Elohim is the most common name for God in the Hebrew Bible, appearing over 2,500 times. It emphasizes God as the supreme, transcendent Creator and Ruler of all reality — the One who speaks worlds into existence, establishes order, and holds all things in being. While YHWH (the covenant name) emphasizes God's personal, relational character toward Israel, Elohim speaks of His absolute power and universal sovereignty. The plural form (with singular verbs) has been understood by Christian theologians from ancient times as a grammatical trace of the divine plurality-in-unity — not polytheism, but an adumbration of the Trinitarian fullness revealed in Christ.
ELO'HIM, n. [Heb.] A Hebrew name of the Supreme Being, used in the first chapter of Genesis and throughout the Old Testament. It is a plural form of the singular Eloah, and is used with both singular and plural constructions. Theologians have variously interpreted this plurality as a plural of majesty, a plural of fullness or intensity, or as an intimation of the plurality of persons within the one divine essence.
The plural form of Elohim has been seized upon by critics, ancient alien theorists, and syncretists to argue that Genesis teaches polytheism or that "the gods" created humanity. This misreads Hebrew grammar entirely — the plural noun with singular verbs is not plurality of beings but of divine fullness. More subtly, modern liberalism strips Elohim of its terrifying majesty: in progressive theology, God is a life-coach who "creates possibilities" rather than the omnipotent Creator who speaks light into existence and needs nothing. The weight of "In the beginning, God (Elohim) created" — that absolute, unilateral act of supreme power — is domesticated into near irrelevance.
• Genesis 1:1 — "In the beginning God (Elohim) created the heavens and the earth."
• Genesis 1:26 — "Then God (Elohim) said, 'Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness…'"
• Deuteronomy 6:4 — "Hear, O Israel: The LORD (YHWH) our God (Elohim), the LORD is one."
• Psalm 82:1 — "God (Elohim) presides in the great assembly; he renders judgment among the 'gods.'"
• John 1:1 — "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (The NT revelation of the plural-unity of Elohim.)
H430 — Elohim (אֱלֹהִים): God; gods; the most common title for the one true God; plural form expressing fullness of deity, power, and majesty.
H410 — El (אֵל): God, mighty one; the root behind Elohim; used in compound names like El Shaddai, El Elyon, Immanuel.
H433 — Eloah (אֱלוֹהַּ): the singular form of Elohim; used frequently in Job.
• "'Let us make man in our image' — that royal plural in Genesis 1:26 is not rhetorical flourish. It is Elohim speaking with the Son and the Spirit before a single human breath had been drawn."
• "The first word about God in Scripture is not YHWH (relational) but Elohim (powerful Creator) — Moses orders the introduction deliberately. Know who He is before you learn His name."
• "The nations have their gods; Israel has Elohim — the One who made the nations and the gods they worship."