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The Significant Theological Impact of a Magnified

Translation of Exodus 20:1-3

I. Introduction

Bible readers are usually familiar with the Ten Commandments (the Decalogue or

the Ten Words) and their related accounts. Jehovah (Yahweh or the LORD) Elohim

(God) wrote the Ten Commandments on two stone tablets with His fingers. Elohim gave

them to Moses and commanded Moses to keep them in the Ark of the Covenant which is

kept from the public in the Most Holy Place of the Tabernacle in the wilderness. During

the time of the Judges, even looking into the Ark out of curiosity was punishable by death.

Once the temple was built by Solomon, the Ark continued to be kept from ordinary sight

and was guarded by the Lawgiver inside the Most Holy Place. When Moses copied the

Ten Commandments into the book of Exodus, Elohim, who was actively involved with

the action of His servant, banished Moses from entering Canaan before he died. The

punishment was for disregarding Elohim‟s command to call for, not to strike, water from

the stone. It can be assumed that Moses copied the Ten Commandments correctly

because he was not punished when he did so. As a result, the Jewish people have been

able to accurately copy and preserve the Ten Commandments in their synagogues. Later

on, after the Logos of Elohim incarnated as Jesus Christ, He did not point out any

inaccuracies due to miscopying in the Hebrew version of the Ten Commandments. After

Jesus ascended to Heaven as our High Priest, His divine Representative, the Holy Spirit,

was and still is very active on Earth. But the Holy Spirit has not revealed to Elohim‟s

people that the current Hebrew version of the Ten Commandments is not accurate. One

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of the reasons why many of these measures were taken to protect the Ten

Commandments was to ensure the accurate and perpetual communication of the text.

Elohim loves the world so much that He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, in

order to make it possible for people to spend perfect eternity with Him. Elohim wants

people to benefit from the Ten Commandments, even though He knows full well that

they are not always able to do so perfectly. They are therefore instead saved by choosing

to trust Jesus as their personal Savior who paid for their sins and was resurrected from the

dead for their justification. However, for those whose first language is not ancient

biblical Hebrew, there is a need for an accurate translation and interpretation of the Ten

Commandments in order to reap the benefits intended by Jehovah Elohim.

II. The Purpose of This Research Paper

The purpose of this sample research paper is to provide a more magnified

translation of the modern English versions and their corresponding interpretations of the

first three sentences of the Ten Commandments of Elohim as recorded as Exodus 20:1-3

of the Hebrew Old Testament.

III. A Sample of Three Modern Popular Translations of Exodus

20:1-3

There are many English translations of these verses; three versions are reproduced

in the following section.

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A. King James Version

1 And God spake all these words, saying, 2 I am the LORD thy God,

which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

B. New International Version

1 And God spoke all these words: 2 "I am the LORD your God, who

brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 3 You shall have no

other gods before [a] me….

Footnotes: [a] Exodus 20:3 Or besides

C. The Message

1-2 God spoke all these words: I am God, your God, who brought you out

of the land of Egypt, out of a life of slavery. 3 No other gods, only me.

The above three versions of English translations, King James Version (KJV),

New International Version (NIV), and the Message are being referred to here for different

reasons: KJV is popular among the older and more conservative Christians, NIV is

popular among the less conservative Christians, and The Message is popular among the

younger yet serious Christians who appreciate the knowledge of biblical languages and

the literary style of Pastor Eugene H Peterson.

There exists a working dynamic between Bible commentaries and Bible

translations which influence and reinforce one another.

