Excellent write-up. I taught comparative religion in a Jewish high school for a number of years, and told the students that perhaps it was best to translate "Elohim," in most cases, as "the divine." While the documentary hypothesis has largely been abandoned, I still think it is likely that there were rival traditions, one favoring the Tetragrammaton and holding a relatively anthropomorphic view of the deity, while the other prerferred "Elohim" and saw God in far less personal terms. In any event, outside of the Orthodox world, I think most contemporary Jews have at best a vague notion of who or what God is ... so perhaps Elohim is the most appropriate name to use in the modern era.

Donald Armstrong
Donald Armstrong

Written by Donald Armstrong

Moved by a conviction that we humans--gifted with reason--can do so much better than we are; asks how both politics and faith can better serve humanity's needs.

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