2. In the Beginning, ELOHIM was the Word

ELOHIM was the Word

The Greek text of John 1:1 has not been translated correctly into English.

It reads:

“In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was towards God,
and God was the Word.”

In Genesis 1:1, ELOHIM was Jesus Christ.

But John was not the first one to call Jesus Christ “God.”

God called Jesus Christ “ELOHIM” in Psalms 45:6, Hosea 1:7, Amos 4:11, Jeremiah 50:40, and Zechariah 12:8. And, most notably, He identified the Spirit of Christ as “Yihvah ELOHIM” at the burning bush, in Exodus 3:15 and 16.

In the Beginning was the Word

In John 1:1, the Apostle John used the expression “in the beginning” to imitate Genesis 1:1:

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

John even imitated the writing style of Genesis 1, beginning each successive phrase with “and.”

The Bible is the story of God’s salvation plan. Paul described the “end” of this plan, in 1 Corinthians 15:24, “then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God . . .” God’s salvation plan began before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). This is the beginning that John spoke of, when he said, “In the beginning was the Word.”

We only know that Christ, the Word, was “before all things” (Colossians 1:17). We cannot really understand when He became “the firstborn of every creature” (Colossians 1:15).

Some Bibles translate מִקֶּ֖דֶם in Micah 5:2 as “from everlasting” to describe Christ’s beginning. But, the Brown–Driver–Briggs Hebrew Lexicon tells us מִקֶּ֖דֶם means “from ancient days,” or “days of old.”

In Jude 1:25, we see that Christ existed “before all ages.” The Greek word here is (æons) αἰῶνος.

“To the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen” ¹

When Jude told us the glory of God was “through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages,” he was echoing the words of Jesus: “And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world (κόσμον kosmon) was” (John 17:5).

The word αἰών (aión), meaning “age” or “world,” is used 125 times in the New Testament. When meaning “age” it refers to the periods, or “ages,” of human history. The root meaning of αἰών (aión) is life ². Generally, the Bible refers to the ages or “lifetimes” of the prophets, such as in Luke 1:70; Acts 3:21; 15:18; and Ephesians 3:9; however, some translations have made the meaning as “world” or “beginning of the world.” There are a few verses where αἰών (aión) clearly does mean world, for example, in Hebrews 1:2, and 11:3: “through whom He also made the worlds,” and “we understand the worlds were framed by the word of God.” Although, even in these verses, some translations use ages and not worlds.

Some have been ignoring the biblical meaning of αἰών (aión). They want to recognize an “eternal” meaning of αἰών in order to defend the Trinity doctrine. They want to say that Christ and God both existed “forever” and therefore they are equal.

The original version of the Nicene Creed has historically been translated into English as “(Christ was) begotten of the Father before all worlds (æons), or ‘ages.’” The word aeons (worlds) in the Creed is a Latin transliteration of the Greek word αἰών (aión).

The “Ecumenical Version” of the Nicene Creed, translated in 1975, translated the Latin word aeons to mean “eternally.” The Creed reads, “(Christ was) eternally begotten.” The idea is to support the eternal existence of the Father, Son, and holy spirit, making them all equal, pretending that Christ had no beginning. The Catholic Church version of 2011 is a more accurate translation, as “before all ages.”

John, in Revelation 3:14, called Christ “the beginning of the creation of God.” Christ did have a beginning. He was the “firstborn.” God existed before Christ.

You believe that I came out of the Father

There are some who think Christ came into existence when He was “conceived of the Holy Spirit” as recorded in Matthew 1:20. But in fact, this Holy Spirit was the Spirit of Christ who was being “manifest in the flesh.” Christ’s real conception was at the beginning of creation. He was the firstborn.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus emphasized that He “came out” of the Father.

Jesus said, “For the Father Himself loves you because . . . you believe I came [out] ἐξῆλθον ἐκ τοῦ from the Father and have come into the world” (John 16:27, 28).

The literal words Jesus spoke here were “you believe I came out of the Father.”

These are the same Greek words we find in John 8:59: “but Jesus hid Himself and went out ἐξῆλθον ἐκ τοῦ of the temple.”

The expression “went out” describes someone who comes from “the inside of something.” Jesus said that He “came out” of the Father and went into the world. He was the firstborn Spirit, who went out of the Father at the beginning of creation.

The Beginning of the Creation of God

In Revelation 3:14, John called Christ, “the beginning of the creation of God.”

John’s expression “the beginning” takes us back to John 1:1. The Spirit of Christ was the “firstborn” and the “only begotten God” (Col 1:15; John 1:18; Heb 1:6). He was the firstborn Spirit. To interpret this as saying the Spirit of Christ was “the originator of the creation of God” is unfaithful to the Greek language, which gives us only one meaning of “beginning” in every verse of the New Testament, including John 1:1. We can consider the meaning of “beginning” in Mark 13:19: “For those days will be a time of tribulation such as has not occurred since the beginning of the creation which God created until now, and never will.” This is the most direct comparison to Rev 3:14 and gives the same meaning as “beginning.”