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IV. A Sample of Three Modern Interpretations of Exodus 20:1-3

A. Willmington‟s Bible Handbook by H.L. Willmington

“Do not worship any other gods besides me.” God will have no rivals,

whether from false religions or from otherwise good things, such as family,

money, or fame, which may usurp his preeminent place in our devotion. 1

B. A Biblical Theology of the Old Testament by Roy B. Zuck

This first commandment directly addresses the heart of the relationship

presupposed by the sovereign vassal treaty. Yahweh, by virtue of His election

and saving deliverance of His people from another lord (Egypt), commands

them to undertake and maintain an attitude of undivided loyalty to Him. “You

shall have no other gods before me” (v. 3) is a categorical affirmation of

Yahweh‟s exclusive claims to lordship and worship. To violate this

commandment is to repudiate the entire covenant relationship, for it is nothing

short of high treason.2

C. The Book of Exodus by Brevard S. Childs

Equally important for the interpretation is to note what is not being said. The

claim for Yahweh's exclusiveness in the sense that Yahweh alone has

existence is not contained in the first commandment. The contrast in idiom

between Ex. 20.5 and that of II Isaiah is striking: 'There is no other god

besides me' (45.21), 'none except me' ('ayin zulafi, 45.21), ‟no one else' ('en

'od, 45.6), 'no other gods' ('epes lelohim, 45.14). However, in the first

commandment the prohibition describes the relation of Yahweh to Israel by

categorically eliminating other gods as far as Israel is concerned. The use of

the singular (lo' yihyeh leka) emphasizes the restricted nature of the

reference.3

Noteworthy is the commentary of Childs, who, although supports the existence of

an exclusive God, suggests that the idea is not derived from the first commandment. He

goes on further to assert that the first commandment does not contain this claim regarding

1 Willmington, H. L.: Willmington's Bible Handbook. Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers, 1997, S. 52

2 Zuck, Roy B.: A Biblical Theology of the Old Testament. Electronic ed. Chicago: Moody Press, 1991;

Published in electronic form by Logos Research Systems, 1996, S. 37 3 Childs, Brevard S.: The Book of Exodus. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: The Westminster Press, 1976, c1974,

S. 403

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the exclusiveness of Yahweh in the sense that there is only one self-existing deity like

Elohim in existence. Instead he states that there were no other gods who had the

redeeming relationship between Israelites and Yahweh who delivered them from the

slavery imposed by the Egyptians. Referring to Exodus 20:3, John I Durham takes a

similar stand, that “…the first commandment is not an assertion of monotheistic

conviction, that Yahweh is the only God, and hence the sole choice.”4

So, could these three Hebrew sentences allow, or even support the perception,

interpretation, understanding, or exegesis that there is more than one self-existed Beings

like Jehovah Elohim? These three Hebrew sentences will be examined more closely, as

if with a magnifying glass, in the following section.

V. A Sample of One Hebrew Version of Exodus 20:1-3

For the Hebrew text, the sentences to be examined were chosen from the

Westminster Leningrad Codex because they can be conveniently copied from

www.BlueLetterBible.org and its non-pointed text is same as Biblia Hebraica

Stuttgartensia as found in The NIV Interlinear Hebrew-English Old Testament, 1987

edition:

בר ת אלהים ויד רים א דב לה כל־ה א ר ה לאמ

כי נ יךא יהוה א ר לה אתיך אש וצ ץ ה ר א ים מ דים מבית מצר עב

ה־לך לא רים אלהים יהי י אח נ ל־פ ע5

At my present level of understanding the Hebrew language, I am not able to

evaluate the accuracy of vowel pointing. I will simply zoom in on the consonant text

4 Durham, John I.: Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 3, Exodus. Waco, Texas: Word Books, Publisher,

1987, P.285. 5 www.BlueLetterBible.org

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starting from each word and word group, then advance to the sentences, then to the

nearby context, and lastly, consider the context of the whole council of the Bible as time

and the length of 15-25 pages allows.

