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by the Hebrew ; l&tyg £ ver , * on 6 ara to create , , and nr&Xt asitia } to make ; add these the author maintains have very distinct senses , the former meaning to
plan , to model , to devise ; the latter , to effect or produce . The one is a term of sefetfce , and expresses the operation of the understanding while p lanning , scheming or inventing- ; the other of art , and denotes the execution or performance" of any scheme .
In the words ** . Let us make man , " Dr . Jones considers that there is an allusion to an architect commanding bis workmen , or to a sovereign consulting his ministers ; but he says that
the language is merely anthropomorphitical , an accommodation to human conceptions . We extract his remarks on the much-disputed word C 3 » nV « eloheim .
"Under this title the Creator is held forth as a sovereign , as having an absolute dominion over the works which he has made ; and man is made in the image of eloheim , because he possesses
under God a power over the inferior animals . And if man may be called eloheim , as lord of the creation , with still more propriety the term may be applied to those men who exercise dominion over
their fellow-creatures . Analogy requires that the root should be nb& ala , * which * " I am happy to find , that many of the critics , among whom was Michaelis , considered tlhto as the origin of eloheim . It is taken from ^» fc * ail , strong ; and its primary sense is « to make strong , to bind by an oath . * The consequence of
violating an oath is to incur a curse ; hence it may mean to implore a curse upon a person , to imprecate or curse : but this is only its secondary signification . Parkhurst , in explaining eloheim , has the audacity to give the following impious nonsense as the true import of the word : f
A name usually given in the Hebrew Scriptures to the ever + blessed Trinity , by which they represent themselves as under the obligation of an : oath to perform certain conditions , and as having pronounced a curse on all , men or devils , who do not conform to ., them / It is Peasant to turn away from such fooleries to
plain sense * « Eberi % rah / says Ged-**» c ana the rest of the Jewish commentators say , that > the plural , when Waed to the one true God , is used for four ' s aake , according to the Idiom of we langu w , j iaad s this I take to be the jea * cage , * / Tlto ; , a * t toasts !? not far from ! L ^ lill > r 4 Oeddfes ' s note 6 ir this w iff a tractof sound sense and great
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still exists in Arfebic , in the sense of to bind by an | 03 th . In this sense , no verb * could be tised with ' More propriety to designate princes , aitid ^ potentates , who have power to bind their subjects in allegiance to themselves . In all languages , ' many words exist which convey , under a
plurality of form ^ . a , singular signification . JSloheim is one \ pf ^ tfiSro number ; and for this peculiarity a satisfactory reason can be assigned . Power , however absolute , is never enjoyed by oik < 6 man without the participation of a few * , Tfcho carry on his administration , and form his court . It
is m reference to this circumstance , that in most tongues , a king , though numerically one , is described as if he were many ; and in our own country , the use of the pronouns we and our , in the sense of' self \ is an exclusive prerogative of royalty . Analogy is sufficiently clear to
warrant its application to the Almighty , in the relation of a sovereign , Jehovah himself , indeed , is absolutely one , uncompounded in nature , indivisible into parts or persons ; but he is nevertheless considered as surrounded with those spiritual beings called angels , who constitute his celestial court , and execute his will
through boundless space . The term eloheim , therefore , is not improperly used to mean God ; but we should remember , that Moses uses it not to express his essence as an infinite being , but his sovereignty as the Creator and Governor of the universe : the term , therefore , which comes nearest to the original is Almighty . * Pp . 24—26 .
This new translator renders Gen . i . 11 , which in our English version is after his kind , " each after its model * The Hebrew word pD mein , he says , when applied to things in the Divine mind meant models ; to the classes of things , kinds ; to ourselves , ideas .
" The Atheistical philosophers , considering the phaenomena of nature as the result of matter and motion , rejected the doctrine of ideas or models ; while Moses and his followers insisted on them as
inseparable from the existence of a Supreme Intelligence ; for this obvious reason , that nothing can proceed from design , but that of which an idea previously existed in tjie mind of the designer . If , then , things came into being without
m ^^^^^ ml ^ mmmm + m ~ mim —*> m—m * i *~ im - J i i ' ¦ ¦ " | 1 " 11 ' ¦ I i erudition . I add , tftftf ^ th e Greeks , from a similar motive , expressed a chief op a mtm of rank by thefplural ajticle / and a preposition with its dependent noun ; thus ot affidn TJpiapov , Priam and his suite , or Priam alone . See Wad Hi , 146 . Xen . Mem ; I . T , 18 . #
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Revieib ^ A N $ m Version of the Three First Chapters of Genesis . 231
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1820, page 231, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2487/page/39/
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