The Trinitarian Albert Barnes, in his commentary on this verse and the use of the word “beginning” in the New Testament, says: “The word (ἀρχὴ archē, beginning) is not, therefore, found in the sense of authorship, as denoting that one is the beginning of anything in the sense that he caused it to have an existence.”

The Father, who makes all of us in the womb (Jer 1:5; Psalms 139:13; Isaiah 44:2), is the creator and Father of all (Eph 4:6).

The Only Begotten God

All the earliest manuscripts record John 1:18 as: “No one has seen God at any time, the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, has declared Him.”

The Chalcedon Creed, which was accepted by the Churches of Asia in 451, also used the expression “only begotten God,” to describe Christ as the firstborn. The Greek Churches of Asia were slow to accept the changing of Greek manuscripts to read “only begotten Son,” in the fifth century.

The Firstborn of Creation

He is the firstborn of creation, Colossians 1:15.

The Apostle Paul was not the first person to call Christ, the firstborn of creation. The expression was used by Philo in A.D. 30, and appears in the Zohar. The Jewish people, in the time of Christ, already understood that the Word was the firstborn spirit.

Trinitarians will try to persuade us that the expression “firstborn” only signifies “rank” and does not mean “first to be born.” This is not true in the Bible. The Bible uses the expression “firstborn” about 130 times, and it always bears the meaning of “first to be born,” in either a physical or spiritual sense. Psalms 89:27 describes Christ as the firstborn spiritual being, as described in Revelation 1:5.

Those who established the Trinity never disputed the Bible’s assertion that Christ (the Spirit of Christ) was born of the Father. They only tried to argue that no time could be established when Christ was born, since the stars and seasons that measure time had not yet been created.

Through Whom, and by Whom, all things were created

In the beginning, ELOHIM created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1).

The Apostles taught that all things were spoken into being, through Christ, and by Christ.

To say that that all things were made through Christ means that God was the real creator, who spoke through Christ.

John said that all things were made through Christ: “All things were made through δι’ Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.”

The Book of Hebrews records, “through δι’ whom, He also made the worlds.”

And Paul’s letter to the Colossians says, “all things have been created through διὰ Him . . .”

The expression “through Christ” also tells us God did not seek counsel from Christ; rather, He simply spoke “through” Christ.

God alone was responsible for the creation of the world. Christ was only the vessel through whom all things were created.

In Colossians 1:16, Paul also said that all things were made by Christ.

Paul echoed the words of Genesis 1:1: “For by ἐν Him, all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth . . .”

And the Word was to God (kai ho logos ēn pros ton theon)

Some believe the phrase “and the Word was with God” means that God was “thinking of Christ” in the beginning. But that idea is not supported by the Greek grammar. The Greek grammar implies action and emotion by Christ, not by God.

There are many Greek words that can be translated “with” (such as en, meta, para, and sun). In this sentence, John used the word “pros.” It actually means “to” or “toward.” It is only translated “with” because that sounds better in English. A quick scan of all the translations of pros in the interlinear text will verify that pros simply means “to.”

In John 17:24, Jesus told us the Father “loved Me before the foundation of the world.” In this verse, you may try to argue that God was only “thinking” about the Christ in the beginning, because the action of the Father is toward Christ. But in John 1:1, the action is toward God. John said that Christ was “to the Father” in the beginning.

The grammar of John 1:1 is identical to 1 John 2:1: “we have an advocate with (to – para) the Father.” John 1:1 and 1 John 2:1 both describe the action of Christ toward God.

You are unlikely to find many Greek Unitarians, because they would understand from John 1:1 that Christ was “toward” God in the beginning. There was action, and emotion, on the part of Christ toward God.

And God was the Word (the “God” who appeared to us was Christ)

The message of John 1:1 is not that Christ was God, but that ELOHIM was Christ. Trinitarian translators have reversed the word order.

The opening words in the Gospel of John mimic the opening words of Genesis, to tell us Jesus Christ was ELOHIM in Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning, ELOHIM created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and God was the Word” (John 1:1, Greek text).

Unfortunately, the English text we read in John 1:1 has been “poetically” altered. The true reading, in the Greek text, contains this most significant truth of the Bible.

In	Beginning	was	the	Word
Ἐν	ἀρχῇ	ἦν	ὁ	Λόγος

And	the	Word	was	With		God
καὶ	ὁ	Λόγος	ἦν	πρὸς	τὸν	Θεόν

And	God	was	the	Word
καὶ	Θεὸς	ἦν	ὁ	Λόγος

The Word, we know from John 1:2 to 5, was Jesus Christ.

The phrase “God was the Word” tells us “ELOHIM” in Genesis 1:1 was Jesus Christ.

