GOD

(1) As No. 6.

Habakkuk 3:19 ¹⁹The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.

(2) Mighty one, el.

Genesis 14:18 ¹⁸And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.

Genesis 14:19 ¹⁹And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth:

Genesis 14:20 ²⁰And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all.

Genesis 14:22 ²²And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the LORD, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth,

Genesis 16:13 ¹³And she called the name of the LORD that spake unto her, Thou God seest me: for she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me?

Genesis 17:1 ¹And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.

Genesis 21:33 ³³And Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the LORD, the everlasting God.

Genesis 28:3 ³And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people;

Genesis 31:13 ¹³I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst the pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto me: now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred.

Genesis 35:1 ¹And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother.

Genesis 35:3 ³And let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went.

Genesis 35:11 ¹¹And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins;

Genesis 43:14 ¹⁴And God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may send away your other brother, and Benjamin. If I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.

Genesis 46:3 ³And he said, I am God, the God of thy father: fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation:

Genesis 48:3 ³And Jacob said unto Joseph, God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me,

Genesis 49:25 ²⁵Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb:

...to be continued.

(3) God, an object of worship, elah.

Ezra 4:24 ²⁴Then ceased the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem. So it ceased unto the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.

Ezra 5:1 ¹Then the prophets, Haggai the prophet, and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied unto the Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, even unto them.

Ezra 5:2 ²Then rose up Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and began to build the house of God which is at Jerusalem: and with them were the prophets of God helping them.

Ezra 5:5 ⁵But the eye of their God was upon the elders of the Jews, that they could not cause them to cease, till the matter came to Darius: and then they returned answer by letter concerning this matter.

Ezra 5:8 ⁸Be it known unto the king, that we went into the province of Judea, to the house of the great God, which is builded with great stones, and timber is laid in the walls, and this work goeth fast on, and prospereth in their hands.

Ezra 5:11 ¹¹And thus they returned us answer, saying, We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and build the house that was builded these many years ago, which a great king of Israel builded and set up.

Ezra 5:12 ¹²But after that our fathers had provoked the God of heaven unto wrath, he gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this house, and carried the people away into Babylon.

Ezra 5:13 ¹³But in the first year of Cyrus the king of Babylon the same king Cyrus made a decree to build this house of God.

Ezra 5:14 ¹⁴And the vessels also of gold and silver of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple that was in Jerusalem, and brought them into the temple of Babylon, those did Cyrus the king take out of the temple of Babylon, and they were delivered unto one, whose name was Sheshbazzar, whom he had made governor;

Ezra 5:15 ¹⁵And said unto him, Take these vessels, go, carry them into the temple that is in Jerusalem, and let the house of God be builded in his place.

Ezra 5:16 ¹⁶Then came the same Sheshbazzar, and laid the foundation of the house of God which is in Jerusalem: and since that time even until now hath it been in building, and yet it is not finished.

Ezra 5:17 ¹⁷Now therefore, if it seem good to the king, let there be search made in the king's treasure house, which is there at Babylon, whether it be so, that a decree was made of Cyrus the king to build this house of God at Jerusalem, and let the king send his pleasure to us concerning this matter.

...to be continued.

(4) God, gods, objects of worship, elohim.

Genesis 1:1 ¹In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Genesis 1:2 ²And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Genesis 1:3 ³And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

Genesis 1:4 ⁴And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

Genesis 1:5 ⁵And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

Genesis 1:6 ⁶And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

Genesis 1:7 ⁷And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

...to be continued.

(5) God, object of worship, eloah.

Deuteronomy 32:15 ¹⁵But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.

Deuteronomy 32:17 ¹⁷They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.

2 Chronicles 32:15 ¹⁵Now therefore let not Hezekiah deceive you, nor persuade you on this manner, neither yet believe him: for no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people out of mine hand, and out of the hand of my fathers: how much less shall your God deliver you out of mine hand?

Nehemiah 9:17 ¹⁷And refused to obey, neither were mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among them; but hardened their necks, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage: but thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsookest them not.

Job 3:4 ⁴Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.

...to be continued.

(6) Jehovah, [read by Jews elohim, prob. Yahweh].

Genesis 15:2 ²And Abram said, LORD God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?

Genesis 15:8 ⁸And he said, LORD God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?

Deuteronomy 3:24 ²⁴O Lord God, thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness, and thy mighty hand: for what God is there in heaven or in earth, that can do according to thy works, and according to thy might?

Deuteronomy 9:26 ²⁶I prayed therefore unto the LORD, and said, O Lord God, destroy not thy people and thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed through thy greatness, which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

Joshua 7:7 ⁷And Joshua said, Alas, O LORD God, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side Jordan!

...to be continued.

(7) A rock, tsur.

Isaiah 44:8 ⁸Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any.

(8) God, a god, object of worship, theos.

Matthew 1:23 ²³Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

Matthew 3:9 ⁹And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.

Matthew 3:16 ¹⁶And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:

Matthew 4:3 ³And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

Matthew 4:4 ⁴But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

...to be continued.

(9) A daimon, emon, shade, daimonion.

Acts of the Apostles 17:18 ¹⁸Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection.

(10) Lord, master, kurios.

Acts of the Apostles 19:20 ²⁰So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.

GOD:
- Is a spirit
    John 4:24; 2Corinthians 3:17

- IS DECLARED TO BE

    Light
        Isaiah 60:19; James 1:17; 1John 1:5

    Love
        1John 4:8,16

    Invisible
        Job 23:8,9; John 1:18; 5:37; Colosians 1:15; 1Timothy 1:17

    Unsearchable
        Job 11:7; 37:23; Psalms 145:3; Isaiah 40:28; Romans 11:33

    Incorruptible
        Romans 1:23

    Eternal
        Deuteronomy 33:27; Psalms 90:2; Revelation 4:8-10

    Immortal
        1Timothy 1:17; 6:16

    Omnipotent
        Genesis 17:1; Exodus 6:3

    Omniscient
        Psalms 139:1-6; Proverbs 5:21

    Omnipresent
        Psalms 139:7; Jeremiah 23:23

    Immutable
        Psalms 102:26,27; James 1:17

    Only-wise
        Romans 16:27; 1Timothy 1:17

    Glorious
        Exodus 15:11; Psalms 145:5

    Most High
        Psalms 83:18; Ac 7:48

    Perfect
        Matthew 5:48

    Holy
        Psalms 99:9; Isaiah 5:16

    Just
        Deuteronomy 32:4; Isaiah 45:21

    True
        Jeremiah 10:10; John 17:3

    Upright
        Psalms 25:8; 92:15

    Righteous
        Ezra 9:15; Psalms 145:17

    Good
        Psalms 25:8; 119:68

    Great
        2Chronicles 2:5; Psalms 86:10

    Gracious
        Exodus 34:6; Psalms 116:5

    Faithful
        1Corinthians 10:13; 1Peter 4:19

    Merciful
        Exodus 34:6,7; Psalms 86:5

    Long-suffering
        Numbers 14:18; Micah 7:1

    Jealous
        Jos 24:19; Na 1:2

    Compassionate
        2Ki 13:23

    A consuming fire
        Hebrews 12:29

- None beside him
    Deuteronomy 4:35; Isaiah 44:6

- None before him
    Isaiah 43:10

- None like to him
    Exodus 9:14; Deuteronomy 33:26; 2Sa 7:22; Isaiah 46:5,9; Jeremiah 10:6

- None good but he
    Matthew 19:17

- Fills heaven and earth
    1Ki 8:27; Jeremiah 23:24

- Should be worshipped in spirit and in truth
    John 4:24

GOD:

-Appearances of

    To Adam
        Genesis 3:8-21

    To Abraham
        Genesis 18:2-33

    To Jacob, at Beth-el
        Genesis 35:7,9

    To Moses, in the flaming bush
        Exodus 3:2

    To Moses, at Sinai
        Exodus 19:16-24; 24:10

    To Moses and Joshua
        Deuteronomy 31:14,15

    To Israel
        Judges 2:1-5

    To Gideon
        Judges 6:11-24

    To Solomon
        1 Kings 3:5; 9:2; 11:9;
        2 Chronicles 1:7-12; 7:12-22

    To Isaiah
        Isaiah 6:1-5

    To Ezekiel
        Ezekiel 1:26-28

-Name of Proclaimed
    Exodus 34:5,14

See Exodus 6:3; 15:3; Psalms 83:18

-To be reverenced
    Exodus 20:7;
    Deuteronomy 5:11; 28:58;
    Psalms 111:9;
    Micah 4:5;
    1 Timothy 6:1

-Praised     Psalms 34:3; 72:17

-Not to be profaned
    Exodus 20:7;
    Leviticus 18:21; 19:12; 20:3; 21:6; 22:2,32;
    Deuteronomy 5:11;
    Psalms 139:20;
    Proverbs 30:9;
    Isaiah 52:5;
    Romans 2:24;
    Revelation 16:9

-Profaned
    Psalms 139:20;
    Matthew 26:74

-See BLASPHEMY

-See PERJURY

-Repentance attributed to
    Genesis 6:6,7;
    Exodus 32:14;
    Judges 2:18;
    1 Samuel 15:35; 2 Samuel 24:16;
    1 Chronicles 21:15;
    Psalms 106:45;
    Jeremiah 26:19;
    Amos 7:3;
    Jonah 3:10

-For other anthropomorphic scriptures

SEE ANTHROPOMORPHISMS

Rejected

    By Israel
        1 Samuel 8:7,8;
        Isaiah 65:12; 66:4

    Saul
        1 Samuel 15:26

-See JESUS, REJECTED

-Comforter
    Job 35:10

-See AFFLICTION, CONSOLATION IN

-See HOLY SPIRIT

-Covenant keeping

See COVENANT

-Anger of

See ANGER OF GOD

-Attributes of

See each in alphabetical order below

-Condescension of

See CONDESCENSION

-UNCLASSIFIED SCRIPTURES RELATING TO
    Job 5:8-20; 9:2-35; 10:2-18; 12:7-20; 26:7-14; 33:12-30; 34:10-30; 37:1-24; 38:1-41; 39:1-30; 40:1-24; 41:1-34; 42:1-6;
    Psalms 8:3-6; 97:6; 104:1-32; 107:23-26; 119:90,91; 135:6,7; 147:15-18; 148:3-6;
    Ecclesiastes 3:14,15;
    Isaiah 2:19; 13:13; 29:6; 48:13; 50:2,3; 64:3;
    Jeremiah 5:24; 10:2,13; 31:35-37; 33:20,21,25,26; 51:15;
    Daniel 2:21;
    Amos 5:8;
    Nahum 1:3-6;
    Romans 1:19,20

-ACCESS TO
    Deuteronomy 4:7;
    Psalms 24:3,4; 27:4; 43:2; 65:4; 145:18,19;
    Isaiah 55:3;
    Matthew 6:6;
    John 10:7,9; 14:6;
    Acts 14:27;
    Romans 5:2;
    Ephesians 2:13,18; 3:12;
    Colossians 1:21,22;
    Hebrews 4:16; 7:19,25; 10:19,22; 11:6;
    James 4:8;
    1 Peter 1:17; 3:18;
    1 John 4:16

See PENITENTS

See REPENTANCE

See SEEKERS

-COMPASSION OF

See GOD, LONGSUFFERING OF, below

See GOD, MERCY OF, below

-CREATOR
    Genesis 1:1-28,31; 2:1-25; 5:1,2; 9:6;
    Exodus 20:11;
    1 Samuel 2:8;
    2 Kings 19:15;
    1 Chronicles 16:26;
    Nehemiah 9:6;
    Job 9:8,9; 10:3,8; 12:7-9; 26:7-13; 28:23-26; 37:16,18; 38:4-38;
    Psalms 8:3; 19:1,4; 24:1,2; 33:6,7,9; 65:6; 74:16,17; 78:69; 89:11,12,47; 90:2; 95:4,5; 96:5; 102:25; 103:22; 104:2,3,5,6,24,30,31; 119:90,91; 121:2; 124:8; 136:5-9; 146:5,6; 148:5,6;
    Proverbs 3:19; 8:26-29; 16:4; 22:2; 26:10; 30:4;
    Ecclesiastes 3:11; 7:29; 11:5;
    Isaiah 17:7; 37:16; 40:12,26,28; 42:5; 44:24; 45:7,12,18; 48:13; 51:13,16; 66:2;
    Jeremiah 5:22; 10:12,13,16; 27:5; 31:35; 32:17; 33:2; 51:15,16,19;
    Amos 4:13; 5:8; 9:6;
    Jonah 1:9;
    Zechariah 12:1;
    Mark 10:6; 13:19;
    Acts 4:24; 7:50; 14:15; 17:24-26;
    Romans 1:20; 11:36;
    1 Corinthians 8:6; 11:12;
    2 Corinthians 4:6; 5:5,18;
    Ephesians 3:9;
    1 Timothy 6:13;
    Hebrews 1:1,2; 2:10; 3:4; 11:3;
    Revelation 4:11; 10:6; 14:7

-CREATOR OF MAN
    Genesis 1:26,27; 2:7; 5:1,2; 9:6;
    Exodus 4:11;
    Numbers 16:22; 27:16;
    Deuteronomy 4:32; 32:6,15,18;
    Job 10:8,9,11,12; 12:10; 27:3; 31:15; 33:4; 34:19; 38:36;
    Psalms 33:15; 86:9; 94:9; 95:6; 100:3; 119:73; 139:13; 149:2;
    Proverbs 16:4; 20:12; 22:2;
    Ecclesiastes 11:5; 12:1;
    Isaiah 42:5; 43:1,7,15; 44:2,24; 45:12,18; 51:13; 64:8;
    Jeremiah 27:5;
    Daniel 5:23;
    Zechariah 12:1;
    Malachi 2:10;
    Acts 17:24-26,28,29;
    1 Corinthians 12:18,24,25; 15:38;
    Hebrews 12:9;
    1 Peter 4:19

See LIFE FROM GOD

See MAN

-ETERNITY OF
    Genesis 21:33;
    Exodus 3:15; 15:18;
    Deuteronomy 32:40; 33:27;
    1 Chronicles 16:36; 29:10;
    Nehemiah 9:5;
    Job 36:26;
    Psalms 9:7; 33:11; 41:13; 55:19; 68:33; 90:1,2,4; 92:8; 93:2; 102:12,24-27; 104:31; 111:3; 135:13; 145:13; 146:10;
    Proverbs 8:23-25;
    Isaiah 26:4; 40:28; 41:4; 43:13; 44:6; 46:4; 48:12; 57:15; 63:16;
    Jeremiah 10:10; 17:12;
    Lamentations 5:19;
    Daniel 4:3,34;
    Micah 5:2;
    Habakkuk 1:12; 3:6;
    Romans 1:20; 16:26;
    Ephesians 3:21;
    1 Timothy 1:17; 6:15,16;
    Hebrews 1:8; 9:14;
    2 Peter 3:8;
    1 John 2:13;
    Revelation 1:4,6; 4:8-10; 5:14; 10:6; 11:17; 15:7; 16:5

See GOD, SELF-EXISTENT

-FAITHFULNESS OF
    Genesis 6:18; 9:15,16; 21:1; 24:27; 28:15; 32:10;
    Exodus 2:24; 6:4,5; 12:41; 34:6;
    Leviticus 26:44,45;
    Deuteronomy 4:31; 7:8,9; 9:5; 31:6; 32:4;
    Joshua 21:45; 23:14;
    Judges 2:1;
    1 Samuel 12:22;
    2 Samuel 7:14,15,28; 22:31; 23:5;
    1 Kings 8:15,20,23,24,56;
    2 Kings 8:19; 13:23;
    1 Chronicles 17:27; 28:20;
    2 Chronicles 6:4-15; 21:7;
    Ezra 9:9;
    Nehemiah 1:5; 9:7,8,32;
    Psalms 9:10; 18:30; 19:9; 25:10; 31:5; 33:4; 36:5; 37:28; 40:10; 89:1,2,5,8,14,24,28,33,34; 92:1,2,14,15; 94:14; 98:3; 100:5; 103:17; 105:8,42; 111:5,7-9; 117:2; 119:65,89,90; 121:3,4; 132:11; 138:2; 146:6;
    Isaiah 11:5; 25:1; 42:16; 44:21; 49:7,16; 51:6,8; 54:9,10; 65:16;
    Jeremiah 29:10; 31:36,37; 32:40; 33:14,20,21,25,26; 51:5;
    Lamentations 3:23;
    Ezekiel 16:60,62;
    Daniel 9:4;
    Hosea 2:19,20;
    Micah 7:20;
    Haggai 2:5;
    Zechariah 9:11;
    Matthew 24:34,35;
    Luke 1:54,55,68-70,72,73;
    John 8:26; Acts 13:32,33;
    Romans 3:3,4; 11:1,2,29; 15:8;
    1 Corinthians 1:9; 10:13;
    2 Corinthians 1:20;
    1 Thessalonians 5:24;
    2 Timothy 2:13;
    Titus 1:2;
    Hebrews 6:10,13-19; 10:22,23,37;
    1 Peter 4:19;
    2 Peter 3:9;
    1 John 1:9;
    Revelation 6:10; 15:3

-FATHERHOOD OF
    Exodus 4:22;
    Deuteronomy 14:1; 32:5,6;
    2 Samuel 7:14;
    1 Chronicles 28:6; 29:10;
    Psalms 68:5; 89:26;
    Isaiah 1:2; 8:18; 9:6; 63:16; 64:8;
    Jeremiah 3:19;
    Hosea 1:10; 11:1;
    Matthew 3:17; 5:45; 6:4,6,8,9; 7:11; 10:20,29,32,33; 11:25-27; 12:50; 13:43; 15:13; 16:17,27; 18:10,14,19; 20:23; 26:29,39,42;
    Mark 8:38; 11:25,26; 13:32;
    Luke 2:49; 10:21,22; 11:2,13; 22:29; 23:46; 24:49;
    John 1:14,18; 2:16; 4:21,23; 5:17-23,36,37,43; 6:27,32,44-46; 8:19,27,38,41,42,49; 10:15,29,30,32,33,36-38; 12:26-28,50; 13:3; 14:2,6-13,16,20,21,23,24,26,31; 15:8-10,16,23,24,26; 16:3,10,15,23,25-28; 17:1,5,11,21,24; 20:17,21;
    Acts 1:4; 2:33;
    Romans 1:3,7; 8:15;
    1 Corinthians 1:3; 8:6; 15:24;
    2 Corinthians 1:3; 6:18;
    Galatians 1:1,3,4; 4:4-7;
    Ephesians 1:2,3,17; 2:18; 3:14; 4:6; 5:20; 6:23;
    Philippians 1:2;
    Colossians 1:2,3,12; 2:2; 3:17;
    1 Thessalonians 1:1,3; 3:11,13;
    2 Thessalonians 1:1,2; 2:16;
    Titus 1:4;
    Hebrews 1:5,6; 12:9;
    James 1:17,27; 3:9;
    1 Peter 1:2,3,17;
    1 John 1:2; 2:1,13,15,22-24; 3:1; 4:14;
    2 John 1:3,4,9;
    Jude 1:1;
    Revelation 1:5; 3:5; 14:1

See ADOPTION

-FAVOR OF

See GOD, GRACE OF

-FOREKNOWLEDGE OF
    1 Samuel 23:10-12;
    Isaiah 42:9; 44:7; 45:11; 46:9,10; 48:3,5,6;
    Jeremiah 1:5;
    Daniel 2:28,29;
    Matthew 6:8; 24:36;
    Acts 15:18;
    Romans 8:29; 11:2;
    1 Peter 1:2

See GOD, KNOWLEDGE OF

See GOD, WISDOM OF

See PREDESTINATION

-GLORY OF
    Exodus 3:2; 19:16,18,19; 20:18,19; 24:10,17; 33:18-20,22,23; 34:5,29-35; 40:34,35;
    Deuteronomy 4:11,12,33,36; 5:5,24,25; 7:21; 10:17; 28:58; 33:2,26;
    2 Samuel 22;
    1 Kings 19:12;
    1 Chronicles 16:24,25;
    Job 9:32,33; 13:11; 22:12; 25:3; 35:5-7; 37:4,5,22;
    Psalms 8:9; 18:7-15; 19:1-4; 24:8-10; 29:2-4; 46:10; 57:5,11; 68:24; 72:18,19; 76:4; 96:3,4,6,7; 97:2-6,9; 102:16,22; 104:31; 106:8; 113:4; 145:5,12;
    Isaiah 1:24; 2:10; 6:1-5; 12:6; 24:23; 26:15; 28:5; 29:23; 30:30; 33:5,10; 35:2; 40:5; 43:7,21; 44:23; 48:9,11; 49:3,26; 52:10; 55:9; 57:15; 60:1,2,6,19-21; 61:3; 62:3; 63:12,14; 66:1,2,18;
    Jeremiah 13:11; 17:12; 33:9;
    Ezekiel 1:26-28; 3:12,23; 8:4; 20:14,44; 36:22,23; 43:4,5;
    Habakkuk 3:4-6;
    Matthew 6:9,13;
    Luke 2:14;
    John 8:50; 12:28; 13:31,32; 14:13; 17:1,10;
    Acts 7:55;
    Romans 1:23; 11:36;
    2 Corinthians 1:20; 4:15;
    Ephesians 1:6,12,14; 2:7; 3:21;
    Philippians 1:11; 2:11; 4:19;
    1 Timothy 6:15,16;
    Hebrews 12:18-21;
    Jude 1:25;
    Revelation 4:11; 15:8; 21:10,11,23

See GLORY

See PRAISE

-GOODNESS OF
    Exodus 33:19; 34:6;
    Deuteronomy 30:9;
    1 Chronicles 16:34;
    2 Chronicles 5:13; 7:3;
    Psalms 8:1-9; 17:7; 25:8-10; 33:5; 34:8; 36:7; 52:1,9; 68:19; 69:16; 73:1; 86:5; 100:5; 106:1; 107:8,9,43; 118:29; 119:64,68; 135:3; 136:1; 139:17,18; 143:10; 144:3; 145:7,9;
    Isaiah 63:7;
    Jeremiah 9:24;
    Lamentations 3:25;
    Hosea 3:5;
    Nahum 1:7;
    Matthew 7:11; 19:17;
    Mark 10:18;
    Luke 1:53; 6:35; 18:19;
    Romans 2:4; 11:22;
    2 Thessalonians1:11;
    Titus 3:4;
    James 1:5,17;
    1 John 4:8

See GOD, GRACE OF

See GOD, LONGSUFFERING OF

See GOD, LOVE OF

See GOD, MERCY OF

-GRACE OF
    Genesis 6:8,9; 18:26,28,30,32; 32:28; 46:4;
    Exodus 3:12; 20:21,24; 24:2; 33:11,12,17,22,23;
    Leviticus 26:11,12;
    Numbers 5:3; 6:27; 14:14; 22:12; 23:20,21; 24:1;
    Deuteronomy 4:7; 31:6,8; 33:23;
    Joshua 1:5,9;
    1 Samuel 2:26;
    2 Samuel 22:20;
    1 Kings 6:13;
    2 Chronicles 15:2;
    Job 10:12; 22:27; 29:3-5;
    Psalms 3:8; 5:12; 11:7; 18:19,25,26; 24:4,5; 25:14; 30:7; 36:9; 37:18,23; 41:11,12; 44:3; 46:7; 58:11; 68:16,18; 75:10; 84:11; 89:17; 92:10; 94:19; 102:13; 112:9; 115:12,13,15; 132:13,14; 147:11; 149:4;
    Proverbs 3:4,23,32,35; 8:35; 10:6,22,24; 11:20,27; 12:2; 14:9; 16:7;
    Isaiah 28:5; 30:26; 33:17,22; 41:10; 43:5,21; 54:8; 60:10;
    Jeremiah 15:20;
    Lamentations 3:24;
    Ezekiel 37:27; 39:29; 48:35;
    Hosea 14:4;
    Joel 2:26,27; 3:16,17,20,21;
    Amos 3:2;
    Zephaniah 3:15,17;
    Haggai 1:13;
    Zechariah 2:5; 8:3; 9:16;
    Luke 1:28,30,66; 2:52;
    John 14:16-21,23; 15:15;
    Acts 4:33; 10:35;
    Romans 2:29;
    1 Corinthians 1:9; 3:21-23;
    2 Corinthians 4:15; 10:18;
    Galatians 4:6;
    Ephesians 1:6; 2:13,14,16,18,19,22; 3:12;
    Romans 5:2;
    Hebrews 4:16; 10:19,22; 11:5;
    1 Peter 2:9;
    1 John 1:3; 3:19; 4:17,18;
    Revelation 1:5,6; 3:20; 19:9; 21:3

See GRACE

-INSTANCES OF SPECIAL GRACE

To Enoch
    Genesis 5:24

To Noah
    Genesis 6:8

To Abraham
    Genesis 12:2

To Jacob
    Genesis 32:28; 46:4

To Moses
    Exodus 3:12; 33:12,14

To Solomon
    1 Chronicles 22:18

-GUIDE
    Genesis 12:1;
    Exodus 13:21; 15:13; 33:13-15;
    Numbers 10:33;
    Deuteronomy 32:10,12;
    2 Samuel 22:29;
    2 Chronicles 32:22;
    Nehemiah 9:19,20;
    Psalms 5:8; 23:2,3; 25:5,9; 27:11; 31:3; 32:8; 48:14; 61:2; 73:24; 78:52; 80:1; 107:7; 139:9,10,24;
    Proverbs 8:20;
    Isaiah 40:11; 42:16; 48:17; 55:4; 57:18; 58:11;
    Jeremiah 3:4;
    Luke 1:79;
    John 10:3,4; 16:13

See GOD, PROVIDENCE OF

-HOLINESS OF
    Exodus 3:5; 15:11;
    Leviticus 11:44; 19:2; 20:26; 21:8;
    Deuteronomy 32:4;
    Joshua 5:15; 24:19;
    1 Samuel 2:2; 6:20;
    1 Chronicles 16:10; Job 4:17-19; 6:10; 15:15; 25:5; 34:10; 36:23;
    Psalms 11:7; 18:30; 22:3; 30:4; 33:4,5; 36:6; 47:8; 48:1,10; 60:6; 89:35; 92:15; 98:1; 99:3,5,9; 105:3; 108:7; 111:9; 119:142; 145:17;
    Proverbs 9:10;
    Isaiah 5:16; 6:3; 12:6; 29:19,23; 41:14; 43:14,15; 45:19; 47:4; 49:7; 52:10; 57:15;
    Jeremiah 2:5;
    Lamentations 3:38;
    Ezekiel 36:21,22; 39:7,25;
    Daniel 4:8;
    Hosea 11:9;
    Habakkuk 1:12,13;
    Matthew 5:48; 19:17;
    Mark 10:18; Luke 1:49; 18:19;
    John 7:28; 17:11;
    Romans 1:23;
    Hebrews 1:8;
    James 1:13;
    1 Peter 1:15,16;
    1 John 1:5; 2:20;
    Revelation 4:8; 6:10; 15:4

