A New way to Translate Deuteronomy 6:4

by: John Schoenheit

Deuteronomy 6:4 is a well-known verse that is most often translated something like this: “Hear O Israel, Yehovah our Elohim is one Yehovah,” or “Hear O Israel, Yehovah our Elohim, Yehovah is one.” However, in this article we will see that these translations are not the best, and can lead to false conclusions.

The Hebrew words Shema Yisrael (שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל), “Hear, [O] Israel!”) are the first two words of Deuteronomy 6:4, and are the title of a prayer that serves as a centerpiece of the morning and evening Jewish prayer services (the title “Shema Yisrael” is often shortened to simply “Shema”). Observant Jews consider the Shema to be the most important part of the prayer service in Judaism. Originally the “Shema” prayer was only Deuteronomy 6:4, but in more modern Judaism it has been expanded to include other sections of the Torah as well. (In this article, we will sometimes refer to Deuteronomy 6:4 as the Shema).

The first thing we should say about the statement, “Hear, O Israel! Yehovah our Elohim is Yehovah alone!” is that, according to Messiah, it was a part of the greatest commandment in the Torah. Usually when someone asks, “What are the two greatest commandments in the Torah?” the answer is “Love Elohim, and love your neighbor.” But Yeshua did not answer that way. Yeshua included the Shema in his answer, and by doing so made a very important point: before we say that “Love Elohim” is the first and greatest commandment, we should know who “Elohim” is. The Shema shows us that we do not get to choose who “our Elohim” is, Yehovah alone is Elohim.

Most people think that the great commandment is just “Love Elohim,” partly because the record in Matthew 22:37, which is the same event, does not include the Shema statement. However, it is common that when two or more Gospels recorded an event that they include different details. In this case, Mark gives the full account, and Matthew leaves out the Shema, which is understandable because the account in Matthew is much shorter than the account in Mark.

The Shema is widely understood by Christians to be about the nature of Elohim and a confirmation of the Trinity and the compound unity of Elohim, i.e., that Elohim is “one,” and therefore He is one Elohim made up of three persons. However, that is not at all what the verse is saying, as we will see by examining both the Hebrew Scriptures and Renewed Covenant texts on the subject.

One thing should be clear to everyone who studies Mark 12:29: no matter how the Greek text of Mark is worded, it is a translation of the Hebrew, because to answer the Pharisee’s question, Yeshua Messiah would have quoted the Hebrew text of the Hebrew Scriptures. Yeshua would not have spoken Greek to him. Although we will see as the study develops that the Greek in Mark (and the Septuagint), can mean what the Hebrew OT says, the Hebrew wording is very dense and has a number of secondary meanings built into it, and so the full meaning of the Hebrew is difficult to capture in Greek.

To fully understand the dialogue between the Pharisee and Yeshua in Mark 12:28-34, it is helpful to know it is the same record as Matthew 22:34-39, although each Gospel has details that the other Gospel does not include. The Pharisee, who was also a “scribe,” that is, an expert in the Torah, asked Yeshua what was the greatest commandment in the Torah. The conversation that followed gives us a context that helps us properly understand and translate the Shema.

The Hebrew Scriptures text, like the Renewed Covenant, is often used to support the Trinity. But that is not what the verse is saying. For one thing, the Jews do not now, and never have, believed in a Trinity, and yet they have used Deuteronomy 6:4 as the rallying call of the nation of Israel since long before the time of Yeshua. 

Deuteronomy 6:4 can be, and should be, translated close to the way it is translated in a number of modern versions: “Hear, O Israel! Yehovah is our Elohim, Yehovah alone” (NAB, NLT, NRSV, and the Tanakh; the JPS Bible). The Geneva Bible of 1599, which was the Bible of the Pilgrims and many of our founding Fathers and is a translation generally recognized by scholars as a better translation than the King James Version, has: “Hear O Israel, the Lord our Elohim is Lord only.” 

The Moffatt Bible has: “the Eternal, the Eternal alone, is our Elohim.” 

Rotherham’s Emphasized Bible correctly uses Elohim’s proper name, “Yehovah,” instead of “LORD,” and has: “Hear, O Israel: Yehovah is our Elohim—Yehovah alone.” 

We believe that using “Yehovah” instead of “LORD” is the most proper way to render the verse, and Rotherham’s translation is about as close as you can get to an English translation that captures the primary meaning of the verse.

Deuteronomy 6:4 is saying that Israel [and believers today] have only one Elohim—Yehovah. That is why the verse says that Yehovah is “our” Elohim.” Other people may have other gods, but the people of Elohim are to have Yehovah alone as their Elohim. 

This Hebrew Scriptures truth is confirmed by Messiah in Mark 12:29, and reconfirmed by Paul, who wrote that, “to us there is one Elohim, the Father” (1 Cor. 8:6).