The Jewish theologian Philo (c. AD 30), explained that Θες without the article meant “the Word.”³

Ironically, in the Greek Septuagint that we have, the article for Θεὸς is used to identify the Word. For example, in Genesis 31:11, we read, “ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ θεὸς ὁ ὀφθείς σοι ἐν τόπῳ θεοῦ,” (I am God that appeared to you in the place of God). The final θεοῦ describes the invisible God without the article. Likewise, in Genesis 1:27, we read “εἰκόνα θεοῦ ἐποίησεν αὐτόν ἄρσεν καὶ θῆλυ ἐποίησεν αὐτούς,” (In the image of God He created them male and female He created them). Here again, the invisible God, who is the spiritual image of both male and female, is described without the article. All other references to ELOHIM in Genesis 1 use the article ὁ θεὸς and are translated as “the Word” in the Targumim, except for this one reference to God in Genesis 1:27: see 2.3.2 below. When God Himself describes the Word in Amos 4:11, κατέστρεψα ὑμᾶς, καθὼς κατέστρεψεν ὁ Θεὸς Σόδομα καὶ Γόμορρα, He uses the article, “I overthrew you, as God overthrew Sodoma and Gomorrha.”

John appears to be using the same literary technique.

The literal translation of John 1:1 as “God was the Word,” can be found in the Concordant literal version, and in many early translations, such as the Wycliffe Bible of 1395, the Coverdale (Great Bible) of 1539, and Luther’s Bible, which reads “und Gott war das wort.” Luther’s translation is still the standard German translation today.

Of course, a grammatical argument exists for translating “God was the Word” as “the Word was God” as noted in 1933 by E.C. Colwell in his article, “A Definite Rule for the use of the Article in the Greek New Testament.”⁴ However, this diminishes the force of John’s message. John is describing ELOHIM as the Word who appears in Genesis 1 to speak creation into being.

The Word

Hermeneutics – John wrote to the Jews in the time of Christ

One of the most important rules we must follow to interpret any Bible passage is to understand who the passage was written to, and when. The Apostle John preached to the Jews, as Paul explained in Galatians 2:7–9.

When John used the expression “the Word,” his audience understood his meaning. The Jews in Jesus’ Day spoke Aramaic, and they listened to Aramaic translations of the Old Testament, every week in the synagogue. The powerful message of those Aramaic translations was that “the Word” was the visible God, who appeared and spoke to man, on behalf of the invisible God, throughout the Old Testament. The Word was the visible God, who created man after His physical image, in Genesis 1:27.

We know what we worship, for salvation is from the Jews

In John 4:22, Jesus emphasized the importance of understanding God as the Jews did.

Speaking to the Samaritan woman by the well, Jesus said,

“You worship what you do not know,
we worship what we know,
for salvation is from the Jews.”

In this statement, Jesus brought us two truths: only the Jews had the proper understanding of God; and our salvation requires a proper understanding of God.

Therefore, it is very important that we understand God, exactly as the Jews did. The Jews understood that no one had seen God, or heard His voice, at any time. Men had only seen the Word, who was God’s image, and speaker, throughout the Old Testament.

The Word in the Hebrew Old Testament

By the plan of God, the message of the Word became very powerful before Christ appeared. Without this solid understanding, the Jews would not have understood who Christ really was. But this message did not begin in the Targumim. It was first introduced in the Book of Genesis, and explained more clearly in 1 Samuel, the Psalms, 1 Kings, and throughout the prophets.

The Word was first called “the Word” in Genesis 15

The expression “the Word” was first used to describe God’s speaking to Abram in a vision in Genesis 15:1, and again in Genesis 15:4, where we read,

“the Word of the LORD come to Abram in a vision, saying . . .
hayah debar Yihvah to Abram in a vision, saying . . .
היה דבר־יהוה אל־אברם במחזה לאמר

In this sentence, the subject is “the Word.” The Word of the LORD is the speaker. The meaning of this seems a bit abstract; how could one personify “the Word of the Lord”?

The expression “Messenger of the LORD” had not been used yet in the Bible. It first appears in Genesis 16:7.

The reader must assume that Abram saw “the Word of the LORD,” the Messenger of the LORD in the vision. Or why is there a vision? In verse 5, we are told that the Word of the Lord brought Abram outside.

Reading right to left, we highlight in red an interesting fact about this expression: these are literally the words “WAS the WORD of HE WILL BE (Yihvah).” The first word is the Hebrew word “WAS,” היה the perfect tense of the verb “to be.” The yod (y) in front of “WAS” creates the third person imperfect tense יהוה “HE WILL BE”

The phrase, “WAS the Word of HE WILL BE saying,” is repeated dozens of times, to signify the speaking of “the Word of the LORD” to the prophets.

The Word in the Books of Samuel

Samuel is considered by the Jewish people as the first prophet. The reason may simply be that he was the first one, to whom “the Word of the LORD” spoke on a regular basis.

In 1 Samuel 3:21, we read:

“Then Yihvah (HE WILL BE) appeared again in Shiloh.
For Yihvah (HE WILL BE) revealed Himself in Shiloh
by the Word of Yihvah (HE WILL BE).”

HE WILL BE was the shared name of the invisible God and His image, who was the Word.

