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II.

Hitherto we have been engaged in considering the progressive character of revelation, and the light which the history of Israel's moral development throws upon the nature and attributes of God. The prophets and psalmists are fully alive to the inner significance of the divine dealings with Israel, and they delight to describe in homely and tender imagery the relationship of love which bound Jehovah to His people. They conceive of Him as guiding Israel's footsteps with a father's compassion, and feeding His people with a shepherd's watchful care. Thou hast seen, says the writer of Deuteronomy, how that the Lord thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place1. As for his own people, sings the psalmist, he led them forth like sheep, and carried them in the wilderness like a flock 2. In all their affliction, says a prophet, he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old3. Such passages have a religious importance apart from their literary beauty. The psalmists and prophets look back upon the chequered history of God's relationship to Israel with the eyes of love. In the stern but merciful discipline of the wilderness, in the intervention of almighty power, in the miracles of redeeming and sustaining grace, they discern the unwearied faithfulness and tenderness of a self-revealing deity. Their chief interest is to trace at every stage or crisis of national development the handiwork of God; they dwell upon all situations or incidents. that illustrate the attributes of God and the methods of His action. History, in a word, is to the prophets and saints of old the continuous self-manifestation of a person, the gradual disclosure of the ineffable Name.

1 Deut. i. 31; cp. Hos. xi. 1. 2 Ps. lxxviii. 53. 3 Isa. lxiii. 9.

The 'Name' of God signifies that which may be known of Him, or rather that which He has made known of Himself to man. It does not represent the divine essence in itself, but such a manifestation of it as human faculties can apprehend. In short, the

Name of God is His character as He would have it acknowledged and held in honour by man. It is that which in the life of His beloved Son was finally manifested, and the successive declarations of the divine Name may be said to mark in broad outline different stages of revelation. The conception of deity becomes more definite and clear in proportion as redemptive history advances.

Now speaking broadly, there appears to be a gradual transition from general designations of the divine nature to specific and full statements of character. The ancient Hebrews started from some indeterminate conception of God common to the whole Semitic race, and were led on by slow degrees to a living apprehension of the being whom they worshipped. There was a relative purity and spirituality in the most ancient Semitic ideas of deity which distinguished them from those of Aryan peoples. This might be inferred from the different titles of Semitic deities: thus El signifies 'strong one'; Bel or Baal,' owner'; Adonis, lord'; Moloch, 'king'; Rimmon, probably 'thunderer'.' The fact is one which confirms the impression that Israel had antecedent aptitude for becoming the vehicle of the true religion to the world. The Hebrew started fairly; he had not utterly confounded God with nature. And thus from a feeling of vague dependence and fear he was led onward and upward towards the perception of a personality to whom he could stand in a moral relationship of devotion, trust, and love. He outgrew the stage in which the thought of deity merely inspired

1 Riehm, ATI. Theologie, pp. 46, 47. Riehm observes that among the Semites 'die Gottheit wird nicht so tief, wie bei den Ariern, in die Natur und das Naturleben herabgezogen.'

awe, and finally attained that in which the very mention of God was a joy, the very thought of Him a refuge and a solace. It is a wonderful ascent in religious experience, the successive moments of which seem to be indicated in the different designations of God contained in the Old Testament.

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The names of God must first be briefly considered with reference to their meaning and origin. We have, first, a group of general names, of which the most common are 'El, 'Eloah, 'Elohim, and 'El Elyon. The name 'Elohim has been thought to point to the polytheistic idiom of the early Semites; but, as is well known, when applied to the God of Israel it denotes the one and only God, and is used with a singular verb'. The name may perhaps be traced to a time when it was commonly believed that there were supernatural beings infesting certain localities, and vaguely supposed to be hostile to men. If,' says Prof. Robertson Smith, 'the 'Elohim of a place meant originally all its sacred denizens the transition to the use of the plural in a singular sense would follow naturally as soon as this indeterminate conception gave way to the conception of an individual god of the sanctuary 2. It should be borne in mind that the word is by no means exclusively applied to God. It is occasionally applied to a person who is regarded as the mouthpiece of a divine sentence, for instance to a judge or to a civil magistrate. Moreover, 'Elohim is commonly used, not only of the false deities of alien nations, but also of a class of beings, Sons of 'Elohim, who possess supernatural powers, and belong to an invisible and spiritual order. When applied to the God of Israel, the plural 'Elohim is best described as intensive, expressing the notion of 'fullness'-plenitude of superhuman might, or, as others prefer to explain,

1 See Schultz, i. 121; ii. 126 foll.

2

Religion of the Semites, p. 150. Cf. Renan, Histoire du peuple d'Israël, bk. i. ch. 3 [Eng. Tr. pp. 25, 26].

of that which inspires awe1. In any case it implies a being who claims the submission and adoration of men; and it may fairly be maintained that the word, especially when united to a singular verb, indicates that all divine powers are, as it were, concentrated in one personal being 2; indeed, the phrase may be thought to have possessed dogmatic value as combating the notion of an abstract and sterile monotheism.

