Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

The word “God” is Elohim, which is itself a plural form and, like most other words, has
more than one definition. It is used in a plural sense of “gods” or “men with authority,”
and in a singular sense for “God,” “god,” or “a man with authority, such as a judge.” The
Hebrew lexicon by Brown, Driver and Briggs, considered to be one of the best available,
has as its first usage for Elohim: “rulers, judges, either as divine representatives at sacred
places or as reflecting divine majesty and power, divine ones, superhuman beings
including God and angels, gods.” [1]
Elohim is translated “gods” in many verses. Genesis 35:2 reads, “Get rid of all the
foreign gods you have with you,” and Exodus 18:11 says, “Now I know that the Lord is
greater than all other gods.” It is translated “judges” in Exodus 21:6; 22:8 and 9. It is
translated “angels” (KJV) or “heavenly beings” (NIV) in Psalm 8:5. That is its plural use,
and there is no evidence that anyone thought of these “gods” as having some kind of
plurality of persons within themselves.

2. Elohim is also translated as the singular “god” or “judge,” and there is no hint of any
“compound nature” when it is translated that way. An example is Exodus 22:20, which
reads, “Whoever sacrifices to any god other than the lord must be destroyed.” Another
example is Judges 6:31: “If Baal really is a god, he can defend himself when someone
breaks down his altar.” In Exodus 7:1, God says that He has made Moses a “god”
(Elohim) to Pharaoh. Again, in Judges 11:24, the pagan god Chemosh is called Elohim,
and in 1 Samuel 5:7, the pagan god Dagon is called Elohim, yet Christians do not
conclude that those gods were somehow composite or “uniplural,” or that the people who
worshipped them thought they were.
Exactly how to translate Elohim in 1 Samuel 2:25 has been debated by scholars. The
question is whether Elohim in the verse refers to a human judge or to God. The KJV says
“judge.” The versions are divided between them, some translating Elohim as a man,
others as God Himself. The fact that the scholars and translators debate about whether the
word Elohim refers to a man or God shows vividly that the word itself does not have any
inherent idea of a plurality of persons. If it did, it could not be translated as “god” when
referring to a pagan god, or as “judge” when referring to a man. The evidence in
Scripture does not warrant the conclusion that the Hebrew word Elohim inherently
contains the idea of a compound nature.

3. Some teach that the word Elohim implies a compound unity when it refers to the true
God. That would mean that the word Elohim somehow changes meaning when it is
applied to the true God so that the true God can be a compound being. There is just no
evidence of this. The first place we should go for confirmation of this is to the Jews
themselves. When we study the history and the language of the Jews, we discover that
they never understood Elohim to imply a plurality in God in any way. In fact, the Jews
were staunchly opposed to people and nations who tried to introduce any hint of more
than one God into their culture. Jewish rabbis have debated the Law to the point of
tedium, and have recorded volume after volume of notes on the Law, yet in all of their
debates there is no mention of a plurality in God. This fact in and of itself ought to close
the argument.
No higher authority on the Hebrew language can be found than the great Hebrew scholar,
Gesenius. He wrote that the plural nature of Elohim was for intensification, and was
related to the plural of majesty and used for amplification. Gesenius states, “That the
language has entirely rejected the idea of numerical plurality in Elohim (whenever it
denotes one God) is proved especially by its being almost invariably joined with a
singular attribute.” [2]
The singular pronoun is always used with the word Elohim. A study of the word will
show what Gesenius stated, that the singular attribute (such as “He,” not “They,” or “I,”
not “We”) always follows Elohim. Furthermore, when the word Elohim is used to denote
others beside the true God, it is understood as singular or plural, never as “uniplural.” To
us, the evidence is clear: God is not “compound” in any sense of the word. He is the “one
God” of Israel.