The Word of Yihvah (HE WILL BE) was the Yihvah (HE WILL BE) who appeared to Samuel in Shiloh, on behalf of the invisible Yihvah (HE WILL BE).

In 1 Samuel 15:10 we read: “and came the Word of Yihvah (HE WILL BE) to Samuel saying.”

Here, the Word of the LORD speaks to Samuel, just as He did to Abram.

Perhaps the most famous verse that describes the Word in the Old Testament, comes from David:

“The Spirit of Yihvah, HE-spoke in me, and His Word⁵ was on my tongue.”

2 Samuel 23:2

In this verse, the Spirit of Yihvah is the invisible God. He is identified by the masculine pronoun. The Word was the Spirit of Christ in the mouth of David.

We find the explanation of a Spirit in the mouth of prophets, in 1 Kings 22:21-22:

Then a Spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, and said, “I will persuade him.” Yihvah said to him, “In what way?” So he said, “I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.”

The Book of 1 Kings used the expression “Word of the LORD” extensively, to describe the Word of the LORD, who spoke to the prophets.

The Word of the LORD spoke to Elijah and visited him in the cave

The Word of the LORD is identified as the speaker to Elijah in 1 Kings 16:1, 17:2, 17:8, 18:31, 21:17, and 21:28, using the expression “and came the Word of the LORD to Elijah, saying.”

However, the most striking verse explaining this is 1 Kings 19:9: “And there he went into a cave, and spent the night in that place, and behold, the Word of the LORD came to him, and HE said to him, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’”

Here, the Word of the LORD is clearly identified as the visible God who spoke to Elijah in the cave.

The Word brought creation into being in the Psalms

“By the Word of Yihvah the heavens were made,
and by the breath of His mouth all their host.”

Psalms 33:6

The Psalmist described the creation of God by “the Word” and by the breath of God.

The expression “the Word” described the Spirit of Christ as “the speaker” who spoke creation into being. In fact, you may notice that creation in Genesis 1 was by way of ten commandments, all using the expression “and ELOHIM spoke.” The Jerusalem Targum identifies “the Word” as the speaker of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:1, saying, “And the Word of the Lord spoke all these glorious words.”

The expression “breath of His mouth,” refers to the breath of life that God breathed in Genesis 1:2. We discuss this in detail in Chapter 9.

The Word was identified as the Speaker throughout the Prophets

The expression “And Came the Word of Yihvah” (ויהי דבר־יהוה) was used throughout the prophets, to describe the Word, the Spirit, who spoke to the prophets. Just a short list of examples consists of Ezekiel 1:3, 3:16, 6:1, 7:1, Jeremiah 1:4, 1:11, 2:1, 13:3, 13:8, 16:1, 24:4, Jonah 1:1,3:1, Zechariah 4:8, 6:9, and so on.

The Word in the Targumim (Aramaic Translations)

The use of the expression “Word of the Lord” reached a height among the prophets who lived from 600 B.C. to 500 B.C. In this time, Aramaic replaced Hebrew as the main language of communication among the Jews. Therefore, a need arose to translate the Hebrew into Aramaic, so that the common Jews could understand the Old Testament.

The translation of the Bible into Aramaic began as an oral practice, and eventually it was written. The Aramaic translations, called Targumim (the singular is Targum), are much like our modern English Bibles. Like the Good News Bible, they also provide some interpretation, or explanation of the passage. They are not word-for-word translations. And, very interestingly, when describing the “visible God” who appeared to men, the Targumists often chose to use the expression “the Word,” rather than Yihvah, “HE WILL BE,” or “ELOHIM.” The Targumists understood that there were two Yihvahs, the invisible God, and His Spirit, who was His Messenger. When describing God’s Messenger, His Spirit, they used the expression, “the Word.”

The writing of the Targumim began in the first century, B.C. The most famous translator was Rabbi Jonathan ben Uzziel, who was said to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Jonathan ben Uzziel is believed to have translated the writings of all the prophets, including the Books of Joshua, Samuel, Judges, and Kings. In most cases, we cannot identify the writer of the other Targumim.

We actually have Targumim of every Book of the Old Testament except the books of Ezra-Nehemiah and Daniel, which were partly written in Aramaic by the original authors.

The Word was the Visible God

The Pentateuch Targumim (the Five Books of Moses) use the phrase “the Word” to describe the visible God who appeared to man.

We actually have four different sources of the Pentateuch Targumim. The original Aramaic text for all these can be viewed on the internet at cal.huc.edu

• The Pseudo Jonathan ben Uzziel Targum (that was originally attributed to Jonathan ben Uzziel, but is greatly disputed).
• The official Targum of the Synagogue, called the Onkelos Targum, purportedly written in the second century by Onkelos, who many identify as Aquila of Sinope, a Roman national who converted to Judaism (c. 35–120).⁶
• The Targum Neofiti, of unknown date.
• Fragments of the Targum, normally referred to as the “Jerusalem Fragments,” the most significant of which is the Paris Fragments (kept at Paris).

