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Untitled Article
this subject , which rftay be found judiciously abridged in the first page of the critical and miscellaneous remarks accompanying Mr . Wellbeloved ' s translation , &c , of the Pentateuch , a book which ought to be accessible to every Unitarian , purchased by those able to afford the expense , and placed in congregational libraries for the use of those who cannot . If digression
may be excused , what can be more discouraging to labourers in the cause of truth , than to see those versions and notes which support what is called orthodoxy , eagerly purchased , and it may be added , those periodical publications , also , whilst the professed friends of free inquiry seem to think that Repositories and Reformers and Pioneer ^ and New Versions can be carried on without their pecuniary aid ? To return to the present
object—it would contribute not a little to the diffusion of a just opinion respecting the word Elohim , or Aleim as some prefer calling it , if the English reader were enabled to judge for himself , by using the original word as a proper name instead of translating it—Elohim created tJie heaven , &c , not
God created , &c . We cannot translate it Gods ; and the use of the singular , when it is plural in the Hebrew , is at least an assumption of what has not been proved to general satisfaction . But when the English reader is aware of all the applications of it , to angels , to magistrates , to the form raised by the witch of Endor , to the golden calf , and others , he will perhaps be of opinion that it is a term not peculiar to God , and that it therefore can
afford no proof of the doctrine of the Trinity , which must rest on some better authority , or be given up . The proposed change is the more necessary , because , in the Received Version , we find it translated Gods in some of these cases , according to the preconceived opinion of the translators , in a way which can scarcely be deemed correct . Some have endeavoured to prove that the Hebrew word is really singular , and that of course it should
always be rendered so * This would settle the question at once , if wellfounded ; but when we find m ^ K Eloh used in different passages , of which Cn ^ tf is the regular plural , we must admit it as such ; and in doing so , we can find no more difficulty than when pOHK Jfdonim , Lords , is applied to a single person , and other words in like manner . With respect to the derivation of Elohim , Park hurst and his followers refer it to n ^ N he
cursed , and suppose " it given to thje ever-blessed Trinity , who represent themselves as under the obligation of an oath to perform certain conditions , and as having denounced a curse on all , men and devils , who do not conform to them . * ' It is unnecessary to follow Mr . Parkhurst through the long explanation he gives of the terms or conditions to which Elohim
sware , because , according to the analogy of the Hebrew nouns , the word cannot be so derived . The n in rf ? H he sware , is a changeable one , and the plural of the noun derived from it would be Q' ^ K or . tZ 3 " ^ N not C 3 > n ^ K- Other learned men , and among others , Drs . Taylor and Geddes , suppose it derived from bH or b > X strength , power , a natural attribute from which to take the name of the Supreme Being ; but it may be objected to
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On the / SPV //* CD » n ^ K . 531
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1831, page 531, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2600/page/27/
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