In Deuteronomy 4:35, Moses says that “Yahweh He the Elohim.” The “state of being” of Yahweh is Elohim. He manifests Himself as Elohim. (Slide 10)
a. The third hemistich states that there is “no” Strong’s 5750, “again,” Strong’s #905, “from separation of Him.” Yahweh “does not duplicate” Himself. There is “only one” of Him, and He “does not duplicate or again” Himself. Rather, He “manifests” Himself in “particular beings” named Elohim. A being is “someone who is!!”
b. In Genesis 2:18, Yahweh Elohim say that it is not good that Adam’s “state of being” is “un-separated.” Like Yahweh, he could not manifest himself in his present state of being “un-separated.” “Unlike” Yahweh, Adam’s “original state of being” could be “separated.” From him comes the woman. She is “feminine,” and he is “masculine.” The two “separated” states of “man and woman” are themselves a “model” of Yahweh’s “state of being,” and as we shall see, El’s “state of being” in the “beginning” of the cosmos. These are descriptions of their “separated” state.
c. Though Adam and the woman are both human, they are “distinctly different” kinds of humans. The Pentateuch “consistently models” the woman’s “reproduction capability” as “one of the most important” things she does in “modeling” how Elohim came to be.
11. The Pentateuch “repeatedly demonstrates” that humans are “models of Elohim.” This theme is so strong that it “cannot possibly” be interpreted any other way. (Slide 11)
a. In Psalms 82:6, this is explicitly stated. New Testament interpreters are also familiar with Jesus’ words in John 10:34 where He quotes this same verse.
b. The Hebrew word, Elohim, is transliterated in Greek as Theoi, the plural of Theos, the biblical Greek word frequently translated as “father.”
12. This is the interlinear translation of the first half of Genesis 1:26. Adam is made in the sixth day of the Genesis 1 Creation report in “image and likeness” of them. (Slide 12)
a. The word for Strong’s #6754, “image,” is prefixed by the Hebrew consonant “bet,” translated, “in.” The word for Strong’s #1823, “appearance or likeness,” is prefixed by the Hebrew consonant “kaf, like.”
b. This is the interlinear translation of Genesis 5:3. The “separated” Adam has a woman named as his wife, Eve. He “knows” her, and she produces a son named Seth. This produces a new human being that is in the “likeness and image” of him. We can clearly see the “same phrase” having “likeness and image” is used, but the prefix consonants are “reversed.” There is an “inverse relationship” to the “form and function” of what Adam, as the father of Seth, is and Elohim as the father of the “un-separated” Adam.
c. It is clear that the “model” of the woman “coming from within” Adam and then Adam and Eve “jointly producing” humans is “somehow related” to a “model” of how Elohim themselves are reproduced.

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13. This is the interlinear translation of Isaiah 40:18. We have seen that Adam is formed, “kaf, like,” the Strong’s #1823, “appearance or likeness” of Elohim. But this is “not the case” for El!! There is “no way” that His appearance can be Strong’s #1819, “to compare.” (Slide 13)
a. It is clear that the relationship between Elohim and humans can be “related” by “likeness and image.” And this is true for humans who descend from humans.
b. But this is “not the case” for El or Yahweh. El or Yahweh “cannot be reproduced or compared” because He cannot be “separated” into parts. This is the “model form” of this problem that is the “un-separated” Adam. Yahweh Elohim say it is “not good” that Adam is “un-separated.”
c. Adam is “originally made” like Elohim having “both” male and female form and function. In order to “manifest” himself, Adam “must be separated” into Adam and his woman in order that Seth is produced.
d. So how are Elohim “related” to El or Yahweh?? And how does El “reveal” Himself so that humans can “know” Him? The answer is Eloah, Strong’s #433. For New Testament believers, this is Jesus Christ.
14. This portrays the position of the veil “under” the curtains of the Tabernacle Structure. The “separation between” the holy and the holy holies is caused by the veil. The holy holies “cannot be seen.” Put another way, it has “no” Strong’s #1823, “demoot, appearance.” (Slide 14)
a. The veil causes the holy to be a place where Yahweh’s “manifestation” of Himself can be observed by human priests. The veil is also a “model” of the “separation” of light from darkness. The “formless and dark” waters are a “model” of the “original state” of the cosmos that El established. “Only” when “light is separated,” can His “state of being be seen!!” He is Strong’s #216, “light, ore.” Strong’s #216, “light,” is His “state of being.” It is how humans can see Him.
b. “Without the veil” in the Tabernacle Structure, Yahweh’s “manifestation” of Himself “cannot be known.” “Without the separation” of “light from darkness,” the cosmos could “not be known or constructed.” The word for veil is Strong’s #6532, and it is a “feminine” noun.
15. This is the interlinear translation of Hebrews 10:20. New Testament believers “relate” Jesus Christ to the “veil.” (Slide 15)
a. For Christians, the “way through” the veil is the “fresh and living way” of Jesus’ “flesh.” This must mean that the “veil’s work” of “manifestation of light” and its work of “separating” Yahweh’s holy holies from holy, is caused by Eloah.
b. It will be shown that Christians believe that Eloah is Jesus Christ!!!
16. This is an excerpt from Gesenius’ definition of Strong’s #410, “āl.” It is a “masculine” noun derived from another noun, Strong’s #352, “ah-yil, the Hebrew word for “ram, the male sheep.” Properly, it is a participle that means it is a “state of being” that can be translated as “strong, mighty.” In turn, this noun is derived from the verb, Strong’s #193, “ool, to roll.” (Slide 16)
a. But Gesenius says this “betrays” the more probable etymology of this word. It is his opinion that the other words are “derived” from it. Gesenius’ opinion is that Strong’s #433, Eloah, is derived from Strong’s #41, El.