From our understanding of the account below, the Targum Neofiti and the Jerusalem fragments are believed to have been derived from the Targum read at Jerusalem. The Jewish Encyclopedia quotes Hai Gaon, an eleventh-century Jewish theologian, who lived in Iraq (Babylon):

We do not know who composed it, nor do we even know this Targum, of which we have heard only a few passages. If there is a tradition among them [the Palestinians] that it has been made the subject of public discourse since the days of the ancient sages [here follow the names of Palestinian amoraim of the third and fourth centuries], it must be held in the same esteem as our Targum (Onkelos); for otherwise they would not have allowed it. But if it is less ancient, it is not authoritative. It is very improbable, however, in our opinion, that it is of later origin ⁷.

The Pseudo Jonathan ben Uzziel Targum is believed to be a composite of the Onkelos Targum and the Jerusalem Targum.

There is a noticeable difference between the Onkelos and Palestine (Jerusalem) Targumim. The Onkelos Targum was written after Christ and does not use the phrase “Holy Spirit” to describe the Spirit in the prophets, as does the Jerusalem Targum. Also, the Onkelos Targum does not call the Word “the Creator” in almost every verse of Genesis 1, as does the Jerusalem Targum. After John’s Gospel was written, Jewish Rabbis tried to remove any description of the Word as the Creator, in Genesis 1.

The Visible God: Genesis 1 in the Pentateuch Targumim

The Targumim read in Jerusalem tell us that the Word created the heavens and the earth in Genesis 1.

From the Paris (Jerusalem) Fragment, we read:

“With wisdom, the Lord created and perfected the heavens and the earth,
And the earth was unformed and void . . .
And the Word of the Lord said, ‘Let there be light,’ . . .
And the Word of the Lord divided the light from the darkness
And the Word of the Lord called the light ‘Day,’ and the darkness, He called ‘Night’ . . .”

The text continues to cite “the Word of the Lord” as the creator in the first and second Chapters of Genesis. Genesis 2:2 reads, “And the Word of the Lord cherished on the seventh day, His work that He had done.”

In the Neofiti Targum, we read:

“From the beginning, with wisdom, the Word of the Lord created and perfected the heavens and the earth.
And the earth was waste and unformed . . .
And the Word of the Lord said, ‘Let there be light’ . . .”

The text carries on with the Word of the LORD as the creator, in each verse of Genesis 1 and 2, but there is a slight difference in Genesis 1:26–27, 28: “and the LORD said, ‘let Us create man in Our likeness’ . . . And the Word of the Lord created man in his likeness . . . And the glory of the LORD blessed them . . .”

The most striking verse is Genesis 2:1:

“And they completed the creation of the heavens and the earth.”

The Targumist understood that the heavens and the earth were created by two beings, the LORD and His Spirit, who was the Word.

The Visible God: other references in the Pentateuch Targumim

Below, we present a sample of references to “the Word” in the Pentateuch Targumim available on the Internet, for example at juchre.org/articles/word.htm. The expression “the Word” is used throughout. As you study these, you will realize that the Word was the visible God, who spoke on behalf of the invisible God, in the Old Testament.

Targum Onkelos

“And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, ‘if the Word of Yihvah will be my support, and will keep me in the way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I again come to my father’s house in peace; then the Word of Yihvah be my God.’”

Genesis 28:20-21, A.D. 110 (Onkelos)

“and My Word shall overshadow thee until I have passed”

Exodus 33:22, A.D. 110 (Onkelos)

Jerusalem Fragments

“And Hagar praised and prayed in the name of the Word of the Lord, who had revealed Himself unto her.”

Genesis 16:13 (Jerusalem)

“And the Word of the Lord caused to descend upon the people of Sodom and Gomorrah . . . brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven.”

Genesis 19:24 (Jerusalem)

“the Word of the Lord will provide me a lamb.”

Genesis 22:8 (Jerusalem)

“And Abraham worshiped and prayed in the name of the Word of the Lord, and said, ‘Thou art the Lord who dost see, but Thou cannot be seen.’”

Genesis 22:14 (Jerusalem)

“And the Word of the Lord said unto Moses: ‘I am He who said unto the world, Be! And it was.’”

Exodus 3:13 (Jerusalem)

“And the Word of the Lord spoke all these glorious words (the Ten Commandments).”

Exodus 20:1 (Jerusalem)

“Stand up now, O Word of the Lord, in the strength of thy might . . . return now O Word of the Lord, from the might of thy anger.”

Numbers 10:35, 36 (Jerusalem)

“This day you have made the Word of the Lord to be King over you, to be your God.”

Deuteronomy 26:17 (Jerusalem)

Pseudo Jonathan ben Uzziel Targum

There is one complete copy of the “Pseudo-Jonathan ben Uzziel.” It is held at the British Museum. Here are some quotes from it:

“She (Hagar) gave thanks before Yihvah, whose Word spoke with her.”

