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''Elohim'' (Hebrew: אֱלֹהִים) is a grammatically singular or plural noun for "god" or "gods" in both modern and Biblical Hebrew. Despite the ''-im'' ending common to many plural masculine nouns in Hebrew, the word is grammatically singular, and takes a singular verb in the Hebrew Bible when referring to God. When used with singular verbs and adjectives ''elohim'' is usually singular, "god" or especially, ''the'' God. When used with plural verbs and adjectives ''elohim'' is usually plural, "gods" or "powers".〔Glinert ''Modern Hebrew: An Essential Grammar'' Routledge p14 section 13 "(b) ''Agreement of verbs'' Verbs agree with their subject, and not only in gender and number but also in person. Present tense verbs distinguish masculine from feminine and singular from plural:"〕〔Gesenius ''A Grammar of the Hebrew Language''〕 It is usually translated as "God" in the Hebrew Bible, referring with singular verbs both to the God of Israel, and in a few examples to other singular pagan deities. With plural verbs the word is also used as a true plural with the meaning "gods".〔 It is generally thought that Elohim is a formation from ''eloah'', the latter being an expanded form of the Northwest Semitic noun ''il'' (, ''ʾēl''〔K. van der Toorn, Bob Becking, Pieter Willem van der Horst (eds), ''Dictionary of deities and demons in the Bible'' (revised (2nd edition ), Brill, 1999) ISBN 90-04-11119-0, p. 274, 352-3〕). The related nouns ''eloah'' () and ''el'' () are used as proper names or as generics, in which case they are interchangeable with ''elohim''.〔 The notion of divinity underwent radical changes throughout the period of early Israelite identity. The ambiguity of the term ''elohim'' is the result of such changes, cast in terms of "vertical translatability", i.e. the re-interpretation of the gods of the earliest recalled period as the national god of monolatrism as it emerged in the 7th to 6th century BCE in the Kingdom of Judah and during the Babylonian captivity, and further in terms of monotheism by the emergence of Rabbinical Judaism in the 2nd century CE.〔Mark S. Smith, (''God in translation: deities in cross-cultural discourse in the biblical world'' ), vol. 57 of "''Forschungen zum Alten Testament''", Mohr Siebeck, 2008, ISBN 978-3-16-149543-4, p. 19.; Smith, Mark S. (2002), "The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel" (Biblical Resource Series)〕 The word is identical to the usual plural of ''el'' meaning gods or magistrates, and is cognate to the l-h-m'' found in Ugaritic, where it is used for the pantheon of Canaanite gods, the children of El and conventionally vocalized as "Elohim". Most use of the term ''Elohim'' in the later Hebrew text imply a view that is at least monolatrist at the time of writing, and such usage (in the singular), as a proper title for the supreme deity, is generally not considered to be synonymous with the term ''elohim'', "gods" (plural, simple noun). Hebrew grammar allows for this nominally-plural form to mean "He is the Power (singular) over powers (plural)", or roughly, "God of gods". Rabbinic scholar Maimonides wrote that the various other usages are commonly understood to be homonyms.〔 ==Etymology== The ''Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible'' defines "elohim" as a plural of ''eloah'', an expanded form of the common Semitic noun "'il" (ʾēl).〔 It contains an added ''heh'' as third radical to the biconsonantal root. Discussions of the etymology of ''elohim'' essentially concern this expansion. An exact cognate outside of Hebrew is found in Ugaritic ''ʾlhm'', the family of El, the creator god and chief deity of the Canaanite pantheon, in Biblical Aramaic ''(unicode:ʼĔlāhā)'' and later Syriac ''Alaha'' "God", and in Arabic ''ʾilāh'' "god, deity" (or ''Allah'' as " The () God"). "El" (the basis for the extended root ''ʾlh'') is usually derived from a root meaning "to be strong" and/or "to be in front".〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Elohim」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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