See SIN, ALIENATES FROM GOD

See GOD, PERFECTION OF

See GOD, RIGHTEOUSNESS OF

-HUMAN FORMS AND APPEARANCE OF

See ANTHROPOMORPHISMS

-IMMUTABLE
    Numbers 23:19,20;
    1 Samuel 15:29;
    Job 23:13;
    Psalms 33:11; 119:89-91;
    Proverbs 19:21;
    Ecclesiastes 3:14; 7:13;
    Isaiah 31:2; 40:28; 59:1;
    Hosea 13:14;
    Malachi 3:6;
    Romans 11:29;
    Hebrews 6:17,18;
    James 1:17

-IMPARTIAL
    Deuteronomy 10:17;
    Job 36:5; 37:24;
    Acts 10:34,35;
    Romans 2:6,11;
    Galatians 2:6;
    Ephesians 6:8;
    Colossians 3:25;
    1 Peter 1:17

-INCOMPREHENSIBLE
    Exodus 20:21;
    Deuteronomy 4:11; 5:22;
    1 Kings 8:12;
    Job 11:7-9; 15:8; 37:1-24;
    Psalms 18:11; 97:2;
    Ecclesiastes 3:11;
    Isaiah 40:12-31; 55:8,9;
    1 Corinthians 2:16

-SYMBOLIZED

By the pillar of fire
    Exodus 14:19,20

By the darkness of the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle
    1 Kings 8:12

By the general structure of the Most Holy Place,
    see Leviticus 16:2

See GOD, UNSEARCHABLE

-INFINITE
    1 Kings 8:27;
    2 Chronicles 2:6; 6:1,18;
    Psalms 147:5;
    Jeremiah 23:24

See GOD, INCOMPREHENSIBLE

See GOD, UBIQUITY OF

See GOD, UNSEARCHABLE

-INVISIBLE
    Exodus 20:21; 33:20;
    Deuteronomy 4:11,15; 5:22;
    1 Kings 8:12; Job 9:11; 23:8,9;
    Psalms 18:11; 97:2;
    John 1:18; 5:37; 6:46;
    Romans 1:20;
    Colossians 1:13-15;
    1 Timothy 1:17; 6:16;
    Hebrews 11:27;
    1 John 4:12

See GOD, INCOMPREHENSIBLE

See GOD, INFINITE

See GOD, UNSEARCHABLE

-JEALOUS
    Exodus 20:5,7; 34:14;
    Deuteronomy 4:24; 5:9,11; 6:15; 29:20; 32:16,21;
    Joshua 24:19;
    2 Chronicles 16:7-10;
    Isaiah 30:1,2; 31:1,3;
    Ezekiel 23:25; 36:5; 39:25;
    Joel 2:18;
    Nahum 1:2;
    Zechariah 1:14;
    1 Corinthians 10:22

-JUDGE, AND HIS JUSTICE
    Genesis 16:5; 18:20,21,25;
    Exodus 20:5; 34:7;
    Numbers 16:22;
    Deuteronomy 4:24; 10:17; 32:4,35;
    Joshua 24:19;
    Judges 9:56,57; 11:27;
    1 Samuel 2:3,10; 24:12,15;
    2 Samuel 14:14; 22:25-27;
    1 Kings 8:32;
    1 Chronicles 16:33;
    2 Chronicles 6:22,23; 19:7;
    Nehemiah 9:33; Job 4:17; 8:3; 9:15,28; 21:22; 23:7; 31:13-15; 34:10-12,17,19,23; 35:14; 36:3,19; 37:23;
    Psalms 7:8,9,11; 9:4,7,8; 11:4,5,7; 18:25,26; 19:9; 26:1,2; 33:5; 35:24; 43:1; 50:4,6; 51:4; 58:11; 62:12; 67:4; 71:19; 75:7; 76:8,9; 82:8; 85:10; 89:14; 90:8,11; 92:15; 94:1,2,10; 96:10,13; 97:2; 98:2,3,9; 99:4,8; 103:6; 111:7; 119:137; 129:4; 135:14; 143:2; 145:17;
    Proverbs 11:31; 16:2; 17:3; 21:2,3; 24:12; 29:13,26;
    Ecclesiastes 3:15,17; 11:9; 12:14;
    Isaiah 1:27; 3:13,14; 10:17,18; 26:7; 28:17,21; 30:18,27,30; 31:2; 33:22; 45:21; 61:8;
    Jeremiah 9:24; 10:10; 11:20; 12:1; 20:12; 32:19; 50:7; 51:10;
    Lamentations 1:18;
    Ezekiel 14:23; 18:25,29,30; 33:7-19;
    Daniel 4:37; 7:9,10; 9:7,14;
    Hosea 10:10;
    Amos 8:7;
    Nahum 1:3,6;
    Zephaniah 3:5;
    Malachi 3:5,18;
    Acts 10:34; 17:31;
    Romans 1:32; 2:2,5-16; 3:4-6,26; 9:14; 11:22;
    Ephesians 6:8,9;
    Colossians 3:25;
    2 Thessalonians1:4-6;
    Hebrews 6:10; 10:30,31; 12:22,23,29;
    1 Peter 1:17;
    2 Peter 2:9;
    1 John 1:9;
    Jude 1:6;
    Revelation 6:16,17; 11:18; 15:3; 16:5-7; 18:8; 19:2

See JESUS, JUDGE

See GOVERNMENT, GOD IN

See HOLINESS OF GOD, above

See RIGHTEOUSNESS OF, below

See also JUDGMENT, GENERAL

See JUDGMENTS

See SIN, PUNISHMENT OF

-KING

See SOVEREIGN, below

-KNOWLEDGE OF
    Genesis 16:13; 20:6;
    Exodus 3:3,7,9,19,20; 6:1; 11:1; 14:3,4;
    Numbers 14:27;
    Deuteronomy 2:7; 31:21;
    1 Samuel 2:3; 16:7;
    2 Samuel 7:20;
    1 Kings 8:39;
    2 Kings 19:27;
    1 Chronicles 28:9; 29:17;
    2 Chronicles 6:30; 16:9;
    Nehemiah 9:10; Job 11:11; 12:13,16,22; 21:22; 22:13,14; 23:10; 24:1,23; 26:6; 28:10,24; 31:4; 34:21,22,25; 36:4,5; 37:16; 42:2;
    Psalms 1:6; 7:9; 10:11; 11:4; 33:13-15; 37:18; 38:9; 44:21; 66:7; 69:19; 73:11; 92:5; 94:7,9-11; 103:14; 104:24; 119:168; 121:3,4; 136:5; 139:1-24; 142:3; 147:4,5;
    Proverbs 3:19,20; 5:21; 15:3,11; 16:2; 17:3; 21:2; 24:12;
    Isaiah 28:29; 29:15,16; 37:28; 40:13,14,26-28; 41:4; 42:9; 44:7; 45:4,21; 46:10; 48:3,5,6; 66:18;
    Jeremiah 5:3; 10:7,12; 11:20; 17:10; 20:12; 23:24; 32:19; 51:15;
    Ezekiel 9:9; 11:5;
    Daniel 2:20,22,28;
    Amos 4:13; 9:2-4;
    Zechariah 4:10;
    Matthew 6:4,8,18,32; 10:29,30; 24:36;
    Mark 13:32; Luke 16:15;
    Acts 1:24; 2:23; 15:8,18;
    Romans 8:27,29; 11:33,34; 16:27;
    1 Corinthians 1:25; 2:7; 3:20; 8:3;
    Galatians 4:9;
    Ephesians 1:8; 3:10;
    1 Thessalonians 2:4;
    1 Timothy 1:17;
    2 Timothy 2:19;
    Hebrews 4:13;
    1 Peter 1:2;
    1 John 1:5; 3:20;
    Jude 1:25

See GOD, FOREKNOWLEDGE OF

See GOD, WISDOM OF

-LONGSUFFERING OF
    Genesis 6:3; 15:16;
    Exodus 34:6;
    Numbers 14:18;
    Psalms 86:15; 103:8-10;
    Isaiah 5:1-4; 30:18; 42:14; 48:9,11;
    Jeremiah 7:13,23-25; 11:7; 15:15;
    Ezekiel 20:17; Joel 2:13;
    Habakkuk 1:2-4;
    Matthew 19:8; 21:33-41; 23:37;
    Mark 12:1-9;
    Luke 13:6-9,34; 20:9-16;
    Acts 14:16; 17:30;
    Romans 2:4; 3:25; 9:22,23; 15:5;
    1 Peter 3:20;
    2 Peter 3:9,15;
    Revelation 2:21,22

SEE GOD, LOVE OF

See GOD, MERCY OF

-LONGSUFFERING OF, ABUSED
    Nehemiah 9:28-31;
    Proverbs 1:24-27; 29:1;
    Ecclesiastes 8:11;
    Matthew 24:48-51;
    Luke 13:6-9

-LOVE OF
    Deuteronomy 4:37; 7:7,8,13; 9:29; 10:15,18; 23:5; 33:3,12;
    2 Samuel 12:24;
    1 Kings 8:51-53;
    Nehemiah 13:26;
    Job 7:17;
    Psalms 42:8; 47:4; 63:3; 78:61,62,65,68; 89:33; 103:13; 146:8;
    Proverbs 15:9;
    Isaiah 38:17; 43:4;
    Jeremiah 31:3;
    Hosea 11:1;
    Malachi 1:2;
    John 3:16; 5:20; 14:21,23; 16:27; 17:10,23,26; 20:17;
    Romans 1:7; 5:8; 9:13; 11:28;
    2 Corinthians 9:7; 13:11;
    Ephesians 2:4,5;
    2 Thessalonians2:16;
    Titus 3:4,5;
    Hebrews 12:6;
    1 John 3:1; 4:8-10,12,13,15,16,19;
    Jude 1:21;
    Revelation 3:12; 14:1

-LOVE OF, EXEMPLIFIED
    Genesis 17:7; 46:3;
    Exodus 3:6; 6:7; 19:4-6; 29:45,46;
    Leviticus 11:44,45; 20:24,26; 22:32,33; 25:23,38,42,55; 26:12;
    Numbers 15:41;
    Deuteronomy 4:20,34,37; 7:6-8,13; 9:29; 10:15; 14:2; 23:5; 26:18,19; 27:9; 28:9,10; 29:13; 32:9-12; 33:3,12;     2 Samuel 7:23,24; 12:24;
    1 Kings 8:51-53;
    Nehemiah 13:26;
    Psalms 4:3; 31:19,21; 42:8; 47:4; 48:9,14; 50:5,7; 63:3; 73:1; 74:2; 78:61,62,65,68; 79:13; 81:13; 89:33; 90:1; 95:7; 100:3; 103:4; 105:6; 114:2; 135:4; 148:14;
    Proverbs 11:20; 15:9;
    Isaiah 5:7; 41:8-10; 43:1-4,7; 44:1,2,21,22; 48:12; 49:13-17; 51:16; 54:5,6,10; 62:4,5; 63:7-9; 64:4; 65:19; 66:13;
    Jeremiah 3:14,15; 10:16; 12:7; 13:11; 15:16; 30:22; 31:3,14,32; 32:41; 51:19;
    Ezekiel 16:1-14; 34:31; 37:27;
    Hosea 2:19,20,23; 9:10; 11:1,3,4;
    Zephaniah 3:17;
    Haggai 2:23;
    Zechariah 1:14; 2:8; 8:8; 13:9;
    Malachi 1:2,3; 3:16,17;
    Matthew 18:11-14;
    Luke 15:4-7,11-27;
    John 14:21; 16:27; 17:10,23,26;
    Romans 1:7; 5:8; 8:31,32,39; 11:28;
    1 Corinthians 2:9; 3:9; 6:19,20; 7:23;
    2 Corinthians 5:18-21; 6:16; 13:14;
    Ephesians 1:3-6;
    Colossians 3:12;
    Hebrews 11:16;
    James 1:18;
    1 Peter 2:10

-MERCY OF
    Genesis 8:21; 18:26-32; 19:16;
    Exodus 2:24,25; 15:13; 20:2,6,22; 22:27; 25:17; 32:14,34; 33:19; 34:6,7;
    Leviticus 26:40-45;
    Numbers 14:18-20; 16:48; 21:8;
    Deuteronomy 4:31; 5:10,29; 7:9; 32:29,36,43;
    Judges 2:18; 3:9,15; 10:16;
    2 Samuel 12:13; 14:14; 24:14,16;
    1 Kings 8:23; 11:39;
    2 Kings 13:23; 14:26,27;
    1 Chronicles 16:34;
    2 Chronicles 5:13; 7:3,6,14; 24:19; 30:9; 36:15;
    Ezra 9:7-14;
    Nehemiah 1:10; 9:17-20,27-31;
    Job 11:6; 23:2-6; 24:12; 33:14-30;
    Psalms 18:50; 25:6; 30:5; 31:7; 32:1,2,5; 36:5; 50:21; 57:10; 62:12; 65:3; 69:16; 78:4-72; 80:1; 85:2,3,10; 86:5,13,15; 89:2,28; 99:8; 100:5; 103:3,8-14,17; 106:1,43-46; 107:1; 108:4; 111:4; 116:5; 117:2; 118:1-4,29; 119:64,156; 130:3,4,7,8; 135:14; 136:3-26; 138:2; 145:8,9; 146:7,8;
    Proverbs 16:6; 28:13;
    Isaiah 1:5,18; 6:7; 12:1; 17:6; 24:13; 54:9; 55:7-9; 57:11,15,16,18,19; 60:10; 65:2,8;
    Jeremiah 2:9; 3:12,22; 4:27; 5:10; 9:24; 29:11; 30:11; 31:20,34,37; 32:18; 33:8,11; 36:3,6,7; 46:28; 50:20; 51:5;
    Lamentations 3:22,23,31-33;
    Ezekiel 14:22; 16:6,42,63; 18:23,31,32; 20:17,42; 33:11; 36:25;
    Daniel 4:22-27; 9:4,9;
    Hosea 2:14-23; 11:8,9; 14:1-8;
    Joel 2:13,18; 3:21;
    Amos 7:3;
    Jonah 4:2,10,11;
    Micah 7:18,19;
    Nahum 1:3;
    Zephaniah 2:7; Zechariah 1:16,17; 3:9; 10:6; Malachi 3:6; Matthew 6:14; 18:11-14,23-27; Luke 1:50,77,78; 6:36; 15:4-7; Acts 3:19; 17:30; 26:18; Romans 9:15,18; 10:12,13; 11:32; 15:9;
    1 Corinthians 15:10;
    2 Corinthians 1:3; 4:15; 12:9;
    Ephesians 1:6-8; 2:4-7;
    1 Timothy 1:13;
    Titus 3:5;
    Hebrews 4:16; 8:12;
    James 2:13; 4:8; 5:11,15;
    1 Peter 1:3; 2:10; 5:10;
    2 Peter 3:9,15;
    1 John 1:9;
    Revelation 2:21

See GOD, LONGSUFFERING OF

See GOD, LOVE OF

-OMNIPOTENT
    Genesis 17:1; 18:14;
    Job 42:2;
    Isaiah 26:4;
    Matthew 19:26;
    Luke 1:37;
    Acts 26:8;
    Revelation 19:6; 21:22

For uses of the term "Almighty" consult a concordance

See CREATOR, above

See GOD, POWER OF, below

See GOD, PRESERVER, below

-ONNIPRESENT
    Genesis 28:16;
    1 Kings 8:27;
    2 Chronicles 2:6;
    Psalms 139:3,5,7-10;
    Jeremiah 23:23,24;
    Acts 7:48,49; 17:24,27,28

See PRESENCE OF, UBIQUITOUS

-OMNISCIENT

See GOD, KNOWLEDGE OF

See GOD, WISDOM OF

-PERFECTION OF
    Deuteronomy 32:4;
    2 Samuel 22:31;
    Psalms 18:30;
    Matthew 5:48;
    Romans 12:2;
    James 1:17

See GOD, HOLINESS OF

See GOD, JUDGE, AND HIS JUSTICE

-PERSONALITY OF
    Exodus 3:14; 8:10; 15:11; 20:3; 34:14;
    Deuteronomy 4:35,39; 5:7; 6:4; 10:17; 32:12,39;
    Joshua 22:22;
    Judges 13:16;
    1 Samuel 2:2; 7:3;
    2 Samuel 7:22; 22:32;
    1 Kings 8:23,60;
    2 Kings 17:36; 19:15;
    2 Chronicles 6:14;
    Ezra 1:3;
    Nehemiah 9:6;
    Psalms 18:31; 86:10; 96:5;
    Isaiah 37:16; 40:25; 42:8; 43:10,11; 44:6,8; 45:5,6,18,21,22; 46:5,9;
    Jeremiah 10:6,7,10; 14:22; 32:27;
    Hosea 13:4;
    Malachi 2:10;
    Matthew 4:10; 23:9;
    Mark 12:32;
    John 14:9; 17:3;
    Romans 1:25; 3:29;
    1 Corinthians 8:4-6;
    2 Corinthians 4:4;
    Galatians 3:20;
    Ephesians 4:6;
    Colossians 1:15;
    1 Thessalonians 1:9;
    1 Timothy 2:5;
    Hebrews 1:3

See GOD, UNITY OF, below

-POWER OF
    Exodus 15:3,6-8,10-12;
    Numbers 11:23; 23:20;
    Deuteronomy 3:24; 7:21; 11:2; 32:39;
    Joshua 4:24;
    1 Samuel 2:6-8,10; 14:6;
    2 Samuel 22:13,16;
    1 Chronicles 29:11,12;
    2 Chronicles 14:11; 16:9; 20:6; 25:8,9;
    Ezra 8:22;
    Nehemiah 1:10; Job 5:9; 9:4-7,10,12,13,19; 10:7; 11:10; 12:14-16; 14:20; 23:13,14; 26:11,12,14; 34:14,15; 36:5,22,27-33; 37:1-23; 38:8,11,37; 40:9; 41:10,11; 42:2;
    Psalms 2:4,5; 18; 21:13; 29:3-9; 33:9; 46:6; 62:11; 65:6,7; 66:3,7; 68:33-35; 74:13,15; 76:6,7; 77:14,16,18; 78:12-16,26,43-51; 79:11; 89:8,9,13; 90:3; 93:1,4; 97:3-5; 104:7,9,29,30,32; 105; 106:8; 107:25,29; 111:6; 114:3-8; 115:3; 118:16; 135:6,8-12; 136:10-22; 144:5; 145:6,16; 147:5,16,18; 148:5,8;
    Proverbs 21:30; 30:4;
    Isaiah 14:24,27; 17:13; 19:1; 23:11; 26:4; 27:4; 31:3; 33:3,13; 40:12,22,24,26,28; 43:13,16,17; 44:27; 46:10,11; 48:13; 50:2,3; 51:10,15; 52:10; 59:1; 60:16; 63:12;
    Jeremiah 5:22; 10:6,12,13; 20:11; 27:5; 32:17,27; 50:44; 51:15;
    Daniel 2:20; 3:17; 4:35; 6:27;
    Joel 2:11; 3:16;
    Amos 1:2; 4:13; 9:5,6;
    Micah 1:3,4;
    Nahum 1:3-6;
    Habakkuk 3:6,9-11,15;
    Zechariah 9:14;
    Matthew 3:9; 6:13; 10:28; 19:26; 22:29;
    Mark 10:27; 14:36;
    Luke 1:37,49,51; 11:20; 18:27;
    Romans 1:20; 4:21;
    1 Corinthians 6:14;
    2 Corinthians 13:4;
    Ephesians 1:19,20; 3:20,21;
    Hebrews 1:3; 12:26,29;

    James 4:12;
    1 Peter 1:5;
    Revelation 4:11; 5:13; 11:17; 19:1,6

See GOD, OMNIPOTENT, above

-PRESENCE OF
    Genesis 16:13; 28:16;
    Exodus 20:24;
    Deuteronomy 4:34-36,39;
    Joshua 2:11;
    1 Kings 8:27;
    2 Chronicles 2:6;
    Psalms 139:3,5,7-10;
    Isaiah 57:15; 66:1;
    Jeremiah 23:23,24; 32:18,19;
    Jonah 1:3,4;
    Acts 7:48,49; 17:24,27,28;
    1 Corinthians 12:6;
    Ephesians 1:23

See GOD, OMNIPRESENT, above

See GOD, PRESERVER, below

-PRESERVER
    Genesis 14:20; 28:15; 31:3,13; 48:15,16; 49:24,25;
    Exodus 3:17; 6:6,7; 8:22,23; 9:26; 11:7; 12:13,17,23; 13:21,22; 14:29,30; 15:2,13,16,17; 16:15; 19:4; 23:20-31; 34:24;
    Numbers 10:33; 23:23;
    Deuteronomy 1:30,31; 7:21,22; 9:3; 11:25; 23:14; 30:4,20; 31:3; 32:10; 33:12,25-29;
    Joshua 23:10;
    1 Samuel 2:6,9; 9:16;
    2 Samuel 22:28;
    2 Kings 20:6;
    2 Chronicles 16:9; 20:15,17;
    Ezra 8:22,23;
    Nehemiah 9:6;
    Job 1:10; 4:7; 5:11,18-24; 10:12; 11:18,19; 22:25; 27:3,4; 33:18; 36:7,16;
    Psalms 1:6; 3:3; 9:9; 10:17,18; 12:7; 14:5,6; 17:7; 18:17,27; 19:14; 25:8,9,12; 31:20,23; 32:6,8; 34:14,17,19-22; 37:17,23,24,28,32,33; 41:1-3; 46:1,5,7; 48:3; 50:15; 61:3,6; 68:6,22; 72:14; 73:23; 80:1; 84:11; 87:5; 91:1-16; 94:13; 97:10; 102:19,20; 103:2-5; 107:9,10; 112:4; 115:10; 116:6; 118:13; 121:3-8; 124:1-8; 125:1-3; 127:1; 145:14,19,20; 146:7,8; 147:2,3;
    Proverbs 2:7,8; 3:6,23,24; 10:3,30; 11:8; 12:3,13,21; 14:26; 15:19; 16:9,33; 19:23; 20:22,24; 21:31; 22:12; 24:16;
    Isaiah 4:5,6; 10:27; 14:3; 26:7; 27:3; 30:21,26; 31:4,5,9; 32:2,18; 33:16,20; 35:9; 37:32,35; 40:11,29,31; 42:13,16; 43:2; 45:2,4; 46:3,4; 48:17; 49:9,10,17,25; 51:9,10,22; 52:12; 54:14,15,17; 57:14; 58:11; 59:19; 63:9;
    Jeremiah 2:3,6,20; 3:4; 11:4; 30:7,11,17; 31:9,10,28;
    Ezekiel 9:4,6; 11:16; 34:11-16,22,31;
    Daniel 3:27,28; 12:1;
    Hosea 2:18; 13:10;
    Joel 2:18;
    Amos 5:8,9; 9:9;
    Micah 2:13;
    Nahum 1:12; Zephaniah 3:13,15,17,19,20;
    Zechariah 2:5,8; 4:6,7,10; 9:8,14-16; 12:8;
    Matthew 4:6; 10:29-31; 24:22,31;
    Mark 13:20;
    Luke 12:6,7; 18:7,8; 21:18;
    Acts 17:28;
    Romans 8:28;
    1 Corinthians 10:13;
    2 Thessalonians 3:3;
    Hebrews 1:14;
    James 4:15;
    1 Peter 3:12,13;
    2 Peter 2:9;
    Revelation 3:10; 7:3; 12:6

-HIS PRESERVING CARE EXEMPLIFIED

    To Noah and his family, at the time of the flood
        Genesis 6:8,13-21; 7; 8:1,15,16

    To Abraham and Sarah, in Egypt
        Genesis 12:17

    in Gerar
        Genesis 20:3

    To Lot, when Sodom was destroyed
        Genesis 19

    To Hagar, when Abraham cast her out
        Genesis 21:17,19

    To Jacob, when he fled from Laban, his father-in-law
        Genesis 31:24,29

    when he met Esau
        Genesis 33:3-10

    as he journeyed in the land of Canaan
        Genesis 35:5

    To Joseph, in Egypt
        Genesis 39:2,21

    To Moses, in his infancy
        Exodus 2:1-10

    To the Israelites, in bringing about their deliverance from bondage
        Exodus 1:9-12; 2:23-25; 3:7-9

    in exempting the land of Goshen from the plague of flies
        Exodus 8:22

    in preserving their cattle from the plague of murrain,
        Exodus 9:4-7

    in exempting the land of Goshen from the plague of darkness
        Exodus 10:21-23

    in saving the firstborn, when the plague of death destroyed the firstborn of Egypt,
        Exodus 12:13,23

    deliverance from Egypt,
        Exodus 13:3,17-22; 14; 19:4;
        Leviticus 26:13

    in the wilderness
        Exodus 40:36-38;
        Numbers 9:17-23; 10:33; 22:12; 23:8;
        Deuteronomy 2:31; 23:5

