144

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THE SINGULAR FORM EL."

originally understood to imply the plural number. The supposition, therefore, that this form was merely employed as a plural of majesty, will not meet the difficulty,—more especially as this was never adopted by the Hebrews with the far loftier name of Jehovah (except, perhaps, when speaking with his angels1). The singular 'el is used with any adjective to denote the Deity in the abstract2, and has possibly a figurative connexion with 'ajil, a ram, in the same way that the people were considered as sheep, tso'n3; as the participle of 'ul, it is related to 'alah, the verbal primitive adopted by the other branch of the Semitic nation. For as él ["HA] is expressly mentioned as the name of Chronos among the Syrians and Phoenicians, so ilah [Allah] has become the name of the Deity among the Arabs; so too ěloha, or its plural 'ělohim, is used by the Hebrews to designate the gods of the heathens. Moreover the word 'ělohim is, taken

brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him."-Exod. xxxii. 1, 4, 8, 23.

"Woe unto us! who shall deliver us out of the hand of these mighty Gods [Elohim]? these are the Gods that smote the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness."—1 Sam. iv. 8.

"And David spake to the men that stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach from Israel? for who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God [Elohim]?"-1 Sam. xvii. 26.

“And what one nation in the earth is like thy people, even like Israel, whom God [Elohim] went to redeem for a people to himself, and to make him a name, and to do for you great things and terrible, for thy land, before thy people, which thou redeemedst to thee from Egypt, from the nations and their gods?"-2 Sam. vii. 23.

1 Compare Gen. xxi. 17. (?)

2 See Ewald, Compos. der Genes., p. 14.

3 See Hitzig on Isaiah, ix. 5.

4 Photius, p. 343, Bekk.

5 "Because that they have forsaken me, and have worshipped Ash

in its literal sense, the aggregate of the divine powers, which were at first regarded as separate existences, but gradually came to be considered by the Hebrews, when their conceptions grew more elevated, as the collective essence of the universal Deity: this was the meaning it ever after retained, though the plural form in use among the neighbouring nations is still, in many cases, inadvertently employed even by their later writers'. The singular form now became poetical, as in Job; and other plurals were adopted, not only for the Deity, as k'odashim, but even for earthly rulers, as 'adonim2: this latter name has become so completely the recognized form for the Divinity, that even in cases where, in conformity with the ancient construction of 'ǎdonai 'ělohim (my lords Gods), we should expect to find 'ădonai Jehovah, the vowel points of 'ělohim are substituted for those usually employed with Jehovah3, because, according to a later theory, 'ădonai was considered as Unity, and its vowels were transferred to Jehovah1. The distinc

toreth the goddess of the Zidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the children of Ammon, and have not walked in my ways, to do that which is right in mine eyes, and to keep my statutes and my judgments, as did David his father.”—1 Kings xi. 33.

"And Ahaziah fell down through a lattice in his upper chamber that was in Samaria, and was sick: and he sent messengers, and said unto them, Go, inquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron whether I shall recover of this disease.”—2 Kings i. 2.

"But in his estate shall he honour the god of forces and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things."-Dan. xi. 38.

1 See Hartmann, Pent. p. 122.

2 "Abraham his master [adonaiv].”—Gen. xxiv. 9, and elsewhere. 3 [The vowel points usually employed with Jehovah are not those which originally belonged to it, but those of adonai, except that a simple sheva (:) is placed under the J.]

4 See Ewald, Krit. Gram. p. 299. Composit. p. 34. [as in Gen. xv. 2.]

VOL. I.

L

146

THE PENTATEUCH.

tion laid down by Köster1, according to which 'ělohim with the article is used to signify the true God or the Gods worshiped in their proper persons (oi coì), and without the article to mean the higher powers in general (coì), will by no means admit of proof 2.

How early, or how late, the Hebrews acknowledged the Jehovah of their theocracy, and the national poets and authors adopted a purer spiritualism, it is impossible precisely to determine, on account of the confused character of their literature. In this particular even the Pentateuch, the grand foundation of their whole constitution, is glaringly inconsistent. We are bound to state its contradictions, and as far as possible to reconcile them with each other; but, in order to trace the further progress of the popular faith, we must have recourse to genuine history.

