GODS a Four-Letter Word
One thing that sets the Israelite god apart from most gods is that they tell their followers their name, YHWH. According to Exodus 3:14, the name means “I am that I am,” YHWH is existence personified. It is also a four-letter word that stands in contrast with the triconsonant structure of the Hebrew language.
“God” is a four-letter word
If our the word '“God" is a four letter word, I would need to add an apostrophe between the D and S, a contraction of God is (…a four-letter word). Like Veterans Day, however, apostrophes can be tricky when a word can be used simultaneously as both singular and plural. By leaving out an apostrophe, Congress was indicating that November 11th belongs to both individual veterans and all veterans collectively. As such, it could not be either Veteran’s Day or Veterans’ Day, since each would reduce the meaning and symbolism of the day. “God is” is reductive in the same way, because Christians believe that YHWH is a triune person, a plurality. So does that call for a comma instead of an apostrophe?
“Gods, a four-letter word”
Not really, since “God” is also a name we use to refer to YHWH, whom the Hebrew Bible frequently refers to the same way but as a plural: “Gods.” The first reference to this divine name is the verse that started it all: “In the beginning, ĕlōhîm created the heavens and the earth.” El was the creator god and chief deity of the Canaanite pantheon, the Israelites adopted the name when they entered the area we now call Palestine. Elohim just pluralizes it, Gods. Another translation of Genesis 1:1 could be, “To kick off creation, Gods created the air and the ground.”
“Gods (is) a four-letter word.”
Israel is another adopted name that can refer simultaneously to an individual (born Jacob) and a confederation of Semitic tribes. To tell the difference, depending on the language, you have to watch the other parts of speech. In Latin and Greek, you have to watch how the subject affects verbs and adjectives. In English, you have to watch your prepositions; God are, Gods is. YHWH violates our attempts to either restrict or dilute the divines name. In other words,
We can’t call YHWH to our side when it pleases us and expect to be rid of them when we’ve fµ¢ked up. We get Gods or we don’t. (we usually don’t)
Postscript: Gods ain’t a man (or a woman)
Not only is YHWH neither an individual nor plurality in exclusion, they also don’t have a penis. Humanity begins genderless; āḏām (H120) is a shortened version of ăḏāmâ (H127), a feminine noun meaning ground or dirt. The first sex is woman, not man;
Then [humanity] said… “she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” (Genesis 2:23)
The earliest manuscripts of Genesis, which are in Greek, either use anthrōpos (G444) or transliterate āḏām until introducing masculinity for the first time in that verse;
Then Ἀδάμ said… “she shall be called gynē, because she was taken out of anēr.”
As for Genesis 1:27, the Hebrew is not about gender (wo/man), but anatomy (fe/male);
[Gods] created [humanity] in [its] image, in the image of [Gods] [they] created; zāḵār and nᵊqēḇâ he created them.
