In the image of God

[Babs]

I think that the majority of us have a misconception about what "spirit" is. Angels are "spirit". God created the angels. He created them out of something. They are not made out of dust, like we are, but they are made out of something material.

Many years ago, I listened to a lecture by an Ancient Semitic scholar. He made a statement about the word Elohim used in the Bible to describe God and angels (sons of God). He said that the word Elohim referred to their place of habitation, rather than the characteristics of the one's referred to as Elohim. Perhaps the word "spirit" is meant in the same or a similar way.

[RiJoRi]

Hi, Babs!
You may be hard-pressed to find verification of this Ancient Scholar's view.

From e-Sword/Strong's:

אלהים
'ĕlôhı̂ym
el-o-heem'
Plural of H433; gods in the ordinary sense; but specifically used (in the plural thus, especially with the article) of the supreme God; occasionally applied by way of deference to magistrates; and sometimes as a superlative: - angels, X exceeding, God (gods) (-dess, -ly), X (very) great, judges, X mighty.

Also, Jesus said,

Joh 10:30 I and the Father are one.
Joh 10:31 The Jews took up stones again to stone him.
Joh 10:32 Jesus answered them, Many good works have I showed you from the Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?
Joh 10:33 The Jews answered him, For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.
Joh 10:34 Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, ye are gods?
Joh 10:35 If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came (and the scripture cannot be broken),
Joh 10:36 say ye of him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?
(Emphasis added)

"gods" is

θεός
theos
theh'-os
Of uncertain affinity; a deity, especially the supreme Divinity; figuratively a magistrate; by Hebraism very: - X exceeding, God, god [-ly, -ward].

Jesus was quoting Psa. 82:

I said, Ye are gods [elohim], And all of you sons of the Most High. Nevertheless ye shall die like men, And fall like one of the princes.

I really can't see elohim referring to a "place of habitation," although I could believe someone might want to "adjust" Gen. 1:1 -- In the beginning, 'a place of habitation' created the heavens and the earth -- to avoid the trinitarian implication thereof.

--Rich

[The Lowest Room]

Ex 20:4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:



De 4:23 Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, which the LORD thy God hath forbidden thee.


De 4:16 Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female,

De 4:25 When thou shalt beget children, and children’s children, and ye shall have remained long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, and shall do evil in the sight of the LORD thy God, to provoke him to anger:

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Col 1:15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:

Heb 1:3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;


Ro 8:3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:


Php 2:7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: