Hi, Guy. How do we climb? Well, we don’t fall into the trap of thinking the meaning is hidden! (Actually, there’s a discussion somewhere in Luther about the German word “Gott” and I think he wonders about its connection to “gut,” but it’s been much too long since I read it.)
Competent Hebraists have treated the subject. Franz Delitzsch has a fine discussion in his New Commentary on Genesis (not to be confused with the Keil-Delitzsch volume) as he considers the shift from “God” to “the Lord God” in Gen. 2:4. So does the Italian-Israeli Umberto Cassuto. I don’t think we’re going to do better than these fellers. Back to the Psalms for me!
No aversion; just an awareness of how easily things get “lost in translation,” or colored by cultural baggage when a living language is used to translate an ancient one.
Did you see that the Germanic “gott” once, etymologically, had the association of a “spirit that hung around a burial mound,” for instance?
Sorry to distract, if that’s the case, from commentary writing… : )
Godspeed!
John B. Metzger has a good discussion regarding “Elohim” in “Discovering the Mystery of the Unity of God,” as well.
He cites Payne as having an intriguing view that “El seems to have arisen from the root ul, the probable meaning of which is to be strong” (c.f. Gen. 31:29 “power”) with footnote 195, p. 63 op. cit., locating Payne’s quote in “The Theology of the Older Testament,” 145.
To my mind, “Power(s)” is “dynamic,” not “static,” no matter how dated those terms are. I’ll consider myself appropriately “harrumphed.” Call me old-fashioned…
Hope that explains. : )
Dont you think the Kabbalists have the right answer for Elohim?
The religuons of the ANE frequently conceived of their greatest deities as having the power of fertility so completely, that they represented both genders simultaneously.
Some Gods were 2 headed; some were 2 faced. And some could adopt alternating firms to represent bith genders.
Some researchers even suggest that bearing the image if God meant having either male or female natures. This last thought seems less fruitful to me.