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The scribal successors of the sopherim in the centuries after Christ came to be known as
the Masoretes. These took note of the alterations made by the earlier sopherim, recording
them in the margin of the Hebrew text. These marginal notes came to be known as the
Masorah. The Masorah listed the fifteen extraordinary points of the sopherim, namely,
fifteen words or phrases in the Hebrew text that had been marked by dots above and be-
low. Some of these extraordinary points do not affect the English translation or the inter-
pretation, but OTHERS DO and are of importance. The sopherim allowed their supersti-
tious fear of pronouncing the name Jehovah to ensnare them into altering it to read
Adonay (Lord) at 134 places AND TO READ ELOHIM (GOD) AT SEVENTEEN
PLACES. The Masorah (marginal comments on the text by the Masoretes) lists these
changes (ibid.).

You can now see why the true Name of YEHOVAH was forgotten. In ALL instances YEHO-
VAH's Name was replaced with the titles of the PAGAN GODS of the Canaanites; and soon after
people began to think that Lord God or Lord Gods (plural -- as in more than one god: a "Trinity" or a
"Duality," depending upon the group) created the heavens and the earth!

As we have seen in The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, the words "EL" or "ELO-
HIM" (commonly rendered "god") -- and rendered "Theos" in the New Testament -- simply means
"DEMON"! Unfortunately the word "Elohim," to the detriment of the understanding of the majority of
the Christian world, has been written into Genesis 1:26-27. Had the Name of YEHOVAH not been re-
placed by the pagan title "Elohim" in these verses, there would not be the CONFUSION that is ram-
pant at this time!

The Hebrew people knew that the Name of YEHOVAH was replaced with the pagan title
"Elohim." The Anchor Bible, Genesis gives us their excuse for replacing YEHOVAH's Name with
the titles of the Canaanite gods in Genesis 1:26, saying --

26. For the singulars "my image, my likeness" Heb. employs here plural possessives,
which most translations reproduce. Yet no other divine being has been mentioned; and
the very next verse uses the singular throughout; cf. also ii 7. The point at issue, there-
fore, is one of grammar alone, without a direct bearing on the meaning. It so happens that
the common Heb. term for "God," namely, Elohim ('elohim) is plural in form and is so
construed at times.

On the subject of grammar in the Old Testament, Unger's Bible Dictionary (under the topic
of "Gods, False") explains the tendency of the pagan Canaanites to employ PLURAL FORMS of the
gods to summarize all the various manifestations of godship or godhead --

In Canaan there was a tendency to employ the plural forms of deities Ashtoreth (Ash-
toroth), Asherah (Asherim), Anath (Anathoth) to summarize all the various manifesta-
tions of this deity. In like fashion the Canaanite plural Elohim ("gods") was adopted by

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