    Victories over the Canaanites under Joshua
        Joshua 6; 7; 8; 9; 10; 11; 24:11-13

under Othniel
    Judges 3:9-11

under Ehud
    Judges 3:15-30

under Shamgar
    Judges 3:31

under Deborah
    Judges 4:5

under Gideon
    Judges 7; 8:1-23

under Jephthah
    Judges 11:29-40

on account of Samuel's intercession
    1 Samuel 7:7-10

under David
    1 Samuel 17:45-49

Ahab
    1 Kings 20

Delivering the kingdom of Israel from Syria
2 Samuel 7

delivering Israel by Jeroboam II
    2 Kings 14:26,27

by Abijah
    2 Chronicles 13:4-18

in delivering from the oppressions of the king of Syria
    2 Kings 13:2-5

To the kingdom of Judah: in delivering from Egypt
    2 Chronicles 12:2-12

the Ethiopian host
    2 Chronicles 14:11-14

in giving peace with other nations
    2 Chronicles 17

delivering them from the army of the Assyrians
    2 Kings 19

To David,
    2 Samuel 7;
    1 Chronicles 11:13,14

Hezekiah
    2 Kings 19;
    Job 1:9-12; 2:6

Jeremah and Baruch
    Jeremiah 36:26

Daniel and the three Hebrew captives
    Daniel 2:18-23; 3:27; 6

Jonah
    Jonah 1:17

The wise men of the east
    Matthew 2:12

Jesus and his parents
    Matthew 2:13,19-22

Peter
    Acts 12:3-17

Paul and Silas
    Acts 16:26-39

Paul
    Acts 27:24; 28:5,6; with Mark 16:18

See AFFLICTION, COMFORT IN

See FAITH

See GOD

See SAVIOUR

See POOR, GOD'S CARE OF

See GOD, GRACE OF

See instances under the sub-topic: GOD, PROVIDENCE OF

-PROVIDENCE OF
    Genesis 1:29,30; 2:16; 8:22; 9:1-3; 22:14,17; 26:4,5; 28:20,21; 49:11,12,20,24,25;
    Exodus 15:26; 23:22,25,26; 34:24;
    Leviticus 25:18-22; 26:4-6,10;
    Numbers 10:29;
    Deuteronomy 1:10; 2:7; 4:4,40; 5:29,33; 6:2-25; 7:13-24; 8:3,4,18; 10:18; 11:7,8,12-15; 12:7,28; 13:17,18; 15:4-6; 26:19; 28:2-13; 29:5,9; 30:15-20; 32:11-14,47;
    Joshua 1:8; Ru 1:6;
    1 Samuel 2:7,8; 14:6;
    2 Samuel 7:8,9;
    1 Kings 2:3,4; 9:4,5;
    1 Chronicles 17:7,8; 22:9,13; 28:8; 29:12,14,16;
    2 Chronicles 1:12; 7:17,18; 20:3-30; 30:9; 31:10;
    Ezra 8:22;
    Nehemiah 9:25;
    Job 5:6-11,24-26; 8:6,7,20,21; 11:17-19; 12:23; 22:18,24,25,28; 29:5,19,20; 33:14-30; 36:11; 37:6-24; 38:25-27,41; 39:5,6;
    Psalms 21:3-5; 23:1-6; 33:12,15; 34:7,9,10; 36:6,7; 37:3,19,22,25,34; 40:5; 44:1-3; 65:9-13; 67:6; 68:6,9,10; 69:35,36; 71:6,7,15; 72:16; 78:52-55; 81:13-16; 85:12; 87:5; 100:3; 103:3-5; 104:10-19,24-30; 105:14-45; 107:1-43; 111:5; 113:6-9; 115:16; 116:1-15; 118:5,6,13,14; 122:9; 127:1-5; 128:2-6; 135:6-12; 136:5-25; 144:12-15; 145:15,16; 146:7-9; 147:8,9,13,14;
    Proverbs 2:21; 3:1,2; 10:22,27; 11:10,11,31; 13:25; 14:11,19,34; 15:6; 16:7,9; 28:10;
    Ecclesiastes 2:24,26; 3:13; 5:19;
    Isaiah 1:19; 25:4; 30:23-26; 33:16; 43:20; 46:3,4; 48:17,21; 51:2;
    Acts 7:34-36;
    Isaiah 55:10; 61:9; 62:9; 65:13,23;
    Jeremiah 5:24; 10:13; 14:22; 22:15; 27:6; 30:19; 31:35; 33:11; 51:16;
    Ezekiel 36:9-11,28-38;
    Daniel 5:18; 6:20-22;
    Hosea 2:8,21,22; 11:3;
    Joel 2:18-26;
    Amos 4:7-12; 9:13;
    Jonah 4:6;
    Haggai 2:19;
    Zechariah 3:7; 8:12; 9:17; 10:1;
    Malachi 3:10-12; Matthew 5:5,45; 6:26,30-33; 10:29-31;
    Luke 12:6,7,24-28; 22:35;
    John 6:31;
    Acts 14:17;
    1 Corinthians 2:9; 16:2;
    2 Corinthians 9:8-10

-INSTANCES OF

Saving Noah
    Genesis 7:1

The call of Abraham
    Genesis 12:1

Protecting Abraham, Sarah, and Abimelech
    Genesis 20:3-6

The deliverance of Lot
    Genesis 19

The care of Isaac
    Genesis 26:2,3

The mission of Joseph
    Genesis 39:2,3,23; 45:7,8; 50:20;
    Psalms 105:17-22

Warning Pharaoh about the famine
    Genesis 41

Delivering the Israelites
    Exodus 3:8; 11:3; 13:18;
    Acts 7:34-36

The pillar of cloud
    Exodus 13:21; 14:19,20

Dividing the Red Sea
    Exodus 14:21

Delaying and destroying Pharaoh
    Exodus 14:25-30

Purifying the waters of Marah
    Exodus 15:25

Supplying manna and quail
    Exodus 16:13-15;
    Numbers 11:31,32

Supplying water at Meribah
    Numbers 20:7-11;
    Nehemiah 9:10-25

Protection of homes while at feasts
    Exodus 34:24

In the conquest of Canaan
    Psalms 44:2,3

Saving David's army
    2 Samuel 5:23-25

The revolt of the ten tribes
    1 Kings 12:15,24;
    2 Chronicles 10:15

Fighting the battles of Israel
    2 Chronicles 13:12,18; 14:9-14; 16:9; 20:15,17,22,23; 32:21,22

Restoring Manasseh after his conversion
    2 Chronicles 33:12,13

Feeding Elijah and the widow
    1 Kings 17; 19:1-8

In prospering Hezekiah
    2 Kings 18:6,7;
    2 Chronicles 32:29

In prospering Asa
    2 Chronicles 14:6,7

In prospering Jehoshaphat
    2 Chronicles 17:3,5; 20:30

In prospering Uzziah
    2 Chronicles 26:5-15

In prospering Jotham
    2 Chronicles 27:6

In prospering Job
Job 1:10; 42:10,12

In prospering
    Daniel Daniel 1:9

In turning the heart of the king of Assyria to favor the Jews
    Ezra 6:22

In rescuing Jeremiah
    Lamentations 3:52-58; with Jeremiah 38:6-13

Restoration of the Jews
    2 Chronicles 36:22,23;
    Ezra 1:1

Rescuing the Jews from Haman's plot,
    the Book of Esther

Rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem
    Nehemiah 6:16

Warning Joseph in dreams
    Matthew 1:20; 2:13,19,20

Warning the wise men from the east
    Matthew 2:12,13

Restoring Epaphroditus
    Philippians 2:27

In the banishment of John to Patmos
    Revelation 1:9

See GOD, GOODNESS OF

See GOD, PRESERVER, above

See OVERRULING INTERPOSITIONS OF, below

-PROVIDENCE OF, OVERRULING INTERPOSITIONS OF THE
    Genesis 45:5-7; 50:20;
    Exodus 14:4;
    Numbers 22:12-18; 23:1-30; 24:10-13;
    Deuteronomy 2:30; 23:4,5;
    Joshua 11:20;
    Judges 9:23,24;
    1 Samuel 2:6-9;
    2 Samuel 17:14;
    1 Kings 11:14-40; 12:15;
    1 Chronicles 5:26;
    2 Chronicles 10:15; 36:22,23;
    Ezra 1:1; 5:5; 6:22;
    Nehemiah 6:16; Es 6:1-12; 7:10; 9:1,25;
    Job 5:12;
    Psalms 17:13,14; 33:10; 75:7; 76:10; 105:17; 127:1,2;
    Proverbs 13:22; 14:19; 16:7,33; 19:21; 21:1,18; 28:8;
    Ecclesiastes 2:26; 3:1,10;
    Isaiah 8:9,10; 10:5-7; 13:3-5; 41:2,4; 43:14; 44:28; 45:1-6,13; 48:14,15; 54:16,17;
    Jeremiah 51:20,21; 52:3;
    Ezekiel 21:26,27; 29:19,20;
    Daniel 11:27;
    Acts 3:17,18; 5:38,39; 7:9,10;
    Romans 1:10; 8:28;
    1 Corinthians 4:19; 16:7;
    Philippians 1:12,19;
    Philemon 1:15;
    James 4:15;
    Revelation 17:17

See GOD, GOODNESS OF

See GOD, PRESERVER

-PROVIDENCE OF, MYSTERIOUS AND MISINTERPRETED
    Job 10:15; 12:6; 21:7; 24:1-12; 33:13;
    Psalms 10:5; 73:2-5,12-17; 89:47;
    Proverbs 28:5;
    Ecclesiastes 7:15; 8:12-17; 9:2,11;
    Jeremiah 12:1,2; 50:7;
    Daniel 12:10;
    Micah 4:12;
    Habakkuk 1:2,3,11,13,14;
    Malachi 3:14,15

See BLINDNESS, SPIRITUAL

-INSTANCES OF

Elijah's trials
    1 Kings 19

Job's
Job 3:19-23; with 1; 2

Israelites Exodus 5:20-23

-RIGHTEOUSNESS OF
    Judges 5:11;
    Ezra 9:15;
    Job 36:3;
    Psalms 5:8; 7:9; 48:10; 50:6; 71:15,19; 72:1; 88:12; 89:16; 97:2; 111:3; 112:4; 116:5; 119:40,137,142,144,172; 143:1; 145:7,17;
    Isaiah 41:10; 51:8; 56:1;
    Jeremiah 4:2; 9:24; 12:1;
    Lamentations 3:34,36;
    Daniel 9:7;
    Hosea 14:9;
    Micah 7:9;
    Matthew 6:33;
    John 17:25;
    Acts 17:31;
    Romans 1:17; 3:4-6,21,22; 9:14; 10:3,4;
    2 Timothy 4:8;
    1 Peter 2:23;
    2 Peter 1:1;
    1 John 2:1;
    Revelation 16:5

See GOD, HOLINESS OF

See GOD, JUDGE, AND HIS JUSTICE

-SAVIOUR
    Genesis 48:16;
    Exodus 15:2;
    Deuteronomy 32:15,31,39; 33:25-29;
    1 Samuel 2:2;
    Job 33:24,27-29;
    Psalms 3:8; 18:30,31; 19:14; 25:5; 27:1; 28:8; 31:5; 33:18,19; 34:22; 36:9; 37:39,40; 50:23; 62:1,2,6,7; 65:5; 68:19,20; 71:16; 74:12; 76:8,9; 85:9; 88:1; 96:2; 98:2,3; 111:9; 118:14,21,27; 121:7; 133:3; 145:9; 149:4;
    Isaiah 12:2; 25:4,9; 26:1; 33:22; 35:4; 41:14; 43:3,11,12,14; 44:6,22-24; 45:15,17,21,22; 46:12,13; 47:4; 48:17; 49:25; 50:2; 52:3,9,10; 59:1; 60:16; 63:8,16;
    Jeremiah 3:23; 8:22; 14:8; 30:17; 33:6; 50:34; Ezekiel 37:23;
    Hosea 1:7; 13:4,9;
    Joel 3:16;
    Jonah 2:9;
    Zechariah 9:11,12,16;
    Luke 1:68;
    John 3:16,17; 6:39;
    Romans 1:16; 6:23; 8:30-32;
    1 Corinthians 1:18;
    2 Corinthians 5:18;
    Ephesians 1:3,5;
    1 Thessalonians 5:9;
    2 Thessalonians2:16,17;
    1 Timothy 2:3,4; 4:10;
    2 Timothy 1:9;
    Titus 1:2,3; 2:10,11; 3:4,5;
    1 Peter 1:5;
    1 John 4:9,10; 5:11;
    Revelation 7:10; 19:1

See GOD, PRESERVER, above

-SELF-EXISTENT

See GOD, ETERNITY OF, above

-SOVEREIGN Genesis 14:18-20,22; 24:3;
    Exodus 8:22; 9:29; 15:18; 18:11; 19:5;
    Numbers 27:16;
    Deuteronomy 2:19; 4:39; 10:14,17; 32:8,39,41-43;
    Joshua 2:11; 3:11;
    1 Samuel 2:6-8;
    2 Kings 19:15;
    1 Chronicles 29:11,12;
    2 Chronicles 20:6;
    Nehemiah 9:6; Job 9:12; 12:9,10,16,17; 25:2; 33:13; 34:13,24,33; 36:1-33; 41:11;
    Psalms 10:16; 22:28,29; 24:1,10; 29:10; 44:4; 47:2,3,7,8; 50:10-12; 59:13; 65:5; 66:7; 67:4; 74:12; 75:6,7; 76:11,12; 82:1,8; 83:18; 89:11,18; 93:1,2; 95:3-5; 96:10; 97:1,2,5,9; 98:6; 99:1; 103:19; 105:7; 113:4; 115:3,16; 135:5,6; 136:2,3; 145:11-13; 146:10;
    Ecclesiastes 9:1; Isaiah 24:23; 33:22; 37:16; 40:22,23; 43:15; 44:6; 45:7,23; 52:7; 54:5;
    Jeremiah 10:10; 18:1-23; 27:5-7; 32:27,28;
    Lamentations 3:37,38; 5:19;
    Ezekiel 16:50; 17:24; 18:4;
    Daniel 2:20,21,47; 4:3,17,25,34,35,37; 5:18,26-28; 6:26;
    Micah 4:7,13;
    Haggai 2:8;
    Malachi 1:14;
    Matthew 6:10,13; 11:25; 20:15;
    Luke 1:53; 10:21;
    John 10:29; 19:11;
    Acts 17:24-26;
    Romans 9:19; 14:11;
    1 Corinthians 10:26;
    Ephesians 4:6;
    1 Timothy 6:15,16;
    Hebrews 1:3;
    James 4:12;
    Revelation 1:6; 4:11; 11:4,13,17; 19:6

See GOD, POWER OF

-A SPIRIT
    John 4:24;
    Acts 17:29

-TRUTH
    Numbers 23:19;
    Deuteronomy 32:4;
    1 Samuel 15:29;
    Psalms 25:10; 31:5; 33:4; 40:10; 43:3; 57:3; 71:22; 86:11,15; 89:14; 91:4; 100:5; 108:4; 117:2; 132:11; 138:2; 146:6;
    Isaiah 25:1; 65:6;
    Jeremiah 10:10;
    Daniel 4:37; 9:13;
    John 8:26; 17:17,19;
    Romans 3:4,7;
    Titus 1:2;
    Revelation 6:10; 15:3

See GOD, FAITHFULNESS OF, above

See GOD, JUDGE, AND HIS JUSTICE, above

See GOD, RIGHTEOUSNESS OF, above

See also TRUTH

-UBIQUITOUS
    1 Kings 8:27;
    2 Chronicles 2:6;
    Psalms 139:3,5,7-10;
    Jeremiah 23:23,24;
    Acts 7:48,49

See GOD, ETERNITY OF, above

See GOD, INFINITE, above

See GOD, OMNIPRESENT, above

See GOD, POWER OF, above

See GOD, PRESENCE OF, above

See GOD, PROVIDENCE OF, above

-UNCHANGEABLE

See IMMUTABLE

-UNITY OF
    Deuteronomy 6:4;
    1 Kings 8:60; 20:28;
    Isaiah 42:8;
    Mark 12:29,32;
    John 17:3;
    1 Corinthians 8:4,6;
    Galatians 3:20;
    1 Timothy 2:5;
    James 2:19

-UNSEARCHABLE
    Genesis 32:29;
    Deuteronomy 29:29;
    Judges 13:18;
    1 Kings 8:12,27;
    2 Chronicles 2:6; 6:1,18;
    Job 5:8,9; 9:10; 11:7-9; 26:9,14; 36:26; 37:5,23;
    Psalms 77:19; 92:5; 97:2; 139:6; 145:3;
    Proverbs 25:2; 30:4;
    Ecclesiastes 3:11; 7:24; 11:5;
    Isaiah 40:28; 45:15; 55:8,9;
    Jeremiah 23:24;
    Nahum 1:3;
    Matthew 11:27;
    Romans 11:33,34;
    1 Corinthians 2:10,11,16;
    Ephesians 3:8

See MYSTERIES

-VOICE OF

See ANTHROPOMORPHISM

-WISDOM OF
    Ezra 7:25;
    Job 9:4; 12:13,16;
    Psalms 104:24; 136:5; 147:5;
    Proverbs 3:19,20; 8:12,22,27-31;
    Isaiah 31:2;
    Jeremiah 10:7,12; 51:15;
    Daniel 2:20-22,28;
    Romans 16:27;
    1 Corinthians 1:24,25;
    Ephesians 1:8; 3:10;
    1 Timothy 1:17;
    Jude 1:25;
    Revelation 7:12

See GOD, KNOWLEDGE OF, above

See GOD, OMNISCIENT, above

-WORKS OF
    Genesis 1:10,18,21,25;
    Deuteronomy 32:4;
    Psalms 26:7; 33:4; 40:5; 66:3; 75:1; 86:8; 92:4,5; 111:2,4,6; 118:17; 136:1-26; 139:14;
    Ecclesiastes 3:11,14;
    Jeremiah 10:12

See CREATION

See GOD, CREATOR

See WORKS

GOD:

The Supreme Being, regarded as the Creator, Author, and First Cause of the universe, the Ruler of the world and of the affairs of men, the Supreme Judge and Father, tempering justice with mercy, working out His purposes through chosen agents—individuals as well as nations—and communicating His will through prophets and other appointed channels.


—Biblical Data:

"God" is the rendering in the English versions of the Hebrew "El," "Eloah," and "Elohim." The existence of God is presupposed throughout the Bible, no attempt being anywhere made to demonstrate His reality. Philosophical skepticism belongs to a period of thought generally posterior to that covered by the Biblical books, Ecclesiastes and some of the Psalms (xiv., liii., xciv.) alone indicating in any degree in Biblical Israel a tendency toward Atheism. The controversies of the Earlier Prophets never treat of the fundamental problems of God's existence or non-existence; but their polemics are directed to prove that Israel, ready at all times to accept and worship one or the other god, is under the obligation to serve Yhwh and none other. Again, the manner of His worship is in dispute, but not His being. The following are the main Biblical teachings concerning God:


Relation to Nature.

God and the world are distinct. The processes of nature are caused by God. Nature declares the glory of God: it is His handiwork (Gen. i.; Ps. viii., xix.; Isa. xl. 25 et seq.). God is the Creator. As such, He is "in heaven above and upon the earth beneath" (Deut. iv. 39). His are the heavens, and His is the earth (Ps. lxxxix. 12 [A. V. 11]; compare Amos iv. 13). He created the world by the word of His mouth (Ps. xxxiii. 6, 9). Natural sequences are His work (Jer. v. 22, 24; Ps. lxxiv. 15-17). He maintains the order of nature (Ps. cxlvii. 8-9, 16-18; Neh. ix. 6). He does not need the offerings of men, because "the earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof" (Ps. xxiv. 1, 4, 7-13; compare Isa. i. 11; Jer. vii. 21-23; Micah vi. 6-8).

Nothing is affirmed of His substantial nature. The phrase "spirit of God" ("ruaḥ Elohim") merely describes the divine energy, and is not to be taken as equivalent to the phrase "God is a spirit," viz., an assertion concerning His incorporeality (Zech. iv. 6; Num. xiv. 22; Isa. xl. 13). He can not, however, be likened to any thing (Ex. xx. 4-5; Isa. xl. 18) or to any person (Jer. x. 6-7). No form is seen when God speaks (Deut. iv. 15). He rules supreme as the King of the nations (Jer. x. 6-7). His will comes to pass (Isa. viii. 9, 10; lv. 10, 11; Ps. xxxiii. 10-12, lxviii. 2-4). He is one, and none shares with Him His power or rulership (Deut. vi. 4; Isa. xliv. 6, xlvi. 10 [A. V. 9]). He is unchangeable, though he was the first and will be the last (Isa. xli. 4; Mal. iii. 6). All that is, is perishable: God is everlasting (Isa. xl. 7-8, 23-25; li. 12-13). Hence His help is always triumphant (Ps. xx. 8-9, xliv. 4, xlvi. 1-8). He is in all things, places, and times (Ps. cxxxix. 7-12). He is not, like man, subject to whim (Num. xxiii. 19; Deut. vii. 9). He is the Judge, searching the innermost parts of man's being, and knowing all his secrets (Jer. xvi. 17, xvii. 10, xxiii. 24; Ps. cxxxix. 1-4). His knowledge is too high for man (Ps. cxxxix. 6, 15, 16). God's wisdom, however, is the source of human understanding (Ps. xxxvi. 10). He is "merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth" (Ex. xxxiv. 6-7). But He can not hold the sinner guiltless (ib.). He manifests His supreme lordship in the events of history (Deut. xxxii. 8-12; Ps. xxii. 28, 29; lxxviii. 2-7). He is the ever-ruling King (Jer. x. 10). He punishes the wicked (Nahum i. 2); He turns their way upside down (Ps. i. 6). Appearances to the contrary are illusive (Hab. i. 13, ii. 2; Jer. xii. 1-2; Ps. x. 13-14, xxxvii. 35-39, lii. 3-9, lxii. 11-13, xcii. 7-8; Job xxi. 7-9, xxvii. 8-11, xxxv. 14).


Relation to Man.

The Biblical theodicy culminates in the thought that the end will show the futility and deceptive nature of the prosperity of the wicked (Ps. lxxvii. 17). The mightiest nations do not prevail against God (Jer. xviii. 7-10, xxv. 30-31; Ps. vii. 8-9; xxxiii. 13, 19). He judges the world in righteousness (Ps. ix. 9, 16; lxxvi. 9-10; xcv. 10-13). I Chron. xxix. 11-12 may be said to be a succinct epitome of the Biblical doctrine concerning God's manifestations in nature and in history (compare I Sam. ii.). Yet God does not delight in the death of the sinner: He desires his return from his evil ways (Ezek. xviii. 21-22, xxxviii. 10-11). Fasting is not an adequate expression of repentance (Isa. lviii. 3-8; compare Jonah ii. 10; Joel ii. 13; Zech. vii. 5). God hath demanded of man "to do justly, and to love mercy"(Micah vi. 8); hence redress for wrongs done is the first step toward attaining God's forgiveness (Ezek. xxxiii. 15), the "forsaking of one's evil ways" (Lam. iii. 37-40).It is characteristic of the Biblical conception of God that He is with those of contrite heart (Isa. lvii. 15). He loves the weak (Deut. x. 17-18). He is the father (Isa. lxiii. 16, lxiv. 7); and like a father He taketh pity on His children (Ps. ciii. 13; see Compassion). Therefore, love is due to Him on the part of His children (Deut. vi. 4-5). The demand to fear Him, in the light of the implications of the Hebrew original, is anything but in conflict with the insistence that the relations between God and man are marked by parental and filial love. The God of the Bible is not a despot, to be approached in fear. For "yir'ah" connotes an attitude in which confidence and love are included, while the recognition of superiority, not separation, is expressed (Nietzsche's "pathos of distance"). Reverence in the modern sense, not fear, is its approximate equivalent. They that confide in Him renew their strength (Isa. xl. 30-31). God is holy (compare Isa. vi. 3); this phrase sums up the ultimate contents of the Bible conception of God (see Fear of God).


Relation to Israel.

He is Israel's God. Not on account of any merits of its own (Deut. vii. 7-8, ix. 4-7), but because of God's special designs, because the fathers loved Him (Deut. x. 11-16), Israel was chosen by God (Ex. xix. 4-6; Deut. iv. 20, xxxii. 9; Isa. xli. 8-9, xliii. 21; Jer. ii. 2, and often elsewhere). Hence, in Israel's experience are illustrated God's power, love, and compassion, as, in fact, it is Israel's sole destiny to be the witness to God (Isa. xliv. 8). For Israel, therefore, God is a jealous God. He can not tolerate that Israel, appointed to be His portion (Deut. xxxii. 9), His servant (Isa. xliv. 21), His people joined unto Him for His name and glory and ornament (Jer. xiii. 11, A. V., "for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory"), should worship other gods. Israel's task is to be holy as He is holy (Lev. xix. 2; Deut. xxvi. 19). Israel itself does not fully recognize this. God sends prophets again and again to instruct and admonish His people (Jer. vii. 25, xi. 7, xxxv. 15; Isa. xxix. 13-14).

In Israel God's judgments are purposed to impress upon His people the duty placed upon it. Greater suffering He metes out to Israel (Lev. xxvi. 40; Deut. iv. 30-31; viii. 5, 19; xi. 16-17; xxxii. 15; Isa. i. 19-20, iv. 3-4, xlii. 24-xliii. 1, xlviii. 9-11; Jer. ii. 19, v. 18-19; Amos iii. 2), but He will not permit Israel to perish (Isa. xli. 10-14; xlv. 17; li. 7-8; liv. 10, 17; Jer. xxxi. 36). And Israel, brought to faithfulness, will be instrumental in winning the whole earth to God (Isa. ii. 2-4, xi. 9, xlv. 23, lxv. 25; Micah iv. 1-4; Jer. iii. 17; see Messiah).

God is Israel's lawgiver. His law is intended to make Israel holy. That Israel serve God, so as to win all people to the truth, is God's demand (Lev. xx. 26; Deut. iv. 6). God's unity is indicated in the one sanctuary. But legalism and sacerdotalism are withal not the ultimate (Ps. l. 7-13; I Sam. xv. 22: "to obey is better than sacrifice"; Isa. i. 11; Jer. vii. 21-23; Hosea vi. 6: "I desired love [A. V. "mercy"] and not sacrifice").

Nor is the law a scheme of salvation. Nowhere in the Old Testament is the doctrine taught that God must be satisfied (see Fall of Man; Sin). Sin is impotent against God, and righteousness does not benefit Him (Job xxxv. 6-8). God is omnipotent (Ps. x. 3-4). At one with Him, man is filled with joy and with a sense of serene security (Ps. xvi. 5-6, 8-9; xxvii. 1-4). Without this all else is sham (Ps. xlix. 7-13). Happy, therefore, the man who heeds God's instruction (Ps. xciv. 12; Prov. iii. 11-12). Sin never attains its aims (Ps. xxxiv. 22; Prov. xi. 19; I Sam. xxiv. 14; Job viii. 13-14, xv. 20-31). It is thus that God documents His supremacy; but unto man (and Israel) He gives freedom to choose between life and death (Deut. xxx. 15-20). He is near to them that revere Him (Ps. lxxxv. 9-14). Though His ways are not man's ways, and His thoughts not man's thoughts (Isa. lv. 8), yet to this one certainty man may cleave; namely, that God's word will come to pass and His purposes will be carried out (ib. verses 9, 10, 11).

The God of the Bible is not a national God, though in the fate of one people are mirrored the universal facts of His kingship and fatherhood, and the truth is emphasized that not by might, nor by power, but by God's spirit are the destinies of the world and of man ordered (Zech. iv. 6; Mal. i. 11; Ps. cxiii., cxv.). The God of the Bible is a person; i.e., a being self-conscious, with will and purpose, even though by searching man can not find Him out (Job xi. 7; Ps. xciv. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11; Isa. xl. 28; Ps. cxlv. 3).     E. G. H.


—In Post-Biblical Literature:

In the Apocrypha of Palestinian origin the Biblical teachings concerning God are virtually reaffirmed without material modifications. In some books anthropomorphic expressions are avoided altogether; in the others they are toned down. The "hand of God," for instance (Ecclus. [Sirach] xxxiii. 3), is in the parallel distich explained as "His might." The "eyes of God" symbolize His knowledge and providence (Baruch ii. 17); the "voice of God" is synonymous with His will (ib. ii. 22, iii. 4).


In the Palestinian Apocrypha.

His unity, postulating Him as the absolute, omni-present, and therefore as the omniscient, eternal, and living God, is accentuated; while in His relations to the world and its inhabitants He is manifest as the Creator, Ruler, the perfectly righteous Judge, requiting evil and rewarding good, yet, in His mercy, forgiving sin. To Him all nature is subject, while He executes His designs according to His inscrutable wisdom. The history of former generations is cited in proof of the contention that they who confide in Him have never been disappointed (Ecclus. [Sirach] ii. 10); for God is full of mercy, pardoning sins, and is the great Helper (ib. verse 11).