Akin to 'Elohim may be the name 'El, which is sometimes found in poetry, but scarcely ever in prose. The root-meaning of the word is apparently 'the strong one,' and the fact of its appearing in old proper names, e. g. Methusael, Ishmael, or Bethel, points to its being the most primitive Hebrew designation of God3. With respect to the name 'Eloah, the singular of 'Elohim, some scholars hold that it corresponds to 'El as a subjective to an objective designation: 'El, the absolutely strong one, being regarded by man as 'Eloah, the object of man's dread. Finally, the phrase 'El Elyon, Most High God'-a title which has Phoenician affinities -implies the relative transcendence or elevation of the Deity, and it has been surmised that the use of this name in the passage relating to Melchizedek (Gen. xiv. 18) points to the early existence of an ancient monolatrous worship on Canaanite soil.

Next to these general names comes the title which

1 See Riehm, op. cit. pp. 48, 49. Richm questions the correctness of the opinion that Elohim had originally the notion of plurality. He thinks that, like other words, e. g. D' and 'D, it might simply imply extension, mass, or fullness. Darmesteter makes a similar remark: 'Le pluriel Elohim construit avec un verbe au singulier est un fait de grammaire et non de psychologie religieuse, et ne prouve guère plus la multiplicité primitive du dieu que Nous et Notre Majesté ne prouvent la multiplicité des majestés humaines; bref, Elohim est un de naissance autant que Jahve' (Les Prophètes d'Israël, p. 215).

See Robertson, Early Religion of Israel, note xv (p. 502). Cp. 1 Cor. viii. 5, 6.

3

Renan points out the religious significance of this fact, as attesting the relative purity of the Hebrew conceptions of deity (op. cit. bk. i. ch. 8 init ). Oehler, § 36. Cp. Riehm, p. 49. Schultz, ii. 130.

6

5

Oehler, 23, note 8. Cp. Westcott on Heb. vii. 1.

is characteristic of the patriarchal period, 'El Shaddai1. There can be no question that the general import of the name is correctly given in the usual English equivalent, 'God Almighty. The idea conveyed by it is that of absolute control over the forces of nature and the course of history. Abraham, as the recipient of Jehovah's gracious promises, may lean confidently on Him, with full assurance that what he hath promised he is able also to perform2; He is unfettered either by human perversity, or by the fixity of physical laws. The appearance of this designation of God marks a significant advance in religious ideas. It seems to imply the drawing of a conscious distinction between the one true omnipotent God and the powerless deities of heathendom. It corresponds to the simplicity and relative purity of patriarchal faith and worship when compared with the debased nature-religion of the Canaanites.

Specially distinctive of the Mosaic period is the title which is peculiarly the Name of revelation, Jahveh. Into the disputed history and origin of the word there is no occasion to enter minutely. It may suffice to say briefly that it appears to be a genuine Hebrew formation, directly connected with the third person singular imperfect of a verb 1. But it is still a matter of some uncertainty what was the precise significance of the original verbal stem; whether the form is a Qal or a Hiphil; and therefore whether the word itself means 'the living one' or 'he who causes to be,' 'the Creator.' It is noteworthy, however, that names derived from the imperfect tense-such names, for instance, as Jacob or Israel-seem generally, like Latin formations ending in -tor, to indicate a constant quality in the object of which they are predicated. There is sufficient reason on the whole for accepting

1 Exod. vi. 3. Observe this is according to P.

3 Lev. xxiv. 11: D, LXX. Tò övoμa.

2 Rom. iv. 21.

* For various accounts of the derivation see Riehm, p. 59; Robertson, Early Religion of Israel, pp. 268 foll.; Renan, Histoire du peuple d'Israel, bk. i, ch. 6; Studia Biblica, vol. i. pp. 11 foll.

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