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 CHAPTER X.

ARGUMENT FROM THE DOCTRINE OF ANGELS.

The facts on which our argument is based are mainly the passages in Job which refer to 'sons of Elohim' (or better, as Davidson, 'of the Elohim'), to 'the Satan,' and to the mal'akim. The first of these three phrases means probably inferior members of the class of beings called Elohim (i.e. 'superhuman powers'); the second, 'the adversary (or opposer);' the third, 'envoys or messengers' ([Greek: angeloi]). We may at once draw an inference from the expression 'the Satan,' the full importance of which will be seen later on. 'The Satan' being an appellative, the book in which it occurs was probably written before Chronicles, where we find 'Satan' without the article, almost as if a proper name; and being applied to a minister and not an opponent of Jehovah, the Book of Job is probably earlier than the prophecies of Zechariah and the Books of Chronicles; see Zech. iii. 1, 2 (where observe that Jehovah's only true representative gives a severe reproof to 'the Satan'), 1 Chron. xxi. 1 (where 'Satan,' uncommissioned, 'entices' David to an act displeasing to Jehovah ). The difference between the notices of the Satan (or Satan) may not seem great to an unpractised student, but no one who has followed the development of any single doctrine will undervalue such traces of a growing refinement in the conceptions of good and evil. Whether or no the ideas of the Chronicler