The word Elohim is used 32 times in Genesis alone, which is the "Beginning", source and origin of creation if we consider the Hebrew language. "Elohim" is a word meaning God, yet another Name, given by Moses in order to describe the various functions of God (an English, universal title). Similar to the Spanish language how some words are particular to male or female gender specific roles and functions. In this way do the Hebrews, particularly Moses in the book of Genesis, describe God (Elohim).
Interesting enough the word "Elohim" also is used to describe the various "faces" and "changes" of God. Whereas Yahweh is used in specific sentences (verses) to illustrate the transcendent, eternal, changeless God. Yahweh is likewise used with a masculine, specific role, thus we have God the Father. Moreover, Yahweh is the English word we create from the Hebrew, "Yod-He-Vau-He" with the addition of the English vowels from "Adonai" in between the Hebrew letters, Plus the "B's" are pronounced with a "V" sound, and "V's" are shifted to a "W" sound-- "Yod-A-He-O-[W]au-A-He" for "Yahovah" which later through the Latin to English centuries of translations becomes "Jehovah". Although, the Hebrews (Jews) typically pronounce and claim the Name "Yahweh".
Scholars are not in agreement on the "actual" Name the Father as in every Tanakh (English Pentateuch, first five Books of Moses) since, say, Moses has had YHVH in the word space with the allusion of the vowels from Adonai filling between the consonants. There are really two opinions for why this occurred. One, because the Jews revered the Greatest Name of God so much that they made extreme attempts to not "use the Name in vain" so a "Tetragrammaton" and "filler word" was used to protect the Rabbi and reader from potential sin. Second, the opinion is that the Jews did not know to or how to access the full power of the Name, and enter relationship with Yahweh. Or, at the very least the Pharisees accessed the Name (the Father) in prayers and invocations but would not permit the people to know the Name.
I am weighing in on the first opinion, and latter half of the second for a blended, more whole view of the dilemma. Later in history of course we get Yeshua (Jesus in Aramaic, the language He spoke which is a dialect of Hebrew) who Knows the Name and thus Knows the Father, and is able to transmit the Name to His disciples that they too might Know the Father. Using the Name was akin to a new birth and spiritual baptism, as Spiritual Forces moves within and behind physical structures at the use of the Name.
Quickly, as for "Yeshua", Jesus is the English translation we get from the Greek "Ii̱soús". If we are Christians, adopted into Judaism, and He were living in the flesh today we would refer to Him as YESHUA, not Jesus or "Ii̱soús", necessarily. Unless we "butchered His name and forced Him to conform to English speaking limitations as we are accustomed to with immigrant names.
The Name Yeshua is fascinating as well. As it is "Yod He Vau He" the Great Name of the Father in Hebrew, with the insertion of the Hebrew letter "Shin" between "He and Vau" for a transition to "Yod-He-Shin-Vau-He". The addition of "Shin" when viewed in writing looks like a rib cage (pictograms) and denotes the Holy Spirit being embodied. Thus we have Yeshua, God Incarnate, a Man embodying God.
Circling back to the Elohim, the word is used nearly everywhere in our English Bible where we see the word God. LORD is substituted for the Tetragrammaton, and Lord for the Name of Yeshua. Why? Because the early Church fathers were Jews and converts into the discipline of Jews and it was custom to revere the Name of God.
If we look closely into a concordance or at online tools to the Hebrew (
http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible...=Gen&c=1&t=KJV) we find that the Elohim created Everything, in the Beginning! Which in gender specific terms makes logical, natural sense. If the masculine Being and Force impregnates the feminine Consciousness, then the feminine God would give birth to Creation! The Father is not absent, but the Holy Spirit (Mother:Elohim) gave birth to creation. The same is mirrored by humans, and thus we see the physical, natural grounds for our likeness and image being that of Elohim. As Elohim is feminine noun with masculine plural indicating a pregnant womb, or union of phallus and womb.
With all of this said, we see why the different usages in the Names of God, as Moses was in lay terms meticulous and persnickety. As the Jews to follow Him were, by reverence of their teacher.
Furthermore, with regards Yahweh and Elohim, they are two aspects of the same Consciousness-Being-Force; Masculine and Feminine respectively. For in Deuteronomy 6:4 it is written, "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!". Recalling what "LORD" and "God" represent in English: "Yahweh Elohim", one "Thing". Not dissimilar to: Genesis 2:24,"Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be ONE FLESH."
Finally, I will claim the multiplicity and plurality are of two kinds. The various "faces" of the Holy Spirit (Shekinah) and Elohim, as well as the children which come from the "womb" of the Holy Spirt and Elohim. For if the Creator(s) are the Parents, then the Creation is the Child(ren). There is numerous things in creation, thus the multiplicity and plurality, yet this is a finite mirror of the Infinite Elohim and the Transcendent of Creation, Yahweh.
