A Reassessment of Biblical Elohim

A Reassessment of Biblical Elohim, by Joel S. Burnett. SUDS 183. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2001. Pp. xv + 172. $39.95.

In keeping with the stated purpose of the series, this monograph represents the slightly modified doctoral dissertation of the author. Burnett's thesis was submitted to the Johns Hopkins University in 1999.

Burnett begins his study with the surprising fact that the topic of 'el6hfm has not received much scholarly attention. This study (in a brief introductory chapter and three main chapters) attempts to address the philological, historical, and literary issues which remain unresolved in association with this term. Burnett does this by examining ancient West Asian comparative material as well as internal biblical material in order to determine the origin and meaning of the term. He also explores the role of elohim in Israelite religion from a history-of-religions perspective. Burnett offers an examination of the pentateuchal source E, with a critical assessment of the source criticism behind the identification of E material as a separate collection.

In his first main chapter (ch. 2) Burnett explores the comparative, extrabiblical evidence for 'elohim as a grammatical plural used as a singular noun. Burnett cites several Late Bronze Age Akkadian examples of ilanti from Syria-Palestine in which this plural ("gods") functions as a singular. Furthermore, he notes, the plural usages occur in the coastal and valley areas, but not in the mountains and hinterlands of this region. Burnett argues for a Canaanite origin for this expression whose meaning ("god") is unaffected by singular or plural form. Noting the imprecision of the phrases "plural of majesty" and the like, Burnett makes a case for this usage as a "concretized abstract plural" (p. 22). Phoenician inscriptions offer Iron Age parallels in their usage of ilm as a singular, and although Aramaic may be used as evidence, no certain examples of this usage have yet been found in that language. If any of the potential examples do confirm this usage, they may be clearly traced to a borrowing from Canaanite. Burnett compares the inscription from Deir Alla to this phenomenon before turning to the first-millennium Akkadian examples of "god" written as a plural. Royal correspondence,...