Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Huh? Can you repeat that one more time?

“If Elohim does not mean ‘a god’ or ‘gods’ but ‘God’ (capitalized) [in Genesis 1], then Elohim is used here [Psalm 82] as a determined noun, although Elohim is morphologically undetermined. The determination of Elohim in Gen 1 is not established by an article. Elohim seems here to be sufficiently determined by itself. Of course, this determination of Elohim is different from the regular kind of determination established by the definite article. Elohim and HaElohim need to be distinguished from one another. Elohim does not mean ‘the god’ (that is: this one out the midst of other gods) but just ‘God’ (capitalized): the one and only God.”—Reconsidering the Concept of Revolutionary Monotheism, page 284

<idle musing>
Confused yet? What he is saying is that the gods in Psalm 82 are in juxtaposition with God. The gods have failed (see this post) and are being fired...
</idle musing>

1 comment:

tim bulkeley said...

Without a bit more context I'm thoroughly confused, which 'elohim in Ps 82 is being refered to, the first looks like a name (so by convention determined) the second (still in verse one) since it is perceded by bqereb is presumably plural "between" seems to require a plural. And that's just verse one...

Perhaps the writer was more determined to make their point than to determine what exactly they were saying, though they had already evidently determined this (at least in their own mind)...