The objection to this view has been made that, with the plural form Elohim, in Gen. 1, the singular verb is used. Such a use of a singular predicate with a plural subject is, however, common in Hebrew. On page 111 of Harper's Hebrew Syntax we find the following rule covering the case, viz: "When the predicate precedes the subject it may agree with the subject in number or it may assume the primary form, viz.: third masculine singular, whatever be the number of the following subject." So the plural form Elohim after a singular verb, the construction found in Gen. i, and elsewhere, is no proof that it is singular in any sense. Similar constructions are found with other words in Gen. i:14, where the singular of the verb haya, be, is followed by the plural noun meoroth, lights; in Gen. 41:50, where the singular verb yullodh, was born, is followed by the plural noun sheney banim, two sons; in Job 42:15, where the singular verb nimtsa, was found, is followed by the plural noun nashim, women. Many similar examples might be given to illustrate the rule.
That Elohim was used in the plural sense in Gen. 1, is shown in the 26th verse, where the Elohim in referring to themselves use the plural suffix, nu, our, twice; and they also use the plural form of the verb naaseh, let us make. Also in Gen. 11:7, where nerdhah, let us descend, and nabhlah, let us confuse, two verbs in the plural form, proceed from the mouth of God, In Gen 3:5. the plural construct participle, yodhe, knowers of, modifies the noun, Elohim, which therefore is also plural. It is just possible that this participle is predicated of the subject you, but the participle would then follow the finite verb, giving a very unusual construction for the early Hebrew writers. One such construction is, however, found in Gen. 4:17, "he became (one) building a city."
The thought of the possibility of God's having with him great associates was alive even to the time of Isaiah, as is shown in Isaiah 6:8, where Jehovah said, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Jehovah was a personal name applied to the Being who guided Israel, and afterwards lived on the earth as Jesus Christ. (III Nephi, 15:5, Doc. and Cov. sec. 110.) Probably few of the Jews were ever able to distinguish Jehovah from Elohim, as it was latterly used, i. e., in the singular sense, and so when late writers wrote down the portion of Genesis where the name of Jehovah began to be used, they placed next to it, for the same purpose for which we now place the marginal reading, the word Elohim. So we have in Gen. 2:4; 3:24, and in some other places, the expression Jehovah Elohim, translated the Lord God. The words were put together late in Israel's history when Elohim had come to be used in the singular; Jehovah Elohim meant Jehovah, i. e., God. Later the explanatory use of the word Elohim was forgotten, and the two words combined to apply to God. (See page 219 of Brown's Hebrew Lexicon, the most authoritative lexicon in English, for the above explanation.)
The use of the singular noun Eloah is almost confined to poetry. It is used in Psalm 18 and in Deut. 32. There is ground for saying that the Savior on the cross in crying out to his Father, used the singular form Eloah. In combining Eloah with the suffix i, meaning my, and expressing the result in Greek the h would be dropped, for there is no letter h in the Greek alphabet. A, which was merely introduced to assist the Hebrew to pronounce the h, would also be dropped. The result would give us Eloi, the form given in the basic gospel, in Mark 15:34. (See also Judges 5:5, of the Septuagint).
In the year 1830, we find Joseph Smith, in the face of the tradition of the whole world, daring to render the word Elohim in Gen i, et seq., in the plural. It is one great evidence of the divinity of the Church of Jesus Christ restored in these last days that its prophet said many things, in the day in which he lived, that a progressive people are beginning to appreciate as true; and so we find learned men sympathizing with the daring position taken above. With reference to Gen. 1:26, and similar passages, we find as one explanation in the lexicon mentioned above, a lexicon based on the work of Gesenius, the great German Hebrew scholar, that God was in consultation with angels. Now, since the term "angel," a term used loosely by the scholars, is made there to mean and refer to superhuman beings sufficiently advanced in intelligence to be included in a consultation with God, we have our prophet's explanation exactly. In conclusion I shall quote the words of the great Biblical scholar, the Rev. A. B. Davidson of Edinburgh, in explanation of the same: "The use of 'us' by the divine speaker (Gen. 1:26, 3:22, 11:17) is strange, but is perhaps due to his consciousness of being surrounded by other beings of a loftier order than men (Is. 5:8)." (See Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible, page 205.)
OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD.[A]
BY ELDER WILLIAM HENRY WHITTALL.
[Footnote A: Millennial Star Vol. xxiii No. 19, p. 292.]
In comparing the ideas of others with our own upon any subject, with a view of coming to a clear understanding and just conclusion on the points discussed, it is both important and necessary that a clear definition of terms be given and received. Most of the disputes which arise in all classes of society, religious and secular, would be avoided to a great extent, if the disputants clearly understood and attended to each other's terms, and clearly defined their own.
Words are frequently used in such different sense—sometimes primary, and sometimes secondary—sometimes literal, and sometimes figurative, that a misconception is often likely to arise, which might be easily prevented, were a plain definition of terms given at the outset. Opposite parties are too apt to place their own constructions on each other's expressions.