According to the book of Genesis, the world was created by the Elohim, inasmuch as the poetical narrative (to say nothing of the foreign dress of the whole cosmogony) would have forfeited all claim to belief had such a work been ascribed to the Deity of the nation. But the unity of the Deity is nevertheless implied, and the conceptions of his nature, though still very childlike in their character, have already acquired that higher elevation to which the advanced culture of the narrator and the patriarchal age which he describes must have necessarily given birth. At one time the Supreme Being is Almighty, the Lord of heaven and earth; at another time these conceptions are

Erläuter. (Elucidation), p. 18.

2 The comparison between the Elohim and the Amshaspands, Cabiri and Titans, is also totally devoid of foundation in history; the same may be said of the interpretation which explains the Elohim as primeval patriarchs. Hüllmann, Staatsverf. der Israel (Israel. Constitution), p. 28, &c.

INCONSISTENCIES.

147

lowered, and contract in place of enlarging; the Supreme Being is represented as partial and jealous, he has all the weakness of his creatures, and appears as little more than the family deity of the patriarchs, with all the human imperfections of that rude and early age. These apparent contradictions, however, find a simple explanation in the fact that these writings belong to two totally distinct periods, to the time of the narrator, and to that remoter age which he is endeavouring to describe, but which he often inadvertently invests with the views and feelings peculiar to his own. It has indeed been suggested, that a guardian deity, chosen by Abraham for himself and his tribe from among the gods of his family, may have gradually risen from a patriarchal to a universal deity, and that the first step of this progress may have consisted in the rejection of all visible objects of worship; but even supposing that this theory could be reconciled with the known polytheism of a later period, still the selection of a family deity from the whole assemblage of supernatural powers is not to be rated too highly. The wandering life of a pastoral people is sufficient in itself to prevent an attachment to any fixed form of Fetichism; and to prove that a purer religion is not always inconsistent with barbarism, we need only allude to the Great Spirit of the American Indians1, and the spiritual worship of the Phoenician Hercules. It must also be remembered, that little or nothing is said of the existence of idols among many other of the Canaanitish tribes. The book of Genesis, moreover, leaves us to infer that Melchizedek king of Salem also acknowledged a supreme ruler of the

1 See Heckewälder, Indian. Völkerschaften (Ind. Nations), p. 111.

148

66

THE NAME JEHOVAH."

universe1; that Abimelech of Gerar worshiped one God, and so far therefore it raises these native kings to the same level with Abraham himself. The most decisive circumstance however is, that the Pentateuch uniformly refers the first knowledge of Jehovah to Moses, while the patriarchs, we are told, only knew him as the "Mighty Power," 'el shaddai, and the very name of Jehovah was concealed from them; hence a new light is thrown on the whole book of Genesis, inasmuch as it actually anticipates this name in the same way as it assigns an earlier origin to circumcision and other observances. Even Jahn can only solve this difficulty by supposing that Jehovah has been substituted for some other and more ancient name of the Deity, which had ceased to be generally intelligible.

4

The Pentateuch can no better conceal, than the books which immediately succeed it, that Jehovah was at first merely the national Deity of the Israelites. Cain is afraid to dwell in a land where "Jehovah is not; " the Deity "goes down" with his people into Egypt, and appears there to his chosen servants". He is constantly spoken of as "the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob," or "the God of the Hebrews;" they are forbidden to have any gods beside

1 "And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine : and he was the priest of the most high God."-Gen. xiv. 18. 2 [Gen. xxvi. 28. "Jehovah was with thee."]

3" And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them."-Exod. vi. 3.

4 Gen. xvii. 10, compared with Lev. xii. 3.

5 "And they shall hearken to thy voice: and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall say unto him, The Lord God of the Hebrews hath met with us: and now let us go, we beseech thee, three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God."-Exod. iii. 18.