Let the Writers Define the Term

There is a habit of deciding in advance what a biblical word must mean, then reading that meaning back into every verse. With elohim it happens constantly, because the English word "God" arrives pre-loaded.
The instruction is unusually direct, and it names names: "Let the biblical writers define the term for you - not the Westminster Confession, not Roman Catholicism, not 21st century evangelicalism."
That is not an attack on creeds. It is an order of operations. Confessions summarise conclusions drawn from the text; they are not the dictionary the text was written with. If a word in Hebrew is used of the dead, of national gods, and of beings judged in a heavenly courtroom, then that usage is the definition - whatever our systematics would have preferred.
Scripture links:
- Psalm 82:1 - "God has taken his place in the divine council."
- 1 Kings 11:33 - "Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians."
- Nehemiah 8:8 - "they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading."
Let usage set meaning. Everything downstream depends on it.