GOD THE MOTHER?!?!?!?

mankind

Good evening my brothers and sisters in Christ!

May God bestow His grace and mercy upon my weakness.

I was approached by 2 people from South Korea who claim to be "JUST CHRISTIAN." They say they are of no denomination?????????

Their claim was that in genesis, it uses elohim which is the plural 'gods' whereas elohoum is the singular god. it also says in the bible "let US create man in OUR image..." but goes on to use only the singular form as in "He created them...."

The question is, "does the US mean that there is a God the father and God the mother?"

What are our church teachings?

Your brother in Christ,
Peter Morcos

Pray for my weakness.
I have sinned, forgive me.

dzheremi

I have always heard that this is what is called a "majestic plural" or "plural of reverence". It is common in many of the world's languages to have a special usage of the plural when addressing a person of higher/more revered social status, such as a youth addressing an older person or a commoner addressing royalty. For the majestic plural, it makes sense that God would use it in reference to Himself, as who could be higher than God Himself?! :)

In linguistics, the term used for this is "T/V distinction", since the distinction is often marked in European languages by some alteration of forms beginning with "t" for the personal/familiar form, and "v" for the respectful/distanced form (e.g., "tu"/"vos" in Spanish, or "ty"/"vy" in Russian). Sometimes the forms do not manifest themselves as paradigm-forming t/v pairs, but instead as different titles used in place of any form of pronoun (I have heard Lebanese Arabic speakers use "ra'is" in place of "sayed" or what have you).

Anyway, I don't know Hebrew myself, but I have not heard any Hebrew-speaking person even attempt to make the argument your South Korean friends have. It sounds highly unorthodox and strange to me. I would not indulge it, if I were you.

mankind

Thank you so much for that response. I have heard of and learned about what you mentioned. This has really supported my point.

As well, can you help me define the bride that is mentioned about in the book of Revelations?

Thanks again.

dzheremi

That is probably better handled by someone else here. I mainly deal with language questions.  ;)

Copticdeacon

It is in reference to the Holy Trinity...The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit. As we start any type of prayer whether it be in the liturgical services or to our personal prayers we start with what? In the Name of The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit,[shadow=red,left][glow=red,2,300]ONE GOD![/glow][/shadow]Amen.

minatasgeel

[quote author=I Believe link=topic=11516.msg138765#msg138765 date=1306805090]
It is in reference to the Holy Trinity...The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit. As we start any type of prayer whether it be in the liturgical services or to our personal prayers we start with what? In the Name of The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit,[shadow=red,left][glow=red,2,300]ONE GOD![/glow][/shadow]Amen.

i second that......the belief and understanding of the mystery of the Holy Trinity is considered universal amongst all Christian Churches (Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant)....if you don't belief in the Trinity you are simply not a Christian (without getting into specifics). Upon this, the translators of the NKJV capitalized certain subjects that refer to God in some sense. the example you gave is one.

Ioannes

LOL @ these people! 

First off they are using the Masoretic texts and butchering them on top of that. The word usage hints towards the trinity, not a mother. (that is the first I have heard that one) Rely on the Septuagint, it is better.

As for these poor misguided fools, laugh and walk away. These types are beyond deluded, and if I of all people, tell you to walk away, its probably a good idea.

minatasgeel

[quote author=Ioannes link=topic=11516.msg138771#msg138771 date=1306819898]
First off they are using the Masoretic texts and butchering them on top of that. The word usage hints towards the trinity, not a mother. (that is the first I have heard that one) Rely on the Septuagint, it is better.

Ioannes, i have a question....why should we rely on a translation of the original if we can go straight to the original??

CopticSoldier

[quote author=minatasgeel link=topic=11516.msg138772#msg138772 date=1306821640]
[quote author=Ioannes link=topic=11516.msg138771#msg138771 date=1306819898]
First off they are using the Masoretic texts and butchering them on top of that. The word usage hints towards the trinity, not a mother. (that is the first I have heard that one) Rely on the Septuagint, it is better.

Ioannes, i have a question....why should we rely on a translation of the original if we can go straight to the original??

Because the masoretic text is not the original, it is a corrupted version of the original Hebrew including anti-Christian modifications.

Ioannes

Mina, for instance the MT removed several books, the ages of the descendants of Adam are different, it claims that Goliath was 3m tall (about 10ft) when the LXX says he was a more believable 2m (about 6'7ft) which is corroborated by Josephus in Antiquities of the Jews. Protestants ONLY use the MT, with the exception of maybe a few, because it is in Hebrew and to them it means that it is original. The MT was created in the 7th century A.D. far removed from the Septuagint which predates Christ Himself. I urge you to read them side by side so you can see the differences for yourself.

ilovesaintmark

I think they may have been from the Sung Myung Moon Sect in S. Korea.
They tend to do the proselytizing:  "two by two".  This is similar to the Mormon approach.

mankind

Thank you all for the replies and the comments. Much appreciated!

God bless you all and Rabina Maakom!

Joshuaa

The bride refers to the church.

George_Mina_Awad

So does that mean I shouldn't believe a translation of Genesis 20:13 where Abraham says "the gods cause me...?"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elohim#Abraham.27s_.22the_gods_caused_me.22

This is why I ask; I've never even seen this before anywhere else.

CopticSoldier

[quote author=George_Mina_Awad link=topic=11516.msg138987#msg138987 date=1307201270]
So does that mean I shouldn't believe a translation of Genesis 20:13 where Abraham says "the gods cause me...?"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elohim#Abraham.27s_.22the_gods_caused_me.22

This is why I ask; I've never even seen this before anywhere else.


The Apostles - almost without exception - quote from the Septuagint text of scripture when using references in all of the New Testament writings.  As mentioned before the existent Hebrew scriptures today show signs of being tampered by the generations which have handed them down to us.  One of the most famous examples in psalm 22 where the reference to Christ's hands and feet being pierced is found in the Septuagint but not the modern Hebrew scriptures.  The discovery of the dead sea scrolls was a vindication for the Septuagint translation and it has shown that an effort was made to remove the prophecy as it was contained in the ancient Hebrew version but not the latter masoritic text which we're discussing now.

Also we must not underestimate the amount of change which has occurred to the Hebrew text, the current text which is popularly circulated is a middle ages modification of the original Hebrew to include the use of punctuation and breathing marks which we can allege have embellished the meanings rendered in the original.

The wiki article also indicates that the Septuagint translation contains the singular version of this word not the plural.

God bless,

LiD

mathio5

God says "US" meaning plural and refering to the trinety
when god says "I" meaning one as in ONE GOD!

I am thankful that God led me to this post, because just five minutes ago i was studying mahragan El Keraza and that is how the explaned this!
I hope this helps you!
[move]God Bless!![/move]