After their flight from Egypt, while Israel is at the Mount of God, Jethro brings Moses’s wife and children to the encampment. Jethro, a Midianite priest, heard about what Yahweh had done to Egypt. As if there was a doubt in his mind about Yahweh, he exclaims “Now I know that Yahweh is greater than all the gods; indeed, it was proven when they (all the gods of Egypt) dealt proudly against the people. As you recall the plagues against Egypt, each one mocked one of Egypt’s supposed gods—ending with the humiliation of Pharaoh himself. Jethro, a priest of Midian, would have been aware of Egyptian theology and mythology. He likely was not a monotheist. But if this Yahweh could turn Egypt’s gods against Egypt, He is the only God worthy of worship.
Jethro refers to the pantheon of Egyptian gods in the plural. He also, knowing Yahweh is one God that rules all other supposed gods, refers to Yahweh in the plural. When we see the Hebrew word for “god”, עלהים, it is nearly always in the plural except when it is shortened for the purpose of creating a prefix or suffix (e.g. Isra-el, El-shaddai). Such use of language is not awkward in the Hebrew, but it is in English. Hebrew is a looser language, and less precise, than English. In English, to say “gods” always refers to a plural quantity. Because our language is so literalistic, “gods” would always be interpreted as a polytheism. Biblical Hebrew, however, is less philosophical, more abstract and intuitive than English. While English is good for creating precise arguments. Hebrew is good for painting pictures. That is one difficulty when reading the Old Testament from a Western and English mindset—the language just doesn’t parse the same way. That is why most English theology students favor the Greek in the New Testament. It is even one reason many Western Christians barely crack open the Old Testament. It’s just difficult to parse in the Western languages and from the mindset of Western cultures. With every turn of the page in the Old Testament, we can clearly see that, even among non-Israelites, Yahweh is seen as both singular and plural. Our God is one God, yet He exists in plurality and is perceived in plurality. He is one essence, multiple persons—a doctrine we refer to as Trinity in our modern day, Western, precise, philosophical language.
Jethro and Moses worship the almighty God together.
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