VI. Word-by-Word Grammatical Study of the Hebrew Text

Reproduced below is the parsing work already done by Andersen-Forbes:

A. Exodus 20:1

a. בר ויד

and :ו

conjunction, sequential ( (ו

ekops eh :((FA) 1#) דבר

verb, piel, active, prefixed (imperfect) sequential, singular, masculine,

third person

b. אלהים: God

noun, proper, divine, singular, masculine, normal

c. ת [.nota acc] :((AF) #1) א

preposition, object marker

d. כל (#2 (AF)): all of

noun, common, “all”, collective, common, construct

e. רים דב ה

eht :((FA) 1#) ה

miscellany, definite article

words :((AF) #5) דבר

noun, common, plural, masculine, normal, definite with ה

f. לה א ה

the :((AF) #1) ה

Miscellany, definite article

these :((AF) #4) אל

Noun, common, adjective, plural, common, normal, definite with ה

g. ר לאמ

to :ל

Preposition, “to” (ל)

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say :((AF) #1) אמ

Verb, qal, active, infinitive construct, construct

B. Exodus 20:2

a. כי נ I א

Pronoun, personal, singular, common, first person

b. יהוה: Yahweh

Noun, proper, divine, singular, masculine, normal

c. יך gods : אלה

gods | AFAT :((AF) #5) אלה

Noun, common, plural, masculine, suffixed

TAFA | (m)eeht :((FA) 4#) אתה

Pronoun, suffixed, singular, masculine, second person

d. ר which :((AF) #3) אש

Miscellany, nominalizer

e. אתיךה I brought out :וצ

I brought out | AFAT :((AF) #1) יצא

Verb, hifil, active, suffixed (perfect), singular, common, first person

TAFA | (m)eeht :((FA) 4#) אתה

Pronoun, suffixed, singular, masculine, second person

f. ץ ר א מ

from :((AF) #1) מן

Preposition, “from” (מן)

fo dnal :ארץ

Noun, common, singular, feminine, construct

g. ים Egypt : מצר

Noun, proper, land, singular, feminine, normal

h. מבית

from :((AF) #1) מן

Preposition, “from” (מן)

fo esuoh :בית

Noun, common, singular, masculine, construct

i. דים servants : עב

Noun, common, plural, masculine, normal

C. Exodus 20:3

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a. לא (#1 (AF)): not

Adverbial, negative, “not” (לא)

b. יהיה : he will be

Verb, qal, active, prefixed (imperfect), singular, masculine, third person

c. לך

ot :ל

Preposition, “to” (ל)

d. אלהים : gods

Noun, common, plural, masculine, normal

e. רים others : אח

Noun, common, adjective, plural, masculine, normal

f. על (#3 (AF)): upon

Preposition, “upon” (על)

g. ני face : פ

Noun, common, plural, masculine, suffixed

VII. A Rough Literal Translation of Exodus 20:1-3

Based on the parsing of the above word-by-word grammatical study of the

passage, Exodus 20:1-3 can be roughly and literally translated by the word order as in the

following:

Exodus 12:1 And He spoke Elohim Himself all of the words the these to say:

Exodus 12:2 I Yahweh your Gods which I brought you out from land of Egypt

from house of servants

Exodus 12:3 Not he will be to gods others upon my faces

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The Hebrew word for “face” is always in plural form. Therefore, for smoothness,

translation decisions have to be made and the word “face” is read literally as “faces” or

“face,” assuming that Yahweh has only one face. Other translation decisions have to be

made because words can take on many different meanings.6

VIII. A Smooth Literal Translation of Exodus 20:1-3

For Exodus 20:1, the word for “God” is a proper noun. Therefore it is preferable

to use the transliteration, “Elohim.” 7

Exodus chapter 1-19 provides the context for

Exodus 20:2 where “house” can be read as “household,” and “servants” can read as

“slaves.”8 Since the nominalizer can be translated as “which” or “who” in reference to

Yahweh, a person, the translation preference is “who.” To complete the sentence the

English language, the verb must be filled in with “am” after “I” and an object “you” in

after the verb “brought out.” Even though the subject “I” is singular and “Yahweh” is

used as a proper name, it is necessary to make clear that “your Gods,” can be read either

as a singular or plural noun. Since scholars are quite confident that the Hebrew text

containing the Hebrew word for “your Gods” was accurately transmitted by the scribes, it

can be believed that the Law Giver wrote the same word on the table of stone. So did