Genesis 16:13 (Pseudo Jonathan)

“at the door of the tabernacle of ordinance before the Lord; where I will appoint My Word to (meet) you there, to speak with you there.”

Exodus 29:42, 30:36, 33:9, Leviticus 1:1, Numbers 17:4 (Pseudo Jonathan)

“I will put thee in a cavern of the rock, and will overshadow thee with My Word until the time that I have passed by.”

Exodus 33:22 (Pseudo Jonathan)

The Word was the Holy Spirit in the Prophets

In Chapter 8, we present several references of Targum Jonathan that show the Word was the Holy Spirit in the prophets.

The Word would be the Messiah

Of course, the Jewish people have shown a strong resistance to identifying the Word as their Messiah. This is because they would need to admit that they crucified their God, as mentioned in Zechariah 12:10. Trinitarian Christians also resist it, because the theology of the Word ends the doctrine of the Trinity.

But nonetheless the Word is the Messiah. This is the message of Targum Jonathan.

The Word as the Messiah in Isaiah

“Behold, my servant, the Messiah, whom I bring, my chosen in whom one delights,

My Word, I will put my holy spirit upon Him.”

Isaiah 42:1, Targum Jonathan

Below, we present this in Aramaic. By Control-clicking on any word, you will be directed to the definition in the Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon. We have highlighted the word “Memra,” meaning “Word” in Aramaic.

הָא עַבדִי אְקָרְבִנֵיה בְחִירִי דְאִתרְעִי בֵיה מֵימְרִי אַתֵין רוּחַ קוּדשִי עְלוֹהִי דִינִי לְעַמְמִין יְגַלֵי׃

The same expression, “My Servant, in whom I delight,” is repeated in the Targum of Isaiah 43:10: “You are My witness, says Yihvah, and My Servant, the Messiah, in whom is My delight.”

Quite significantly, Isaiah 42:1–4 is quoted in Matthew 12:18–21. This may be the longest quotation of an Old Testament passage in the Gospels. It is a key fulfilment of prophecy.

Isaiah described God, who is well “pleased” (in Hebrew “ratsah”), and so put His holy spirit on Christ. This is the same word that God spoke when He put His holy spirit on Christ during His baptism: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased ” (Matthew 3:17).

There are two more verses from Targum Jonathan, which tell us the Messiah is not just a person. Isaiah 10:20 tells us that He is “the Holy One of Israel.” Isaiah 9:6 calls the Messiah, the “mighty God.”

“His name will be called before the Wonderful Counselor,
The mighty God, existing forever, the Messiah,
in whose days peace will increase upon us.”

Isaiah 9:6, Targum Jonathan (Chilton Translation)

The Word as the Messiah in Hosea

The Book of Hosea was written during the very same period as Isaiah (Isaiah 1:1 cf. Hosea 1:1). The message of both Books was that the Word was the Messiah.

“I will save them by the Word of the Lord, their ELOHIM.”

Hosea 1:7, Targum Jonathan

“And I redeemed them by My Memra on the fifteenth day of the month of Nisan”

Hosea 3:2, Targum Jonathan

The fifteenth day of the month of Nisan is the Passover, when Christ was crucified. To fully appreciate that the Prophet is speaking of the future, we need to understand Hosea 2:25–3:1. This is a prophecy of the New Testament Church, which goes astray: “Go again and love a lover, just like the love of the LORD for the children of Israel.”

The Word as the Messiah in Micah

“And you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah . . .
from you shall come forth before me the anointed One,
he whose name was mentioned from of old”

Micah 5:1, Targum Jonathan

The “anointed One” is the Messiah, the WORD described in Isaiah 42:1.

The Word was explained by Philo, in A.D. 30

The meaning of “the Word” could not have been better explained than by the Jewish theologian Philo in A.D. 30, in his book, On the Confusion of Tongues. Philo’s explanation is no different than the explanation of the Apostle Paul in Colossians 1 and Hebrews 1:

His firstborn Word, the eldest of His angels, as the great Archangel of many names; for He is called, the authority, and the name of God, and the Word, and man according to God’s image . . .⁸

The Change of Rabbinic Theology after Christ

Many Jews were converted by John’s message of the Word, as the creator in Genesis 1. The Jewish Rabbis therefore wanted to remove the explanation of the Word from the Targumim. The Onkelos Targum (A.D. 130) did not cite “the Word,” as the Creator, in Genesis 1, and did not translate the prophetic Spirit, as “the Holy Spirit.”

Within 200 years of Christ, “the Memra” disappeared from Aramaic Jewish literature.

The suppression of “the Memra” has been noted by the Jewish Encyclopedia: “Possibly on account of the Christian dogma, rabbinic theology, outside of the Targum literature, made little use of the term ‘Memra.’”⁹

The 6,200-page Aramaic Babylonian Talmud (A.D. 200–400) makes no mention of “the Memra,” and explains Psalms 33:6, “By the Word of Yihvah the heavens were made,” as “speaking is equal to acting” ¹⁰.  Their explanation was that God’s speaking had made the heavens, and not that the heavens were made by the Word.

