YHVH Elohim and Theos in G1.1

[Stephen]

From 2009 to 2020 I built up an extensive academic library, with its main focus on the Hebrew Bible. I taught myself how to read various stages of biblical Hebrew. I found that after years of engaging with academic literature and monographs on so many different subjects pertaining to the Hebrew Bible, I had gained a real feel for the material and for the language. Alas, my peripatetic lifestyle saw me eventually donate my collection of over 2000 academic books to a university library focused on missiology. Not quite my interest, but why not give it to them? No one wanted to house such a large collection for me. Anyway, one of the many hundreds of monographs I devoured was written by a scholar called Bruce J. Harvey, an Australian. His topic was the occurrences of the collocation YHWH Elohim in the Leningrad Codex. Regrettably, he did not do a list of all occurrences of the apposition of YHWH with Elohim. He gave numbers of occurrences in each book, but not their references. He came to a total of 887 occurrences of YHWH Elohim as an apposite construct in the Leningrad Codex. Fortunately, he did list 13 other constructs that he rejected. I checked these and was quite excited when I found that one of the 13 constructs he rejected was at Jeremiah 10:10. The rest were all justified as being rejected, but not this one. When I read this verse without any Masoretic markings, ויהוה אלהים אמת הוּא־אלהים חיּים וּמלך עולם, my natural reading was, and still is, to interpret it as "YHWH Elohim is truth; He is the living God and Eternal King." Instead, most translations read "YHWH Elohim emet" as "YHWH is a god of truth," or "YHWH is the true God." But the text itself reads simply as "YHWH Elohim truth," which is why I see YHWH and Elohim in apposition in the verse. This being so, the Hebrew Bible would then have 888 examples of YHWH Elohim as a collocation, and not 887. Fascinatingly, there are two other Old Testament words that occur precisely 888 times. The first is the nominative ayin, עין, which nearly always translates as "eye." It occurs 888 times, with 872 times having a meaning of "eye," and 16 times having a meaning of "spring." It also occurs once in verbal form, 15 times as an element in personal names, 44 times as part of a toponym, and 23 times in the denominative form mayin. Richard knows a thing or two about this word. The 16th Spoke of the Bible Wheel is named after this word! Richard has written some really great articles on it. I recall him highlighting the prevalence of ayin in the Book of Zechariah, which is on the 16th Spoke. 19 occurrences in Zechariah alone, while the other 11 books of the Minor Prophets have only 14 instances collectively. [Segueways comment: the 16th Spoke has always been my favorite.] The other word that occurs precisely 888 times in the Hebrew Bible is the verb alah, עלה, meaning to "go up, ascend." All 888 occurrences are documented in the "Theological Lexicon of the Old Testament" under the verb alah. The thing about both these words is that they begin with the letter ayin. Finally, Richard did a wonderful page on the number 1776 and its relation to America some 20 years ago. I believe a discussion with him at the time prompted him to make the page. It's still there! 1776 is 111 x 16, and Spoke 16 is the letter ayin. If you circumnavigate the Wheel 80 times, you get to 1760. Another 16 spokes increment this to 1776, the ayin spoke. Richard quoted Psalm 33:12 by memory when he wrote the page: "Blessed is the nation whose God is Yahweh, and the people He has chosen for His own inheritance." He could have quoted six verses later. At 33:18 we read, הנּה עין יהוה אל־יראיו למיחלים לחסדּו "Behold, the Eye of Yahweh is upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in His mercy." Still relevant today, more than ever.

[RAMcGough]

From 2009 to 2020 I built up an extensive academic library, with its main focus on the Hebrew Bible. I taught myself how to read various stages of biblical Hebrew. I found that after years of engaging with academic literature and monographs on so many different subjects pertaining to the Hebrew Bible, I had gained a real feel for the material and for the language. Alas, my peripatetic lifestyle saw me eventually donate my collection of over 2000 academic books to a university library focused on missiology. Not quite my interest, but why not give it to them? No one wanted to house such a large collection for me.

Hey there Stephen,

Welcome to our forum!

I wish I knew you back then! I would have taken your collection of books in a heartbeat!

Anyway, one of the many hundreds of monographs I devoured was written by a scholar called Bruce J. Harvey, an Australian. His topic was the occurrences of the collocation YHWH Elohim in the Leningrad Codex. Regrettably, he did not do a list of all occurrences of the apposition of YHWH with Elohim. He gave numbers of occurrences in each book, but not their references. He came to a total of 887 occurrences of YHWH Elohim as an apposite construct in the Leningrad Codex. Fortunately, he did list 13 other constructs that he rejected. I checked these and was quite excited when I found that one of the 13 constructs he rejected was at Jeremiah 10:10. The rest were all justified as being rejected, but not this one. When I read this verse without any Masoretic markings, ויהוה אלהים אמת הוּא־אלהים חיּים וּמלך עולם, my natural reading was, and still is, to interpret it as "YHWH Elohim is truth; He is the living God and Eternal King." Instead, most translations read "YHWH Elohim emet" as "YHWH is a god of truth," or "YHWH is the true God." But the text itself reads simply as "YHWH Elohim truth," which is why I see YHWH and Elohim in apposition in the verse. This being so, the Hebrew Bible would then have 888 examples of YHWH Elohim as a collocation, and not 887.

