ELOHIM AND JEHOVAH.
Deified power--Giants and Jehovah--Jehovah's manifesto--The various
Elohim--Two Jehovahs and two Tables--Contradictions--Detachment
of the Elohim from Jehovah.
The sacred books of the Hebrews bring us into the presence
of the gods (Elohim) supposed to have created all things out
of nothing--nature-gods--just as they are in transition to the
conception of a single Will and Personality. Though the plural is
used ('gods') a singular verb follows: the tendency is already to
that concentration which resulted in the enthronement of one supreme
sovereign--Jehovah. The long process of evolution which must have
preceded this conception is but slightly traceable in the Bible. It
is, however, written on the face of the whole world, and the same
process is going on now in its every phase. Whether with Gesenius
[20] we take the sense of the word Elohim to be 'the revered,' or,
with Fürst, [21] 'the mighty,' makes little difference; the fact
remains that the word is applied elsewhere to gods in general,
including such as were afterwards deemed false gods by the Jews;
and it is more important still that the actions ascribed to the
Elohim, who created the heavens and the earth, generally reflect
the powerful and un-moral forces of nature. The work of creation in
Genesis (i. and ii. 1-3) is that of giants without any moral quality
whatever. Whether or not we take in their obvious sense the words,
'Elohim created man in his own image, ... male and female created
he them,' there can be no question of the meaning of Gen. vi. 1, 2:
'The sons of Elohim saw the daughters of men that they were beautiful,
and they took to themselves for wives whomsoever they chose.' When
good and evil come to be spoken of, the name Jehovah [22] at once
appears. The Elohim appear again in the Flood, the wind that assuaged
it, the injunction to be fruitful and multiply, the cloud and rainbow;
and gradually the germs of a moral government begin to appear in their
assigning the violence of mankind as reason for the deluge, and in
the covenant with Noah. But even after the name Jehovah had generally
blended with, or even superseded, the other, we find Elohim often
used where strength and wonder-working are thought of--e.g., 'Thou
art the god that doest wonders' (Ps. lxxvii.). 'Thy way is in the sea,
and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known.'
Against the primitive nature-deities the personality and jealous
supremacy of Jehovah was defined. The golden calf built by Aaron was
called Elohim (plural, though there was but one calf). Solomon was
denounced for building altars to the same; and when Jeroboam built
altars to two calves, they are still so called. Other rivals--Dagon
(Judges xvi.), Astaroth, Chemosh, Milcom (1 Kings xi.)--are called
by the once-honoured name. The English Bible translates Elohim, God;
Jehovah, the Lord; Jehovah Elohim, the Lord God; and the critical
reader will find much that is significant in the varied use of these
names. Thus (Gen. xxii.) it is Elohim that demands the sacrifice
of Isaac, Jehovah that interferes to save him. At the same time, in
editing the story, it is plainly felt to be inadmissible that Abraham
should be supposed loyal to any other god than Jehovah; so Jehovah
adopts the sacrifice as meant for himself, and the place where the
ram was provided in place of Isaac is called Jehovah-Jireh. However,
when we can no longer distinguish the two antagonistic conceptions
by different names their actual incongruity is even more salient,
and, as we shall see, develops a surprising result.
Jehovah inaugurates his reign by a manifesto against these giants,
the Elohim, for whom the special claim--clamorously asserted when
Aaron built the Golden Calf, and continued as the plea for the same
deity--was that they (Elohim) had brought Israel out of Egypt. 'I,'
cries Jehovah, 'am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the
land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage: thou shalt have no other
gods but me;' and the first four commandments of the law are devoted
entirely to a declaration of his majesty, his power (claiming credit
for the creation), his jealous determination to punish his opponents
and reward his friends, to vindicate the slightest disrespect to his
name. The narrative of the Golden Calf was plainly connected with
Sinai in order to illustrate the first commandment. The punishment of
the believers in another divine emancipator, even though they had not
yet received the proclamation, must be signal. Jehovah is so enraged
that by his order human victims are offered up to the number of three
thousand, and even after that, it is said, Jehovah plagued Israel on
account of their Elohim-worship. In the same direction is the command
to keep holy the Sabbath day, because on it he rested from the work
of creation (Gen. xx.), or because on that day he delivered Israel
from Egypt (Deut. v.), the editors do not seem to remember exactly
which, but it is well enough to say both, for it is taking the two
picked laurels from the brow of Elohim and laying them on that of
Jehovah. In all of which it is observable that there is no moral
quality whatever. Nero might equally command the Romans to have no
other gods before himself, to speak his name with awe, to rest when
he stopped working. In the fifth commandment, arbitrarily ascribed to
the First Table, we have a transition to the moral code; though even
there the honour of parents is jealously associated with Jehovah's
greatness ('that thy days may be long in the land which Jehovah
Elohim giveth thee'). The nature-gods were equal to that; for the
Elohim had begotten the giants who were 'in the earth in those days.'
'Elohim spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am Jehovah; and I
appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob by (the name of) God
Almighty (El-Shaddai), but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them'
(Exod. vi. 2, 3).
