Why do the bible uses elohim which is a plural word for Gods

>>9931612
some other anon in another thread said Hebrew has a "royal we" in their language as well. "elohim" is only used in one instance in Genesis anyway.

>>9931624
but the word is plural and christians believe god is one single entity.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_we

>>9931631
But it's plural

>>9931641
majestic plural

>>9931612
Because the Hebrews liberally borrowed from the Canaanites and its complicated.

>>9931646
but the bible in other places use singular for god.

>>9931641
Yes, and plural words can sometimes refer to singular subjects. Welcome to language.

>>9931612
Because surprise, the bible is made up bullshit and at some point ancient people decided to start worshiping one god instead of many and tried passing it off as though that had been the way it had always been.
>The notion of divinity underwent radical changes in the early period of 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.[1]
>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".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elohim

>>9931612
This is my God. There are many like it, but this one is mine.

>>9931624
> "elohim" is only used in one instance in Genesis anyway.
Er, what? Elohim occurs throughout the Old testament. Most the places where English translations say 'God' are 'Elohim' in the Hebrew.

>>9931612

Your fingers are part of you and are one with you, and yet they are called fingers to denote aspects of yourself that serve a specific purpose. "Gods" which are responsible for specific cosmic functions are no different.

>>9931612
El - Singular
Elim - Plural
Elohim - more like a honorary title
Plural and Singular are used interchangably when communicating with the divine (Abraham also adresses the 3 angles first in singular then plural) So if in doubt go with the trinity
Another interpretation is that, since Baalim used to be bound to a specific location or phenomenon, and God is the god of all, Elohim is the God of all gods, the God encompassing all

Holy trinity or some shit lel

>>9932640
Elohim is used for multiple gods, e.g. psalm 82. It can also refer to divine beings in general, like angels.

Elyon is the god above gods, though of course he's synonymous with YHWH in Hebrew bible.

>>9931630
the holy trinity