I'm always very skeptical of whole Bible verse counts. There are too many textual variations. As a whole, the text of the Bible is extremely well-established, but not when it comes exact word counts that span the whole corpus. For example, I imported the Hebrew text of the OT from GitHub for my Interlinear Bible DB and searched for "*YHWH Elohi*" which finds all variations of that name. It found 893. Here's a link to the search.

image.png (149.25 KiB) Viewed 4876 times

But the BHS in my old BibleWorks software returned only 891. It's encouraging that the two are so close, but the lists would have to be reviewed to find where there differ and why, and which is correct, if either. And then we'd have to manually review them all for issues like Jeremiah 10:10 to know if they are truly appositional, and even then, the conclusion may be debatable. It seems there is too much uncertainty to put any confidence in the precise numbers.

I'll respond to the rest of your very interesting comments in another post.

Again, welcome to our forum! I look forward to our discussions.

Richard

[RAMcGough]

Fascinatingly, there are two other Old Testament words that occur precisely 888 times. The first is the nominative ayin, עין, which nearly always translates as "eye." It occurs 888 times, with 872 times having a meaning of "eye," and 16 times having a meaning of "spring." It also occurs once in verbal form, 15 times as an element in personal names, 44 times as part of a toponym, and 23 times in the denominative form mayin.

Those are interesting stats, but I can't easily verify them. It turns out that Hebrew doesn't even have a "nominative" case (something I was unaware of). And according to my Bible DB (imported from the STEP Bible files), H5869 occurs in 830 verses, whereas the BHS says 827. Neither list how many total occurrences of the word itself.

There are also problems with the claim of 16 occurrences of it meaning "spring". Strongs says it was translated as "fountain" 11 times and as "well" 11 times which would be 22 occurrences matching the "source of water" or "spring". I've confirmed those numbers.

Richard knows a thing or two about this word. The 16th Spoke of the Bible Wheel is named after this word! Richard has written some really great articles on it. I recall him highlighting the prevalence of ayin in the Book of Zechariah, which is on the 16th Spoke. 19 occurrences in Zechariah alone, while the other 11 books of the Minor Prophets have only 14 instances collectively. [Segueways comment: the 16th Spoke has always been my favorite.] The other word that occurs precisely 888 times in the Hebrew Bible is the verb alah, עלה, meaning to "go up, ascend." All 888 occurrences are documented in the "Theological Lexicon of the Old Testament" under the verb alah. The thing about both these words is that they begin with the letter ayin. Finally, Richard did a wonderful page on the number 1776 and its relation to America some 20 years ago. I believe a discussion with him at the time prompted him to make the page. It's still there! 1776 is 111 x 16, and Spoke 16 is the letter ayin. If you circumnavigate the Wheel 80 times, you get to 1760. Another 16 spokes increment this to 1776, the ayin spoke. Richard quoted Psalm 33:12 by memory when he wrote the page: "Blessed is the nation whose God is Yahweh, and the people He has chosen for His own inheritance." He could have quoted six verses later. At 33:18 we read, הנּה עין יהוה אל־יראיו למיחלים לחסדּו "Behold, the Eye of Yahweh is upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in His mercy." Still relevant today, more than ever.

Thanks for the good words! Spoke 16 is indeed amazing in many ways.

Are you Stephen Coneglan? It just occurred to me now that you mention those old conversations.

The 1776 stuff is truly amazing. It makes me think God really had His hand on the founding of this nation. Here's a link for those interested. https://www.biblewheel.com/GR/GR_GreatSeal.php

And as for Zechariah on Spoke 16, that's where we read of the ONE STONE with SEVEN EYES!

For behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua; upon one stone shall be seven eyes: behold, I will engrave the graving thereof, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.

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Look at that! UPON ONE STONE, SEVEN EYES = 1119 = 3 x 373 (LOGOS!)

And 1119 = JOHN (the name of the Gospel that revealed the LOGOS!)

image.png (97.49 KiB) Viewed 4851 times

[Geert van den Bos]

Look at that! UPON ONE STONE, SEVEN EYES = 1119 = 3 x 373 (LOGOS!)

And 1119 = JOHN (the name of the Gospel that revealed the LOGOS!)

image.png

Matthew 19:11
Οὐ πάντες χωροῦσιν τὸν λόγον, ἀλλ' οἷς δέδοται.

