I have started saying "Elohim" instead of "God", when I am reading the Old Testament. This simple substitution has exploded my picture of God.  I should explain that I read Morning Prayer out aloud, and I have been substituting "Adonai“ for "the Lord" for some time. So when I see the word “God” on the page, I am now speaking the word “Elohim”. I hear the Hebrew, and the English is muted.

It seems important to me to remind myself of the Hebrew behind the word "God".  In 99% of its occurrences, the Hebrew word “Elohim” is translated by the English “God”.  While “God” may be the most accurate translation, it is quite misleading.  “Elohim” is a vague word, plural in form, and often plural in meaning.  In this plural sense, it can mean gods, angels or heavenly beings.  This plural is a mysterious word, and reminds us of our ignorance of the spiritual realm and the beings that inhabit it.

In Genesis 1: 27, “Elohim” refers to the Creator, the one and only God of Israel, but emphatically a plural: "Then God said, let us make human beings...” Scholars debate whether this is a royal we, an anachronistic reference to the Trinity, or just more mystery.

In most of the Hebrew Bible, “Elohim” does settle down to be a comfortable name for the Most High, and “God” is the best rendering in English of this name.

But "Elohim" and "God” are not equivalents.  The word "God" is short, sharp, definite – in other words, at least in its sound and form, well defined,.  This English word gives the impression that we know some things about God, that we have God taped, that "God" is a precise name for a precise Person. In many ways, God is nothing like Elohim.

So going back to the original Hebrew when I read the Bible has unsettled my picture of God.  It has blurred the edges. It has spread a single dot untidily across the page, and in the process, it has smudged in more possibilities. It has exploded God – a Big Bang effect.

And it has made my prayer quite different. If I pray to Elohim, I am not praying to a simple entity. Prayer can not resemble a simple conversation with a single human being, but becomes something quite other, quite alien. I can't get my mind around it.  It is too big, too vague, too mysterious.

I am so glad Elohim has returned to my daily prayer and thoughts. Elohim will foster my spirit's growth much more powerfully than God will.