How Many Ways Can “Elohim” Be Translated?

In his FaithlifeTV lecture series, The Unseen Realm, Dr. Michael S. Heiser noted that the Hebrew word elohim, most often translated God, nonetheless is translated other ways in our English Bibles. With my curiosity piqued, I wanted to discover those English translations of this Hebrew word.

Even though there are several ways in Logos to accomplish this task, I’ll show you the one I used:

Open an English Bible with the interlinear option such as the ESV to a passage with the Hebrew word elohim such as Genesis 1:1 (A)

Right click on the English translation of elohim such as God in Genesis 1:1 (B)
Select from the right side of the Context menu the Hebrew lemma (the one with the ring icon) (C)
Select from the left side of the Context menu Search this resource (D)

Click Analysis view on the search panel (E)
Notice the search results are placed in a spreadsheet (F)

Right click on any of the columns headers in the spreadsheet (G)
Select from the menu your desired headers for the spreadsheet, but make sure you have at least selected Result (H)

Drag the column header Result (I) to the area above the headers (Mac User: hold down the Option key as you drag the header) (J) to group the search results according to the English translations
Right click on one of the English results like God (K)

Select Collapse all (L)

Notice in one list all of the English translations of the Hebrew lemma elohim! (M)

To dig into the significance of this list be sure to check out Dr. Michael S. Heiser’s book, The Unseen Realm or the FaithlifeTV lecture series of the same name.

For more detailed information about Searching and the Analysis view, secure your copy of the Logos 7 Training Manuals Volumes 1-3 in print or digital.

Also be sure to follow the new MP Seminars Faithlife group and receive a FREE download of the commentary Ephesians: Verse by Verse by Dr. Grant Osborne.

Morris Proctor is a certified trainer for Logos Bible Software. Morris, who has trained thousands of Logos users at his two-day Camp Logos seminars, provides many training materials.