26-12-2010, 10:00 AM
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Originally Posted by Zenith
Hi there,
First off, the word אלהים (generally rendered 'God') is actually a concretized abstract plural which just means "divinity" in general. Thus, the 'God' of the first chapters of Genesis (Elohim) is merely referred to as being a divine being.
Then we have יהוה אלהים (LORD God). As you can see, this phrase includes the word 'elohim' and is thus referring to the LORD (YHWH being his name) as a divine being. One might translate יהוה אלהים аs "Yahweh, the divine one".
The two different uses of the phrases are, as you have suggested, the result of two different authors or redactors of the Biblical text. In this specific case, they are generally called the Elohist and the Jahwist redactors/authors.
I do not think in this case we are to understand LORD God as distinct from God, for the word 'God' in the Hebrew texts refers to a divine being. It's just the case that the divine being mentioned in Genesis 1 isn't actually given a name, as in Genesis 2.4ff.
Zenith
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Great reply... Thanks
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