Supernatural RSM Series – Part 1
Refton Student Ministry Series:
Supernatural Part 1: God or gods?
What You Know May Not Be So!
God or gods?
The Bible has many occurances where the authors use the word “gods.” Usually people will think of this term one of two ways: Either they are imaginary gods that ancient people made up years ago, or these occurances are just one of those weird things the Bible includes that is not relevant to modern people. One of our primary objectives with this study is to better understand the worldviews of the biblical authors. Why does this matter? Because when we begin to think like the ancient authors and their readers, we will be in a better position to determine the overarching truths that directly apply to us today as followers of Jesus.
Let’s look at a few examples from the Old Testament:
Psalm 82:1 (NIV) – God presides in the great assembly; he renders judgment among the “gods”
1 Kings 9:9 (NIV) – People will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the LORD their God, who brought their ancestors out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—that is why the LORD brought all this disaster on them.’”
Deuteronomy 31:20 (NIV) – When I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, the land I promised on oath to their ancestors, and when they eat their fill and thrive, they will turn to other gods and worship them, rejecting me and breaking my covenant.
Could there really be other gods?
Well, what you know may not be so…
The first thing to notice is that the NIV translation has quotes around the word “gods” in Psalm 82. In fact, Psalm 82 has three occurances of “gods” and quotes are used in each instance. However, the Hebrew language (the main original language of the Old Testament) never applies punctuation. This means that modern day translators have the job of deciphering text that is mashed together with no spaces, periods, commas, question marks, exclamation points or quotation marks. It would seem that the quotes the NIV translators used are there to let us know that in our modern context, these are “imaginary gods.” The problem with this is that Bible Study should never begin by using our modern contexts to read into the ancient texts. Let’s take a closer look at the Hebrew word which is translated as “God”.
The word “God/gods” in Hebrew is “elohim“. It is the plural form of the word “God,” but can be either plural or singular in meaning. It’s kind of like the word “deer.” There can be many deer by that tree, but there is one particular deer that has wandered away from the group. “Deer” and “elohim” can both be used in singular and plural ways.
Keeping this in mind, we need to determine how elohim is being used. I’m not quite sure where I picked this up, but for years I had been thinking that this word elohim was a name for the God of the Bible. What I thought I knew simply was not true! Take a look at our examples of Scripture again…
Psalm 82:1 (NIV) – God [elohim] presides in the great assembly; he renders judgment among the “gods” [elohim]
1 Kings 9:9 (NIV) – People will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the LORD their God [elohim], who brought their ancestors out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods [elohim], worshiping and serving them—that is why the LORD brought all this disaster on them.’”
Deuteronomy 31:20 (NIV) – When I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, the land I promised on oath to their ancestors, and when they eat their fill and thrive, they will turn to other gods [elohim] and worship them, rejecting me and breaking my covenant.
Notice that the word elohim is used for both “God” and “gods”! If elohim were a name, then why would it be used for the term “gods”? Actually, the Bible uses elohim for several different kinds of beings (Heiser, Unseen Realm, 30):
The God of the Bible, Yahweh [that’s His name] (Genesis 2:4-5)
The members of Yahweh’s council (Psalm 82:1, 6)
Gods and goddesses of other nations (Judges 11:24; 1 Kings 11:33)
Demons (Deuteronomy 32:17)
Samuel [after he was already dead] (1 Samuel 28:13)
Angels or the Angel of Yahweh (Genesis 35:7)
These examples (and many others) lead to the conlcusion that elohim can refer to any disembodied being of the spiritual realm. Even Samuel was called an elohim in that odd story where his spirit was summoned (1 Samuel 28:13). The NIV translates elohim in this instance as “a ghostly figure.” The main idea here is that elohim is not a name, but rather, it is a type of being; a spiritual being.
elohim = “spiritual being”
Why is this significant?
Because when the Bible refers to “gods,” the ancient authors were most certainly not refering to imaginary cartoon gods. They were refering to spiritual beings. Let’s look at Psalm 82 again, this time in its entirety:
God [(*Yahweh) elohim] presides in the great assembly;
he renders judgment among the “gods” [elohim]:
2 “How long will you defend the unjust
and show partiality to the wicked?
3 Defend the weak and the fatherless;
uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.
4 Rescue the weak and the needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.
5 “The ‘gods’ [elohim] know nothing, they understand nothing.
They walk about in darkness;
all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
6 “I said, ‘You are “gods” [elohim];
you are all sons of the Most High.’
7 But you will die like mere mortals;
you will fall like every other ruler.”
8 Rise up, O God [(*Yahweh) elohim], judge the earth,
for all the nations are your inheritance.
*The Hebrew word “Yahweh” (meaning LORD) is not present in this Psalm, but I added it so that you would know which elohim the author is talking about. Also, the translators capitalize “G” for Yahweh and lowercase “g” for other elohim.
So who are these “gods” and “sons of the Most High”? And what is this “great assembly” that God (Yahweh) is talking about? These questions and more will be answered during part 2 of our series: “Spiritual Beings”
If you’re still having trouble will all the language stuff – elohim, God/gods, Yahweh – that’s okay! I wrote this article for you! Also, check out the chart below:
Making Sense of our Terms
English
Hebrew
Type of Word
Meaning (always depends on context)
Examples
God/gods
elohim
It’s a category of being
“spiritual being”
Psalm 82:1
LORD / Jehovah
Yahweh
It’s a name
It’s a name of God
Genesis 2:4
Lord
adonai
It’s a title (like “president” is a title)
Refers to the majesty of God – He is Master
Genesis 18:31
Here are some resources to check out for further study:
This is a great scholarly resource for anyone who wants to really dive deep. Even though this can get very in depth at times, I think it is still accessible to Christians today without a bible degree. Find it on Amazon.
If you want a more casual read, this is basically the filtered version of Dr. Heiser’s The Unseen Realm. Find it on Amazon.
The Bible Project is an amazing free resource that anyone can use. They produce videos that explain major themes of the Bible, the books themselves, word studies, and more. They also produce an excellent podcast show that is available on most podcast apps such as Apple and Google Podcasts. Check out their 22 episode “God” series. This article works well with Episode 1: God or gods? Click Here to listen.