Elohim mean to use “your Gods,” which is used as a common noun or “your Elohim,”

which is used as a proper noun, like the first name of a person? Therefore, since “your

Elohim” fits the context of the sentence with the least explanation (according to the 6 Harris, R. Laird; Harris, Robert Laird; Archer, Gleason Leonard; Waltke, Bruce K.: Theological

Wordbook of the Old Testament. electronic ed. Chicago : Moody Press, 1999, c1980, S. 105 7 Brown, Francis; Driver, Samuel Rolles; Briggs, Charles Augustus: Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs

Hebrew and English Lexicon. electronic ed. Oak Harbor, WA : Logos Research Systems, 2000, S. 82 8 Harris, R. Laird; Harris, Robert Laird; Archer, Gleason Leonard; Waltke, Bruce K.: Theological

Wordbook of the Old Testament. electronic ed. Chicago : Moody Press, 1999, c1980, S. 639 (servants), 105

(house)

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philosophical principle of Occam‟s Razor), it is the better translation choice in regards to

simplicity. According to section VI, Andersen-Forbes prefers “your Gods,” which makes

it necessary to consider the complex ancient Hebrew concept of corporate personality.9

For Exodus 20:3, the Hebrew word “lo” can be translated as “not,” no,” or “to

him.”10

This presents a difficult choice because the verb “he will be” is singular. The

phrase “other gods” in this sentence is plural. Therefore, the three Hebrew words for “no,”

“other,” and “gods” should be treated as the phrase “No other gods.” Childs has found

that it is most useful to treat “upon” and “faces” as the phrase “before me.”11

Exodus 12:1 And Elohim Himself spoke to say all of these specific words:

Exodus 12:2 I am12

Yahweh your Elohim who brought you out from the land of

Egypt, from the household of slaves.

Exodus 12:3 No others will be gods to you before Me.

Up to this point of translation, the passage seems to support the idea that there is

only one deity and that there is no other god. This next section will magnify the text even

further to reveal the finer details in examination of this theory.

IX. Note Worthy Information about Plural of Hebrew Nouns

Before moving onto the next step towards a grammatically correct, magnified

translation of the above Hebrew text, it would be beneficial to cite crucial scholarly

9 Robinson, H. Wheeler: Corporate Personality in Ancient Israel. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1980, c1964,

P.25-34 10

Harris, R. Laird; Harris, Robert Laird; Archer, Gleason Leonard; Waltke, Bruce K.: Theological

Wordbook of the Old Testament. electronic ed. Chicago: Moody Press, 1999, c1980, S. 464 (not) 11

Childs, Brevard S.: The Book of Exodus. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: The Westminster Press, 1976,

c1974, S. 403 12

I will follow the general practice of using italic for words that was implied but with no corresponding

word in the Hebrew manuscript.

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knowledge concerning the number of Hebrew nouns according LaSor: “Originally, 3

numbers were indicated, singular (one), dual (two), and plural (three or more).” 13

So the

plural forms of ancient Hebrew nouns can mean more than two entities. This contradicts

the commonly accepted meaning of the plural form of the noun as referring to “more than

one entity” which includes both the original meaning of dual and plural.14

Therefore

throughout the rest of the research paper, when Hebrew nouns are referred to, plural

means “three or more.”

X. A Rough Magnified Translation of Exodus 20:1-3

Reproduced below is the magnified version of Exodus 20:1-3:

Exodus 12:1 And Elohim Himself spoke to say all of these specific three or

more words:

Exodus 12:2 I am Yahweh, your personal15

Elohim (three or more Gods), who

brought each of you out from the land of Egypt, from the household of three or

more slaves.

Exodus 12:3 No three or more others (additional or another or next)16

will be

gods (Elohim) to you upon My face (My three or more faces).

13

LaSor, William Sanford: Handbook of Biblical Hebrew Volume 2. Grand Rapids, Michigan: WM. B.

Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1979, S. 75 14

Andersen, Francis I.; Forbes, A. Dean: A Systematic Glossary to the Andersen-Forbes Analysis of the

Hebrew Bible. Logos Bible Software, 2006; 2006 15

Jehovah-Eloheka = The LORD your God. This title is found 20 times in Deuteronomy 16. Taking its

use from Exodus (Exodus 20:2) where it is often used, this divine name denotes Jehovah s relationship to

His people, and their responsibility to Him. This name is more personal than His previous name, Jehovah-

Eloheenu = The LORD our God. Smith, Stelman; Cornwall, Judson: The Exhaustive Dictionary of Bible

Names. North Brunswick, NJ : Bridge-Logos, 1998, S. 84 16

Swanson, James: Dictionary of Biblical Languages With Semantic Domains: Hebrew (Old Testament).

electronic ed. Oak Harbor : Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997, S. DBLH 337, #4

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XI. Preferences Made for a Smooth Magnified Translation of

Exodus 20:1-3

By looking into the details of Hebrew nouns or the less-encompassing second

person English pronouns, the force of the passage is made clearer.

For Exodus 20:1, since Elohim spoke not just one word or two words, but the

open ended three or more words, there can be an expected three or more words or

commandments. In fact there are ten words.

For Exodus 20:2, Yahweh, the Hero, is not just the aloof Hero of those who were

freed from Egypt. Yahweh is also the personal Hero of each individual whom He has

redeemed and delivered. Moreover, since the reader sees that the household of not just

one slave or two slaves, but three or more slaves, the author challenges the reader to want

to know exactly how many slaves our Hero has redeemed and delivered. Since there are

two translation options for the word “elohim,” the choice is between “Elohim,” a proper

noun in plural form, or another common noun that is plural in number. The preceding

proper noun “Yhvh,” its singular pronoun “anoki,” and the corresponding singular verb

“yatsa,” the choice of preference of the two options is clear -- the proper noun, “Elohim.”

If Elohim of Exodus 20:1, who spoke to say this statement, wanted to emphasize that

Yahweh is the only deity, He could have used “el,” Hebrew for the word “a single god.”

So why did Elohim not write on the stone with His finger, “el” instead of “elohim?”

Moreover, somehow Andersen-Forbes preferred the choice of the common noun, “Gods.”

Examining the immediate context may illuminate the right choice of translation.

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In Exodus 20:3, since the word, “achar” could mean “other,” “another,” “next,” or

“additional,” it is definitely related to the previous “Elohim” in Exodus 20:2 as a contrast.

Consistent with “Elohim” in number, Elohim used “panay,” which means “faces,” instead

of “panah,” which means “face,” a possible form, even though the plural form is the only

form found in the Hebrew Bible. However, the verb “haya” is singular.

With this complex mixture of plural, singular nouns, and verbs within two verses,

the Hebrew concept of corporate personality in ancient Israel must be considered.17

Even

though considering the complexity of this concept and how it was expressed in the

ancient Hebrew language it must be considered before any final translation preferences

can be made.

H. Wheeler Robinson described the Hebrew conception of corporate personality

in his article as the following:

In the terminology of English law, “corporation” denotes either “a body

corporate legally authorized to act as a single individual,” or “an artificial person

created by royal charter, prescription, or legislative act, and having the capacity of

perpetual succession.”18

Both usages are covered by the Hebrew conception of

corporate personality, though without the necessity for any legal prescription.