Although it is commonly believed that Deuteronomy 6:4 is a statement of “monotheism” and thus the “compound unity” of Elohim, that is not what the verse is saying. Of course it is a statement about monotheism, that there is one Elohim, but that is not its primary emphasis, as we will see below. Furthermore, it is not a statement about the compound unity of Elohim for a number of reasons. First, because the compound unity of Elohim does not appear in Scripture. Second, the Hebrew Scriptures was given by Elohim to the Jews so they could know and obey Him, and never in the more than 3500 years since the Shema was written have the Jews understood it to refer to a compound unity in Elohim—quite the opposite. They took it to mean that there was only one Elohim, and fiercely fought against polytheism throughout their history. So if the Shema was Elohim’s attempt to reveal a compound unity in Elohim, the attempt was an epic failure. It makes much more sense that Elohim gave the verse to the Jews and intended it to mean what the Jews say it means. Furthermore, the Jews did not take the Shema as their primary statement of monotheism because many other verses made that point (we will cover that shortly). Third, the context of the Shema in both the Old and Renewed Covenants, backed by the Scope of Scripture, shows that the Shema is not saying “Elohim is ‘one,’ but rather is saying that Yehovah “alone” is our Elohim.

The context shows us that Deuteronomy 6:4 is using the Hebrew word ‘echad (#259 אֶחָד; “one, only, an, alone”) in the primary sense of “only” or “alone,” in contrast to the number “one,” and the context in Mark 12 confirms this. Note how Deuteronomy 6:4 and 6:5 flow together and thus make a major—and logical—point: “Yehovah is our Elohim, Yehovah alone! And you must love Yehovah your Elohim with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.” It is because Yehovah “alone” is Elohim that we can worship him with “all” our heart, “all” our soul, and “all” our might. If we had more than one Elohim, our worship would have to be divided between all the gods we served, and each Elohim would get only “part” of our heart, soul, and strength. In fact, that is what happens with Trinitarians today: they divide their worship of Elohim into the worship of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But that division of worship is what is expressly forbidden by Deuteronomy 6:4 and Mark 12:29.

What should be clear is that Deuteronomy 6:4 is a statement about our personal relationship to Elohim. He “alone” is Elohim, so He is to be “our” only Elohim and we must worship Him with “all” that we are and have. Deuteronomy 6:4 is not primarily a statement about monotheism, it is a statement about relationship. Stated another way, Deuteronomy 6:4 is not about the nature of Elohim, it is about our relationship with Elohim. Monotheism is important, and Elohim had established that there was only one Elohim earlier in Deuteronomy. Only about 50 verses before the Shema, Elohim had twice stated that He was the only Elohim. Deuteronomy 4:35 says, “Yehovah is Elohim, besides Him there is no other.” Four verses later Deuteronomy 4:39 establishes that truth and says, “Yehovah is Elohim in heaven above and on earth below. There is no other.” After establishing that there is only one Elohim, Deuteronomy 6:4 then takes that truth and makes it personal: Yehovah who alone is Elohim is to be “our” Elohim, and we are to worship Him with “all” our heart, soul, and strength. Furthermore, after Deuteronomy 4:35, 39, and 6:4 have established that there is only one Elohim, and thus Yehovah alone is to be “our Elohim,” 6:13 then says that we should fear and serve Him, and swear oaths in His name.

The scope of Scripture also shows us that the Shema is about our relationship with Elohim and not the singular nature of Elohim. For example, Zechariah 14:9 uses the word ‘echad and speaks of the future, saying that Yehovah will be king over the whole earth. The last part of the verse says in that day, “Yehovah will be one [‘echad], and his name one [‘echad].” Here we see the same use of ‘echad that we see in the Shema. When Zechariah says that in that day Yehovah will be “one,” it is not making a statement about Elohim’s nature, as if somehow His nature would become “one” in the future but is not “one” now. Rather, it is using “one,” (‘echad) as “alone,” just as in Deuteronomy 6:4. Zechariah is saying that in the future Yehovah will be “alone” and His name “alone,” not in competition with the names of other gods. Unlike today when many “gods” distract us from Elohim, in the future all the competing gods will be cast away and Yehovah “alone” will be everyone’s Elohim. Isaiah says, “On that day people will throw their silver and gold idols, which they made to worship, to the moles and the bats” (Isa. 2:20 HCSB). Zechariah says, “‘And on that day,’ says Yehovah of Heaven’s Armies, ‘I will erase idol worship throughout the land, so that even the names of the idols will be forgotten’” (Zech. 13:2). Isaiah 2:11 and 17 say that Yehovah alone will be exalted in that Day.

