Saturday, June 17, 2023

Philip S. Johnston: The Elohim of Psalm 8 and 82 are "supernatural beings"

  

elōhîm may also occur occasionally of supernatural beings other than the major deities, as arguably in several psalms:

 

. . . you have made them a little lower than elōhîm . . . (lit., Ps. 8:5)

 

God has taken his place in the divine council;
in the midst of elōhîm he holds judgment . . .
I say, ‘You are, children of the Most High, all of you;
nevertheless, you shall die like mortals . . .’ (Lit., Ps. 82:1, 6)
(Philip S. Johnston, Shades of Sheol: Death and Afterlife in the Old Testament [Leicester: Apollos, 2002], 143)