χωρέω make space
https://biblehub.com/greek/5562.htm

from χώρα room, i.e. a space of territory
https://biblehub.com/greek/5561.htm

like also χωρίζω depart, vacate; create "space"
https://biblehub.com/greek/5563.htm

Matthew 19:6
ὃ οὖν ὁ θεὸς συνέζευξεν ἄνθρωπος μὴ χωριζέτω

and χωρίς = apart from, separated ("without")
https://biblehub.com/greek/5565.htm

John 1:3-4,
πάντα δι' αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο, καὶ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἕν.
ὃ γέγονεν ἐν αὐτῷ ζωὴ ἦν, καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ἦν τὸ φῶς τῶν ἀνθρώπων·

John 8:37,
οἶδα ὅτι σπέρμα Ἀβραάμ ἐστε· ἀλλὰ ζητεῖτέ με ἀποκτεῖναι, ὅτι ὁ λόγος ὁ ἐμὸς οὐ χωρεῖ ἐν ὑμῖν

[Geert van den Bos]

John 8:37,
οἶδα ὅτι σπέρμα Ἀβραάμ ἐστε· ἀλλὰ ζητεῖτέ με ἀποκτεῖναι, ὅτι ὁ λόγος ὁ ἐμὸς οὐ χωρεῖ ἐν ὑμῖν

Genesis 15:18 LXX
ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ διέθετο Κύριος τῷ ῞Αβραμ διαθήκην λέγων· τῷ σπέρματί σου δώσω τὴν γῆν ταύτην, ἀπὸ τοῦ ποταμοῦ Αἰγύπτου ἕως τοῦ ποταμοῦ τοῦ μεγάλου, ποταμοῦ Εὐφράτου,

https://biblehub.com/genesis/15-18.htm
King James Bible
In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:


Genesis 24:7 LXX
Κύριος ὁ Θεὸς τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καὶ ὁ Θεὸς τῆς γῆς, ὃς ἔλαβέ με ἐκ τοῦ οἴκου τοῦ πατρός μου καὶ ἐκ τῆς γῆς, ἧς ἐγεννήθην, ὃς ἐλάλησέ μοι καὶ ὃς ὤμοσέ μοι λέγων· σοὶ δώσω τὴν γῆν ταύτην καὶ τῷ σπέρματί σου, αὐτὸς ἀποστελεῖ τὸν ἄγγελον αὐτοῦ ἔμπροσθέν σου. καὶ λήψῃ γυναῖκα τῷ υἱῷ μου ἐκεῖθεν.

https://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cd ... rashi/true
The Lord, God of the heavens, Who took me from my father's house and from the land of my birth, and Who spoke about me, and Who swore to me, saying, 'To your seed will I give this land' He will send His angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there.
Rashi:
and Who swore to me. At the Covenant Between the Parts.

Eliezer being the 318 initiates with whom Abram did defeat the four kings, Genesis 14:14, a matter of gematria!
https://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cd ... rashi/true

Rebekka, Genesis24:16,
Now the maiden was of very comely appearance, a virgin, and no man had been intimate with her, and she went down to the fountain, and she filled her pitcher and went up.

no man had been intimate with her = וְאִ֖ישׁ לֹ֣א יְדָעָ֑הּ
LXX ἀνὴρ οὐκ ἔγνω αὐτήν
https://www.septuagint.bible/-/genesis-24

cf. Luke 1:34,
εἶπεν δὲ Μαριὰμ πρὸς τὸν ἄγγελον, Πῶς ἔσται τοῦτο, ἐπεὶ ἄνδρα οὐ γινώσκω
https://www.greekbible.com/luke/1

The name Rebekka "rivkah" does mean a team, i.e. two or three animals yoked together
https://www.sefaria.org/Jastrow%2C_%D7% ... .1?lang=bi

i.c.w. Matthew 19:6,
ὥστε οὐκέτι εἰσὶν δύο ἀλλὰ σὰρξ μία. ὃ οὖν ὁ θεὸς συνέζευξεν ἄνθρωπος μὴ χωριζέτω.

συζεύγνυμι = bring under one yoke

the six days of creation and the seventh in the name hidden in the initial letters of "yom hashihsi vay'chullu hashamayim"

[RAMcGough]

John 1:3-4,
πάντα δι' αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο, καὶ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἕν.
ὃ γέγονεν ἐν αὐτῷ ζωὴ ἦν, καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ἦν τὸ φῶς τῶν ἀνθρώπων·

2055 = πάντα δι᾽ αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο

2055 x 13 = Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος. 2 οὗτος ἦν ἐν ἀρχῇ πρὸς τὸν θεόν. 3 πάντα δι᾽ αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο, καὶ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἓν ὃ γέγονεν. 4 ἐν αὐτῷ ζωὴ ἦν, καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ἦν τὸ φῶς τῶν ἀνθρώπων, 5 καὶ τὸ φῶς ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ φαίνει, καὶ ἡ σκοτία αὐτὸ οὐ κατέλαβεν.