Good and evil proceed from God, as do life and death (ib. xi. 14). Yet sin is not caused by God, but by man's own choice (ib. xv. 11 et seq.). God is omnipresent. Though He is on high, He takes heed of men's ways (ib. xvi. 17, xvii. 15-16). Mountains and the ocean are in His power (ib. verses 18 et seq.).

Being the Creator, He planned the eternal order of nature (ib. verses 26 et seq.). He also fashioned man (ib. xvii. 1 et seq.). Whatever strength man has is from Him (ib. verse 3). The eyes of men are enabled by Him to see "the majesty of His glory," andtheir ears to hear "His glorious voice" (ib. verse 13). He liveth in all eternity and judgeth all things. None may search out His wondrous might (ib. xviii. 1-2), or describe His grace (ib. verse 3). To Him naught may be added, and from Him nothing may be taken away (ib. verse 6, xlii. 21). Even the "holy ones" are not competent to relate the marvels of His works (ib. xlii. 17). He announces that which was and that which is to be and all hidden things (ib. verses 19-20). He is one from all eternity (ib. verse 21). He is the Living God (ib. verse 23). Among all the varieties of things He has created nothing without purpose (, ib. verse 24).

The "wisdom of God" is spoken of and exalted in the same strains as in the Biblical books (Prov. vii., viii.). All wisdom is from God and is with Him forever (Ecclus. [Sirach.] i. 1). It came forth from the mouth of the Most High (ib. xxiv. 3); but it was created before all things (ib. i. 4). It is subject to the will of Him who alone is "wise, and greatly to be feared," seated on His throne (ib. i. 8). God "poured it out over all His works" (ib. i. 7; comp. xxiv. 31). However close this description of wisdom may come to a personification, it is plain that it is free from any element which might be construed as involving a departure from the Biblical position regarding God's absolute unity.


In Alexandrian Apocrypha.

It is in the Alexandrian Apocrypha that modifications of the Biblical doctrine appear; but even here are to be found books whose theology is a reiteration of the Biblical teachings. The so-called Third Book of the Maccabees, in the prayer of the high priest Simon, invokes "God as the King of the Heavens, the Ruler of all creatures, the most Holy, the sole Governor, the Omnipotent," declaring Him to be "a just ruler," and appeals to the events of past days in support of the faith in God's supremacy and in Israel's appointment to glorify Him (III Macc. ii. 1-20) who is all-merciful and the maker of peace.

The third book of the "Oracula Sibyllina," also, reiterates with great emphasis and without equivocation the unity of God, who is alone in His superlative greatness. God is imperishable, everlasting, self-existent, alone subsisting from eternity to eternity. He alone really is: men are nothing. He, the omnipotent, is wholly invisible to the fleshly eye. Yet He dwells in the firmament (Sibyllines, i. 1, 7-17, 20, 32; ii. 1-3, 17, 36, 46). From this heavenly abode He exercises His creative power, and rules over the universe. He sustains all that is. He is "all-nourishing," the "leader of the cosmos," the constant ruler of all things. He is the "supreme Knower" (ib. i. 3, 4, 5, 8, 15, 17, 35; ii. 42). He is "the One God sending out rains, winds, earthquakes, lightnings, famines, pestilences, dismal sorrows, and so forth" (ib. i. 32-34). By these agencies He expresses His indignation at the doings of the wicked (ib. ii. 19-20); while the good are rewarded beyond their deserts (ib. ii. 1-8). God's indwelling in man (πᾶσι βροτοῖσιν ἐνών)"as the faculty of judgment" is also taught (ib. i. 18). This indwelling of God, which has been claimed as an indication of the book's leaning toward a modification of the transcendentalism of the Biblical idea of God, may perhaps rest on a faulty reading (comp. Drummond, "Philo Judæus," i. 173).

In the Septuagint, also, the treatment of anthropomorphic statements alone exhibits a progress beyond the earlier Biblical conceptions. For example, in Gen. vi. 6-7 "it repented the Lord" is softened into "He took it to heart"; Ex. xxiv. 9-10, "They [Moses, Aaron, and the others mentioned) saw the place where the God of Israel stood" is rendered "They saw the God of Israel"; Ex. xv. 3, instead of "The Lord is a man of war," has "The Lord is one who crushes wars"; Josh. iv. 24, "the power" for "the hand." In Isa. vi. 1, the "train of his [God's] robe" is changed into "his glory" (see Zeller, "Die Philosophie der Griechen," iii., part ii., 254). As the Targumim, so the Septuagint, on account of a more spiritualized conception of God, takes care to modify the earlier and grosser terminology; but even the phrase ὅ Θεὸς τῶν δυνάμεων (Isa. xlii. 13) does not imply the recognition of powers self-existent though under the control of God. The doctrine of the unity of God is put forth as the central truth also in the Septuagint.


Hellenistic Influences.

Nor is this theology toned down in other Hellenistic writings. While in style and method under the influence of Greek thought, the fragments of Demetrius, Pseudo-Artapanus, Pseudo-Phocylides, Ezekielus' tragedy on Exodus, and the so-called Fourth Book of Maccabees can not be said to put forth notions concerning God at variance with the Palestinian theology. The Wisdom of Solomon, the Letter of Aristeas, and the fragments of Aristobulus, however, do this. In the first of these three, Israel's God is pronounced to be the only God. He lives in solitary supremacy, responsible to Himself alone (Wisdom xii. 12-14). He is (τόν ὅντα ib. xiii. 1). He is the "eternal light" (ib. vii. 26). He is the Artificer (Τεχνίτης) who created or prepared (both verbs are used) the various things in nature (ib. xviii. 1-5). This uncertainty in the verb descriptive of God's part in creation suggests that the old Biblical conception of the Creator's functions is in this book attenuated to the bringing into order of formless primeval matter (comp. ib. xi. 17). Matter is compared to a lump of wax which, originally devoid of attributes, owes its qualities to divine agency (Drummond, l.c. p. 188).

But, while the cosmos is an expression and the result of the greatness, power, and beauty of God, He remains transcendent above it. Nevertheless, He continues to administer all things (Wisdom xii. 15, 18; xv. 1). It is His providence that acts as a pilot or rudder (ib. xiv. 3). In this is manifested His truth, justice, mercy, loving-kindness, and long-suffering (ib. xi. 23; xii. 15, 18; xv. 1). It is among His holy ones that His grace and mercy are conspicuous; but evil-doers are punished (iii. 9, 10). The pious are those who dwell with wisdom (vii. 28). God possesses immediate knowledge of men's secrets, of their speech, feelings, and thoughts (ib. i. 6). He foreknows but does not foreordain the future. Necessity and right (ἀνάγκη and δίκη) are both postulated. The former blinds the judgment of the impious. If they continue in their impenitence, they will be overtaken by their punishment(ib. i. 15; ii. 6-22; iii. 2-17; iv. 3-14; xii. 2, 10, 20; and more especially xix. 1-5). The avenging Right is, however, not hypostatized or personified to any great degree (ib. i. 8, xi. 20, xiv. 31, xviii. 11). God is not the creator of evil (ib. i. 12-14); therefore in evil He is confronted with a tendency that He can not tolerate. Hence He or His is the avenging justice.

God is neither unknown nor unknowable. The external universe reveals Him. It implies the existence of a primal source greater than it (ib. xiii. 1-9); and, again, through wisdom and "the spirit" sent from on high, God is found by them who do not disobey Him (ib. i. 2-4, ix. 13-17). Yet man can never attain unto perfect knowledge of the divine essence (see Gfrörer, cited by Drummond, l.c. p. 198). Notwithstanding God's transcendence, anthropopathic phraseology is introduced (Wisdom iv. 18, "God shall laugh"; "His right hand" and "arm," v. 16; "His hand," vii. 16, x. 20, xi. 17, xix. 8). This proves that the doctrine of intermediate agents is not fully developed in the book, though in its presentation of God's wisdom elements appear that root in this conception. Certainly the question had begun to force itself upon the writer's mind: How is it that God enthroned on high is yet omnipresent in the universe? Like the Stoics, the author assumes an all-penetrating divine principle which appears as the rational order of the cosmos and as the conscious reason in man. Hence God's spirit is all-pervasive (ib. i. 6-7). This spirit is, in a certain sense, distinct from God, an extension of the Divine Being, bringing God into relation with the phenomenal world. Still, this spirit is not a separate or subordinate person. "Wisdom" and this "spirit" are used interchangeably (ib. ix. 17); "wisdom is a spirit that is" a lover of mankind (ib. i. 4-6); wisdom is "a vapor of the power of God," a reflection of eternal light (ib. vii. 25-26).


"Wisdom" of God.

This wisdom has twenty-one attributes: it is "an understanding spirit, holy, alone in kind, manifold, subtile, freely moving, clear in utterance, unpolluted, distinct, unharmed, loving what is good, keen, unhindered, beneficent, loving toward man, steadfast, sure, free from care, all-powerful, all-surveying, and penetrating through all spirits that are quick of understanding, pure, most subtile" (ib. vii. 22-24). Wisdom is a person, the "assessor" at God's throne (ib. ix. 4); the chooser of God's works (ib. viii. 3-4). She was with God when He made the cosmos (ib. ix. 9). She is the artificer of all things (ib. vii. 21). As all this is elsewhere predicated of God also, it is plain that this "wisdom" is regarded only as an instrument, not as a delegate of the Divine. The Wisdom of Solomon speaks also of the "Logos" (ib. ii. 2-3, ix. 1-2, xvi. 12, xviii. 14-16); and this, taken in connection with its peculiar conception of wisdom, makes the book an important link in the chain leading from the absolute God-conception of Palestinian Judaism to the theory of the mediating agency of the Word (Άόγος, "Memra") in Philo. The Aristeas Letter does not present as clear a modification of the God-conception (but see Eleazar's statement therein, "there is only one God and 'His power' is through all things"). Aristobulus, in the Orphic verses, teaches that God is invisible (verse 20), but that through the mind He may be beheld (verses 11, 12). Maker and Ruler of the world, He is Himself the beginning, middle, and end (verses 8, 34, 35, 39). But wisdom existed before heaven and earth; God is the "molder of the cosmos" (verse 8)—statements which, by no means clear enough to form the basis of a conclusion, yet suggest also in Aristobulus' theology a departure from the doctrine of God's transcendence and His immediate control of all as the Creator ex nihilo.

Philo is the philosopher who boldly, though not always consistently, attempts to harmonize the supramundane existence and majesty of the one God with His being the Creator and Governor of all. Reverting to the Old Testament idiom, according to which "by the word of Yhwh were the heavens made" (Ps. xxxiii. [xxxii.] 6)—which passage is also at the root of the Targumic use of Memra, (see Anthropomorphism)—and on the whole but not consistently assuming that matter was uncreated (see Creation), he introduces the Logos as the mediating agent between God on high and the phenomenal world.


Philo's Logos.

Philo is also the first Jewish writer who undertakes to prove the existence of God. His arguments are of two kinds: those drawn from nature, and those supplied by the intuitions of the soul. Man's mind, also invisible, occupies in him the same position as does that of God in the universe ("Deuteronomy Opificio Mundi," § 23). From this one arrives at a knowledge of God. The mind is the sovereign of the body. The cosmos must also have a king who holds it together and governs it justly, and who is the Supreme ("Deuteronomy Abrahamo," § 16; "Deuteronomy Migratione Abrahami," § 33). From a ship man forms the idea of a ship-builder. Similarly, from the cosmos he must conceive the notion of the Father and Creator, the great and excellent and all-knowing artist ("Deuteronomy Monarchia," i. 4; "Deuteronomy Præmiis et Pœnis," § 7). For a first and an efficient cause man must look outside of the material universe, which fails in the points of eternity and efficiency ("Deuteronomy Confusione Linguarum," §§ 21, 25; "Deuteronomy Somniis," i. 33). This cause is mind. But man has the gift of immortal thoughts ("Deuteronomy Eo Quod Deterius Potiori Insidiatur," § 24): these culminate in the apprehension of God; they press beyond the limits of the entire phenomenal world to the Unbegotten ("Deuteronomy Plantatione Noe," § 5). This intuition of God was the especial prerogative of the Prophets, of Abraham, and of Jacob.

The essence of God is unknown to man, whose conceptions are colored through the medium of his own nature. Anthropopathisms and anthropomorphisms are wicked. God is incorporeal. He is without any irrational affections of the soul. God is a free, self-determining mind. His benevolence is due not to any incapacity of His for evil, but to His free preference for the good (ib. § 20).

Man's personality lifts him above the rest of the creatures. In analogy therewith, Philo gives God the attributes of personality, which are not restrictive, but the very reverse (Drummond, "Philo Judæus," ii. 15). Efficiency is the property of God;susceptibility, that of the begotten ("Deuteronomy Cherubim," § 24). God, therefore, is not only the First Cause, but He is the still efficient ground of all that is and comes to pass. He never pauses in His creative activity ("Deuteronomy Allegoriis Legum," i. 3). The feebleness of the human mind precludes the possibility of man's knowing God as He is in Himself (ib. iii. 73). God is without qualities (ib. i. 13). God is transcendent. He contains, but is not contained (περιέχων οὐ περιεχόμενος); yet He is also within the universe. He is omnipresent (comp. "Deuteronomy Confusione Linguarum," § 27, "Deuteronomy Posteritate Caini," § 5); still He is above the conditions of space and time ("Deuteronomy Posteritate Caini," § 5; "Quod Deus Sit Immutabilis," § 6). He is complete in Himself, and contains within His own being the sum of all conceivable good ("Deuteronomy Mutatione Nominum," § 4). He is perfect; He is omniscient ("Deuteronomy Eo Quod Deterius Potiori Insidiatur," § 42); He is omnipotent; He is free from evil and, therefore, can not be its source ("Deuteronomy Profugis," § 15); He is without passion as the most perfectly reasonable being, as the efficient and not the susceptible. God cares for the world and its parts (see Providence) ("Deuteronomy Opificio Mundi," § 61). He is the "Archon of the great city," "the pilot managing the universe with saving care" ("Deuteronomy Decem Oraculis," § 12).

It is in the development of his theory of the divine powers that Philo injects into his theology elements not altogether in concordance with antecedent Jewish thought. These intelligible and invisible powers, though subject to God, partake of His mystery and greatness. They are immaterial. They are uncircumscribed and infinite, independent of time, and unbegotten ("Quod Deus Sit Immutabilis," § 17). They are "most holy" ("Fragmenta," ii. 655), incapable of error ("Deuteronomy Confusione Linguarum," § 23). Among these powers, through which God works His ends, is the Logos. "God is the most generic Thing; and His Logos is second" ("Deuteronomy Allegoriis Legum," ii. 21). "This Logos is the divine seal of the entire cosmos" ("Deuteronomy Somniis," ii. 6). It is the archetypal idea with which all things were stamped ("Deuteronomy Mutatione Nominum," § 23). It is the law of and in all things, which is not corruptible ("Deuteronomy Ebrietate," § 35). It is the bond of the universe, filling a function analogous to that of the soul in man ("Quis Rerum Divinarum Heres Sit," § 48). It is God's son (see Logos; Philo).

Vacillating though it was, the theory of the divine powers and the Logos, as elaborated by Philo, certainly introduced views into the theology of Judaism of far-reaching consequences in the development of the God-idea if not of the Synagogue at least of the Church. The absolute unity and transcendence of God were modified materially, though the Biblical notion of the likeness of man to God was in the system developed in a manner adopted again by the modern Jewish theologians (see below). Talmudic and medieval Judaism were only indirectly affected by this bold attempt to save the transmundane and supramundane implications of the God-concept and still find an explanation for the immanence of the divine in man and in the world. The Pharisaic Psalms of Solomon, for instance, echo without the least equivocation the theological constructions of the Biblical books (see ii. 15-18, 32-37); and the other apocalyptic writings (Enoch; Book of Jubilees; Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs) present no essentially new points of view or even any augmentations.
    E. G. H.


The Shema'.

—In Talmudic Literature:

The Hellenistic modifications of the Biblical God-concept were further developed in the propositions of the heretical sects, such as the Minim or Gnostics, and of the Judæo-Christians and Christians. To controvert their departures from the fundamental positions of Judaism, the Palestinian synagogue, as did all later Judaism with the exception of the cabalists (see Cabala), laid all the greater stress on the unity of God, and took all the greater precaution to purge the concept from any and all human and terrestrial similarities. The Shema' (Deut. vi. 4 et seq.) was invested with the importance of a confession of faith. Recited twice daily (Ber. i. 1), the concluding word "eḥad" was given especial prominence, emphatic and prolonged enunciation being recommended ("kol ha-ma'arik be-eḥad"; Ber. 19a). Audible enunciation was required for the whole sentence (Sifre, Deut. 31: "Mi-kan amru: ha-ḳore et shema' welohishmia' le-ozno lo yaẓa"). Upon Israel especially devolved the duty of proclaiming God's unity ("leyaḥed shemo beyoter"). The repetition of "Yhwh" in the verse is held to indicate that God is one both in the affairs of this world and in those of the world to come (Yalḳ., Deut. 833). "The Eternal is Israel's portion" (Lam. iii. 24, Hebr.) demonstrates Israel's duty in the Shema' to proclaim God's unity and imperishability over against the sun-, moon-, and star-worship of the heathen (Lam. R. iii. 24; comp. Deut. R. ii., end). The "eḥad" is also taken in the sense of "meyuḥad," i.e., unique, unlike any other being (Meg. 28). Two powers ("reshuyot"), therefore, can not be assumed, as Deut. xxxii. 39 proves (Tan., Yitro; Jellinek,"B. H." i. 110); and the opening sentence of the Decalogue confirms this (Mek., Yitro, v.; comp. Yalḳ., Ex. 286). In the historical events, though God's manifestations are varied and differ according to the occasion, one and the same God appears: at the Red Sea, a warrior; at Sinai, the author of the Decalogue; in the days of Daniel, an old, benignant man (Yalḳ. l.c.). God has neither father, nor son, nor brother (Deut. R. ii.).


One "Reshut."

Pains are taken to refute the arguments based on the grammatical plurals employed in Biblical texts when referring to God. "Elohim" does not designate a plurality of deities. The very context shows this, as the verbs in the predicate are in the singular. The phrase "Let us make man in our image" (Gen. i. 26) is proved by the subsequent statement, "so God created man in his own image" (ib. verse 27), to refer to one God only (Yer. Ber. ix.; Gen. R. viii., xix.). Nor, according to R. Gamaliel, is the use of both "bara" and "yaẓar," to connote God's creative action, evidence of the existence of two distinct divine powers (Gen. R. i.). The reason why in the beginning one man only was fashioned was to disprove the contention of those that believe in more than one personality in God (Sanh. 38a). God had neither associate nor helper (Sanh. 38b; Yer.Shab. vi. 8d; Eccl. R. iv. 8). The ever-recurrent principle throughout haggadic theological speculations is that there is only one "Reshut" ("Reshut aḥat hu" = "personality").

From this emphasis upon the unity and immutability of God, Weber, among others (see his "Jüdische Theologic," p. 153, Leipsic, 1897), has drawn the inference that the Jewish God was apprehended as the Absolute, persisting in and for Himself alone—supramundane and therefore extramundane also. Between Him and the world and man there is no affinity and no bond of union. This view, however, neglects to take into account the thousand and one observations and interpretations of the Rabbis in which the very reverse doctrine is put forth. The bond between this one God—supreme, and in no way similar to man—and His creatures is very close (comp. the discussion of the effect of the Shema' taken from Yer. Ber. in Yalḳ., Deut. 836). It is not that subsisting between a despot and his abject, helpless slaves, but that between a loving father and his children. The passages bearing on the point do not support Weber's arbitrary construction that the implications of the names "Elohim" as "middat hadin" (justice) and "Yhwh" as "middat ha-raḥamim" (mercy) merely convey the notion of a supreme despot who capriciously may or may not permit mercy to temper revengeful justice (Weber, l.c.). In the rabbinical as in the Biblical conception of God, His paternal pity and love are never obscured (see Compassion).

Nor is it true, as Weber puts it and many after him have repeated, that the Jewish conception of God lacks that "self-communicating love which . . . presupposes its own immanence in the other" Weber, l.c.). R. Johanan's parable of the king and his son certainly demonstrates the very reverse. "A king's son was made to carry a beam. The king, upon seeing this, commanded that the beam be laid on his own shoulders. So does God invite sinners to lay their sins upon Him" (Midr. Teh. to Ps. xxii. 6). The anti-Pauline point of the parable is patent. The convenient restriction of the term "abinu sheba-shamayim" (our father which art in heaven) to mean, when used in a Jewish prayer, "the father of the nation," while when found in a supposedly non-Jewish prayer (see Lord's Prayer) it is interpreted to express the filial relation of every human soul to the Father, rests on no proof. The Rabbis denationalized and individualized their conception of God as clearly as did the Jewish compilers of the Gospels. "God used the phrase 'I am Yhwh, thy God' advisedly because He was the God of every individual man, woman, or child" (thy God, not your God) (Yalḳ., Deut. 286).

In the quaint presentation of their views on God's providence, the haggadists strike this note as well: "God chooses His own. Him whose deeds He is pleased with, He brings near unto Himself" (Midr. Shemuel, viii.; Num. R. iii.). "God is busy making marriages." (see Deism; Lev. R. viii., lxviii.; Pesiḳ. 11b; Midr. Shemuel v.; Tan., Bemidbar, ed. Buber, 18). "God builds ladders for some to ascend [become rich], for others to descend [become poor]" (Tan., Maṭṭot and Ki Tissa, ed. Buber, and passages quoted in the foregoing sentence). "God does not provide for Israel alone, but for all lands: He does not guard Israel alone, but all men" (Sifre, Deut. 40). "None will wound as much as a finger here below unless this is the divine decree concerning him from above" (Ḥul. 7b). These passages, which might easily be indefinitely multiplied, are illustrative of the thought running through haggadic theology; and they amply demonstrate the fallacy of the view denying to the God-concept of rabbinical Judaism individualistic and denationalized elements.


In the Targumim.

The care with which anthropomorphisms are avoided in the Targumim is not due to dogmatic zeal in emphasizing the transcendental character of the Godhead, but to the endeavor not to use phraseology which might in the least degree create the presumption of God's corporeality. Hence the introduction of the particle "ke-'illu" (as it were) in the paraphrasing of passages that might suggest similarity between God and man's sensuous nature (Yer. Targ. to Gen. xviii. 8); the suppression altogether of verbs connoting physical action ("God descended," Gen. xi. 5, becomes "God revealed Himself"); the recourse to "ḳodam" (before), to guard against the humanizing of the Godhead. The Memra ("Word"; "Logos") and the Shekinah, the divine effulgent indwelling of God (see Names of God), are not expedients to bridge the chasm between the extramundane and supramundane God and the world of things and man, as Weber claims; they are not hypostases which by being introduced into the theology of the rabbinical Synagogue do violence to the strenuous emphasis on God's unity by which it is characterized; but they owe their introduction into the phraseology of the Targumim and Midrashim respectively to this anxiety to find and use terms distinctively indicative of God's superlative sublimity and exaltedness, above and differentiated from any terrestrial or human similitude. These two terms prove, if anything, the apprehension on the part of the haggadists of God's relations to the world as the one supreme, all-directing, omnipresent, and all-pervading Essence, the all-abiding, everactive and activizing Principle, unfolding Himself in time and space.

Equally one-sided is the view according to which the rabbinical conception of God is rigidly and narrowly legal or nomistic. Weber (l.c.) and many after him have in connection with this even employed the term "Judaized conception of God." In proof of the contention, after Bartolocci, Eisenmenger, and Bodenschatz, rabbinical passages have been adduced in which God is represented as "studying the Law" ('Ab. Zarah 3b; Yalḳ., Isa. 316; or, more particularly, the section concerning the red heifer, Num. R. xix., parashah "Parah Adummah"); as "teaching children" (Yalḳ., Isa. l.c.); as "weeping over the destruction of the Temple" (Yer. Ḥag. i. 5b; Yalḳ., Lam. 1000); as "roaring like a lion" and "playing with the Leviathan" (Yalḳ., Isa. l.c.); as "no longer on His throne, but having only 'arba' ammot shel halakah,' the four ells of the halakah in the world for His own" (Ber. 11a); as "being under the ban, 'ḥerem'" (Pirḳe R. El. xxxviii.); as "being Levitically unclean, owing to His havingburied Moses" (Sanh. 39a); as "praying" (Yalḳ., Ps. 873; Ber. 7a); as "laying tefillin and wearing a ṭallit" (Ber. 6a; R. H. 17b); as "blowing the shofar"; as "having a vow released according to the provisions of the Law" (Num. xxx. 2 et seq.; Ex. R. xliii.; Lev. R. xix.); and as "rising before a hoary head" (Lev. R. xxxv.). Upon examination, all these passages are seen to be homiletical extravagances, academic exercises, and mere displays of skill and versatility in the art of interpreting Biblical texts ("Schulweisheit"), and therefore of no greater importance as reflecting the religious consciousness of either their authors or the people at large than other extravagances marked as such by the prefacing of "kibbe-yakol" (if it is permitted to say so; "sit venia verbo"), or "ilmale miḳra katub e efshar le-omro" ('Er. 22a; Yer. Ber. 9d; Lev. R. xxxiv.).


The Law of God.

The exaltation of the Torah is said to have been both the purpose and the instrument of creation: it is preexistent (Gen. R. i.), the "daughter" of Yhwh (Tan., Ki Tissa, 28; ib. Peḳude, 4), and its study even engages God (B. M. 86a). Differentiated from the "kabod" of God, it was given to man on earth, while the "splendor" (, also ) has its abode in the higher regions (Midr. Teh. to Ps. xc. 17, xci. 9). It is praised as the one panacea, healing the whole of man ('Er. 54a). This idea is not, as has been claimed by Weber and after him by others, evidence either of the nomistic character of the "Judaized" conception of God or of the absolute transcendence of God. In the first place, the term "Torah" in most of the passages adduced in proof does not connote the Law (Pentateuch). For it "religion" might be with greater exactness substituted (see Bacher, "Die Aelteste Terminologie der Jüdischen Schriftauslegung," s.v. ). In the second, if not a restatement of the doctrine of wisdom ("ḥokmah"; see above), these ecstasies concerning the Torah have a marked anti-Pauline character. The Torah is the "sam ḥayyim" (life-[salvation-] giving drug; Sifre, Deut. § 45; Ḳid. 30b; Yoma 72b; Lev. R. xvi.).

