these two persons from one another by this circumstance, that God no man hath seen at any time nor can see,[1] but the Lord whom Abraham and his descendants worshiped was the person who appeared to them.”[2]
In the above I need not remind my reader that he must insert the name of Ieue or Jehovah for the name of Lord.
Chapter xxi. verse 33, is wrong translated: when properly rendered it represents Abraham to have invoked (in the name of Jehovah) the everlasting God.[3] That is, to have invoked the everlasting God, or to have prayed to him in the name of Jehovah—precisely as the Christians do at this day, who invoke God in the name of Jesus—who invoke the first person of the Trinity in the name of the second.
The words of this text are, ויקרא-שם בשם יהוה אל עולם et invocavit ibi in nomine Ieue Deum æternum.
The foregoing observations of Dr. Shuckford’s are confirmed by the following texts:
Gen. xxxi. 42, “Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac,” &c.
Gen. xxxi. 53, “The Gods of Abraham, and the Gods of Nahor, the Gods of their father, judge betwixt us, אלהי אביהם. Dii patris eorum, that is, the Gods of Terah, the great-grandfather of both Jacob and Laban. It appears that they went back to the time when there could be no dispute about their Gods. They sought for Gods that should be received by them both, and these were the Gods of Terah. Laban was an idolater, (or at least of a different sect or religion—Rachel stole his Gods,) Jacob was not; and in consequence of the difference in their religion, there was a difficulty in finding an oath that should be binding on both.
In Gen. xxxv. 1, it is said, And (אלהים Aleim) God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there; and make there an altar unto God (לאל Lal) that appeared unto thee, when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother. If two Gods at least, or a plurality in the Godhead, had not been acknowledged by the author of Genesis, the words would have been, and make there an altar unto me, that, &c.; or, unto me, because I appeared, &c.
Genesis xlix. 25, מאל אביך ויעזרך ואת שדי ויברכך, a Deo tui patris et adjuvabit te; et omnipotente benedicet tibi. By the God (Al) of thy father also he[4] will help thee, and the Saddai (Sdi) also shall bless thee with blessings, &c.
It is worthy of observation, that there is a marked distinction between the Al of his father who will help him, and the Saddi who will bless him. Here are two evidently clear and distinct Gods, and neither of them the destroyer or the evil principle.
Even by the God (אל Al) of thy father, who shall help thee: and by the Almighty, שדי omnipotente, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts and of the womb. The Sdi or Saddi are here very remarkable; they seem to have been peculiarly Gods of the blessings of this world.
Deut. vi. 4, יהוה אלהינו יהוה אחד. This, Mr. Hails has correctly observed, ought to be rendered Jehovah our Gods is one Jehovah.
The doctrine of a plurality, shewn above in the Pentateuch, is confirmed in the later books of the Jews.
Isaiah xlviii. 16, ועתה אדני יהוה שלחני ורוחו. Et nunc Adonai Ieue misit me et spiritus ejus: And now the Lord (Adonai) Jehovah, hath sent me and his spirit.