Furthermore, the Talmud said that the Angel who spoke for God was “the Metatron.” Sometime during the second to fifth centuries, a Jewish folktale called “Enoch 3” was written by a Rabbi, who said Enoch ascended to heaven and was the Metatron. Jewish Rabbis, through this story of the Metatron, explained away “the Word” as the speaker who created the world.

The Metatron is also described in the Zohar, which Orthodox Jews attribute to Rabbi Simeon ben Jochai, in the second century. The Zohar calls the Metratron, “the firstborn” (Zohar, Genesis), “the Angel of God,” and “Mediator” of all between heaven and earth.

The word Metatron is probably derived from Metator, meaning guide, to represent the Angel who went before the Israelites in the wilderness. The Metatron is mentioned a couple of times in the Babylonian Talmud. Here is one quote that is worth noting:

And unto Moses He said, “Come up to the Lord.” But surely it should have stated, “Come up unto me!”—“It was Metatron who said that,” he replied, whose name is similar to that of his Master, for it is written, “For my name is in him”¹¹.

Indeed, the Rabbis are puzzled by Exodus 24:1. The speaker is obviously not God, otherwise He would have said, “come up to Me.” But who was this one who spoke as God, but was not God? The Rabbis concluded that it was not “the Word,” but “the Metatron,” Enoch, speaking on behalf of God. They also said that the name of the Metatron was “the same as His Master”—Yihvah.

ELOHIM

The phrase “God was the Word” tells us “ELOHIM” in Genesis 1:1 was Jesus Christ. ELOHIM, in the Hebrew language, simply means divine being. In the Bible, ELOHIM for Christ has both a plural and a singular meaning, because when Christ speaks for God, there are two who speak.

This revelation may be new to some, so we are going to spend some time proving it over the rest of this Chapter. Christ was the “ELOHIM,” through whom the invisible God created the heavens and the earth.

Why was Christ called ELOHIM?

This meaning of the Spirit of Christ as “the ELOHIM” of the Old Testament will become clearer as we go through our study. Christ as the ELOHIM was both the “image of the invisible God” and “the Word,” who appeared as God’s image and spoke for God. He was the “only begotten God.”

In Chapter 7, we will see that God demonstrated the meaning of an ELOHIM to Moses, making him both the speaker and the image of the invisible God to Pharaoh, such that when one speaks, two are really speaking. Hence, the plural word: ELOHIM.

Genesis 1:27 proves that Christ was ELOHIM

In Genesis 1:27, we read, “ELOHIM created man in His own image, in the image of ELOHIM He created them male and female.”

The Jerusalem Targum reads: “And the Word of Yihvah created man in His likeness, in the likeness of Yihvah, Yihvah created, male and female created He them.”

The first phrase of this verse refers to the physical creation of man after Christ’s image. The second phrase says that Christ created both male and female in the image of God, which can only mean the spiritual image of the invisible God. James tells us that man was made in the similitude of God (James 3:9), the invisible God.

The Hebrew grammar proves that Christ is ELOHIM

The word ELOHIM is grammatically plural because of its IM ending, which is like the letter “S” in the English language. Without a doubt, God intentionally used the plural form “ELOHIM” to describe Christ. The singular form of ELOHIM, “El” אֵ֔ל, appears 248 times in the Old Testament, and another singular form, “Eloha” אֱל֙וֹהַּ֙, of ELOHIM is also used 60 times in the Old Testament. But God did not use either of these two singular expressions to describe Christ.

Some question whether ELOHIM is really a plural word, but in the Old Testament, ELOHIM אֱלֹהִ֔ים is most definitely used in the plural when referring to idols and divine beings, which we can see in 235 cases.

When ELOHIM does appear as singular, it always has a plural meaning behind it.

ELOHIM was used in the singular for Christ, because He spoke for the invisible God, such that two are really speaking. ELOHIM was also used to describe other national gods, as if they were also speakers for the Most High God, the God of all the Nations. And ELOHIM was used to describe Moses, when he spoke for the invisible God. We will prove this further in Chapter 11, where we will show that the early Israelites really understood the plurality and singularity of ELOHIM, their God.

The Jewish people today do not recognize the plurality behind the word ELOHIM. Nehemia Gordon, a Kariate Jew and renowned Hebrew scholar, in his paper ELOHIM, proved that the Hebrew word ELOHIM is singular when referring to the Hebrew God, Yihvah. This singularity actually shows that ELOHIM is Christ only, and the Father is referred to, only by the implication of the plural word.

Nehemia Gordon proved there are only nine cases, out of 2,300, in which ELOHIM, referring to Yihvah, has plural verbs or adjectives ¹² In six of these nine cases, the plural adjective or verb is contradicted by surrounding singular verbs and adjectives. That leaves three cases in which the plurality cannot be explained by the Hebrew language, and these are the three famous “Us” verses in Genesis.

The first of these occurs in Genesis 1:26: “Let Us make man in Our image.”