The following haggadic observations will illustrate the views formulated above:

God's omnipresence (with reference to Jer. xxiii. 24) is illustrated by two mirrors, the one convex, the other concave, magnifying and contracting respectively the image of the beholder (Gen. R. iv.). God's "mercy" will always assert itself if man repents (Pesiḳ. 164a). God's "justice" often intentionally refuses to take account of man's misdeeds (Gen. R. xxxvi.; Lev. R. v.). God requites men according to their own measure ("middah ke-neged middah"; Sanh. 90a, b; Tosef., Soṭah, iii.; Yer. Soṭah 17a, b); but the measure of good always exceeds that of evil and punishment ("middat ṭobah merubbah mi-middah pur'aniyyot"; Mek., Beshallaḥ, x. 49a). God forgives the sins of a whole community on account of the true repentance of even one man (Yoma 86b). "Ṭob" (the good) is God's main attribute (Yer. Ḥag. 77c; Eccl. R. vii. 8; Ruth R. iii. 16; comp. Matthew xix. 17). The anthropomorphic representation of God as suffering pain with men merely illustrates His goodness (Sanh. vi. 5). God fills the world; but the world does not fill or exhaust Him (Gen. R. lxviii.; Yalḳ., Hab. 563). God's "hand" is extended underneath the wings of the beings that carry the throne, to receive and take to Himself the sinners that return, and to save them from punishment (Pes. 119a). Man is in the clutches of anger; but God masters wrath (Gen. R. xlix.; Midr. Teh. to Ps. xciv. 1). God removes the "stumbling-block" (sin) (Pesiḳ. 165a; Yalḳ., Hosea, 532).


Talmudic Views.

God knows all. He is like an architect who, having built a palace, knows all the hiding-places therein, and from whom, therefore, the owner can not secrete anything (Gen. R. xxiv.). God is the architect of the world (Gen. R. i.); the "Torah" is the plan. God's signetring is truth, (the Alpha and Omega of the New Testament; Gen. R. lxxxi; Shab. 55a; Yoma 69b; Sanh. 64a; Yer. Tan. 18a; Deut. R. i.). All that confess "two God-heads" will ultimately come to grief (Deut. R. ii.). In a vast number of haggadic disquisitions on God, attention is called to the difference between the action of man and that of God, generally prefaced by "Come and see that 'shelo ke-middat basar wedam middat ha-Ḳodesh baruk hu'" (not like the motive and conduct of flesh and blood is God's manner). For instance, man selling a precious article will part with it in sorrow; not so God. He gave His Torah to Israel and rejoiced thereat (Ber. 5a). In others, again, God is likened to a king; and from this comparison conclusions are drawn (Gen. R. xxviii. and innumerable similar parables).

Sometimes attention is called to the difference between God and an earthly monarch. "When a king is praised, his ministers are praised with him, because they help him carry the burden of his government. Not so when God is praised. He alone is exalted, as He alone created the world" (Yalḳ., Deut. 835; Midr. Teh. to Ps. lxxxvi. 10; Gen. R. i. 3). God exalteth Himself above those that exalt themselves ("mitga'ah hu 'al ha-mitga'im; Ḥag. 13b; Mek., Beshallaḥ, 35b). In His hand is everything except the fear of Him (Ber. 33b; Meg. 25a; Niddah 16b).

Among the descriptive attributes, "mighty," "great," and "fearful" are mentioned. After Moses had formulated these (Deut. x. 17), and the last had been omitted by Jeremiah (xxxii. 18) and the first by Daniel (ix. 4), in view of the apparent victory of the heathen the "men of the Great Synagogue" (Neh. ix. 32) reinstituted the mention of all three, knowing that God's might consisted in showing indulgent long-suffering to the evil-minded, and that His "fearfulness" was demonstrated in Israel's wonderful survival. Hence their name "Great Synagogue" for having restored the crown of the divine attributes (Yoma 69b; Yer. Ber. 11c; Meg. 74c). These attributes may not be arbitrarily augmented; however many attributes man might use, he could not adequately express God's greatness (Ber. 33b; see Agnosticism); but man is bound to praise the Creator with his every breath (Gen. R. xiv.).

Stress is laid in the Talmudic theology on the resurrection of the dead. God is "meḥayyeh hametim," the one who restores the dead to life. The key to the resurrection is one of the three (or four) keys not given, save in very rare cases, to any one else, but is in the hands of God alone (Ta'an. 2a, b; Gen. R. lxxiii.; see Eschatology).


God and Israel.

Israel is God's people. This relation to Him can not be dissolved by Israel (Num. R. ii.). This is expressed in the definition of God's name as "ehyeh asher ehyeh." The individual has the liberty to profess God or not; but the community, if refractory, is coerced to acknowledge Him (Ex. R. iii. 14). As a king might fasten the key of his jewelcasketby a chain lest it be lost, so God linked His name with Israel lest the people should disappear (Yer. Ta'an. 65d). Israel's love for God, evidenced when in the desert, became a great treasure of divine grace, stored up for the days of Israel's troubles (Midr. Teh. to Ps. xxxvi. 11). Upon Israel's fidelity to God even the earth's fertility is dependent (Lev. R. xlv.). God's punishments are therefore very severe for disloyal Israel, though in His grace He provides the cure always before the blow (Meg. 13b). As a father prefers himself to discipline his son rather than to have another beat him, so God Himself is Israel's judge (Midr. Teh. to Ps. lxxviii. 41). God is toward Israel, however, like that king who, incensed at his son's conduct, swore to hurl a stone at him. In order not to break his oath, but being anxious not to destroy his child, he broke the stone into pieces, which one after another he threw at him (ib. to Ps. vi. 4; comp. Lev. R. xxxii.). Israel's disloyalty to God involves in its consequences even the other peoples (after Haggai i. 10; Midr. Teh. to Ps. iv. 8; comp. Matthew xv. 26; Mark vii. 27; Bacher, "Ag. Pal. Amor." i. 146).

The prayer-book of the Synagogue is the precipitate of the teachings concerning God held by the Rabbis. An analysis of its contents reveals that God was adored as the Creator, the Preserver of the world ("Yoẓer Or," the first benediction before the Shema'). He is the Great, the Mighty, the Fearful, the Highest, the Loving, the All-Sustaining, Reviving the Dead (in the Shemoneh 'Esreh), the King, Helper, Deliverer, the Support of the Weak, the Healer of the Sick. He sets free the captives, faithful even to them that sleep in the dust. He is holy. Knowledge and understanding are from Him, a manifestation of His grace ("Attah Ḥonen la-Adam"; Meg. 17b; the "Birkat Ḥokmah," Ber. 33). He forgives sin ("Ha-Marbeh li-Saloaḥ"). In His mercy He sends relief to those that suffer ("Birkat ha-Ḥolim"; 'Ab Zarah, 8a; comp. Meg. 17b). To Israel He continually shows His love and abundant grace ("Ahabah Rabbah" and "Ahabat 'Olam," the second benediction before the Shema'; Ber. 11b). Man's physical perfection is God's work ("Asher Yaẓar"; Ber. 60b). In the prayer "Modim" (the "Hoda'ah" [Meg. 18; Ber. 29, 34; Shab. 24; Soṭah 68b; Sifre, Deut. 949]; see Articles of Faith), God's immutability is accentuated, as well as His providential care of the life and soul of every man. He is "ha-ṭob," the good one whose mercies are boundless; while in the version given in the Siddur of Rab Amram and the Maḥzor of Rome the statement is added that "God has not abandoned Israel." God is also hailed as the maker of peace. The thought of God's unity, it is needless to remark, dominates throughout. The "'Alenu," with which, according to the Kol Bo (§§ 11 and 77; Ṭur Oraḥ Ḥayyim, § 133), every service must conclude, is a résumé of the implications of Israel's conception of God. He is the Lord of the universe; the Creator. Israel by His grace was called to know Him as the King of Kings, the Holy One. He alone is God. It concludes with the fervent prayer for the coming of the day when idolatry shall be no more, but God shall be acknowledged as the one and only God.
    E. G. H.


Motekallamin and Motazilites.

—In Philosophical Literature:

The rise of Karaism marks an epoch in Jewish philosophical thought concerning God. The ensuing controversies induced Jewish Rabbinite thinkers to turn their attention to the speculative problems involved in the Jewish conception of God. Mohammedan theology, under the influence of Greek philosophy, which came to it by way of Syria through the Christian Nestorians, had developed various schools, among them the Motekallamin or schoolmen, occupying a middle position between the orthodox believers in the dogmas of the Koran and the Free-thinkers or Philosophers. According to Shahrastani (ed. Cureton, German transl. by Haarbrücker), they were the defenders of the fundamental truths of the Koran. They did not appeal solely to the wording of the book, but formulated a rational system, that of the Kalam (hence their name, = Hebrew "Medabberim" = "loquentes"), in which through speculation the positions of the Koran were demonstrated as logically and intellectually necessary.

An offshoot from the Motekallamin were the Motazilites, who differed from the former in their doctrines concerning the divine attributes. Designating themselves as the proclaimers of the unity of God, they contended that the divine attributes were in no way to be regarded as essential; they thus emphasized God's absolute unity, which was regarded by them even as numerical. Over and against them the Ash'ariya urged deterministic views in opposition to the ascription of freedom to man, and pleaded for the reality of the divine attributes. These three schools were in so far orthodox as they all regarded the Koran as the source of truth and did not intend to abandon its fundamental authority. The Philosophers alone, though in externals observant of the religious ritual, ventured to take their stand on points other than those fixed by the text of the Koran; and they did not care whether their conclusions agreed with or differed from the positions of current theology.

Jewish philosophers in the Middle Ages (900-1300) display, on the whole, the methods and intentions of these orthodox Mohammedan schools. The same problems engage their interest. The attributes of God—His unity, His prescience, the freedom of human action—are the perplexities which they attempt to solve. That the teachings of the Bible and the theology of the Synagogue are true, they assume at the very outset. It is their ambition to show that these fundamental truths are rational, in conformity with the postulates of reason. Aristotelians for the most part, they virtually adopt the propositions of Al-Kindi, Alfarabi, and Al-Ghazali, as far as they are adherents of the Kalam; while those who are not resort to the Neoplatonic elements contained in Arabic Aristotelianism to sharpen their weapons. Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and Ibn Roshd (Averroes), also, must be remembered among the tutors of the Jewish Aristotelians.


Saadia.

The first of the Jewish writers to treat of the Jewish faith from the philosophical point of view was Saadia, the great anti-Karaite (see his controversies with Anan, Nahawandi, Ibn Sakawai, andBen Jeroham), in his famous work "Kitab al-Amanat wal-I'tiḳadat" (Hebrew, "Sefer Emunot we-De'ot"). He shows his familiarity with the positions of the Motazilites as well as with Greek philosophy and even with Christian theology. His purpose in composing the treatise was to set forth the harmony between the revealed truths of Judaism and the reason of man. In its controversial chapters he attacks the theology of Christianity with greater vehemence than that of Islam (see Geiger, "Wiss. Zeit. Jüd. Theol." i. 192). His philosophical point of view has rightly been characterized as eclectic, though strongly influenced by Aristotelianism. He prefaces his presentation of the God-concept with a discussion of the theory of human knowledge, which latter, according to him, proceeds from the perception of the grossly sensual elements common to men and animals. But when a man perceives an object, merely the accidents come to his vision.


"Sefer Emunot we-De'ot."

By comparison, however, he learns to know the quantity of bodies, thus forming the notion of space; while through the observation of motion he arrives at the perception of time ("Sefer Emunot we-De'ot," ed. Amsterdam, ii.). In this way man, through continued reflection, attains to ever finer and higher degrees of knowledge, discovering the relation of cause to effect. Many men, says Saadia, reject the existence of God on the ground that the knowledge of Him is too subtle and too abstract. But this is easily met by the assertion of the graduation of knowledge, which in its ascent always reaches finer degrees, and develops into the faculty of apprehending the less concrete and more abstract.

The final cause some philosophers have held to be material, an atom. But in going one degree higher, and in assuming the existence of a creator, man must know him as the highest; that is to say, God is the noblest but also the most subtile goal of speculative reflection. Many represent God as corporeal, because they do not push their ascending knowledge far enough beyond the corporeal to the abstract and incorporeal. The Creator being the originator of all bodies, He of necessity must be apprehended as supramundane, supercorporeal. Those that ascribe to God motion and rest, wrath and goodness, also apperceive Him as corporeal. The correct conception culminates in the representation of God as free from all accidents (ib.). If this conception be too abstract, and is to be replaced by one more material and concrete, reflection is forced to recede. The final cause must be, by the very postulates of reason, an abstract being. God-perception is thus the rise from the sensual to the supersensual and highest limits of thought.

But the Creator has revealed Himself to His Prophets as the One, the Living, the Almighty, the All-Wise, the Incomparable. It is the philosopher's part to investigate the reality of these attributes, and to justify them before the tribunal of reason (ib. ii. 24b, 25a). The unity of God includes His being absolutely one, as well as His uniqueness, and is necessarily postulated by the reflection that He is the Creator of all. For if He were not one. He would be many; and multiplicity is characteristic of corporeality. Therefore, as the highest thinking rejects His corporeality, He must be one. Again, human reason postulates one creator, since for creation a creator is indispensable; but, as one creator satisfies all the implications of this concept, reason has no call to assume two or more. If there were more than one creator, proof would have to be adduced for the existence of every one; but such proof could not be taken from creation, to account for which one creator suffices. That Scripture uses two names for God is merely due to linguistic idiomatic peculiarities, as "Jerubbaal" is also named "Gideon."


The Living God.

God is living because He, the Creator of the world, can not be thought of as without life (i.e., self-consciousness and knowledge of His deeds). His omnipotence is self-evident, since He is the Creator of the all: since creation is perfectly adjusted to its ends, God must be all-wise. These three attributes human reason discovers "at one stroke" ("pit'om," "beli maḥshabah," "mebi'ah aḥat"; ib. ii. 26a). Human speech, however, is so constituted as not to be able to express the three in one word. God's being is simple, not complex, every single attribute connoting Him in His entirety. Abstract and subtle though God is, He is not inactive. The illustration of this is the soul and its directive function over the body. Knowledge is still more subtile than the soul; and the same is again exemplified in the four elements. Water percolates through earth; light dominates water; the sphere of fire surrounds all other spheres and through its motion regulates the position of the planets in the universe. The motion of the spheres is caused by the command of the Creator, who, more subtile than any of the elements, is more powerful than aught else.

Still, Saadia concedes that no attribute may in strict construction be ascribed to God (ib. ii. 28b). God has also created the concept attribute; and created things can not belong to the essence of the Creator. Man may only predicate God's existence ("yeshut"). Biblical expressions are metaphorical. The errors concerning God are set forth in ten categories. Some have thought God to be a substance; some have ascribed to Him quantity; others quiddity (ποιόν in Aristotle); others have assigned to Him relations and dependency (πρός τι). The Eternal can not be in relation to or dependent upon anything created. He was before creation was. God is in no space (ποῦ in Aristotle). He is timeless (ποτέ). God can not be said to possess (ἔχειν): all is His. He lacks nothing. Possession, however, includes lack as its negative. God is incorporeal; therefore, He can not be apprehended as conditioned by status (κεῖσϑαι). Nor does God work (ποιεῖν). In the common sense of the term, work implies motion; and motion, in the subject, can not be in God. His will suffices to achieve His purposes; and, moreover, in work matter is an element, and place and time are factors—all considerations inapplicable to God.

Nor does God suffer (πάσχειν). Even God's seeing is not analogous to human sight, which is an effect by some exterior object. Saadia controverts trinitarianism more especially, as well as Dualism. Heis most emphatic in rejecting the corporeality of God, His incarnation, involved in the Christian doctrine. For his views concerning creation see Jew. Encyc. iv. 339, s.v. Creation.

But according to Saadia, man is the ultimate object of creation ("Emunot we-De'ot," iv. 45a). How is human freedom reconcilable with God's omnipotence and omniscience? That the will of man is free Saadia can not doubt. It is the doctrine of Scripture and of tradition, confirmed by human experience and postulated by reason. Without it how could God punish evil-doers? But if God does not will the evil, how may it exist and be found in this world of reality? All things terrestrial are adjusted with a view to man; they are by divine precept for the sake of man declared to be good or evil; and it is thus man that lends them their character. God's omniscience Saadia declares to be not necessarily causal. If man sins, God may know it beforehand; but He is not the cause of the sinful disposition or act.


Solomon ibn Gabirol.

Ibn Gabirol's theology is more profound than that of Saadia. In his "Meḳor Ḥayyim," he shows himself to be a follower of Plotinus, an adherent of the doctrine of emanation; yet, notwithstanding this pantheistic assumption, he recognizes the domination of a supreme omnipotent will, a free, personal God. He views the cognition of the final cause as the end and goal of all knowledge. "Being" includes: (1) form and matter; (2) primal substance, the cause (God); and (3) will, the mediator between the other two. Between God the Absolute and the world of phenomena, mediating agents are assumed. Like (God) can not communicate with unlike (the world); but mediating beings having something of both may bring them into relation. God is on the uppermost rung of the ladder of being; He is the beginning and cause of all. But the substance of the corporeal world is the lowest and last of all things created. The first is essentially different from the last; otherwise, the first might be the last, and vice versa. God is absolute unity; the corporeal world, absolute multiplicity and variety. Motion of the world is in time; and time is included in and is less than eternity. The Absolute is above eternity; it is infinitude. Hence there must be a mediating something between the supereternal and the subeternal. Man is the microcosm ("'olam ha-ḳaṭon"), a reflection of the macrocosm. The mind ("sekel") does not immediately connect itself with the body, but through the lower energies of the soul. In like manner in the macrocosm the highest simple substance may only join itself to the substance of the categories through the mediation of spiritual substances. Like only begets like. Hence, the first Creator could have produced simple substances only, not the sensual visible world which is totally unlike Him.

Between the First Cause and the world Gabirol places five mediators ("emẓa'ot"): (1) God's will ("ha-raẓon"); (2) general matter and form: (3)the universal mind ("sekel ha-kelali"); (4) the three world-souls ("nefashot"), vegetative, animal, and thinking souls; and (5) nature ("ha-ṭeba'"), the mover of the corporeal world.


The Divine Will.

The divine will has a considerable part in this system. It is the divine power which creates form, calls forth matter, and binds them together. It pervades all, from the highest to the lowest, just as the soul pervades the body ("Meḳor Ḥayyim," v. 60). God may be apprehended as will and as knowledge; the former operating in secret, invisibly; the latter realizing itself openly. From will emanates form, but from the oversubstance matter. Will, again, is nothing else than the totality comprehending all forms in indivisible unity. Matter without form is void of reality; it is non-existent; form is the element which confers existence on the non-existent. Matter without form is never actual ("be-fo'al"), but only potential ("be-koaḥ"). Form appears in the moment of creation, and the creative power is will; therefore, the will is the producer of form.

Upon this metaphysical corner-stone Ibn Gabirol bases his theological positions, which may be summed up as follows:

God is absolute unity. Form and matter are ideas in Him. Attributes, in strict construction, may not be predicated of Him; will and wisdom are identical with His being. Only through the things which have emanated from God may man learn and comprehend aught of God. Between God and the world is a chasm bridged only by mediatorial beings. The first of these is will or the creative word. It is the divine power activated and energized at a definite point of time. Creation is an act of the divine will. Through processes of successive emanations, the absolute One evolves multiplicity. Love and yearning for the first fountain whence issued this stream of widening emanations are in all beings the beginning of motion. They are yearning for divine perfection and omnipotence.

Ibn Gabirol may rightly be styled the Jewish speculative exponent of a system bordering on theosophy, certainly approaching obscurity and the mystic elimination of individuality in favor of an all-encompassing all-Divinity (pantheism). His system is, however, only a side-track from the main line of Jewish theological thought.


Baḥya ibn Paḳuda.

Baḥya ben Joseph ibn Paḳuda, in the treatise introducing his exposition of the "Duties of the Heart" ("Ḥobot ha-Lebabot," chapter "Ha-Yiḥud"), reverts in the main to the method of Saadia. According to Baḥya, only the prophet and the wise can serve God in truth. All others revere in God something utterly out of consonance with the exalted, sublime conception of God (ib. § 2). It is therefore every one's duty to arrive at a proper conception of God's unity by means of speculative reflection, and to be thus enabled to differentiate true unity ("eḥad ha-emet") from pseudo-unity ("eḥad ha-'ober"). In consequence Baḥya develops the following seven demonstrative arguments in support of God's unity:

(1) The universe is like a pyramid sloping upward from a very broad base toward the apex; or it resembles an infinite series of numbers, of which the first is one, and the last comprises so many figures as to baffle all efforts to form a conception of it. The individual beings in the world are numerically infinite; when these individuals are classified in groups according to species, etc., the number of these groups becomes smaller. Thus by proceeding in his classifications to always more comprehensivegroups, man reduces the number ever more and more until he arrives at the number five, i.e., four elements plus motion. These, again, are really two only: matter and form. Their common principle, more comprehensive than either, must thus be smaller than two, i.e., One.

(2) The harmony and concordance prevailing in creation necessitate the apprehension of the world as the work of one artist and creator.

(3) Without a creator there could be no creation. Thus reason and logic compel the assumption of a creator; but to assume more than one creator is irrational and illogical.


Proofs of Unity.

(4) If one believes in the existence of more than one God, one of two alternatives is suggested:

    (a) One God was potent enough to create the all; why, then, other gods? They are superfluous.

    (b) One God alone had not the power; then God was limited in power, and a being so limited is not God, but presupposes another being through which He Himself was called into existence.

(5) The unity of God is involved in the very conception of Him. If there were more gods than one, this dilemma would be presented:

    (a) These many gods are of one essence; then, according to the law of absolute identity, they are identical and therefore only one. Or

    (b) these gods are differentiated by differences of essential qualities: then they are not gods; for God, to be God, must be absolute and simple (non-composite) being.

(6) God connotes being without accidence, i.e., qualities not involved in being. Plurality is quantity, and, therefore, accidence. Hence plurality may not be predicated of God.

(7) Inversely, the concept unity posits the unity of God. Unity, according to Euclid, is that through which a thing becomes numerically one. Unity, therefore, precedes the number one. Two gods would thus postulate before the number one the existence of unity. In all these demonstrations Baḥya follows the evidential argumentations of the Arabic schoolmen, the Motekallamin. In reference to God's attributes, Baḥya is of those who contend that attributes predicated of God connote in truth only negatives (excluding their opposites), never positives, (ib. § 10).


Judah ha-Levi.

This view is shared also by Judah ha-Levi, the author of the "Cuzari," probably the most popular exposition of the contents of Israel's religion, though, as Grätz rightly remarks ("Geschichte," vi. 157), little calculated to influence thinkers. He regards Creation as an act of divine will ("Cuzari," ii. 50). God is eternal; but the world is not. He ranges the divine attributes into three classes: (1) practical, (2) relative, and (3) negative. The practical are those predicated of God on the ground of deeds which, though not immediately, yet perhaps through the intervention of natural secondary causes, were wrought by God. God is in this sense recognized as gracious, full of compassion, jealous, and avenging.

Relative attributes are those that arise from the relations of man, the worshiper, to God, the one worshiped. God is holy, sublime, and to be praised; but though man in this wise expresses his thoughts concerning God, God's essence is not thereby described and is not taken out of His unity ("me-aḥaduto").

The third class seemingly express positive qualities, but in reality negative their contraries. God is living. This does not mean that He moves and feels, but that He is not unmoved or without life. Life and death belong to the corporeal world. God is beyond this distinction. This applies also to His unity; it excludes merely the notion that He is more than one. His unity, however, transcends the unity of human conceptual construction. Man's "one" is one of many, a part of a whole. In this sense God can not be called "One." Even so, in strict accuracy, God may not be termed "the first." He is without beginning. And this is also true of the designation of God as "the last." Anthropopathic expressions are used; but they result from the human ward impression of His works. "God's will" is a term connoting the cause of all lying beyond the sphere of the visible things. Concerning Ha-Levi's interpretation of the names of God see Names of God.


Controverts Fatalism.

In discussing the question of God's providential government and man's freedom Ha-Levi first controverts Fatalism; and he does this by showing that even the fatalist believes in possibilities. Human will, says he, is the secondary cause between man and the purpose to be accomplished. God is the First Cause: how then can there be room for human freedom? But will is a secondary cause, and is not under compulsion on the part of the first cause. The freedom of choice is thus that of man. God's omnipotence is not impugned thereby. Finally, all points back to God as the first cause of this freedom. In this freedom is involved God's omnipotence. Otherwise it might fail to be available. The knowledge of God is not a cause. God's prescience is not causal in reference to man's doings. God knows what man will do; still it is not He that causes man's action. To sum up his positions, Judah ha-Levi posits: (a) The existence of a first cause, i.e., a wise Creator always working under purpose, whose work is perfect. It is due to man's lack of understanding that this perfection is not seen by him in all things. (b) There are secondary causes, not independent, however, but instrumentalities. (c) God gave matter its adequate form. (d) There are degrees in creation. The sentient beings occupy higher positions than those without feelings. Man is the highest. Israel as the confessor of the one God outranks the polytheistic heathen. (e) Man is free to choose between good and evil, and is responsible for his choice.


Abraham ibn Daud.

Abraham ibn Daud, in his "Emunah Ramah," virtually traverses the same ground as his predecessors; but in reference to God's prescience he takes a very free attitude (ib. p. 96). He distinguishes two kinds of possibilities: (1) The subjective, where the uncertainty lies in the subject himself. This subjective possibility is not in God. (2) The objective, planned and willed by God Himself. While under the first is the ignorance of one livingin one place concerning the doings of those in another, under the second falls the possibility of man's being good or bad. God knows beforehand of this possibility, but not of the actual choice. The later author RaLBaG advances the same theory in his "Milḥamot ha-Shem" (iii. 2). Ibn Daud also argues against the ascription of positive attributes to God ("Emunah Ramah," ii. 3).

Moses ben Maimon's "Moreh Nebukim" ("Dalalat al-Ḥa'irin") is the most important contribution to Jewish philosophical thought on God. According to him, philosophy recognizes the existence and perfection of God. God's existence is proved by the world, the effect whence he draws the inference of God's existence, the cause. The whole universe is only one individual, the parts of which are interdependent. The sublunar world is dependent upon the forces proceeding from the spheres, so that the universe is a macrocosm ("Moreh," ii. 1), and thus the effect of one cause.


Maimonides.

Two gods or causes can not be assumed, for they would have to be distinct in their community: but God is absolute; therefore He can not be composite. The corporeal alone is numerical. God as incorporeal can not be multiple ("Yad," Yesode ha-Torah, i. 7). But may God be said to be one? Unity is accidence, as is multiplicity. "God is one" connotes a negative, i.e., God is not many ("Moreh," i. 57). Of God it is possible only to say that He is, but not what He is (ib.; "hayuto bi-lebad lo mahuto"; in Arabic "anniyyah" = ὅτι ἔστι [quoddiàas]). All attributes have a negative implication, even existence. God's knowledge is absolute (ib. iii. 19). God's knowledge is never new knowledge. There is nothing that He does not know. In His knowledge He comprehends all, even infinitude (ib. iii. 20). God's knowledge is not analogous to man's. Evil is merely negation or privation (ib. iii. 8). God is not its author; for God sends only the positive. All that is, save God, is only of possible existence; but God is the necessarily existent (ib. i. 57). In Him there is no distinction between essence ("'eẓem") and existence ("ha-meẓi'ut"), which distinction is in all other existing things. For this reason God is incorporeal, one, exalted above space and time, and most perfect (ib. ii., Preface, 18, 21, 23, 24).

