Page:Anacalypsis vol 1.djvu/101

 Again Isaiah li. 22, כה-אמר אדניך יהוה ואלהיך יריב עמו. Thus thy Adonai Jehovah spoke, and thy Aleim reprimanded his people. Sic dixit tuus Adoni Ieue, et tuus Aleim litigabit suo populo.

Two persons of the Trinity are evident in these texts. The third is found in the serpent, which tempted Eve in its evil character, and in its character of regenerator, healer, or preserver, in the brasen serpent set up by Moses, in the wilderness, to be adored by the Israelites, and to which they offered incense from his time through all the reigns of David and Solomon, to the time of Hezekiah, the name of which was Nehushtan. Numbers xxi. 8, 9; 2 Kings xviii. 4. The destroyer or evil spirit may also probably be found in the Aub named Lev. xx. 27; Deut. xviii. 11.

There are many expressions in the Pentateuch besides those already given, which cannot be accounted for without a plurality of Gods or the Trinity, a doctrine which was not peculiar to Abraham and his descendants, but was common to all the nations of the ancient world from India to Thule, as I have before observed, under the triple title of creator, preserver, and destroyer—Brama, Vishnu, and Siva, among the Hindoos; Oromasdes, Mithra, and Arhimanius, among the Persians.

We shall see in the next chapter, that the Trinity will be found in the word Aleim of the first verse of Genesis, which will tend to support what I have asserted, viz. that it is an Indian book.

1. Perhaps there is no word in any language about which more has been written than the word Aleim; or, as modern Jews corruptly call it, Elohim. But all its difficulties are at once removed by considering it as a representation of the united Godhead, the Trinity in Unity, the three Persons and one God. It is not very unlike the word Septuagint—of which we sometimes say, it gives a word such or such a sense, at other times they give such a sense, &c. A folio would be required to contain all that has been said respecting this word. The author believes that there is no instance in which it is not satisfactorily explained by considering it, as above suggested, as the representation of the Trinity. se

The root אל al, the root of the word Aleim, as a verb, or in its verbal form, means to mediate, to interpose for protection, to preserve; and, as a noun, a mediator, an interposer. In its feminine it has two forms, אלה ale, and אלוה alue. In its plural masculine it makes אלים alim, in its plural feminine אלהים aleim. In forming its plural feminine in ים im, it makes an exception to the general Hebrew rule, which makes the plural masculine in ים im. But though an exception, it is by no means singular. It is like that made by עזים ozim, she-goats, דבים dbim, she-bears, &c. In the second example in its feminine form, it drops the u or vau, according to a common practice of the Hebrew language.