2055 = 15 (יָ֗הּ) x 137 (קבלה)

[Geert van den Bos]

2055 = πάντα δι᾽ αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο
(...)
2055 = 15 (יָ֗הּ) x 137 (קבלה)

cf. LXX Genesis 1:31
καὶ εἶδεν ὁ θεὸς τὰ πάντα ὅσα ἐποίησεν καὶ ἰδοὺ καλὰ λίαν καὶ ἐγένετο ἑσπέρα καὶ ἐγένετο πρωί ἡμέρα ἕκτη

So LXX lacks one (or two) ἡ --- (ἡ) ἡμέρα ἡ ἕκτη

I do think intentionally, because of knowing the name of God being hidden there

since it has for Genesis 2:2
καὶ συνετέλεσεν ὁ θεὸς ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ ἕκτῃ τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ ἃ ἐποίησεν

It is most mysterious! The mystery of mystery (to which might allude the number 137 )

Rashi on Genesis 2:2
https://www.sefaria.org/Rashi_on_Genesis.2.2.1?lang=bi

Mark 2:27-28 alludes to that too
καὶ ἔλεγεν αὐτοῖς, Τὸ σάββατον διὰ τὸν ἄνθρωπον ἐγένετο καὶ οὐχ ὁ ἄνθρωπος διὰ τὸ σάββατον· ὥστε κύριός ἐστιν ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου καὶ τοῦ σαββάτου.

137 is also "ofan" = wheel
https://biblehub.com/hebrew/212.htm

Exodus 14:25,
He caused their bible wheels to swerve

[Geert van den Bos]

John 8:38 is a rather obscure saying

ἃ ἐγὼ ἑώρακα παρὰ τῷ πατρὶ λαλῶ· καὶ ὑμεῖς οὖν ἃ ἠκούσατε παρὰ τοῦ πατρὸς ποιεῖτε.

what I have seen in the presence of the father I do say; and you then do what you have heard from the father

https://biblehub.com/john/8-38.htm

I thought "the father" to be the one present in the initial letters of "yom hashishi vay'chullu hashamyim"

Like also Indicated in john 1:1 "and God was the word" , i.e. the word written with letters.

ἃ ἐγὼ ἑώρακα = what I have seen -- in the written text. Reading is seeing the written word, even the letters

ὑμεῖς οὖν ἃ ἠκούσατε -- viz. that Hashem is one -- which you did interpret as "there is only one God"

cf. John 10:33
The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.”
(because he said:v.30, " Ï and the father we are one")

I thought this finds confirmation in Zechariah 12:10, referred to in John 19:37
"and they shall look at me whom they have thrust through" Hebrew וְהִבִּ֥יטוּ אֵלַ֖י אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר־דָּקָ֑רוּ --

אֵ֣ת being the sign of the objective case --they made God an idol

https://x.com/elongilad/status/2063942450863907071

[Geert van den Bos]

John 8:38 is a rather obscure saying

ἃ ἐγὼ ἑώρακα παρὰ τῷ πατρὶ λαλῶ· καὶ ὑμεῖς οὖν ἃ ἠκούσατε παρὰ τοῦ πατρὸς ποιεῖτε.

what I have seen in the presence of the father I do say; and you then do what you have heard from the father

https://biblehub.com/john/8-38.htm

your hailed KJV offers an incorrect translation

King James Bible
I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father.

[RAMcGough]

John 8:38 is a rather obscure saying

ἃ ἐγὼ ἑώρακα παρὰ τῷ πατρὶ λαλῶ· καὶ ὑμεῖς οὖν ἃ ἠκούσατε παρὰ τοῦ πατρὸς ποιεῖτε.

what I have seen in the presence of the father I do say; and you then do what you have heard from the father

https://biblehub.com/john/8-38.htm

your hailed KJV offers an incorrect translation

King James Bible
I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father.

You need to be more careful with your Bible study Geert.

There is a well-known textual variation in the Greek text of that verse. The Byzantine tradition has εωρακατε (seen), whereas the Alexandrian tradition has ἠκούσατε (heard). The KJV was translated from the Byzantine tradition (primarily).

You could avoid this error by using my new Bible DB which has both versions available for comparison, and shows an orange bar under "source" when the TR differs from the NA28. And it also has a new gematria feature to automatically show the gematria for groups of words. It is curious that the verse in the TR naturally subdivides into two halves, both based on the number 551 = 19 x 29. There's no pattern like that in the NA28:

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Reminds me how Genesis 1:1 coherently subdivides into multiples of 37:

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