By the successors of Maimonides, Albo, Ralbag (Levi ben Gershon), and Crescas, no important modifications were introduced. Albo contends that only God may be designated as one, even numerical oneness being not exclusive connotation of unity ("'Iḳḳarim," ii. 9, 10; comp. Ibn Ẓaddiḳ, "'Olam Ḳaṭon," p. 49: "eḥad ha-mispar eno ka-eḥad ha-elahut"). He, too, emphasizes God's incorporeality, unity, timelessness, perfection, etc. ("'Iḳḳarim," ii. 6).

Crescas pleads for the recognition of positive attributes in God. He concedes that the unity of God can not be demonstrated by speculation, but that it rests on the "Shema'" alone. It may be noticed that Aaron ben Elijah ("'Eẓ ha-Ḥayyim," ch. lxxi.) also argues in favor of positive attributes, though he regards them in the light of homonyms.

The precipitate of these philosophical speculations may be said to have been the creed of Maimonides (see Articles of Faith). It confesses that God is the Creator, Governor of all. He alone "does, has been and will be doing." God is One; but His unity has no analogy. He alone is God, who was, is, and will be. He is incorporeal. In corporeal things there is no similitude to Him. He is the first and the last. Stress is also laid on the thought that none shares divinity with Him. This creed is virtually contained in the Adon 'Olam and the Yigdal.

The cabalists (see Cabala) were not so careful as Maimonides and others to refrain from anthropomorphic and anthropopathic extravagances and ascriptions (see Shi'ur Ḳomah). Nevertheless their efforts to make of the incorporeality of God a dogma met with opposition in orthodox circles. Against Maimonides ("Yad," Teshubah, iii. 7), denying to the believers in God's corporeality a share in the world to come, Abraham ben David of Posquières raised a fervent protest. Moses Taku is another protestant ("Oẓar Neḥmad," iii. 25; comp. Abraham Maimuni, "Milḥamot," p. 25).

Bibliography: Schmiedl, Studien über Jüdische Religionsphilosophie, Vienna, 1869;
P. J. Muller, Deuteronomy Godsleer der Middeleeuwsche Joden, Groningen, 1898;
D. Kaufmann, Attributenlehre, Leipsic, 1880;
Guttmann, Die Religionsphilosophie des Saadia;
idem, Die Religionsphilosophie Abraham Ibn Dauds;
M. Joël, Zur Gesch. der Jüdischen Religionsphilosophie, Leipsic, 1872;
Munk, Mélanges.
    E. G. H.


—The Modern View:

On the whole, the modern Jewish view reproduces that of the Biblical books, save that the anthropomorphic and anthropopathic terminology is recognized as due to the insufficiency of human language to express the super-human. The influence of modern philosophers (Kant and Hegel) upon some sections of Jewish thought has been considerable. The intellectual elements in the so-called demonstrations of God's existence and the weakness of the argument have been fully recognized. The Maimonidean position, that man can not know God in Himself (), has in consequence been strengthened (see Agnosticism). The human heart (the practical reason in the Kantian sense) is the first source of knowledge of God (see Samuel Hirsch, "Catechismus," s.v. "Die Lehre"). The experience of man and the history of Israel bear witness to God's existence, who is apprehended by man as the Living, Personal, Eternal, All-Sustaining, the Source of all life, the Creator and Governor of the universe, the Father of all, the Righteous Judge, in His mercy forgiving sins, embracing all in His love. He is both transcendental and immanent. Every human soul shares to a certain degree in the essence of the divine. In thus positing the divinity of the human soul, Judaism bridges the chasm between the transcendental and the immanent elements of its conception of God. Pantheism is rejected as one-sided; and so is the view, falsely imputed to Judaism, which has found its expression in the absolute God of Islam.

The implications of the Jewish God-idea may be described as "pan-monotheism," or "ethical monotheism." In this conception of God, Israel is called to the duty, which confers no prerogatives not also within the reach of others, of illustrating in life the godliness of the truly human, through its own"holiness"; and of leading men to the knowledge of the one eternal, holy God (see Deism; Evolution).

Bibliography: Samuel Hirsch, Die Religionsphilosophie der Juden, Leipsic, 1843;
Formstecher, Die Religion des Geistes;


see also Catechism;
Rülf, Der Einheitsgedanke.
    E. G. H.


—Critical View:

Biblical historiography presents the theory that God revealed Himself successively to Adam, Noah, Abraham and his descendants, and finally to Moses. Monotheism was thus made known to the human race in general and to Israel in particular from the very beginning. Not ignorance but perverseness led to the recognition of other gods, necessitating the sending of the Prophets to reemphasize the teachings of Moses and the facts of the earlier revelation. Contrary to this view, the modern critical school regards monotheism as the final outcome of a long process of religious evolution, basing its hypothesis upon certain data discovered in the Biblical books as well as upon the analogy presented by Israel's historical development to that of other Semitic groups, notably, in certain stages thereof, of the Arabs (Wellhausen, "Skizzen und Vorarbeiten," iii. 164; Nöldeke, in "Z. D. M. G." 1887, p. 719).


Polytheistic Leanings of the Semites.

The primitive religion of Israel and the God-concept therein attained reflected the common primitive Semitic religious ideas, which, though modified in Biblical times, and even largely eliminated, have left their traces in the theological doctrines of the Israel of later days. Renan's theory, formulated in his "Precis et Système Comparé des Langues Semitiques" (1859), ascribing to the Semites a monotheistic instinct, has been abandoned because it was found to be in conflict with facts. As far as epigraphic material, traditions, and folk-lore throw light on the question, the Semites are shown to be of polytheistic leanings. Astral in character, primitive Semitic religion deified the sun, the moon, and the other heavenly bodies. The storm-clouds, the thunder-storms, and the forces of nature making for fertility or the reverse were viewed as deities. As long as the Semites were shepherds, the sun and the other celestial phenomena connected with the day were regarded as malevolent and destructive; while the moon and stars, which lit up the night—the time when the grass of the pasture was revived—were looked upon as benevolent. In the conception of Yhwh found in the poetry of the Bible, speaking the language of former mythology and theology, the element is still dominant which, associating Him with the devastating cloud or the withering, consuming fire, virtually accentuates His destructive, fearful nature (Wellhausen, l.c. iii. 77, 170; Baethgen, "Beiträge zur Semitischen Religionsgeschichte," p. 9, Berlin, 1888; Smend, "Lehrbuch der Alttestamentlichen Religionsgeschichte," p. 19, Leipsic, 1893).

The intense tribal consciousness of the Semites, however, wielded from a very early period a decisive influence in the direction of associating with each tribe, sept, or clan a definite god, which the tribe or clan recognized as its own, to the exclusion of others. For the tribe thought itself descended from its god, which it met and entertained at the sacrificial meal. With this god it maintained the blood covenant. Spencer's theory, that ancestral animism is the first link in the chain of religious evolution, can not be supported by the data of Semitic religions. Ancestral animism as in vogue among the Semites, and the "cult of the dead" (see Witch of Endor) in Israel point rather to individual private conception than to a tribal institution. In the development of the Israelitish God-idea it was not a determining factor (Goldziher, "Le Culte des Ancêtres et des Morts chez les Arabes," in "Revue de l'Histoire des Religions," x. 332; Oort, in "Theologisch Tijdschrift," 1881, p. 350; Stade, "Geschichte des Volkes Israel," i. 387).

Characteristic, however, of the Semitic religions is the designation of the tribal or clan deity as "adon" (lord), "melek" (king), "ba'al" (owner, fructifier). The meaning of "el," which is the common Semitic term, is not certain. It has been held to connote strength (in which case God would = "the strong"), leadership ("the first"), and brilliancy (Sprenger, in his "Das Leben und die Lehre des Mohammad," in which God ="sun"). It has also been connected with "elah," the sacred tree (Ed. Meyer, in Roscher's "Ausführliches Lexikon der Griechischen und Römischen Mythologie," s.v. "El"; and Smend, l.c. p. 26, note 1). Equally puzzling is the use of the plural "Elohim" in Hebrew ( in Phenician; comp. Ethiopic "amlak"). The interpretation that it is a "pluralis majestatis" with the value of an abstract idea ("the Godhead"), assumes too high a degree of grammatical and philosophical reflection and intention to be applicable to primitive conditions. Traces of an original polytheism might be embodied in it, were it not for the fact that the religion of Israel is the outgrowth of tribal and national monolatry rather than of polytheism.


Tribal Gods.

Each tribe in Israel had its tribal god (see, for instance, Dan; Gad; Asher). Nevertheless from a very remote period these tribes recognized their affinity to one another by the fact that above their own tribal god they acknowledged allegiance to Yhwh. This Yhwh was the Lord, the Master, the Ruler. His will was regarded as supreme. He revealed Himself in fire or lightning.

In Ex. vi. 2 Yhwh is identified with El-Shaddai, the god of the Patriarchs. What the latter name means is still in doubt (see Nöldeke in "Z. D. M. G." 1886, p. 735; 1888, p. 480). Modern authorities have argued from the statement in Exodus that Yhwh was not known among the Hebrews before Moses, and have therefore insisted that the name at least, if not the god, was of foreign origin. Delitzsch's alleged discovery of the name "Yhwh" on Babylonian tablets has yet to be verified. Moses is held to have identified a Midianite-Kenite deity with the patriarchal El-Shaddai. However this may have been, the fact remains that from the time of the Exodus onward Israel regarded itself as the people of Yhwh, whose seat was Sinai, where he manifested Himself amidst thunder and lightning in His unapproachable majesty, and whence He went forth to aid His people (Judges v. 4; Deut. xxxiii. 2). Itwas Yhwh who had brought judgment on the gods of Egypt, and by this act of His superior power had renewed the covenant relation which the fathers of old had maintained with Him.

From the very outset the character of Yhwh must have been of an order conducive to the subsequent development of monotheistic and ethical connotations associated with the name and the idea. In this connection it is noteworthy that the notion of sex, so pernicious in other Semitic cults, was from the outset inoperative in the worship of Yhwh. As Israel's God, He could not but be jealous and intolerant of other gods beside Him, to whom Israel would pay honor and render homage. Enthroned in the midst of fire, He was unapproachable ("ḳodesh"); the sacrificial elements in His cult were of a correspondingly simple, pastoral nature. The jealousy of Yhwh was germinal of His unity; and the simplicity and austerity of His original desert worship form the basis of the moralization of the later theology.


Change of Social Conditions.

With the invasion of the land, Israel changed from a pastoral into an agricultural people. The shepherd cult of the desert god came into contact and conflict with the agricultural deities and cults of the Canaanites. Yhwh was partly worshiped under Canaanitish forms, and partly replaced by the Canaanitish deities (Baalim, etc.). But Yhwh would not relinquish His claim on Israel. He remained the judge and lawgiver and ruler and king of the people He had brought out from Egypt. The Nazarites and the Prophets arose in Israel, emphasizing by their life and habits as well as by their enthusiastic and indignant protest the contrast of Israel with the peoples of the land, and of its religion with theirs (comp. the Yhwh of Elijah; He is "Ha-Elohim"). With Canaanitish cults were connected immoralities as well as social injustice. By contrast with these the moral nature of Yhwh came to be accentuated.

During the first centuries of Israel's occupation of Palestine the stress in religious life was laid on Israel's fidelity to Yhwh, who was Israel's only God, and whose service was to be different from that offered unto the Baalim. The question of God's unity was not in the center of dispute. Yhwh was Israel's only God. Other peoples might have other gods, but Israel's God had always shown His superiority over these. Nor was umbrage taken at this time at the representations of Yhwh by figures, though simplicity still remained the dominant note in His cult. A mere stone or rock served for an altar (Judges vi. 20, xiii. 10; I Sam. vi. 14); and natural pillars (holy trees," maẓebot") were more frequent than artificial ones (see Smend, l.c. pp. 40 et seq.). The Ephod was perhaps the only original oracular implement of the Yhwh cult. Teraphim belonged apparently to domestic worship, and were tolerated under the ascendency of the Yhwh national religion. "Massekah" was forbidden (Ex. xxxiv. 17), but not "pesel"; hence idols seem not to have been objected to so long as Yhwh's exclusive supremacy was not called into doubt. The Ark was regarded as the visible assurance of Yhwh's presence among His people. Human sacrifices, affected in the Canaanitish Moloch cult, were especially abhorred; and the lascivious rites, drunkenness, and unchastity demanded by the Baalim and their consorts were declared to be abominations in the sight of Yhwh.


The God of the Prophets.

These conceptions of God, which, by comparison with those entertained by other peoples, were of an exalted character, even in these early centuries, were enlarged, deepened, refined, and spiritualized by the Prophets in proportion as historical events, both internal and external, induced a widening of their mental horizon and a deepening of their moral perceptions. First among these is Amos. He speaks as the messenger of the God who rules all nations, but who, having known Israel alone among them, will punish His people all the more severely. Assyria will accomplish God's primitive purpose. In Amos' theology the first step is taken beyond national henotheism. Monotheism begins through him to find its vocabulary. This God, who will punish Israel as He does the other nations, can not condone social injustice or religious (sexual) degradation (Amos iv.). The ethical implications of Yhwh's religion are thus placed in the foreground. Hosea introduces the thought of love as the cardinal feature in the relations of Israel and God. He spiritualizes the function of Israel as the exponent of divine purposes. Yhwh punishes; but His love is bound ultimately to awaken a responsive love by which infidelity will be eliminated and overcome.

Isaiah lays stress on God's holiness: the "ḳodesh," unapproachable God, is now "ḳadosh," holy (see Baudissin, "Der Begriff der Heiligkeit im Alten Testament," in "Studien zur Semitischen Religionsgesch."). It is Israel's duty as God's people to be cleansed from sin by eschewing evil and by learning to do good. Only by striving after this, and not by playing at diplomacy, can the "wrath of God" be stayed and Jerusalem be saved. The remnant indeed will survive. Isaiah's conception of God thus again marks an advance beyond that of his predecessors. God will ultimately rule as the arbiter among the nations. Peace will be established, and beasts as well as men will cease to shed blood.

Jeremiah and his contemporaries, however, draw near the summit of monotheistic interpretations of the Divine. The cultus is centralized; Deuteronomic humanitarianism is recognized as the kernel of the God-idea. Israel and Palestine are kept apart from the rest of the world. Yhwh ceases to be localized. Much greater emphasis than was insisted on even by Isaiah is now laid on the moral as distinct from the sacrificial involutions of the God-idea.

The prophets of the Exile continue to clarify the God-concept of Israel. For them God is One; He is Universal. He is Creator of the All. He can not be represented by image. The broken heart is His abiding-place. Weak Israel is His servant ("'ebed"). He desires the return of the sinner. His intentions come to pass, though man's thoughts can not grasp them.


Post-Exilic Conception.

After the Exile a double tendency in the conceptions of God is easily established. First, He is Israel's Lawgiver; Israel shall be holy. Secondly,He is all mankind's Father. In the Psalms the latter note predominates. Though the post-exilic congregation is under the domination of national sacerdotalism (represented by P), in the Wisdom literature the universal and ethical implications of Israel's God-belief came to the forefront. In the later books of the Biblical canon the effort is clearly traceable to remove from God all human attributes and passions (see Anthropomorphism and Anthropopathism). The critical school admits in the final result what the traditional view assumes as the starting-point. The God whom Israel, through the events of its history, under the teachings of its men of genius, the Prophets, finally learned to proclaim, is One, the Ruler and Creator of all, the Judge who loveth righteousness and hateth iniquity, whose witness Israel is, whose true service is love and justice, whose purposes come and have come to pass.

Bibliography: Kuenen, The Religion of Israel (Eng. transl. of Godsdienst van Israel, Haarlem, 1869-70);
idem, National Religions and Universal Religion (Hibbert Lectures, 1882);
Knappert, The Religion of Israel;
Duhm, Die Theologie der Propheten, Bonn, 1875;
Wilhelm Vatke, Die Religion des A. T. Berlin, 1835;
Ewald, Die Lehre der Bibel von Gott, Göttingen, 1871-76;
Wellhausen, Prolegomenazur Gesch. Israels, 3d ed., 1886;
idem, Skizzen und Vorarbeiten, i.-vi., 1882-1903;
Baudissin, Studien zur Semitischen Religionsgesch. Leipsic, 1876, 1878;
W. Robertson Smith, Rel. of Sem. Edinburgh, 1885;
Ed. König, Grundprobleme der Alttest. Religionsgesch. 1885;
idem, Der Offenbarungsbegriff, etc.;
Friedrich Baethgen, Beiträge zur Semit. Religionsgesch. Berlin, 1888;
Smend, Lehrbuch der Alttestamentlichen Religionsgesch. 1893;
Budde, Vorlesungen über die Vorexilische Religion Israels, 1901;
Kayser-Dillmann, Alt. Test. Theologie.
    E. G. H.

GOD:

god ('Elohim, 'El, [`Elyon], Shadday, Yahweh; Theos):

I. INTRODUCTION TO THE GENERAL IDEA

   1. The Idea in Experience and in Thought

   2. Definition of the Idea

   3. The Knowledge of God

   4. Ethnic Ideas of God

      (1) Animism

      (2) Fetishism

      (3) Idolatry

      (4) Polytheism

      (5) Henotheism

      (6) Pantheism

      (7) Deism

      (8) Semitic Monolatry

      (9) Monotheism

II. THE IDEA OF GOD IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

   1. The Course of Its Development

   2. Forms of Its Manifestation

      (1) The Face or Countenance of God

      (2) The Voice and Word of God

      (3) The Glory of God

      (4) The Angel of God

      (5) The Spirit of God

      (6) The Name of God

      (7) Occasional Forms

   3. The Names of God

      (1) Generic

      (2) Attributive

      (3) Yahweh

   4. Pre-prophetic Conceptions of God

      (1) Yahweh Alone Is the God of Israel

         (a) His Early Worship

         (b) Popular Religion

         (c) Polytheistic Tendencies

            (i) Coordination

            (ii) Assimilation

            (iii) Disintegration

         (d) No Hebrew Goddesses

         (e) Human Sacrifices

      (2) Nature and Character of Yahweh

         (a) A God of War

         (b) His Relation to Nature

      (3) Most Distinctive Characteristics of Yahweh

         (a) Personality

         (b) Law and Judgment

   5. The Idea of God in the Prophetic Period

      (1) Righteousness

      (2) Holiness

      (3) Universality

      (4) Unity

      (5) Creator and Lord

      (6) Compassion and Love

   6. The Idea of God in Post-exilic Judaism

      (1) New Conditions

      (2) Divine Attributes

      (3) Surviving Limitations

         (a) Disappearing Anthropomorphism

         (b) Localization

         (c) Favoritism

         (d) Ceremonial Legalism

      (4) Tendencies to Abstractness

         (a) Transcendence

         (b) Skepticism

         (c) Immanence

      (5) Logos, Memra', and Angels

III. THE IDEA OF GOD IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

   1. Dependence on the Old Testament

   2. Gentile Influence

   3. Absence of Theistic Proofs

   4. Fatherhood of God

      (1) In the Teaching of Jesus Christ

         (a) Its Relation to Himself

         (b) To Believers

         (c) To All Men

      (2) In Apostolic Teaching

         (a) Father of Jesus Christ

         (b) Our Father

         (c) Universal Father

   5. God Is King

      (1) The Kingdom of God

      (2) Its King

         (a) God

         (b) Christ

         (c) Their Relation

      (3) Apostolic Teaching

   6. Moral Attributes

      (1) Personality

      (2) Love

      (3) Righteousness and Holiness

   7. Metaphysical Attributes

   8. The Unity of God

      (1) The Divinity of Christ

      (2) The Holy Spirit

      (3) The Church's Problem

LITERATURE

I. Introduction to the General Idea.

1. The Idea in Experience and in Thought:

Religion gives the idea of God, theology construes and organizes its content, and philosophy establishes its relation to the whole of man's experience. The logical order of treating it might appear to be, first, to establish its truth by philosophical proofs; secondly, to develop its content into theological propositions; and finally, to observe its development and action in religion. Such has been the more usual order of treatment. But the actual history of the idea has been quite the reverse. Men had the idea of God, and it had proved a creative factor in history, long before reflection upon it issued in its systematic expression as a doctrine. Moreover, men had enunciated the doctrine before they attempted or even felt any need to define its relation to reality. And the logic of history is the truer philosophy. To arrive at the truth of any idea, man must begin with some portion of experience, define its content, relate it to the whole of experience, and so determine its degree of reality.

Religion is as universal as man, and every religion involves some idea of God. Of the various philosophical ideas of God, each has its counterpart and antecedent in some actual religion. Pantheism is the philosophy of the religious consciousness of India. Deism had prevailed for centuries as an actual attitude of men to God, in China, in Judaism and in Islam, before it found expression as a rational theory in the philosophy of the 18th century Theism is but the attempt to define in general terms the Christian conception of God, and of His relation to the world. If pluralism claims a place among the systems of philosophy, it can appeal to the religious consciousness of that large portion of mankind that has hitherto adhered to polytheism.

But all religions do not issue in speculative reconstructions of their content. It is true in a sense that all religion is an unconscious philosophy, because it is the reaction of the whole mind, including the intellect, upon the world of its experience, and, therefore, every idea of God involves some kind of an explanation of the world. But conscious reflection upon their own content emerges only in a few of the more highly developed religions. Brahmanism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam and Christianity are the only religions that have produced great systems of thought, exhibiting their content in a speculative and rational form. The religions of Greece and Rome were unable to survive the reflective period. They produced no theology which could ally itself to a philosophy, and Greek philosophy was from the beginning to a great extent the denial and supersession of Greek religion.

Biblical literature nearly all represents the spontaneous experience of religion, and contains comparatively little reflection upon that experience. In the Old Testament it is only in Second Isaiah, in the Wisdom literature and in a few Psalms that the human mind may be seen turning back upon itself to ask the meaning of its practical feelings and beliefs. Even here nothing appears of the nature of a philosophy of Theism or of religion, no theology, no organic definition and no ideal reconstruction of the idea of God. It never occurred to any Old Testament writer to offer a proof of the existence of God, or that anyone should need it. Their concern was to bring men to a right relation with God, and they propounded right views of God only in so far as it was necessary for their practical purpose. Even the fool who "hath said in his heart, There is no God" (Psalms 14:1; 53:1), and the wicked nations "that forget God" (Psalms 9:17) are no theoretical atheists, but wicked and corrupt men, who, in conduct and life, neglect or reject the presence of God.

The New Testament contains more theology, more reflection upon the inward content of the idea of God, and upon its cosmic significance; but here also, no system appears, no coherent and rounded-off doctrine, still less any philosophical construction of the idea on the basis of experience as a whole. The task of exhibiting the Biblical idea of God is, therefore, not that of setting together a number of texts, or of writing the history of a theology, but rather of interpreting the central factor in the life of the Hebrew and Christian communities.

2. Definition of the Idea:

Logically and historically the Biblical idea stands related to a number of other ideas. Attempts have been made to find a definition of so general a nature as to comprehend them all. The older theologians assumed the Christian standpoint, and put into their definitions the conclusions of Christian doctrine and philosophy. Thus, Melanchthon: "God is a spiritual essence, intelligent, eternal, true, good, pure, just, merciful, most free and of infinite power and wisdom." Thomasius more briefly defines God as "the absolute personality." These definitions take no account of the existence of lower religions and ideas of God, nor do they convey much of the concreteness and nearness of God revealed in Christ. A similar recent definition, put forward, however, avowedly of the Christian conception, is that of Professor W. N. Clarke: "God is the personal Spirit, perfectly good, who in holy love creates, sustains and orders all" (Outline of Christian Theology, 66). The rise of comparative religion has shown that "while all religions involve a conscious relation to a being called God, the Divine Being is in different religions conceived in the most different ways; as one and as many, as natural and as spiritual, as like to and manifested in almost every object in the heavens above or earth beneath, in mountains and trees, in animals and men; or, on the contrary, as being incapable of being represented by any finite image whatsoever; and, again, as the God of a family, of a nation, or of humanity" (E. Caird, Evolution of Religion, I, 62). Attempts have therefore been made to find a new kind of definition, such as would include under one category all the ideas of God possessed by the human race. A typical instance of this kind of definition is that of Professor W. Adams Brown: "A god in the religious sense is an unseen being, real or supposed, to whom an individual or a social group is united by voluntary ties of reverence and service" (Christian Theology in Outline, 30). Many similar definitions are given: "A supersensible being or beings" (Lotze, Asia Minor Fairbairn); "a higher power" (Allan Menzies); "spiritual beings" (E.B. Tylor); "a power not ourselves making for righteousness" (Matthew Arnold). This class of definition suffers from a twofold defect. It says too much to include the ideas of the lower religions, and too little to suggest those of the higher. It is not all gods that are "unseen" or "supersensible," or "making for righteousness," but all these qualities may be shared by other beings than gods, and they do not connote that which is essential in the higher ideas of God. Dr. E. Caird, looking for a definition in a germinative principle of the genesis of religion, defines God "as the unity which is presupposed in the difference of the self and not-self, and within which they act and re-act on each other" (op. cit., I, 40, 64). This principle admittedly finds its full realization only in the highest religion, and it may be doubted whether it does justice to the transcendent personality and the love of God as revealed in Jesus Christ. In the lower religions it appears only in fragmentary forms, and it can only be detected in them at all after it has been revealed in the absolute religion. Although this definition may be neither adequate nor true, its method recognizes that there can be only one true idea and definition of God, and yet that all other ideas are more or less true elements of it and approximations to it. The Biblical idea does not stand alone like an island in mid-ocean, but is rather the center of light which radiates out in other religions with varying degrees of purity.

It is not the purpose of this article to deal with the problem of the philosophy of religion, but to give an account of the idea of God at certain stages of its development, and within a limited area of thought. The absence of a final definition will present no practical difficulty, because the denotation of the term God is clear enough; it includes everything that is or has been an object of worship; it is its connotation that remains a problem for speculation.

3. The Knowledge of God:

A third class of definition demands some attention, because it raises a new question, that of the knowledge or truth of any idea whatsoever. Herbert Spencer's definition may be taken as representative: God is the unknown and unknowable cause of the universe, "an inscrutable power manifested to us through all phenomena" (First Principles, V, 31). This means that there can be no definition of the idea of God, because we can have no idea of Him, no knowledge "in the strict sense of knowing." For the present purpose it might suffice for an answer that ideas of God actually exist; that they can be defined and are more definable, because fuller and more complex, the higher they rise in the scale of religions; that they can be gathered from the folklore and traditions of the lower races, and from the sacred books and creeds of the higher religions. But Spencer's view means that, in so far as the ideas are definable, they are not true. The more we define, the more fictitious becomes our subject-matter. While nothing is more certain than that God exists, His being is to human thought utterly mysterious and inscrutable. The variety of ideas might seem to support this view. But variety of ideas has been held of every subject that is known, as witness the progress of science. The variety proves nothing.

