When most people think about the story of the Bible, they think of a story about God and humans. But remember, we learned that there is a whole other cast of characters that appears throughout the Bible and plays a really important role. Right. Spiritual beings: angels, demons and the like. Right. In the Bible, they inhabit the heavenly realm which is parallel to our earthly reality and actually overlaps with it. All of these spiritual beings have their own unique characteristics. But here is what is fascinating. The biblical authors have one word that can refer to all the inhabitants of the spiritual realm. In Old Testament Hebrew the word is “Elohim”. In New Testament Greek, it is “Theos”. But here is the thing. This word gets translated in lots of different ways, depending on which being is referred to: angels, god with a lower case “g”, or even God with a capital “G”. Wait! So, one word can refer to any of these beings? Yeah. It is because Elohim is a category title. It can designate any spiritual being that belongs to the heavenly realm. Okay, a title, not a name. Like the word “mom”. Yeah, right! The word mom can refer to lots of really different kinds of people but they all share in common the same role in a family. Then, let’s say a group of brothers and sisters are talking and one says, “Hey, it is mom’s birthday!” They’re using the title like it’s a name. But, it would be clear that they are referring not to any mom, but their mom. Yes. And the same goes for the biblical authors. They called their God “Yahweh”, which is the name revealed to Moses. But they also sometimes refer to him with the category title “Elohim”, using it like a name because they all know who they are referring to. Okay, but don’t the biblical authors think that Yahweh is in a class of his own, not like any other? They do. Which is why they say things like, “Yahweh is the Elohim of Elohim”. That is, the chief Elohim among all the others. Or, they will say, “There is no Elohim besides Yahweh.” Meaning, no other spiritual being compares to him because only he is the ruler and creator of all things. Okay, I am following. But I thought the Bible taught monotheism, which means there is just one God. Well, the biblical authors are claiming that among all of the spiritual beings out there, only one is the source and creator of all things, including the Elohim. That is biblical monotheism: that one Elohim, Yahweh, is above all other Elohim. That is, the other spiritual beings. Now, with all that said, we are ready to learn more about who these other Elohim are and how they fit into the biblical story. You just watched a video on Elohim. That is, spiritual beings. There is one fascinating group of Elohim given many titles in the Bible: the “hosts of heaven”, “the sons of God” or even “the divine council”. That is who we are going to look at next.