Speaking for the invisible God, Christ must refer to Himself, because He is the image of the invisible God, the image in which man will be created both physically and spiritually.

We will discuss the other two “Us” statements, and some similar references, in Chapter 3.

The Trinity doctrine also says the word ELOHIM proves God was plural in the Old Testament and remains plural today. However, the plurality of God suggested by the Trinity is not supported by the three famous “Us” verses in Genesis.

The Trinity doctrine teaches that God is composed of three distinct persons who speak as one individual. Therefore, whenever God says something, Trinitarians believe the Father, the Son, and the holy spirit are all speaking, and when they speak, they use the expression “I” to refer to the collective individual of God.

If this is true, then the “Us” expression in “Let Us make man in Our image” would logically refer to a “fourth” person, since the three supposedly always speak as one individual.

But the Bible describes Christ and God as two spiritual beings, two Gods: the one True God, and the only begotten God, one who spoke for the other, making us believe there is only one speaker. The only time the plurality comes out is when Christ as the speaker must refer to Himself.

These are your ELOHIM: The Golden Calf and the two Golden Calves

The children of Israel (Jacob) understood the reason for the plural word ELOHIM. The HIM ending is no different than putting an “S” on the end of a word in English.

They knew the Messenger spoke on behalf of an “invisible” Yihvah. This is clear from the story of the golden calf. They made one golden calf, which they addressed in the plural, saying, “These are your ELOHIM, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt” (Exodus 32:8).

When Moses delayed returning from His trip into Sinai, the Israelites made one golden calf to worship, and addressed this one golden calf in the plural, calling it their ELOHIM! (The Hebrew text we have underlined below is plural.)

So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are אֵ֤לֶּה your ELOHIM Israel, who brought you up הֶעֱל֖וּךָ out of Egypt” (Exodus 32:3–4).

God repeated this phrase back to Moses, as if to emphasize it:

“Go down, because your people . . . have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, “These are אֵ֤לֶּה your ELOHIM, Israel, who brought you up הֶעֱל֖וּךָ out of Egypt” (Exodus 32:7–8).

In 1 Kings 12, this story repeated itself under King Jeroboam, who made two calves, for he knew there were two Yihvahs who brought the Israelites out of Egypt:

After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves. He said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your ELOHIM, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt” (1 Kings 12:28).

The early Israelites really understood the plurality of Yihvah.

They knew their national God, the Messenger, was the speaker for the Most High God. They also called the gods of other nations “ELOHIMs,” as if they were also Messengers.

ELOHIM always has a plural meaning in the Bible

The Israelites presumed that the gods of other nations were also ELOHIMs, “speakers for an invisible God.” They must have thought that all gods operated as “Messengers,” just like Yihvah ELOHIM.

The Messenger of Yihvah stopped appearing after the Book of 2 Kings.

It was in the period from Judges to 2 Kings that the Israelites called the named gods of other Nations, “ELOHIMs.”

We can see this in:

• Judges 11:24, comparing Yihvah to Chemosh, the ELOHIM of the Moabites;
• Judges 16:23, comparing Yihvah to Dagon, the ELOHIM of the Philistines;
• 2 Kings 1:2–3, comparing Yihvah to Baalzebub, the ELOHIM of Ekron; and
• 2 Kings 19:37, comparing Yihvah to Nisroch, the ELOHIM of Assyria.

The plural form ELOHIM was used to describe the “Messenger of Yihvah” who spoke for the invisible God, Moses who spoke for the invisible God, and the named gods of other Nations.

The word ELOHIM otherwise only bears a true plural meaning in the Old Testament as “gods,” 235 times.

There are no unexplained exceptions in the Bible. The word ELOHIM always carries a “plural” meaning.

The early Israelites understood the plural references of Yihvah in Genesis

From the writings of the prophets and the scribes, who described the Spirit of God as “the Word,” we know that the Israelites also understood the reason for the “Us” statements in Genesis, and the two Yihvahs in the story of Abraham and Lot in Genesis 19:24: “Then Yihvah rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from Yihvah out of the heavens.”

The early Israelites knew there were two Yihvahs, and the Messenger of God was their ELOHIM.

The Spirit of Christ as ELOHIM

The Spirit of Christ was identified as ELOHIM through: the statement of John, “God was the Word”; the expression of Christ “Yihvah your ELOHIM (I), Yihvah (the Father), are one”; the example of Moses as “the Word,” an ELOHIM; the use of the plural word ELOHIM in the singular; the “Let us” statements; other instances that show Christ spoke for God; Jesus’ statements that no one has seen God’s form; the “appearance” of ELOHIM to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the Apostle’s explanation that all things were created through and by Him; and several passages where God talks about ELOHIM in the third person.

Taking on the form of a man, the Spirit of Christ created man after His image and walked in the garden with him. As Justin Martyr wrote, “appearing sometimes in the form of fire, and sometimes in the likeness of angels; but now, by the will of God, having become man for the human race.”¹³