And the complete abstraction of thought from existence cannot be maintained. Spencer himself does not succeed in doing it. He says a great many things about the "unknowable" which implies an extensive knowledge of Him. The traditional proofs of the "existence" of God have misled the Agnostics. But existence is meaningless except for thought, and a noumenon or first cause that lies hidden in impenetrable mystery behind phenomena cannot be conceived even as a fiction. Spencer's idea of the Infinite and Absolute are contradictory and unthinkable. An Infinite that stood outside all that is known would not be infinite, and an Absolute out of all relation could not even be imagined. If there is any truth at all in the idea of the Absolute, it must be true to human experience and thought; and the true Infinite must include within itself every possible and actual perfection. In truth, every idea of God that has lived in religion refutes Agnosticism, because they all qualify and interpret experience, and the only question is as to the degree of their adequacy and truth.

A brief enumeration of the leading ideas of God that have lived in religion will serve to place the Biblical idea in its true perspective.

4. Ethnic Ideas of God:

(1) Animism:

Animism is the name of a theory which explains the lowest (and perhaps the earliest) forms of religion, and also the principle of all religion, as the belief in the universal presence of spiritual beings which "are held to affect or control the events of the material world, and man's life here and hereafter; and, it being considered that they hold intercourse with men, and receive pleasure or displeasure from human actions, the belief in their existence leads naturally, and, it might almost be said, inevitably, sooner or later, to active reverence and propitiation" (E.B. Tylor, Primitive Culture, I, 426-27). According to this view, the world is full of disembodied spirits, regarded as similar to man's soul, and any or all of these may be treated as gods.

(2) Fetishism:

Fetishism is sometimes used in a general sense for "the view that the fruits of the earth and things in general are divine, or animated by powerful spirits" (J.G. Frazer, Adonis, Attis, Osiris, 234); or it may be used in a more particular sense of the belief that spirits "take up their abode, either temporarily or permanently, in some object, ..... and this object, as endowed with higher power, is then worshipped" (Tiele, Outlines of the History of Religion, 9).

(3) Idolatry:

Idolatry is a term of still more definite significance. It means that the object is at least selected, as being the permanent habitation or symbol of the deity; and, generally, it is marked by some degree of human workmanship, designed to enable it the more adequately to represent the deity. It is not to be supposed that men ever worship mere "stocks and stones," but they address their worship to objects, whether fetishes or idols, as being the abodes or images of their god. It is a natural and common idea that the spirit has a form similar to the visible object in which it dwells. Paul reflected the heathen idea accurately when he said, "We ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and device of man" (Acts 17:29).

(4) Polytheism:

The belief in many gods, and the worship of them, is an attitude of soul compatible with Animism, Fetishism, and Idolatry, or it may be independent of them all. The term Polytheism is more usually employed to designate the worship of a limited number of well-defined deities, whether regarded as pure disembodied spirits, or as residing in the greater objects of Nature, such as planets or mountains, or as symbolized by images "graven by art and device of man." In ancient Greece or modern India the great gods are well defined, named and numerable, and it is clearly understood that, though they may be symbolized by images, they dwell apart in a spiritual realm above the rest of the world.

(5) Henotheism:

There is, however, a tendency, both in individuals and in communities, even where many gods are believed to exist, to set one god above the others, and consequently to confine worship to that god alone. "The monotheistic tendency exists among all peoples, after they have reached a certain level of culture. There is a difference in the degree in which this tendency is emphasized, but whether we turn to Babylonia, Egypt, India, China, or Greece, there are distinct traces of a trend toward concentrating the varied manifestations of Divine powers in a single source" (Jastrow, The Study of Religion, 76). This attitude of mind has been called Henotheism or Monolatry--the worship of one God combined with the belief in the existence of many. This tendency may be governed by metaphysical, or by ethical and personal motives, either by the monistic demands of reason, or by personal attachment to one political or moral rule.

(6) Pantheism:

Where the former principle predominates, Polytheism merges into Pantheism, as is the case in India, where Brahma is not only the supreme, but the sole, being, and all other gods are but forms of his manifestation. But, in India, the vanquished gods have had a very complete revenge upon their vanquisher, for Brahma has become so abstract and remote that worship is mainly given to the other gods, who are forms of his manifestation. Monolatry has been reversed, and modern Hinduism were better described as the belief in one God accompanied by the worship of many.

(7) Deism:

The monistic tendency, by a less thorough application of it, may take the opposite turn toward Deism, and yet produce similar religious conditions. The Supreme Being, who is the ultimate reality and power of the universe, may be conceived in so vague and abstract a manner, may be so remote from the world, that it becomes a practical necessity to interpose between Him and men a number of subordinate and nearer beings as objects of worship. In ancient Greece, Necessity, in China, Tien or Heaven, were the Supreme Beings; but a multiplicity of lower gods were the actual objects of worship. The angels of Zoroastrianism, Judaism and Islam and the saints of Romanism illustrate the same tendency. Pantheism and Deism, though they have had considerable vogue as philosophical theories, have proved unstable and impossible as religions, for they have invariably reverted to some kind of polytheism and idolatry, which seems to indicate that they are false processes of the monistic tendency.

(8) Semitic Monolatry:

The monistic tendency of reason may enlist in its aid many minor causes, such as tribal isolation or national aggrandizement. It is held that many Sere tribes were monolatrists for either or both of these reasons; but the exigencies of intertribal relations in war and commerce soon neutralized their effects, and merged the tribal gods into a territorial pantheon.

(9) Monotheism:

Monotheism, ethical and personal: One further principle may combine with Monism so as to bring about a stable Monotheism, that is the conception of God as standing in moral relations with man. Whenever man reflects upon conduct as moral, he recognizes that there can be only one moral standard and authority, and when God is identified with that moral authority, He inevitably comes to be recognized as supreme and unique. The belief in the existence of other beings called gods may survive for a while; but they are divested of all the attributes of deity when they are seen to be inferior or opposed to the God who rules in conscience. Not only are they not worshipped, but their worship by others comes to be regarded as immoral and wicked. The ethical factor in the monistic conception of God safeguards it from diverging into Pantheism or Deism and thus reverting into Polytheism. For the ethical idea of God necessarily involves His personality, His transcendence as distinct from the world and above it, and also His intimate and permanent relation with man. If He rules in conscience, He can neither be merged in dead nature or abstract being, nor be removed beyond the heavens and the angel host. A thoroughly moralized conception of God emerges first in the Old Testament where it is the prevailing type of thought.

II. The Idea of God in the Old Testament.

1. Course of Its Development:

Any attempt to write the whole history of the idea of God in the Old Testament would require a preliminary study of the literary and historical character of the documents, which lies beyond the scope of this article and the province of the writer. Yet the Old Testament contains no systematic statement of the doctrine of God, or even a series of statements that need only to be collected into a consistent conception. The Old Testament is the record of a rich and varied life, extending over more than a thousand years, and the ideas that ruled and inspired that life must be largely inferred from the deeds and institutions in which it was realized; nor was it stationary or all at one level. Nothing is more obvious than that revelation in the Old Testament has been progressive, and that the idea of God it conveys has undergone a development. Certain well-marked stages of the development can be easily recognized, without entering upon any detailed criticism. There can be no serious question that the age of the Exodus, as centering around the personality of Moses, witnessed an important new departure in Hebrew religion. The most ancient traditions declare (perhaps not unanimously) that God was then first known to Israel under the personal name Yahweh (Yahweh (YHWH) is the correct form of the word, Yahweh being a composite of the consonants of Yahweh and the vowels of 'adhonay, or lord. Yahweh is retained here as the more familiar form). The Hebrew people came to regard Him as their Deliverer from Egypt, as their war god who assured them the conquest of Canaan, and He, therefore, became their king, who ruled over their destinies in their new heritage. But the settlement of Yahweh in Canaan, like that of His people, was challenged by the native gods and their peoples. In the 9th century we see the war against Yahweh carried into His own camp, and Baal-worship attempting to set itself up within Israel. His prophets therefore assert the sole right of Yahweh to the worship of His people, and the great prophets of the 8th century base that right upon His moral transcendence. Thus they at once reveal new depths of His moral nature, and set His uniqueness and supremacy on higher grounds. During the exile and afterward, Israel's outlook broadens by contact with the greater world, and it draws out the logical implications of ethical monotheism into a theology at once more universalistic and abstract. Three fairly well-defined periods thus emerge, corresponding to three stages in the development of the Old Testament idea of God: the pre-prophetic period governed by the Mosaic conception, the prophetic period during which ethical monotheism is firmly established, and the post-exilic period with the rise of abstract monotheism. But even in taking these large and obvious divisions, it is necessary to bear in mind the philosopher's maxim, that "things are not cut off with a hatchet." The most characteristic ideas of each period may be described within their period; but it should not be assumed that they are altogether absent from other periods; and, in particular, it should not be supposed that ideas, and the life they represent, did not exist before they emerged in the clear witness of history. Mosaism had undoubtedly its antecedents in the life of Israel; but any attempt to define them leads straight into a very morass of conjectures and hypotheses, archaeological, critical and philosophical; and any results that are thus obtained are contributions to comparative religion rather than to theology.

2. Forms of the Manifestation of God:

Religious experience must always have had an inward and subjective aspect, but it is a long and difficult process to translate the objective language of ordinary life for the uses of subjective experience. "Men look outward before they look inward." Hence, we find that men express their consciousness of God in the earliest periods in language borrowed from the visible and objective world. It does not follow that they thought of God in a sensuous way, because they speak of Him in the language of the senses, which alone was available for them. On the other hand, thought is never entirely independent of language, and the degree in which men using sensuous language may think of spiritual facts varies with different persons.

(1) The Face or Countenance of God:

The face or countenance (panim) of God is a natural expression for His presence. The place where God is seen is called Peniel, the face of God (Genesis 32:30). The face of Yahweh is His people's blessing (Numbers 6:25). With His face (the Revised Version (British and American) "presence") He brought Israel out of Egypt, and His face (the Revised Version (British and American) "presence") goes with them to Canaan (Exodus 33:14). To be alienated from God is to be hid from His face (Genesis 4:14), or God hides His face (Deuteronomy 31:17,18; 32:20). In contrast with this idea it is said elsewhere that man cannot see the face of God and live (Exodus 33:20; compare Deuteronomy 5:24; Judges 6:22; 13:22). In these later passages, "face" stands for the entire being of God, as distinguished from what man may know of Him. This phrase and its cognates enshrine also that fear of God, which shrinks from His majesty even while approaching Him, which enters into all worship.

(2) The Voice and Word of God:

The voice (qol) and word (dabhar) of God are forms under which His communion with man is conceived from the earliest days to the latest. The idea ranges from that of inarticulate utterance (1Kings 19:12) to the declaration of the entire law of conduct (Deuteronomy 5:22-24), to the message of the prophet (Isaiah 2:1; Jeremiah 1:2), and the personification of the whole counsel and action of God (Psalms 105:19; 147:18,19; Hosea 6:5; Isaiah 40:8).

(3) The Glory of God:

The glory (kabhodh) of God is both a peculiar physical phenomenon and the manifestation of God in His works and providence. In certain passages in Exodus, ascribed to the Priestly Code, the glory is a bright light, "like devouring fire" (24:17); it fills and consecrates the tabernacle (29:43; 40:34,35); and it is reflected as beams of light in the face of Moses (34:29). In Ezekiel, it is a frequent term for the prophet's vision, a brightness like the appearance of a rainbow (1:28; 10:4; 43:2). In another place, it is identified with all the manifested goodness of God and is accompanied with the proclamation of His name (Exodus 33:17-23). Two passages in Isaiah seem to combine under this term the idea of a physical manifestation with that of God's effectual presence in the world (3:8; 6:3). God's presence in creation and history is often expressed in the Psalms as His glory (Psalms 19:1; 57:5,11; 63:2; 97:6). Many scholars hold that the idea is found in Isaiah in its earliest form, and that the physical meaning is quite late. It would, however, be contrary to all analogy, if such phenomena as rainbow and lightning had not first impressed-the primitive mind as manifestations of God.

See GLORY.

(4) The Angel of God:

The angel (mal'akh) of God or of Yahweh is a frequent mode of God's manifestation of Himself in human form, and for occasional purposes. It is a primitive conception, and its exact relation to God, or its likeness to man, is nowhere fixed. In many passages, it is assumed that God and His angel are the same being, and the names are used synonymously (as in Genesis 16:7 ff; 22:15,16; Exodus 3:2,4; Judges 2:4,5); in other passages the idea blurs into varying degrees of differentiation (Genesis 18; 24:40; Exodus 23:21; 33:2,3; Judges 13:8,9). But everywhere, it fully represents God as speaking or acting for the time being; and it is to be distinguished from the subordinate and intermediate beings of later angelology. Its identification with the Messiah and the Logos is only true in the sense that these later terms are more definite expressions of the idea of revelation, which the angel represented for primitive thought.

(5) The Spirit of God:

The spirit (ruach) of God in the earlier period is a form of His activity, as it moves warrior and prophet to act and to speak (Judges 6:34; 13:25; 1Samuel 10:10), and it is in the prophetic period that it becomes the organ of the communication of God's thoughts to men.

See HOLY SPIRIT.

(6) The Name of God:

The name (shem) of God is the most comprehensive and frequent expression in the Old Testament for His self-manifestation, for His person as it may be known to men. The name is something visible or audible which represents God to men, and which, therefore, may be said to do His deeds, and to stand in His place, in relation to men. God reveals Himself by making known or proclaiming His name (Exodus 6:3; 33:19; 34:5,6). His servants derive their authority from His name (Exodus 3:13,15; 1Samuel 17:45). To worship God is to call upon His name (Genesis 12:8; 13:4; 21:33; 26:25; 1Kings 18:24-26), to fear it (Deuteronomy 28:58), to praise it (2Samuel 22:50; Psalms 7:17; 54:6), to glorify it (Psalms 86:9). It is wickedness to take God's name in vain (Exodus 20:7), or to profane and blaspheme it (Leviticus 8:21; 24:16). God's dwelling-place is the place where He chooses "to cause his name to dwell" (2Samuel 7:13; 1Kings 3:2; 5:3,1; 8:16-19; 18:32; Deuteronomy 12:11,21). God's name defends His people (Psalms 20:1; Isaiah 30:27). For His name's sake He will not forsake them (1Samuel 12:22), and if they perish, His name cannot remain (Joshua 7:9). God is known by different names, as expressing various forms of His self-manifestation (Genesis 16:13; 17:1; Exodus 3:6; 34:6). The name even confers its revelation-value upon the angel (Exodus 23:20-23). All God's names are, therefore, significant for the revelation of His being.

(7) Occasional Forms:

In addition to these more or less fixed forms, God also appears in a variety of exceptional or occasional forms. In Numbers 12:6-8, it is said that Moses, unlike others, used to see the form (temunah) of Yahweh. Fire smoke and cloud are frequent forms or symbols of God's presence (e.g. Genesis 15:17; Exodus 3:2-4; 19:18; 24:17),and notably "the pillar of cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night" (Exodus 13:21 f). According to later ideas, the cloud rested upon the tabernacle (Exodus 40:34), and in it God appeared upon the ark (Leviticus 16:2). Extraordinary occurrences or miracles are, in the early period, frequent signs of the power of God (Exodus 7 ff; 1Kings 17 ).

The questions of the objectivity of any or all of these forms, and of their relation to the whole Divine essence raise large problems. Old Testament thought had advanced beyond the naive identification of God with natural phenomena, but we should not read into its figurative language the metaphysical distinctions of a Greek-Christian theology.

3. The Names of God:

All the names of God were originally significant of His character, but the derivations, and therefore the original meanings, of several have been lost, and new meanings have been sought for them.

(1) Generic:

One of the oldest and most widely distributed terms for Deity known to the human race is 'El, with its derivations 'Elim, 'Elohim, and 'Eloah. Like theos, Dens and God, it is a generic term, including every member of the class deity. It may even denote a position of honor and authority among men. Moses was 'Elohim to Pharaoh (Exodus 7:1) and to Aaron (Exodus 4:16; compare Judges 5:8; 1Samuel 2:25; Exodus 21:5,6; 22:7 ff; Psalms 58:11; 82:1). It is, therefore, a general term expressing majesty and authority, and it only came to be used as a proper name for Israel's God in the later period of abstract monotheism when the old proper name Yahweh was held to be too sacred to be uttered. The meaning of the root 'El, and the exact relation to it, and to one another, of 'Elohim and 'Eloah, lie in complete obscurity. By far the most frequent form used by Old Testament writers is the plural 'Elohiym, but they use it regularly with singular verbs and adjectives to denote a singular idea. Several explanations have been offered of this usage of a plural term to denote a singular idea--that it expresses the fullness and manifoldness of the Divine nature, or that it is a plural of majesty used in the manner of royal persons, or even that it is an early intimation of the Trinity; other cognate expressions are found in Genesis 1:26; 3:22; 1Kings 22:19 f; Isaiah 6:8. These theories are, perhaps, too ingenious to have occurred to the early Hebrew mind, and a more likely explanation is, that they are survivals in language of a polytheistic stage of thought. In the Old Testament they signify only the general notion of Deity.

(2) Attributive:

To distinguish the God of Israel as supreme from others of the class 'Elohim, certain qualifying appellations are often added. 'El `Elyon designates the God of Israel as the highest, the most high, among the 'Elohim (Genesis 14:18-20); so do Yahweh `Elyon (Psalms 7:17) and `Elyon alone, often in Psalms and in Isaiah 14:14.

'El Shadday, or Shadday alone, is a similar term which on the strength of some tradition is translated "God Almighty"; but its derivation and meaning are quite unknown. According to Exodus 6:3 it was the usual name for God in patriarchal times, but other traditions in the Pentateuch seem to have no knowledge of this.

Another way of designating God was by His relation to His worshippers, as God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Genesis 24:12; Exodus 3:6), of Shem (Genesis 9:26), of the Hebrews (Exodus 3:18), and of Israel (Genesis 33:20).

Other names used to express the power and majesty of God are tsur, "Rock" (Deuteronomy 32:18; Isaiah 30:29), 'bhir (construct from 'abhir), "the Strong One" (Genesis 49:24; Isaiah 1:24; Psalms 132:2); melekh, "King"; 'adhon, "lord," and 'adhonay, "my lord" (Exodus 23:17; Isaiah 10:16,33; Genesis 18:27; Isaiah 6:1). Also ba`al, "proprietor" or "master," may be inferred as a designation once in use, from its appearance in such Hebrew proper names as Jerubbaal and Ishbaal. The last three names describe God as a Master to whom man stands in the relation of a servant, and they tended to fall into disuse as the necessity arose to differentiate the worship of Yahweh from that of the gods of surrounding nations.

A term of uncertain meaning is Yahweh or 'Elohim tsebha'oth, "Yahweh" or "God of hosts." In Hebrew usage "host" might mean an army of men, or the stars and the angels--which, apart or in conjunction, made up the host of heaven. God of Hosts in early times meant the war god who led the armies of Israel (1Samuel 4:4; 2Samuel 7:8). In 1Samuel 17:45 this title stands in parallelism with "the God of the armies of Israel." So all Israel is called the host of Yahweh (Exodus 12:41). In the Prophets, where the term has become a regular appellation, it stands in relation to every form of the power and majesty, physical and moral, of God (e.g. Isaiah 2:12; 6:3,1; 10:23,13). It stands in parallelism with Isaiah's peculiar title, the Holy One of Israel (Isaiah 5:16,24). It has, therefore, been thought that it refers to the host of heaven. In the Prophets it is practically a proper name. Its original meaning may well have been forgotten or dropped, but it does not follow that a new special significance was attached to the word "hosts." The general meaning of the whole term is well expressed by the Septuagint translation, kurios pantokrator, "Lord Omnipotent."

(3) Yahweh (Yahweh).

This is the personal proper name paragraph excellence of Israel's God, even as Chemosh was that of the god of Moab, and Dagon that of the god of the Philistines. The original meaning and derivation of the word are unknown. The variety of modern theories shows that, etymologically, several derivations are possible, but that the meanings attached to any one of them have to be imported and imposed upon the word. They add nothing to our knowledge. The Hebrews themselves connected the word with hayah, "to be." In Exodus 3:14 Yahweh is explained as equivalent to 'ehyeh, which is a short form of 'ehyeh 'asher 'ehyeh, translated in the Revised Version (British and American) "I am that I am." This has been supposed to mean "self-existence," and to represent God as the Absolute. Such an idea, however, would be a metaphysical abstraction, not only impossible to the time at which the name originated, but alien to the Hebrew mind at any time. And the imperfect 'ehyeh is more accurately translated "I will be what I will be," a Semitic idiom meaning, "I will be all that is necessary as the occasion will arise," a familiar Old Testament idea (compare Isaiah 7:4,9; Psalms 23). This name was in use from the earliest historical times till after the exile. It is found in the most ancient literature. According to Exodus 3:13 f, and especially 6:2,3, it was first introduced by Moses, and was the medium of a new revelation of the God of their fathers to the children of Israel. But in parts of Genesis it is represented as being in use from the earliest times. Theories that derive it from Egypt or Assyria, or that would connect it etymologically with Jove or Zeus, are supported by no evidence. We have to be content either to say that Yahweh was the tribal God of Israel from time immemorial, or to accept a theory that is practically identical with that of Exodus--that it was adopted through Moses from the Midianite tribe into which he married. The Kenites, the tribe of Midianites related to Moses, dwelt in the neighborhood of Sinai, and attached themselves to Israel (Judges 1:16; 4:11). A few passages suggest that Sinai was the original home of Yahweh (Judges 5:4,5; Deuteronomy 33:2). But there is no direct evidence bearing upon the origin of the worship of Yahweh: to us He is known only as the God of Israel.

4. Pre-prophetic Conceptions of Yahweh:

(1) Yahweh alone the God of Israel.

Hebrew theology consists essentially of the doctrine of Yahweh and its implications. The teachers and leaders of the people at all times worship and enjoin the worship of Yahweh alone. "It stands out as a prominent and incontrovertible fact, that down to the reign of Ahab .... no prominent man in Israel, with the doubtful exception of Solomon, known by name and held up for condemnation, worshipped any other god but Yahweh. In every national and tribal crisis, in all times of danger and of war, it is Yahweh and Yahweh alone who is invoked to give victory and deliverance" (Montefiore, Hibbert Lectures (3), 21). This is more evident in what is, without doubt, very early literature, even than in later writings (e.g. Judges 5; Deuteronomy 33; 1Samuel 4-6). The isolation of the desert was more favorable to the integrity of Yahweh's sole worship than the neighborhood of powerful peoples who worshipped many other gods. Yet that early religion of Yahweh can be called monotheistic only in the light of the end it realized, for in the course of its development it had to overcome many limitations.

(a) His Early Worship:

The early worship of Yahweh did not exclude belief in the existence of other gods. As other nations believed in the existence of Yahweh (1Samuel 4:8; 2Kings 17:27), so Israel did not doubt the reality of other gods (Judges 11:24; Numbers 21:29; Micah 4:5). This limitation involved two others: Yahweh is the God of Israel only; with them alone He makes a COVENANT (which see) (Genesis 15:18; Exodus 6:4,5; 2Kings 17:34,35), and their worship only He seeks (Deuteronomy 4:32-37; 32:9; Amos 3:2). Therefore, He works, and can be worshipped only within a certain geographical area. He may have been associated with His original home in Sinai long after the settlement in Canaan (Judges 5:4; Deuteronomy 33:2; 1Kings 19:8,9), but gradually His home and that of His people became identical (1Samuel 26:19; Hosea 9:3; Isaiah 14:2,25). Even after the deportation of the ten tribes, Canaan remains Yahweh's land (2Kings 17:24-28). Early Israelites are, therefore, more properly described as Monolatrists or Henotheists than as Monotheists. It is characteristic of the religion of Israel (in contrast with, e.g. Greek thought) that it arrived at absolute Monotheism along the line of moral and religious experience, rather than that of rational inference. Even while they shared the common Semitic belief in the reality of other gods, Yahweh alone had for them "the value of God."

(b) Popular Religion:

It is necessary to distinguish between the teaching of the religious leaders and the belief and practice of the people generally. The presence of a higher religion never wholly excludes superstitious practices. The use of Teraphim (Genesis 31:30; 1Samuel 19:13,16; Hosea 3:4), Ephod (Judges 18:17-20; 1Samuel 23:6,9; 30:7), Urim and Thummim (1Samuel 28:6; 14:40, Septuagint), for the purposes of magic and divination, to obtain oracles from Yahweh, was quite common in Israel. Necromancy was practiced early and late (1Samuel 28:7 ff; Isaiah 8:19; Deuteronomy 18:10. 11 ). Sorcery and witchcraft were not unknown, but were condemned by the religious leaders (1Samuel 28:3). The burial places of ancestors were held in great veneration (Genesis 35:20; 50:13; Joshua 24:30). But these facts do not prove that Hebrew religion was animistic and polytheistic, any more than similar phenomena in Christian lands would justify such an inference about Christianity.

(c) Polytheistic Tendencies:

Yet the worship of Yahweh maintained and developed its monotheistic principle only by overcoming several hostile tendencies. The Baal-worship of the Canaanites and the cults of other neighboring tribes proved a strong attraction to the mass of Israelites (Judges 2:13; 3:7; 8:33; 10:10; 1Samuel 8:8; 12:10; 1Kings 11:5,33; Hosea 2:5,17; Ezekiel 20; Exodus 20:5; 22:20; 34:16,17). Under the conditions of life in Canaan, the sole worship of Yahweh was in danger of modification by three tendencies, coordination, assimilation, and disintegration.

(i) Coordination:

When the people had settled down in peaceful relations with their neighbors, and began to have commercial and diplomatic transactions with them, it was inevitable that they should render their neighbor's gods some degree of reverence and worship. Courtesy and friendship demanded as much (compare 2Kings 5:18). When Solomon had contracted many foreign alliances by marriage, he was also bound to admit foreign worship into Jerusalem (1Kings 11:5). But Ahab was the first king who tried to set up the worship of Baal, side by side with that of Yahweh, as the national religion (1Kings 18:19). Elijah's stand and Jehu's revolution gave its death blow to Baal-worship and vindicated the sole right of Yahweh to Israel's allegiance. The prophet was defending the old religion and Ahab was the innovator; but the conflict and its issue brought the monotheistic principle to a new and higher level. The supreme temptation and the choice transformed what had been a natural monolatry into a conscious and moral adherence to Yahweh alone (1Kings 18:21,39).