The ancient gods--the Elohim--were, in the process of absorption
into the one great form, the repository of their several powers,
distinguishable; and though, for the most part, they bear names related
to the forces of nature, now and then they reflect the tendencies
to humanisation. Thus we have 'the most high god' (El-elyon--e.g.,
Gen. xiv. 18); 'the everlasting-god' (El-elim, Gen. xxi. 33); 'the
jealous god' (El-kana, Exod. xx. 5); 'the mighty god, and terrible'
(El-gadol and nora, Deut. vii. 21); 'the living god' (El-chi,
Josh. iii. 10); 'the god of heaven' (El-shemim, Ps. cxxxvi. 26);
the 'god almighty' (El-shaddai, [23] Exod. vi. 2). These Elohim,
with each of whose names I have referred to an instance of its
characteristic use, became epithets, as the powers they represented
were more and more absorbed by the growing personality of Jehovah; but
these epithets were also characters, and their historic expressions
had also to undergo a process of slow and difficult digestion. The
all-devouring grandeur of Jehovah showed what it had fed on. Not only
all the honours, but many of the dishonours, of the primitive deities
adhered to the sovereign whose rule was no doubt inaugurated by their
disgrace and their barbarism. The costliness of the glory of divine
absolutism is again illustrated in the evolution of the premature
monotheism, which had for its figure-head the dread Jehovah, who,
as heir of the nature-gods, became responsible for the monstrosities
of a tribal demonolatry, thus being compelled to fill simultaneously
the rôles of the demon and the lawgiver. [24]
The two tables of the law--one written by Jehovistic theology, the
other by the moral sense of mankind--ascribed to this dual deity, for
whom unity was so fiercely insisted on, may be read in their outcome
throughout the Bible. They are here briefly, in a few examples,
set forth side by side.
TABLE OF JEHOVAH I. TABLE OF JEHOVAH II.
Exod. xxxiii. 27. 'Slay every Exod. xx. 13. 'Thou shalt not
man his brother, every man his kill.'
companion, and every man his
neighbour.'
Num. xv. 32. 'While the children Exod. xx. 14. 'Thou shalt not
of Israel were in the wilderness, commit adultery.'
they found a man that gathered
sticks upon the Sabbath Day....
And they put him in ward, because
it was not declared what should
be done to him. And the Lord said
unto Moses, The man shall be
surely put to death: all the
congregation shall stone him with
stones without the camp.' Neither
this nor the similar punishment
for blasphemy (Lev. xxiv.), were
executions of existing law. For a
fearful instance of murder
inflicted on the innocent, and
accepted as a human sacrifice by
Jehovah, see 2 Sam. xxi.; and for
the brutal murder of Shimei, who
denounced and resented the crime
which hung the seven sons of Saul
'before the Lord,' see 1 Kings ii.
But the examples are many.
In the story of Abraham, Sarai,
and Hagar (Gen. xvi.), Lot and
his daughters (xix.), Abraham's
presentation of his wife to
Abimilech (xx.), the same done by
Isaac (xxvi.), Judah, Tamar
(xxxviii.), and other cases where
the grossest violations of the
seventh commandment go unrebuked
by Jehovah, while in constant
communication with the guilty
parties, we see how little the
second table was supported by
the first.
The extortions, frauds, and Exod. xx. 15. 'Thou shalt not
thefts of Jacob (Gen. xxv., steal.'
xxvii., xxx.), which brought upon
him the unparalleled blessings of
Jehovah; the plundering of
Nabal's property by David and his
fellow-bandits; the smiting of
the robbed farmer by Jehovah and
the taking of his treacherous
wife by David (1 Sam. xxv.), are
narratives befitting a Bible of
footpads.
Jehovah said, 'Who shall deceive Exod. xx. 16. 'Thou shalt not
Ahab?... And there came forth a bear false witness against thy
spirit, and stood before Jehovah, neighbour.'
and said, I will deceive him. And
Jehovah said, Wherewith? And he
said, I will go forth and be a
lying spirit in the mouth of all
these thy prophets. And he said,
Thou shalt deceive him, and
prevail also: go forth and do so.
Now, therefore, Jehovah hath put
a lying spirit in the mouth of
all these thy prophets, and
Jehovah hath spoken evil
concerning thee' (1 Kings xxii.).
See Ezek. xx. 25.
Deut xx. 10-18, is a complete Exod. xx. 17. 'Thou shalt not
instruction for invasion, murder, covet they neighbour's wife,
rapine, eating the spoil of the thou shalt not covet thy
invaded, taking their wives, neighbour's wife, nor his
their cattle, &c., all such as man-servant, nor his maid-
might have been proclaimed by a servant, nor his ox, nor his
Supreme Bashi-Bazouk. ass, nor anything that is thy
neighbour's.'
Instances of this discrepancy might be largely multiplied. Any one who
cares to pursue the subject can trace the building upon the powerful
personal Jehovah of a religion of human sacrifices, anathemas, and
priestly despotism; while around the moral ruler and judge of the
same name, whose personality is more and more dispersed in pantheistic
ascriptions, there grows the common law, and then the more moral law
of equity, and the corresponding sentiments which gradually evolve
the idea of a parental deity.
It is obvious that the more this second idea of the deity prevails,
the more he is regarded as 'merciful,' 'long-suffering,' 'a God
of truth and without iniquity, just and right,' 'delighting not in
sacrifice but mercifulness,' 'good to all,' and whose 'tender mercies
are over all his works,' and having 'no pleasure in the death of him
that dieth;' the less will it be possible to see in the very same
being the 'man of war,' 'god of battles,' the 'jealous,' 'angry,'
'fire-breathing' one, who 'visits the sins of the fathers upon the
children,' who laughs at the calamities of men and mocks when their
fear cometh. It is a structural necessity of the human mind that
these two shall be gradually detached the one from the other. From
one of the Jehovahs represented in parallel columns came the 'Father'
whom Christ adored: from the other came the Devil he abhorred.