Moses ben Naḥman (Naḥmanides)מֹשֶׁה בֶּן נַחְמָן

English

AND ‘ELOKIM’ (G-D) SAID. The word Elokim means “the Master of all forces,” for the root of the word is e-il, meaning force, and the word Elokim is a composite consisting of the words e-il heim, as if the word e-il is in a construct state, and heim, [literally] “they,” alludes to all other forces. Thus Elokim means “the Force of all forces.” A secret will yet be disclosed in connection with this.

Charles B. Chavel, 1971–76 · chavel-ramban

Hebrew / Aramaic

Ramban on Gen 1:1, s.v. אלהים · sefaria-vocalized

Notes

Ramban takes the plural seriously and makes it mean something other than persons. The word is a compound: its root is el, which is force, and it is put together as el hem, as though el were in the construct and hem, 'they', pointed to all the other forces — so that Elohim is the force of all forces, the master of them all. Then the sentence that stops the paragraph: 'a secret will yet be disclosed in connection with this', which is his standard signal that a kabbalistic doctrine lies underneath and will not be printed. So on the one bench a plural noun points to a plurality within God that may not be spoken, and on the other, at almost the same date, it points to three persons that may be preached. Neither Ibn Ezra's honorific plural nor Abelard's three persons is what Ramban means, and his answer is the only one of the three that treats the plurality as real and as not a plurality of creators.

Threads

• → contests · Abraham ibn Ezra
  Ramban has Ibn Ezra open in front of him throughout the comment on this verse and takes the plural the other way: not an honorific but a compound, el hem, the force and 'they' — all the other forces — so that Elohim is the force of all forces. He does not deny the grammar; he refuses to let the plural be empty. 'A secret will yet be disclosed in connection with this' says that the real answer is one he will not print.
• → parallel · Peter Abelard
  The two witnesses on this daf who make the plurality of the noun a plurality in God, and they could not be further apart on what it is. Abelard: a diversity of persons, of which each one is God, and the doctrine is preachable and technical — opera Trinitatis indivisa. Ramban: the master of all the forces, and a secret that will be disclosed elsewhere. A century apart, in Paris and in Girona, with nothing between them but the same three consonants.
• ← echoes · Moses ben Naḥman (Naḥmanides)
  The same man refusing, twice, to let a plural be either empty or personal, and needing a secret only once. At Gen 1:1 Elohim is a compound, el hem, the force of all the forces, and 'a secret will yet be disclosed in connection with this'. At Gen 1:26 the plural verb has a plain second subject, the earth, and nothing is withheld — the mystery is moved to the following verse, where 'the way of truth in this verse will be known to him who understands'. Of the four answers this crux collects, Ramban's is the only one that makes the plural real without making it a plurality in God or a company of angels.