Also, the very first of the Ten Commandments fits with the Shema, saying that Yehovah alone is to be our Elohim. The First Commandment is: “I am Yehovah your Elohim, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery. You must not have any other Elohim but me” (Exod. 20:2, 3; NLT with Yehovah in place of “the LORD”). So the first commandment says in effect the same thing that the Shema says: Elohim alone is to be our Elohim, and we are not to have any other Elohim but Him.

Having seen that the Shema is a statement about our relationship with Elohim and that He “alone” is to be our Elohim, we can now turn our attention to the Renewed Covenant text and Yeshua’ words in Mark 12:29. As has been stated earlier, there is no doubt that Yeshua would have quoted the Shema as it appears in the Hebrew text. He would not have been quoting it in Greek, even though the Gospel of Mark is written in Greek. But when we study the Greek word translated “one” in Mark 12:29, heis (#1520 εἷς; pronounced “hace”), we find that just like the Hebrew word ‘echad, can mean “one” or “alone,” so can the Greek word heis. In fact, we see heis being used in the sense of “alone” several times in the Renewed Covenant. The BDAG Greek English Lexicon lists Mark 2:7; 10:18; 12:29; Matthew 23:10; and Luke 18:19 as clear examples of heis meaning “alone.”

As has been stated above, the Hebrew text is very compressed and hard to translate. A common translation of the Greek is, “The Lord our Elohim is one Lord.” However, a translation that reflects more of the meaning of the verse is, “Hear, Israel, The Lord our Elohim is the only Lord” (that same basic translation appears in: The Geneva Bible; The New English Bible; Sir Andrews Norton’s, A Translation of the Gospels; The Renewed Covenant by William Barclay; and The Source Renewed Covenant by A. Nyland). Another good translation is in the New American Bible (NAB), which follows its translation of Deuteronomy and has, “Hear, O Israel! The Lord our Elohim is Lord alone!” Still another good translation is Elohim’s New Covenant by Heinz Cassirer. He has: “Listen, Israel, the Lord our Elohim is the one and only Lord.” Cassirer’s translation should catch our attention because he was born and raised Jewish and taught philosophy at Glasgow University and Corpus Christi, Oxford, and converted to Christianity due to his reading the Greek Renewed Covenant. Thus he brings a unique blend of Jewish heritage and a thorough knowledge of both Hebrew and Greek to his translation. He clearly understands that the Shema is making the point that Elohim is the “one and only” Elohim.

How do we know that when Yeshua quoted the Shema that he quoted it with the same meaning it had in the Hebrew Scriptures; that Elohim “alone” was Elohim? We know it by reading the whole account in Mark. We must pay attention to all the elements of the conversation: the question the Pharisee asked, Yeshua’ answer, the Pharisee’s commentary on Yeshua’ answer, and Yeshua’ statement about what the Pharisee said.

First, the Pharisee’s question: “What commandment is the first of all?” We learn from Matthew 22:34 that the question was initially asked to test Yeshua. It was a question that the Jews had asked and hotly debated among themselves for centuries, and was a question all the Jews were interested in. It seems clear the Pharisee legitimately wanted to know where Yeshua stood on the issue.

Yeshua answered the question by quoting both Deuteronomy 6:4 and 5, which shows that Yeshua understood that it was not enough to just “love Elohim,” in some generic sense, we must love the “right Elohim,” the true Elohim, the only Elohim, who is Yehovah. Yeshua then added the second commandment: love your neighbor as yourself. The Pharisee had not asked for that information, but we can see why Yeshua added it: the Pharisees were well known for holding themselves aloof from others, and even the name “Pharisee” means “Separated one,” someone separated from the rest of mankind, who are then relegated by default to a lesser status. Yeshua was trying to reach this Pharisee’s heart, and teach him that if he loved Elohim, it would show itself through his love for others.

The Pharisee responded to Yeshua’ answer in a way that showed he had grasped what Yeshua said and had himself come to a similar conclusion about the central point of the Hebrew Scriptures Torah. The Pharisee started by acknowledging that Yeshua’ statement was “well said,” and then he connected the Shema with Deuteronomy 4:35, that Yehovah is Elohim and there is no other Elohim but him. The Pharisee did not have any conception of a “compound unity” in Elohim, but rather spoke back to Yeshua the simple message of the Hebrew Scriptures contained in the Shema: Yehovah alone is Elohim and there is no other Elohim, and that is why we can and must love Elohim with “all” our heart, soul, and might. Furthermore, as the Pharisee acknowledged, loving Elohim and our neighbor was more important that all other religious ceremonies and practices.

