Did you know the word the Israelite nation used for God in Scripture is “Elohim” which carries a plural ending?
So what?
Glad you asked.
I had a rabbi say to me, “it’s as if by proclaiming the name of elohim, the Israelites would have been saying, ‘all of your gods are contained in our one.’”
Beautiful.
In a college religion class we studied the cultural background of the Jesus movement.
Did you know?
- There were many religions that claimed to center around the son of God
- The Roman Caesar called himself the Son of God – and came up with the phrase, Caesar is Lord.
- There were religions that believed their god was raised from the dead on the third day.
- There were religions that used wine as a foundational element.
- There were religions that believed their god went into the underworld and came out with all power.
My roommate asked me one day after class if all these things made me question my faith. You see, there were many kids in the class who had grown up in Christian homes, but never learned these things in Sunday School (I hadn’t either). It made them uncomfortable, to say the least. They saw these facts as threats to the validity of their faith. I saw it differently, thanks to that rabbi who explained Elohim.
I responded to my roommate, “I think it’s a beautiful thing. It’s as if God said, ‘Look, you see all these gods, all these beliefs? I am going to send my son in order to show you who I am. I will encompass them all.’”