The larger or smaller group was accepted without question as a unity; legal

prescription was replaced by the fact or fiction of the blood-tie, usually traced

back to a common ancestor. The whole group, including its past, present, and

future members, might function as a single individual through any one of those

members conceived as representative of it. Because it was not confined to the

living, but included the dead and the unborn, the group could be conceived as

living forever.19

17

Robinson, H. Wheeler: Corporate Personality in Ancient Israel. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1980, c1964,

P.25-34 18

Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. 19

Robinson, H. Wheeler: Corporate Personality in Ancient Israel. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1980, c1964,

P.25

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Since according to Ecclesiastes there is “no new thing under the sun,”20

could the

singular-plural phenomena here in Exodus 20:2-3, the plural with singular suffixes, be the

tool through which Elohim used to reveal to His audience that Yahweh is actually a

Corporate Personality? The affirmative can be supported by Robinson‟s writings on the

applications of the conception of corporate personality:

They would range from the accidence and syntax of Hebrew grammar up

to the highest levels of Old Testament theology. …in the use of such words as

nephesh [“breath,” “spirit,” or “soul”], lebh [“heart”], dam [“blood”] in the

singular with plural suffixes.21

So at this point, for the magnified translation of Exodus 20:2-3, the preferable

translation of “elohim” from v.2 is “three or more Gods” and that of v.3 is „three or more

gods.” Since “l” can mean “to” or “into,” meaning “of a transition into a new state or

condition, or into a new character or office.”22

In v.2, there is no explicit direct object

like “attah,” the Hebrew masculine singular second person pronoun and will be translated

to mean “into” because it is consistent with the concept of “three or more God”

incorporated into “Yahweh.”

As far as “al” of v.3 is concerned, it is rich in meaning as it contains many

prepositional translations:

1a upon, on the ground of, on the basis of, on account of, because of, therefore, on

behalf of, for the sake of, for, with, in spite of, notwithstanding, concerning, in the

matter of, as regards.

1b above, beyond, over (of excess).

20

Ecclesiastes 1:9 21

Robinson, H. Wheeler: Corporate Personality in Ancient Israel. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1980, c1964,

P.34 Cf. W. Robinson Smith, Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia (Cambridge University Press, 1885),

p.40: “The whole kindred conceives itself as having a single life, just as in the formula „our blood has been

spilt‟ it speaks of itself as having but one blood in its veins.” 22

Brown, Francis; Driver, Samuel Rolles; Briggs, Charles Augustus: Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs

Hebrew and English Lexicon. electronic ed. Oak Harbor, WA : Logos Research Systems, 2000, S. 512

15

1c above, over (of elevation or pre-eminence).

1d upon, to, over to, unto, in addition to, together with, with (of addition). 1e over

(of suspension or extension).

1f by, adjoining, next, at, over, around (of contiguity or proximity).

1g down upon, upon, on, from, up upon, up to, towards, over towards, to, against

(with verbs of motion).23

“Panay” of v.3 can be translated to mean “three or more faces” instead of “face”

because it is more natural when there are no nouns or pronouns behind “panay.” With

the absence of “ani” which means “you” is popularly implied in the sentence, there are

many prepositional meanings of “al” with the exception of “before.” It is better to

assume that “faces” is referring to the faces of living beings and things as well as surfaces

of the waters and the dry lands. In another words, here the phrase “al-panay” means

“anywhere.”

Putting the words of v.3 together, it can be understood that Elohim made a

statement meaning “No three or more other gods will be united into a corporate

personality anywhere.” The three or more Members of Yahweh love and unite with each

other perfectly but there exists no other three or more gods who are able to do the same

anywhere else. Therefore the Members of Yahweh are more worthy to be the Gods of the

audience of the Ten Commandments. There exists no other three or more gods capable

of the same phenomenon, but logically it is possible for there to be two gods who can

unite into one. One god cannot form a corporate personality by himself because it takes

at least two members to form a group. So Elohim stated that there may be two other gods

who can love and unite with each other perfectly like Yahweh. However, since a group

23

Strong, James: The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible: Showing Every Word of the Text of the

Common English Version of the Canonical Books, and Every Occurrence of Each Word in Regular Order.

electronic ed. Ontario : Woodside Bible Fellowship., 1996, S. H5921

16

of three or more is larger than a group of two, Yahweh is capable of greater feats of love

and has the power to unite in comparison to the two other gods.

With these translation preferences, the next section will go on to present the

smooth magnified translation of Exodus 20:1-3.