Yeshua immediately recognized the heart of this Pharisee, and said to him: “You are not far from the Kingdom of Elohim.” If the Shema was teaching the “compound unity” of Elohim, and if Yeshua was trying to communicate that to the Pharisee, he would have immediately recognized by the Pharisee’s answer that he did not “get it.” At that point Yeshua should have further engaged the Pharisee so he could have a chance to understand the compound unity of Elohim and the doctrine of the Trinity. Why didn’t he? The simple answer is that Deuteronomy 4:35 and 6:4 teach a simple truth: there is one Elohim, Yehovah, and He alone is to be our Elohim. That is the simple point that is being made in both the Older and Renewed Covenants.

Having said that the most pertinent truth in the Shema is that Yehovah alone is to be our Elohim, there are nevertheless some other basic truths that the wording of the Shema shows us. Although the primary meaning is, “Yehovah is our Elohim, Yehovah alone,” the wording of the Hebrew text and the word ‘echad also allows for: “Yehovah is our Elohim, Yehovah is unique.” Although not the primary meaning, if we read the verse that way, it is saying that Yehovah, who is “our Elohim,” is unique among the gods, thus superior and worthy of our worship. The usage of ‘echad as “unique” is found in Song of Solomon 6:9, where the king speaks of his 60 queens, 80 concubines, and “young women without number,” but tells his new beloved that she is “unique” (Do you think she believed him?).

Another secondary meaning that can be seen in the very compact wording of Deuteronomy 6:4 is that there is “one” Yehovah. It was common in the cultures of the Middle East that several gods would be known by the same name, or the same Elohim would be assigned different characteristics and worshipped differently in different places. Examples of gods like this include: Astarte, Baal, Cybele, El (a Canaanite Elohim), Isis, Leviathan, Lilith, and Tammuz. In contrast to Elohims who, in different places had different characteristics and were worshipped differently, Yehovah was only “one” Elohim and was to be known as the same and worshipped the same everywhere.

In the spiritual battle, satan is always trying to distort Elohim: His nature, His character, His love, and His actions, and Elohim works to prevent that. After the birth of Messiah, satan has worked to distort Yeshua too. Thus less than 30 years after Yeshua gave his life for mankind, 2 Corinthians 11:4 speaks of those people who preach “another Yeshua,” and Galatians 1:6-9 shows that people were perverting the Gospel, saying, “If anyone is proclaiming to you a Good News that is contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.”

In closing, it is helpful to speak a few more words about why the Shema cannot be referring to a “compound unity” in Elohim. If the Shema was making the point that Elohim was a compound unity, then neither verse 4 nor verse 5 would fit with what the Bible actually says. The Hebrew Scriptures never reveals that “Yehovah” was a compound deity, made up of separate “Persons.” Trinitarian theologians acknowledge that the Hebrew Scriptures does not reveal the Trinity—a major reason the Jews never believed in one. In the Hebrew Scriptures, “Yehovah” and the Son are always represented as two separate entities. “Yehovah” is the equivalent of the “Father” (or “Elohim”) in the Renewed Covenant. Just as the Father and Son occur together many times in the Renewed Covenant and are clearly presented as two (Cp., “The testimony of two men is true: I bear witness about myself, and the Father bears witness of me”—John 8:17, 18), so the Hebrew Scriptures presents Yehovah and the “Son” (also referred to as the “Lord,” “Servant,” or “anointed”) as two, not “one Elohim” (Cp., Ps. 2:2, 7; 110:1; Isa. 42:5ff; 49:4, 5; 53:6, 10, 11). Furthermore, it is clear in the Hebrew Scriptures texts, such as those that call the Messiah the servant of Yehovah, and in the Renewed Covenant texts as well (Cp., 1 Cor. 15:28) that the “Son” is subservient to Yehovah. Given that, for the Shema to say that “Yehovah” is “one,” in contrast to many, does not make sense. If the verse were referring to a compound deity, it would have had to say that “Elohim” is one.

Furthermore, if the Shema were saying that “Yehovah” were “one” in the sense of a compound unity, then verse 5 would be incomplete and confusing, rather than helpful. If Elohim were a compound unity, then what the Israelites would need would be instruction as to how to treat each “Person,” i.e., how to worship and serve each “Person” in this compound deity. But instead of offering instruction as to how to worship each “Person,” verse 5 contradicts the idea of multiple “Persons” in Elohim and says to worship “Yehovah” with “all” your heart, soul, and might, clearly treating Yehovah as the one Elohim whom we worship.

Also, Yeshua’ answer to the Pharisee, that he was not far from the kingdom of Elohim, shows us that a person does not have to believe in the Trinity to be saved. We can see from the way the Pharisee spoke to Yeshua that he did not believe in the Trinity, but Yeshua made no attempt to instruct him and instead said he was not far from the Kingdom. If a person had to believe in the Trinity to be saved, Yeshua would have taught the Pharisee about it, and would never had said he was close to the Kingdom.

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