Lexicon

H0430 - elohim

Strong's: H0430 · BLB lookup Pronunciation: el-o-heem' Part of speech: masculine plural noun (functioning syntactically as singular when of the one true God) Root: plural of H0433 - eloah (אֱלוֹהַּ, "God / a god"), itself related to H0410 - el (אֵל, "mighty one / God")

Semantic range (Brown-Driver-Briggs)

The one true God of Israel, the dominant biblical use; takes singular verbs and adjectives despite plural form.
Pagan gods, idols, false deities, used in plural sense for foreign worship.
Divine beings, angels, heavenly host, supernatural created beings (Job 1:6 "sons of God" = bnei elohim).
Rulers, judges, magistrates, human authorities exercising divinely-delegated judgment (Psalm 82:1, 6; Exodus 21:6, 22:8).

Theological force, the plural form

The grammatical phenomenon: elohim is morphologically plural (the -im suffix) but routinely takes singular verbs, pronouns, and adjectives when referring to the God of Israel. Bereshit barāʾ elohim in Genesis 1.1 uses singular verb bara with plural noun elohim, "In the beginning God created", signaling the one true God.

Three classical readings of the plural:

Plural of majesty / intensity (rabbinic, modern Jewish, much Christian scholarship), Hebrew uses plural forms to indicate fullness, supremacy, or honor (cf. adonim for a single master). The plural form does not by itself imply plurality of persons.
Trinitarian foreshadowing (patristic and traditional Christian), read alongside the plural verbs in Genesis 1:26 ("Let us make man in our image") and Genesis 11:7 ("let us go down"), and the Trinitarian unfolding of the NT. Augustine (De Trinitate 1) and Aquinas (ST I, q.31) argue the plural form does not prove the Trinity but is consistent with later revelation.
Polytheistic residue (modern liberal-critical), vestige of Canaanite or Mesopotamian polytheism repurposed monotheistically. Conservative scholarship rejects this reading as insufficient given the rigorously monotheistic singular-verb usage.

Notable verses

One true God (singular usage)

Genesis 1.1, בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים, singular verb, the foundational use
Genesis 1:26, "Let us make man in our image", plural verb, plural pronouns
Deuteronomy 6:4, Shema Yisrael, YHWH eloheinu, YHWH echad, "the LORD is our God, the LORD is one"
Exodus 3.14, Elohim speaks the ehyeh asher ehyeh
Isaiah 9.6, El Gibbor, "Mighty God"
Psalm 82:1, Elohim presides in the divine assembly

Pagan or false gods

Exodus 20:3, "you shall have no other elohim before me"
1 Kings 11:33, Chemosh, elohim of Moab
Genesis 35:2, Jacob commands his household to put away "the foreign elohim"

Divine beings / angels

Job 1:6, bnei elohim present themselves before YHWH
Job 38:7, bnei elohim shouting for joy at creation

Human judges / rulers

Psalm 82:6, "you are elohim", quoted by Jesus in John 10.34
Exodus 21:6, slave brought "before elohim" (the judges)
Exodus 22:8-9, both parties come "before elohim"

Patristic / scholarly note

Patristic exegesis universally treats the plural in Genesis 1:26 ("Let us make") as compatible with, though not deductive of, Trinitarian theology. Justin Martyr (Dialogue with Trypho 62, c. AD 160) reads it as the Father speaking to the Son. Tertullian (Against Praxeas 12, c. AD 213) appeals to it against modalism. Modern scholarship (Bruce Waltke; Wenham, WBC Genesis) generally treats it as a "plural of self-deliberation" or "majestic plural," holding that the verse does not by itself prove plurality of persons but is hospitable to that reading once the rest of the canonical witness is in view.

The LXX renders elohim as θεός (G2316, G2316 - theos), masculine singular, collapsing the morphological plural into ordinary monotheistic Greek.

Verses in this codex

See Obsidian's backlinks pane for every verse page linking here.