XII. A Smooth Magnified Translation of Exodus 20:1-3

Exodus 12:1 And Elohim Himself spoke to say all of these specific three or

more words:

Exodus 12:2 I am Yahweh, your personal three or more Gods, who brought

each of you out from the land of Egypt, from the household of three or more

slaves.

Exodus 12:3 No three or more other gods will be united into a corporate

personality anywhere.

XIII. One Theological Impact to the Readers of the Magnified

Translation of Exodus 20:1-3

A popular orthodox understanding of Exodus 20:1-3 states that the Bible espouses

monotheism and identifies the form of the Holy Trinity with the words “One God” in the

beginning of many statements of faith such as in the following:

“One God exists eternally in three persons.”

Readers of the above magnified translation of the same passage may find it

shocking, questionable and even heretical. It is controversial and unsettling as readers

might ask, “Even given that there are three or more Gods in the group of God as a

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Corporate Personality with Yahweh as His proper name, how many individual Gods

exactly are there in Yahweh?”

This is indeed a very important question. According to Exodus chapter 19, at Mt.

Sinai, Elohim‟s audience, the Israelites, did not have the written book form of Genesis or

Job, popularly known as two of the oldest written books of the Bible. However, the oral

form of the creation story must have been known to them at that time because the

commandment about the Sabbath refers to the story as in Exodus 20:8-11. They were

commanded to work six days and rest on the seventh because it was passed down through

oral tradition that Yahweh worked six days and rested on the seventh. Moses recorded

this piece of oral history which became the verses now known as Genesis 1:1-2:3. If an

Israelite who heard Elohim speak was asked, “How many individual Gods are in the

Yahweh group?” it can be speculated that he would start reciting pieces of his oral history

in order to find the answer. He might say, “In the beginning Elohim…one…created the

heavens and the Earth. The Spirit of Elohim…is two….the Image of Elohim…is

three. …Elohim created to make. Three! There are exactly three Creators in Yahweh.

Each Creator is a God.”

It could be argued that the Israelites believed in Tri-theism. According to Paul P

Enns,

Tri-theism. In early church history men such as John Ascunages and John Philoponus

taught that there were three who were God but they were only related in a loose

association as, for example, Peter, James, and John were as disciples. The error of this

teaching was that its proponents abandoned the unity within the Trinity with the result

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that they taught that there were three Gods rather than three Persons within one

Godhead.24

Please note that John Ascunages and John Philoponus taught that the three Gods “were

only related in a loose association.”

But the fact is that the ancient Israelites are not tri-theists. To them, the three

Deities, namely Elohim, the Spirit of Elohim, and the Image of Elohim are all part of the

corporate personality and therefore are not loosely associated with one another. The

three Deities reveal Their tight association through at least three ways: (1) Through the

literal meaning of Elohim, “three or more Gods,” which refers to the existence of three

beings just like how some ancient Hebrew names refer to historical facts. For example,

Jacob, which literally means “grab,” commemorates the actual event of his grabbing of

his brothers heel at birth. The name, Spirit of Elohim, is to show that “a body without its

spirit is dead,”25

that the Spirit and Elohim have close relationship much like the spirit

has a close relationship to the body. The name, The Image of Elohim, is to show that the

Image has a close relationship to Elohim much like an object has a close relationship to

its image. (2) Through the proper name of Their corporate personality Yahweh, (3)

Through the supernatural event, namely the creation of all things in only six days,26

which They accomplished as a team and was recorded the finger of Elohim onto the two

stone tablets.

Even Robert Baker Girdlestone, a Trinitarian, contends that there are three divine

Persons in the Godhead, marking a departure from Polytheism, and moving towards Tri-

theism:

24

Enns, Paul P.: The Moody Handbook of Theology. Chicago, Ill. : Moody Press, 1997, c1989, S. 199 25

James 2:26 26

Exodus 20:11

19

…„Elohim said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness‟ (Gen. 1:26)….