4. Scripture contains no reproof for those who do not believe in a “Triune God.” Those
who do not believe in God are called “fools” (Psalm 14:1). Those who reject Christ are
condemned (John 3:18). Scripture testifies that it is for “doctrine, reproof, and correction”
(2 Timothy 3:16 - KJV), and there are many verses that reprove believers for all kinds of
erroneous beliefs and practices. Conspicuous in its absence is any kind of reproof for not
believing in the Trinity.
Buzzard, pp. 13-15,125 and 126
Morgridge, pp. 88-96
Snedeker, pp. 359-367 Genesis 1:26 And God said, “Let us make man in our image, after
our likeness.” (KJV) 1. Elohim and Adonim, Hebrew words for God, occur in the plural.
If this literally meant a plurality of persons, it would be translated “Gods.” But the Jews,
being truly monotheistic and thoroughly familiar with the idioms of their own language,
have never understood the use of the plural to indicate a plurality of persons within the
one God. This use of the plural is for amplification, and is called a “plural of majesty” or
a “plural of emphasis,” and is used for intensification (see note on Gen. 1:1). Many
Hebrew scholars identify this use of “us” as the use of the plural of majesty or plural of
emphasis, and we believe this also.
2. The plural of majesty is clearly attested to in writing from royalty through the ages.
Hyndman writes:
The true explanation of this verse is to be found in the practice which has prevailed in all
nations with which we are acquainted, of persons speaking of themselves in the plural
number. “Given at our palace,” “It is our pleasure,” are common expressions of kings in
their proclamations (p. 54).
Morgridge adds:
It is common in all languages with which we are acquainted, and it appears to have
always been so, for an individual, especially if he be a person of great dignity and power,
in speaking of himself only, to say we, our, us, instead of I, my, me. Thus, the king of
France says, “We, Charles the tenth.” The king of Spain says, “We, Ferdinand the
seventh.” The Emperor of Russia says “We, Alexander,” or “We, Nicholas” (p. 93).
The plural of majesty can be seen in Ezra 4:18. In Ezra 4:11, the men of the Trans-
Euphrates wrote, “To King Artaxerxes, from your servants.” The book of Ezra continues,
“The king sent this reply: Greetings. The letter you sent us has been read and
translated….” Thus, although the people wrote to the king himself, the king used the
word “us.” It is common in such correspondence that the plural is used when someone
speaks of his intentions, and the use of the more literal singular is used when the person
acts. Morgridge adds more insight when he says:
It is well known that Mohammed was a determined opposer of the doctrine of the Trinity:
yet he often represents God as saying we, our, us, when speaking only of Himself. This
shows that, in his opinion, the use of such terms was not indicative of a plurality of
persons. If no one infers, from their frequent use in the Koran, that Mohammed was a
Trinitarian, surely their occurrence in a few places in the Bible ought not to be made a
proof of the doctrine of the Trinity (p. 94).
3. Some scholars believe that the reason for the “us” in Genesis 1:26 is that God could
have been speaking with the angels when he created man in the beginning. Although that
is possible, because there are many Scriptures that clearly attribute the creation of man to
God alone, we believe that the plural of emphasis is the preferred explanation.
4. The name of God is not the only word that is pluralized for emphasis (although when
the plural does not seem to be good grammar, the translators usually ignore the Hebrew
plural and translate it as a singular, so it can be hard to spot in most English versions)
After Cain murdered Abel, God said to Cain, “the voice of your brother’s bloods cries to
me from the ground” (Gen. 4:10). The plural emphasizes the horror of the act. In Genesis
19:11, the men of Sodom who wanted to hurt Lot were smitten with “blindness.” The
Hebrew is in the plural, “blindnesses,” and indicates that the blindness was total so Lot
would be protected. Leviticus tells people not to eat fruit from a tree for three years, and
in the fourth year the fruit is “an offering of praise to the Lord” (Lev. 19:24). The Hebrew
word for “praise” is plural, emphasizing that there was to be great praise. Psalm 45:15
tells of people who are brought into the presence of the Messiah. It says, “They are led in
with joy and gladness.” The Hebrew actually reads “gladnesses,” emphasizing the great
gladness of the occasion. In Ezekiel 25 God is speaking of what has happened to Israel
and what He will do about it. Concerning the Philistines, He said, “Thus saith the Lord
GOD; Because the Philistines have dealt by revenge, and have taken vengeance with a
despiteful heart, to destroy it for the old hatred; Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD;
Behold, I will stretch out mine hand upon the Philistines, and I will cut off the
Cherethims, and destroy the remnant of the sea coast. And I will execute great vengeance
upon them with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall
lay my vengeance upon them.” (Ezekiel 25:15-17). Ezekiel 25:17 was made famous by
the movie Pulp Fiction. Jules, who was played by Samuel L Jackson, makes a
melodramatic quote from Ezekiel with which he accompanied his executions. Jules'
speech from Ezekiel 25:17: "The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the
iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of
charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly
his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with
great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers.
And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you." This is not
from Ezekiel 25:17 as only the last sentence and part of the second last sentence, will be
found there. This In the Hebrew text, the second vengeance, the vengeance of God, is in
the plural, indicating the complete vengeance that the Lord will inflict. Although many
more examples exist in the Hebrew text, these demonstrate that it is not uncommon to use
a plural to emphasize something in Scripture.
Buzzard, p. 13
Farley, pp. 25-27
Hyndman, pp. 53 and 54
Morgridge, pp. 92-96
Snedeker, pp. 359-367