One God ... Or Three?

Now, the real problem arises when we come to that verse, central to the Jewish faith, which they quoted in every Temple or Synagogue service. It’s called the Shemah (this name comes from the first word of the verse in Hebrew): Shemah Yisrael, Adonai eloheinu, Adonai echad. This is translated in English: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” (Levit. 6:4) [COMPARE SIDE BY SIDE …] This seems to be quite clear, doesn’t it? You can’t argue with that!

Until we take a careful look at the words …

The first word that we must look at is eloheinu. The word for ‘God’ in the Old Testament is ‘El’, the plural of this - ‘Gods’ - is ‘Elohim’. In the possessive tense - ‘our Gods’ – it becomes Eloheinu. Notice that the plural word is what is used in the Shemah! “Adonai eloheinu”, “the Lord our Gods” (Adonai simply means ‘the Lord’). The Lord our God plural! There it stands, for all to read.

Do you get that?!

Now, this is where I get to sound like a TV commercial: “But that’s not all!” Eloheinu isn’t the only word in the Shamah that we should look at!

The other word is echad - ONE. In Hebrew there are two words that we translate into English (or Afrikaans, or Sotho) as the word ‘one’. Echad and yachid. What’s the difference between them? Echad implies “a compound one”, and yachid implies “one in number; only one”.

Let’s look at a few verses and see how echad is used in context:

* Gen. 1:5: “God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.” One day, echad, consisting of … two parts! Evening and morning. A compound one. (cf also Gen. 2:24)

* Ezra 2:64 “The whole assembly numbered 42,360” One assembly, in Hebrew: echad, consisting of thousands of people. A compound one.

Okay, so echad means one … but one made up of more than one parts!

Now look at the word yachid in context:

* Gen. 22:2: “He said, ‘Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you’.”

The reference to Isaac as "only son" uses the word yachid which means ‘one in number; only one’.

* Judges 11:34: “When Jephthah came to his house at Mizpah, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dancing. She was his only child. Except for her he had neither son nor daughter.”

The reference to the "only child" uses the word yachid which means ‘one in number; only one’ as the writer helpfully goes on to explain to us!

Do you see the difference? There are two words in Hebrew that are translated into our English word ‘one’ – echad, a compound one, one made up of many, and yachid, a singular one, one and only.