Perhaps the idea unfolded in the plural form Elohim may be expressed more

accurately by the word Godhead or Deity than by the word God; and there is

certainly nothing unreasonable in the supposition that the name of the Deity was

given to man in this form, so as to prepare him for the truth that in the Unity of

the Godhead there are Three Persons.

As long as the passage above quoted stands on the first page of the Bible, the

believer in the Trinity has a right to turn to it as a proof that Plurality in the

Godhead is a very different thing from Polytheism, and as an indication that the

frequent assertions of the Divine Unity are not inconsistent with the belief that the

Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God.27

Notice that Girdlestone was willing to state that “Father is God, the Son is God, and the

Holy Ghost is God” but not “Father is a Deity, the Sin is a Deity, and the Holy Ghost is a

Deity” in an attempt to avoid the math. A Deity plus a Deity plus a Deity equals three

Deities. A Deity multiplying a Deity multiplying a Deity equals a cubic Deity in a cubic

unit, not of a singular Deity. Infinity plus infinity plus infinity equals a three times bigger

or denser infinity than infinity. An infinity multiplying by infinity multiplying infinity

equals a cubic infinity in cubic unit and does equal to infinity of a singular unit.

Therefore this analogy of the one God version of Trinity does not work for real objects

when we consider the math requirement of handling the units.

XIV. Conclusion

Even though I have been wrestling with Exodus 20:1-3 for quite a while, due to

the late start of writing this paper and being rusty in practice of biblical study papers

using a digital library, I will not be able to deal with objections or alternative

explanations like the plural of majesty which did not exist in the Hebrew language during

27

Girdlestone, Robert Baker: Synonyms of the Old Testament: Their Bearing on Christian Doctrine. Oak

Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1998, S. 21

20

biblical times28

to strengthen my stand. To support my stand, I could only afford to

briefly introduce the Sartorius argument based on the biblical revelation that the major

characteristic of our eternal God is love and therefore there must be one or more Beings

in His category as the recipients of His love in the past eternity.29

Allow me to introduce a convention similar to the word “lord,” “Lord,” and

“LORD” in New International Version of the Bible, so that the usage of the word, “god”

can be made clearer:

1. “god” = non-biblical god in the sense of non-living things, plants, animal, or beings

regarded by the beings themselves or others as objects of worship.

2. “GOD” = a self-existed divine being

3. “God” = the English proper name which is equivalent to the Hebrew proper name

Elohim and the Greek proper name Theos of GOD the Father.

With the above convention, I would like to summarize the main points of the paper on

Exodus 20:1-3 clearly as the following:

There are three GODs in a unique corporate personality of the ancient Hebrew

conception.

The name of the corporate personality is Yahweh.

His uniqueness is memorialized by the meaning of Yahweh –“He was and He is and

He will be.”30

The three members of Yahweh, the corporate personality, were revealed in the first

chapter of Genesis. In its English translation, Their names are God, the Spirit of God,

and the Image of God.31

28

Morrey, Robert: The Trinity: Evidences and Issues. Iowa Fall, IA: World Bible Publishers, Inc., 1996, P.

94 29

Bickersteth, Edward Henry: The Trinity. Grand Rapid, MI: Kregel Publications, 1957, p.171 30

Exodus 3:14; Revelation 1:4 31

Genesis 1:1, 2, and 27

21

Exodus 20:2-3 is the seed of this knowledge surrounding Yahweh our united GODs.

Holy! Holy! Holy! Amen, amen, and amen.

22

Bibliography

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Analysis of the Hebrew Bible. Logos Bible Software, 2006; 2006

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Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon. electronic ed. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos

Research Systems, 2000.

Childs, Brevard S.: The Book of Exodus. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: The Westminster

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Books, Publisher, 1987

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c1980.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_(grammatical_number)#cite_note-0

LaSor, William Sanford: Handbook of Biblical Hebrew Volume 2. Grand Rapids,

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23

Strong, James: The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible: Showing Every Word of the

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Willmington, H. L.: Willmington's Bible Handbook. Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House

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