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b. It is his opinion that other kindred languages have derived Strong’s #433, Eloah, from Strong’s #410, “āl,” and so it is reasonable to assume that this is also true for the Hebrew language.
17. The modern debate on whether Eloah is “feminine” is not conclusive. All the authoritative lexicons say the Eloah is a “masculine” noun. The “feminine” form of Eloah fits the interpretative meaning. Word IQ.com and Wikipedia.com state that the explanation of Eloah is “under” the definition of Elohim. (Slide 17)
18. The “parallelism” between Job 19:25 and 26 is obvious when you place them side by side. Job believes he will die. In his desperate state, he talks about his “own resurrection.” (Slide 18)
a. In the second hemistich of verse 25, he says he “knows” that “one redeeming” him is “alive.” Most translators understand that Strong’s #2416, “alive,” is in the accusative form. So the “redeemer’s state of being” is “alive.” The “redeemer” is in the participle form.
b. The next two hemistiches talk about the redeemer “redeeming upon dust.” In verse 26, Job speaks about his “skin being destroyed,” and that he will see Strong’s #433, Eloah, from his body. What Job says in these two verses fits the context of the words before and after them. But his statements are clearly a hope after his death and speak about a “bodily resurrection” that involves “Eloah.”
19. This is the interlinear translation of Psalms 114:7-8. This Psalm refers to the exodus from Egypt and the eisodus to Canaan. (Slide 19)
a. Verse 7 makes “parallel” Strong’s #113, “aw-don, lord,” and Strong’s #433, Eloah.
b. The fourth hemistich is the first hemistich of verse 8. Eloah is the one “turning” the rock in the wilderness to “pools of water.”
20. This Slide depicts the role of women in the Tabernacle Structure. Eve’s production of Cain is described in Genesis 4:1. She describes herself as bearing Yahweh. Cain is “named” as a derivative of Strong’s #7069, “qana, to possess or create.” (Slide 20)
a. In Genesis 14:19-22, the same word is used as an “attribute “ of El Eyon, “El Most High.” El Elyon is the “possessor” of heaven and earth.”
b. The “model” of this possession is when Adam “knows” Eve and they produce Cain. They are “parallel” models.
c. In turn, in Psalm 139:13, “qana” is used to describe David’s formation in his mother’s womb. “Human birth” by a mother is a “model” of how El “has “reproduced” things that He “possesses” in the cosmos.
21. This is the interlinear translation of the last half of Exodus 34:6. The Pentateuch’s “grand chiasm’s theme” is in Exodus 33. The words after Exodus are about the “redemption” of His people. Verse 6 and 7 describe what Yahweh says to Moses. (Slide 21)
a. In the first hemistich, He calls Himself, Yahweh āl.” Hebraist Widmar points out this “contrasts” with His description of Himself in the “10 commandments” as “El qana” in Exodus 20:5. El qana can be described as “El jealous.”

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b. The “parallelism” between Strong’s #7067, “qana,” and Strong’s #7069, “qana, to possess,” is not by coincidence. To Abraham, He was El Elyon, the “possessor of the heavens and the earth.” Hebraist Widmer in 2004 notes that Yahweh describes Himself as being “El compassionate and gracious.” As Widmer states, this is connected to the “compassion of a mother’s womb; motherly affection for a child.”
22. In Brown, Driver, Briggs’s Hebrew and English lexicon, in their definition of Strong’s #433, Eloah, they say that Nehemiah 9:17 “refers” to Exodus 34:6. This is the interlinear translation of the third of three parts of verse 17. (Slide 22)
a. The first hemistich says the “attributes” of El “compassionate and gracious” are “attributed” to “Eloah of forgiving.” These qualities of Eloah are like a “mother toward her child.”
b. The “motherly quality” of Eloah and its “feminine etymology” establish Eloah as being to the “model function” of human mothers “bearing and caring” for their children. Eloah “bear” Elohim.
23. Eloah was “well-known” in the days of Job. But the story of Eloah is “incomplete” in the Hebrew and Chaldean texts of the Old Testament. (Slide 23)
a. For New Testament believers, it is “impossible” not to see Jesus Christ as Eloah. The “difficulty” of accepting the theology lies in the “masculine and feminine” genders as being El, Eloah, and Elohim and “not” their “actual” state.” Jesus is called the “bridegroom” and His church the “bride.”
b. The “parallel” is “mashal:” the “rules” of the model.
c. Eloah produces the water for the sons of Israel to drink in the wilderness; 1 Corinthians 10:4 “explicitly” states that the “rock” was Christ. Jesus desires to gather the young of Jerusalem under wings like “chicks under the wings of a hen.” And lastly, The New Testament is replete with the testimony of Jesus Christ as “redeemer.”
d. The interpretation of Eloah can be greatly expanded by the interpretation of the New Testament, and it is “clear” that Jesus Christ is the “story of Eloah.”

Eloah - Bible Topic

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