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Untitled Article
and : we £ ntt > ehtBd them , and ( rather even ) the pittar of doud went froth before their tfece and stood behinc ) fthem , " " And Jehovah went before tbew by day in a pillft ^ of cl oud toliad them the way , and by night in a pillar of fire * b give' the * ligfrt , to go by day and nfgh *; ** Compare aha Exod . i * | lt ; 20— $ & xl . 33—38 * Thi& fbfiaer of these passages is quoted
byl > r S ,, and the clause , «* fpr my name is within him , " seems to be properly understood by him as identifying the angel with Jehovah ; but he does not seem to be aware that this angel means the pillar of cloud and fire from which Jehovah talked with Moses , and gave manifestations of his peculiar presence and agency , riot in any respect a distinct being or person . In the cases of the angel of Jehovah appearing to Hagar , to Abraham , and to Manoah and his wife in human form , the an < jel is in each case identified in the narrative with Jehovah himself ; we therefore conclude that the
human form was only a manifestation of the peculiar presence of God , not a being commissioned by him . Our author indeed affirms that the Unitarian hyp othesis " overlooks the essential part of the case , the clear and marked distinction which is preserved between this personal angel atid him who sent him . " The assertion is positive , but it is unsupported by evidence . We have shewn that the use of the word angel is not of itself sufficient to establish swch distinction ; and after the most careful examination
of all the passages we can find nothing else which even appears to indicate it . Dr . S . has himself quoted the words of Rosenmuller : " Thus very frequently in thes $ books the names Jehovah , and angel of Jehovah , are used , interchangeably , the latter signifying that visible symbol under which God allowed Himself to be seen by me ; n . '' 1 Dh S ., rightly we think , considers the passage in Gen . xviii ., Where three human figUres appeared to Abraham , as of the same kind with the othe * s which he produces , although the expression angel of Jehovah is riot
there employed ; but we are at a loss to conceive how he could regard it as favouring his own views . The sacred historian commences by saying that Jekotoak appeared to Abraham ; the man who remained conversing with hhn spoke-to him as Jehovah himself , not any distinct or inferior being ; and- the « anie thing may be observed of the one who spoke to Lot . As there were several different purposes to be accomplished , different manifestations of Divine agency were employed , strikingly representing to ignorant men the ideal of sovereign power acting in different places and upon
different ttftatts at the same time ; but the language of the historian , taken strictly , identifies all the appearances with Jehovah ; and upon the whole , this seems to us to b& the explanation of the passage attended with least difficulty . Dr . S . quotes some of the Jewish commentaries , in order , as we understand him , to shew that the person who remained with Abraham , usually considered as the chief of the three , had a peculiar relation to Jehovah , y fet a distinct personality *
' * Upon this passage die Jerusalem Targqtn says , * the word ( mimra ) of JehoVah appeared to him ( i . e . Abraham ) art the valley of vision / Other J ^ tvlsh writings hav e the following explications : —•* The Shekinah was associated tn it h them ,. and detained Abraham till the tingcls departed : He said not u ? ho fie teas * but in all these ( appearances ) it wot the angel of the covenant . *" . To understand these comments we must bear in mind that mimra , the ward of any person-, in the dialect of the Targwns is oflly a fuller expression for tfcep « r » on himt ^ Bnd is so tis ^ Gontin ^ and men , so Iliat the words of the Jerusalem Targ »> Express precisely the same as the Words of the , book of Genesis itself : " Jehovah appeared to him . " A single
Untitled Article
3 $# /> r . J . P . Smith ' s Scrtptttre Testimony td the MeteaX :
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1831, page 334, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2597/page/46/
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