(ii) Assimilation:

But to repudiate the name of Baal was not necessarily to be rid of the influence of Baal-worship. The ideas of the heathen religions survived in a more subtle way in the worship of Yahweh Himself. The change from the nomad life of the desert to the agricultural conditions of Canaan involved some change in religion. Yahweh, the God of flocks and wars, had to be recognized as the God of the vintage and the harvest. That this development occurred is manifest in the character of the great religious festivals. "Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year. The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep .... and the feast of harvest, the first-fruits of thy labors, which thou sowest in the field: and the feast of ingathering, at the end of the year, when thou gatherest in thy labors out of the field" (Exodus 23:14-16). The second and the third obviously, and the first probably, were agricultural feasts, which could have no meaning in the desert. Israel and Yahweh together took possession of Canaan. To doubt that would be to admit the claims of the Baal-worship; but to assert it also involved some danger, because it was to assert certain similarities between Yahweh and the Baalim. When those similarities were embodied in the national festivals, they loomed very large in the eyes and minds of the mass of the people (W.R. Smith, Prophets of Israel, 49-57). The danger was that Israel should regard Yahweh, like the Baals of the country, as a Nature-god, and, by local necessity, a national god, who gave His people the produce of the land and, protected them from their enemies, and in return received frown them such gifts and sacrifices as corresponded to His nature. From the appearance in Israel, and among Yahweh worshippers, of such names as Jerub-baal, Esh-baal (son of Saul) and Beeliada (son of David, 1Chronicles 14:7), it has been inferred that Yahweh was called Baal, and there is ample evidence that His worship was assimilated to that of the Canaanite Baalim. The bulls raised by Jeroboam (1Kings 12:26) were symbols of Yahweh, and in Judah the Canaanite worship was imitated down to the time of Asa (1Kings 14:22-24; 15:12,13). Against this tendency above all, the great prophets of the 8th century contended. Israel worshipped Yahweh as if He were one of the Baalim, and Hosea calls it Baal-worship (Hosea 2:8,12,13; compare Amos 2:8; Isaiah 1:10-15).

(iii) Disintegration:

And where Yahweh was conceived as one of the Baalim or Masters of the land, He became, like them, subject to disintegration into a number of local deities. This was probably the gravamen of Jeroboam's sin in the eyes of the "Deuteronomic" historian. In setting up separate sanctuaries, he divided the worship, and, in effect, the godhead of Yahweh. The localization and naturalization of Yahweh, as well as His assimilation to the Baals, all went together, so that we read that even in Judah the number of gods was according to its cities (Jeremiah 2:28; 11:13). The vindication of Yahweh's moral supremacy and spiritual unity demanded, among other things, the unification of His worship in Jerusalem (2Kings 23).

(d) No Hebrew Goddesses:

In one respect the religion of Yahweh successfully resisted the influence of the heathen cults. At no time was Yahweh associated with a goddess. Although the corrupt sensual practices that formed a large part of heathen worship also entered into Israel's worship (see ASHERAH), it never penetrated so far as to modify in this respect the idea of Yahweh.

(e) Human Sacrifices:

It is a difficult question how far human sacrifices at any time found place in the worship of Yahweh. The outstanding instance is that of Jephthah's daughter, which, though not condemned, is certainly regarded as exceptional (Judges 11:30-40). Perhaps it is rightly regarded as a unique survival. Then the story of the sacrifice of Isaac, while reminiscent of an older practice, represents a more advanced view. Human sacrifice though not demanded, is not abhorrent to Yahweh (Genesis 22). A further stage is represented where Ahaz' sacrifice of his son is condemned as an "abomination of the nations" (2Kings 16:3). The sacrifice of children is emphatically condemned by the prophets as a late and foreign innovation which Yahweh had not commanded (Jeremiah 7:31; Ezekiel 16:20). Other cases, such as the execution of the chiefs of Shittim (Numbers 25:4), and of Saul's sons "before Yahweh" (2Samuel 21:9), and the cherem or ban, by which whole communities were devoted to destruction (Judges 21:10; 1Samuel 15), while they show a very inadequate idea of the sacredness of human life, are not sacrifices, nor were they demanded by Yahweh's worship. They were survivals of savage customs connected with tribal unity, which the higher morality of Yahweh's religion had not yet abolished.

(2) The Nature and Character of Yahweh:

The nature and character of Yahweh are manifested in His activities. The Old Testament makes no statements about the essence of God; we are left to infer it from His action in Nature and history and from His dealing with man.

(a) A God of War:

In this period, His activity is predominantly martial. As Israel's Deliverer from Egypt, "Yahweh is a man of war" (Exodus 15:3). An ancient account of Israel's journey to Canaan is called "the book of the Wars of Yahweh" (Numbers 21:14). By conquest in war He gave His people their land (Judges 5; 2Samuel 5:24; Deuteronomy 33:27). He is, therefore, more concerned with men and nations, with the moral, than with the physical world.

(b) His Relation to Nature:

Even His activity in Nature is first connected with His martial character. Earth, stars and rivers come to His battle (Judges 5:4,20,21). The forces of Nature do the bidding of Israel's Deliverer from Egypt (Exodus 8-10; 14:21). He causes sun and moon to stand while He delivers up the Amorites (Joshua 10:12). Later, He employs the forces of Nature to chastise His people for infidelity and sin (2Samuel 24:15; 1Kings 17:1). Amos declares that His moral rule extends to other nations and that it determines their destinies. In harmony with this idea, great catastrophes like the Deluge (Genesis 7) and the overthrow of the Cities of the Plain (Genesis 19) are ascribed to His moral will. In the same pragmatic manner the oldest creation narrative describes Him creating man, and as much of the world as He needed (Genesis 2), but as yet the idea of a universal cause had not emerged, because the idea of a universe had not been formed. He acts as one of great, but limited, power and knowledge (Genesis 11:5-8; 18:20). The more universal conception of Genesis 1 belongs to the same stratum of thought as Second Isa. At every stage of the Old Testament the metaphysical perfections of Yahweh follow as an inference from His ethical preeminence.

(3) The Most Distinctive Characteristic of Yahweh:

The most distinctive characteristic of Yahweh, which finally rendered Him and His religion absolutely unique, was the moral factor. In saying that Yahweh was a moral God, it is meant that He acted by free choice, in conformity with ends which He set to Himself, and which He also imposed upon His worshippers as their law of conduct.

(a) Personality:

The most essential condition of a moral nature is found in His vivid personality, which at every stage of His self-revelation shines forth with an intensity that might be called aggressive. Divine personality and spirituality are never expressly asserted or defined in the Old Testament; but nowhere in the history of religion are they more clearly asserted. The modes of their expression are, however, qualified by anthropomorphisms, by limitations, moral and physical. Yahweh's jealousy (Exodus 20:5; Deuteronomy 5:9; 6:15), His wrath and anger (Exodus 32:10-12; Deuteronomy 7:4) and His inviolable holiness (Exodus 19:21,22; 1Samuel 6:19; 2Samuel 6:7) appear sometimes to be irrational and immoral; but they are the assertion of His individual nature, of His self-consciousness as He distinguishes Himself from all else, in the moral language of the time, and are the conditions of His having any moral nature whatsoever. Likewise, He dwells in a place and moves from it (Judges 5:5); men may see Him in visible form (Exodus 24:10; Numbers 12:8); He is always represented as having organs like those of the human body, arms, hands, feet, mouth, eyes and ears. By such sensuous and figurative language alone was it possible for a personal God to make Himself known to men.

(b) Law and Judgment:

The content of Yahweh's moral nature as revealed in the Old Testament developed with the growth of moral ideas. Though His activity is most prominently martial, it is most permanently judicial, and is exercised through judges, priests and prophets. Torah and mishpaT, "law" and "judgment," from the time of Moses onward, stand, the one for a body of customs that should determine men's relations to one another, and the other for the decision of individual cases in accordance with those customs, and both were regarded as issuing from Yahweh. The people came to Moses "to inquire of God" when they had a matter in dispute, and he "judged between a man and his neighbor, and made them know the statutes of God, and his laws" (Exodus 18:15,16). The judges appear mostly as leaders in war; but it is clear, as their name indicates, that they also gave judgments as between the people (Judges 3:10; 4:4; 10:2,3; 1Samuel 7:16). The earliest literary prophets assume the existence of a law which priest and prophet had neglected to administer rightly (Hosea 4:6; 8:1,12; Amos 2:4). This implied that Yahweh was thought of as actuated and acting by a consistent moral principle, which He also imposed on His people. Their morality may have varied much at different periods, but there is no reason to doubt that the Decalogue, and the moral teaching it involved, emanated substantially from Moses. "He taught them that Yahveh, if a stern, and often wrathful, Deity, was also a God of justice and purity. Linking the moral life to the religious idea, he may have taught them too that murder and theft, adultery and false witness, were abhorred and forbidden by their God" (Montefiore, Hibbert Lectures3, 49). The moral teaching of the Old Testament effected the transition from the national and collective to the individual and personal relation with Yahweh. The most fundamental defect of Hebrew morality was that its application was confined within Israel itself and did little to determine the relation of the Israelites to people of other nations; and this limitation was bound up with Henotheism, the idea that Yahweh was God of Israel alone. "The consequence of this national conception of Yahweh was that there was no religious and moral bond regulating the conduct of the Hebrews with men of other nations. Conduct which between fellow-Hebrews was offensive in Yahweh's eyes was inoffensive when practiced by a Hebrew toward one who was not a Hebrew (Deuteronomy 23:19 f) ..... In the latter case they were governed purely by considerations of expediency. This ethical limitation is the real explanation of the `spoiling of the Egyptians' " (Exodus 11:2,3) (G. Buchanan Gray, The Divine Discipline of Israel, 46, 48).

The first line of advance in the teaching of the prophets was to expand and deepen the moral demands of Yahweh. So they removed at once the ethical and theological limitations of the earlier view. But they were conscious that they were only developing elements already latent in the character and law of Yahweh.

5. The Idea of God in the Prophetic Period:

Two conditions called forth and determined the message of the 8th-century prophets--the degradation of morality and religion at home and the growing danger to Israel and Judah from the all-victorious Assyrian. With one voice the prophets declare and condemn the moral and social iniquity of Israel and Judah (Hosea 4:1; Amos 4:1; Isaiah 1:21-23). The worship of Yahweh had been assimilated to the heathen religions around (Amos 2:8; Hosea 3:1; Isaiah 30:22). A time of prosperity had produced luxury, license and an easy security, depending upon the external bonds and ceremonies of religion. In the threatening attitude of Assyria, the prophets see the complement of Israel's unfaithfulness and sin, this the cause and that the instruments of Yahweh's anger (Isaiah 10:5,6).

(1) Righteousness:

These circumstances forced into first prominence the righteousness of Yahweh. It was an original attribute that had appeared even in His most martial acts (Judges 5:4; 1Samuel 12:7). But the prophet's interpretation of Israel's history revealed its content on a larger scale. Yahweh was not like the gods of the heathen, bound to the purposes and fortunes of His people. Their relation was not a natural bond, but a covenant of grace which He freely bestowed upon them, and He demanded as its condition, loyalty to Himself and obedience to His law. Impending calamities were not, as the naturalistic conception implied, due to the impotence of Yahweh against the Assyrian gods (Isaiah 31:1), but the judgment of God, whereby He applied impartially to the conduct of His people a standard of righteousness, which He both had in Himself and declared in judgment upon them. The prophets did not at first so much transform the idea of righteousness, as assert its application as between the people and Yahweh. But in doing that they also rejected the external views of its realization. It consists not in unlimited gifts or in the costliest oblations. "What doth Yahweh require of thee, but to do justly, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with thy God?" (Micah 6:8). And it tends to become of universal application. Yahweh will deal as a righteous judge with all nations, including Israel, and Israel as the covenant people bears the greater responsibility (Amos 1-3). And a righteous judge that metes out even justice to all nations will deal similarly with individuals. The ministry of the prophets produced a vivid consciousness of the personal and individual relation of men to God. The prophets themselves were not members of a class, no order or school or profession, but men impelled by an inner and individual call of God, often against their inclination, to proclaim an unpopular message (Amos 7:14,15; Isaiah 6; Jeremiah 1:6-9; Ezekiel 3:14). Jeremiah and Ezekiel in terms denounced the old idea of collective responsibility (Jeremiah 31:29 ff; Ezekiel 18). Thus in the prophets' application of the idea of righteousness to their time, two of the limitations adhering to the idea of God, at least in popular religion hitherto, were transcended. Yahweh's rule is no longer limited to Israel, nor concerned only with the nation as a collective whole, but He deals impartially with every individual and nation alike. Other limitations also disappear. His anger and wrath, that once appeared irrational and unjust, now become the intensity of His righteousness. Nor is it merely forensic and retributive righteousness. It is rather a moral end, a chief good, which He may realize by loving-kindness and mercy and forgiveness as much as by punishment. Hebrew thought knows no opposition between God's righteousness and His goodness, between justice and mercy. The covenant of righteousness is like the relation of husband to wife, of father to child, one of loving-kindness and everlasting love (Hosea 3:1; 11:4; Isaiah 1:18; 30:18; Micah 7:18; Isaiah 43:4; 54:8; Jeremiah 31:3 ff,34; 9:24). The stirring events which showed Yahweh's independence of Israel revealed the fullness of grace that was always latent in His relation to His people (Genesis 33:11; 2Samuel 24:14). It was enshrined in the Decalogue (Exodus 20:6), and proclaimed with incomparable grandeur in what may be the most ancient Mosaic tradition: "Yah, Yahweh, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness and truth; keeping lovingkindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin" (Exodus 34:6,7).

(2) Holiness:

The holiness of Yahweh in the Prophets came to have a meaning closely akin to His righteousness. As an idea more distinctly religious and more exclusively applied to God, it was subject to greater changes of meaning with the development or degradation of religion. It was applied to anything withdrawn from common use to the service of religion--utensils, places, seasons, animals and men. Originally it was so far from the moral meaning it now has that it was used of the "sacred" prostitutes who ministered to the licentiousness of Canaanitish worship (Deuteronomy 23:18). Whether or not the root-idea of the word was "separateness," there is no doubt that it is applied to Yahweh in the Old Testament to express his separateness from men and his sublimity above them. It was not always a moral quality in Yahweh; for He might be unapproachable because of His mere power and terror (1Samuel 6:20; Isaiah 8:13). But in the Prophets, and especially in Isaiah, it acquires a distinctly moral meaning. In his vision Isaiah hears Yahweh proclaimed as "holy, holy, holy," and he is filled with the sense of his own sin and of that of Israel (Isaiah 6; compare Isaiah 1:4; Amos 2:7). But even here the term conveys more than moral perfection. Yahweh is already "the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy" (Isaiah 57:15). It expresses the full Divinity of Yahweh in His uniqueness and self-existence (1Samuel 2:2; Amos 4:2; Hosea 11:9). It would therefore seem to stand in antithesis to righteousness, as expressing those qualities of God, metaphysical and moral, by which He is distinguished and separated from men, while righteousness involves those moral activities and relations which man may share with God. But in the Prophets, God's entire being is moral and His whole activity is righteous. The meanings of the terms, though not identical, coincide; God's holiness is realized in righteousness. "God the Holy One is sanctified in righteousness" (Isaiah 5:16). So Isaiah's peculiar phrase, "the Holy One of Israel," brings God in His most exalted being into a relation of knowledge and moral reciprocity with Israel.

(3) Universality:

The moralizing of righteousness and holiness universalized Deity.--From Amos downward Yahweh's moral rule, and therefore His absolute power, were recognized as extending over all the nations surrounding Israel, and the great world-power of Assyria is but the rod of His anger and the instrument of His righteousness (Amos 1-2; Isaiah 10:5; 13:5 ff; 19:1 ). Idolatrous and polytheistic worship of all kinds are condemned. The full inference of Monotheism was only a gradual process, even with the prophets. It is not clear that the 8th-century prophets all denied the existence of other gods, though Isaiah's term for them, 'elilim ("things of nought," "no-gods"), points in that direction. At least the monotheistic process had set in. And Yahweh's control over other nations was not exercised merely from Israel's point of view. The issue of the judgment upon the two great powers of Egypt and Assyria was to be their conversion to the religion of Yahweh (Isaiah 19:24,25; compare Isaiah 2:2-4; Micah 4:1-3). Yet Hebrew universalism never went beyond the idea that all nations should find their share in Yahweh through Israel (Zechariah 8:23). The nations from the ends of the earth shall come to Yahweh and declare that their fathers' gods were "lies, even vanity and things wherein there is no profit" (Jeremiah 16:19). It is stated categorically that "Yahweh he is God in heaven above and upon the earth beneath; there is none else" (Deuteronomy 4:39).

(4) Unity:

The unity of God was the leading idea of Josiah's reformation. Jerusalem was cleansed of every accretion of Baal-worship and of other heathen religions that had established themselves by the side of the worship of Yahweh (2Kings 23:4-8,10-14). The semi-heathen worship of Yahweh in many local shrines, which tended to disintegrate His unity, was swept away (2Kings 23:8,9). The reform was extended to the Northern Kingdom (2Kings 23:15-20), so that Jerusalem should be the sole habitation of Yahweh on earth, and His worship there alone should be the symbol of unity to the whole Hebrew race.

But the monotheistic doctrine is first fully and consciously stated in Second Isaiah. There is no God but Yahweh: other gods are merely graven images, and their worshippers commit the absurdity of worshipping the work of their own hands (Isaiah 42:8; 44:8-20). Yahweh manifests His deity in His absolute sovereignty of the world, both of Nature and history. The prophet had seen the rise and fall of Assyria, the coming of Cyrus, the deportation and return of Judah's exiles, as incidents in the training of Israel for her world-mission to be "a light of the Gentiles" and Yahweh's "salvation unto the end of the earth" (Isaiah 42:1-7; 49:1-6). Israel's world-mission, and the ordering of historical movements to the grand final purpose of universal salvation (Isaiah 45:23), is the philosophy of history complementary to the doctrine of God's unity and universal sovereignty.

(5) Creator and Lord:

A further inference is that He is Creator and Lord of the physical universe. Israel's call and mission is from Yahweh who "created the heavens, and stretched them forth; he that spread abroad the earth and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein" (Isaiah 42:5; compare Isaiah 40:12,26; 44:24; 45:18; Genesis 1). All the essential factors of Monotheism are here at last exhibited, not in abstract metaphysical terms, but as practical motives of religious life. His counsel and action are His own (Isaiah 40:13) Nothing is hid from Him; and the future like the past is known to Him (Isaiah 40:27; 42:9; 44:8; 48:6). Notwithstanding His special association with the temple in Jerusalem, He is "the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity"; the heaven is His throne, and no house or place can contain Him (Isaiah 57:15; 66:1). No force of history or Nature can withstand His purpose (Isaiah 41:17-20; 42:13; 43:13). He is "the First and the Last," an "Everlasting God" (Isaiah 40:28; 41:4; 48:12). Nothing can be likened to Him or compared with Him (Isaiah 46:5). As the heavens are higher than the earth, so His thoughts and ways transcend those of men (Isaiah 55:8,9). But anthropomorphic and anthropopathic expressions still abound. Eyes, mouth, ears, nostrils, hands, arms and face are His; He is a man of war (Isaiah 42:13; 63:1); He cries like a travailing woman (Isaiah 42:14), and feeds His flock like a shepherd (Isaiah 40:11). Thus, alone could the prophet express His full concrete Divinity.

(6) His compassion and love are expressed in a variety of ways that lead up directly to the New Testament doctrine of Divine Fatherhood. He folds Israel in His arms as a shepherd his lambs (Isaiah 40:11). Her scattered children are His sons and daughters whom He redeems and restores (Isaiah 43:5-7). In wrath for a moment He hides His face, but His mercy and kindness are everlasting (Isaiah 54:8). Greater than a mother's tenderness is Yahweh's love for Israel (Isaiah 49:15; 66:13). "It would be easy to find in the prophet proof-texts for everything which theology asserts regarding God, with the exception perhaps that He is a spirit, by which is meant that He is a particular kind of substance" (A.B. Davidson in Skinner, Isaiah, II, xxix). But in truth the spirituality and personality of God are more adequately expressed in the living human language of the prophet than in the dead abstractions of metaphysics.

6. Idea of God in Post-exilic Judaism:

Monotheism appears in this period as established beyond question, and in the double sense that Yahweh the God of Israel is one Being, and that beside Him there is no other God. He alone is God of all the earth, and all other beings stand at an infinite distance from Him (Psalms 18:31; 24:1 ff; 115:3 ). The generic name God is frequently applied to Him, and the tendency appears to avoid the particular and proper name Yahweh (see especially Psalms 73-89; Job; Ecclesiastes).

(1) New Conditions.

Nothing essentially new appears, but the teaching of the prophets is developed under new influences. And what then was enforced by the few has now become the creed of the many. The teaching of the prophets had been enforced by the experiences of the exile. Israel had been punished for her sins of idolatry, and the faithful among the exiles had learned that Yahweh's rule extended over many lands and nations. The foreign influences had been more favorable to Monotheism. The gods of Canaan and even of Assyria and Babylonia had been overthrown, and their peoples had given place to the Persians, who, in the religion of Zarathushtra, had advanced nearer to a pure Monotheism than any Gentilerace had done; for although they posited two principles of being, the Good and the Evil, they worshipped only Ahura-Mazda, the Good. When Persia gave way to Greece, the more cultured Greek, the Greek who had ideas to disseminate, and who established schools at Antioch or Alexandria, was a pure Monotheist.

(2) Divine Attributes.

Although we do not yet find anything like a dogmatic account of God's attributes, the larger outlook upon the universe and the deeper reflection upon man's individual experience have produced more comprehensive and far-reaching ideas of God's being and activity. (a) Faith rests upon His eternity and unchangeablehess (Psalms 90:1,2; 102:27). His omniscience and omnipresence are expressed with every possible fullness (Psalms 139; Job 26:6). His almighty power is at once the confidence of piety, and the rebuke of blasphemy or frowardness (Psalms 74:12-17; 104 et passim; Job 36; 37 et passim; Ecclesiasticus 16:17 ff). (b) His most exalted and comprehensive attribute is His holiness; by it He swears as by Himself (Psalms 89:35); it expresses His majesty (Psalms 99:3,19) and His supreme power (Psalms 60:6 ). (c) His righteousness marks all His acts in relation to Israel and the nations around her (Psalms 119:137-144; 129:4). (d) That both holiness and righteousness were conceived as moral qualities is reflected in the profound sense of sin which the pious knew (Psalms 51) and revealed in the moral demands associated with them; truth, honesty and fidelity are the qualities of those who shall dwell in God's holy hill (Psalms 15); purity, diligence, kindliness, honesty, humility and wisdom are the marks of the righteous man (Proverbs 10-11). (e) In Job and Proverbs wisdom stands forth as the preeminent quality of the ideal man, combining in itself all moral and intellectual excellences, and wisdom comes from God (Proverbs 2:6); it is a quality of His nature (Proverbs 8:22) and a mode of His activity (Proverbs 3:19; Psalms 104:24). In the Hellenistic circles of Alexandria, wisdom was transformed into a philosophical conception, which is at once the principle of God's sell-revelation and of His creative activity. Philo identifies it with His master-conception, the Logos. "Both Logos and Wisdom mean for Him the reason and mind of God, His image impressed upon the universe, His agent of creation and providence, the mediator through which He communicates Himself to man and the world, and His law imposed upon both the moral and physical universe" (Mansfield Essays, 296). In the Book of Wisdom it is represented as proceeding from God, "a breath of the power of God, and a clear effulgence of the glory of the Almighty .... an unspotted mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness" (7:25,26). In man, it is the author of knowledge, virtue and piety, and in the world it has been the guide and arbiter of its destiny from the beginning (chapters 10-12). (f) But in the more purely Hebrew literature of this period, the moral attribute of God that comes into greatest prominence is His beneficence. Goodness and mercy, faithfulness and loving-kindness, forgiveness and redemption are His willing gifts to Israel. "Like as a father pitieth his children, so Yahweh pitieth them that fear him" (Psalms 103:13; 145:8; 103:8; Ecclesiasticus 2:11 ). To say that God is loving and like a father goes far on the way to the doctrine that He is Love and Father, but not the whole way; for as yet His mercy and grace are manifested only in individual acts, and they are not the natural and necessary outflow of His nature. All these ideas of God meant less for the Jewish than for the Christian mind, because they were yet held subject to several limitations.

(3) Surviving Limitations.

(a) Disappearing Anthropomorphism:

We have evidence of a changed attitude toward anthropomorphisms. God no longer walks on earth, or works under human limitation. Where His eyes or ears or face or hands are spoken of, they are clearly figurative expressions. His activities are universal and invisible, and He dwells on high forevermore. Yet anthropomorphic limitations are not wholly overcome. The idea that He sleeps, though not to be taken literally, implies a defect of His power (Psalms 44:23).

(b) Localization:

In the metaphysical attributes, the chief limitation was the idea that God's dwelling-place on earth was on Mt. Zion in Jerusalem. He was no longer confined within Palestine; His throne is in heaven (Psalms 11:4; 103:19), and His glory above the heavens (Psalms 113:4); but

"In Judah is God known:

His name is great in Israel.

In Salem also is his tabernacle,

And his dwelling-place in Zion"

(Psalms 76:1,2; 110:2; compare Ecclesiasticus 24:8 ff).

That these are no figures of speech is manifested in the yearning of the pious for the temple, and their despair in separation from it (Pss 42; 43; compare 122).

(c) Favoritism:

This involved a moral limitation, the sense of God's favoritism toward Israel, which sometimes developed into an easy self-righteousness that had no moral basis. God's action in the world was determined by His favor toward Israel, and His loving acts were confined within the bounds of a narrow nationalism. Other nations are wicked and sinners, adversaries and oppressors, upon whom God is called to execute savage vengeance (Psalms 109; 137:7-9). Yet Israel did not wholly forget that it was the servant of Yahweh to proclaim His name among the nations (Psalms 96:2,3). Yahweh is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works (Psalms 145:9; Ecclesiasticus 18:13; compare Psalms 104:14; Zechariah 14:16, and the Book of Jonah, which is a rebuke to Jewish particularism).

(d) Ceremonial Legalism:

God's holiness in the hands of the priests tended to become a material and formal quality, which fulfilled itself in established ceremonial, and His righteousness in the hands of the scribes tended to become an external law whose demands were satisfied by a mechanical obedience of works. This external conception of righteousness reacted upon the conception of God's government of the world. From the earliest times the Hebrew mind had associated suffering with the punishment of sin, and blessedness with the reward of virtue. In the post-exilic age the relation came to be thought of as one of strict correspondence between righteousness and reward and between sin and punishment. Righteousness, both in man and God, was not so much a moral state as a measurable sum of acts, in the one case, of obedience, and in the other, of reward or retribution. Conversely, every calamity and evil that befell men came to be regarded as the direct and equivalent penalty of a sin they had committed. The Book of Job is a somewhat inconclusive protest against this prevalent view.

These were the tendencies that ultimately matured into the narrow externalism of the scribes and Pharisees of our Lord's time, which had substituted for the personal knowledge and service of God a system of mechanical acts of worship and conduct.

(4) Tendencies to Abstractness:

Behind these defective ideas of God's attributes stood a more radical defect of the whole religious conception. The purification of the religion of Israel from Polytheism and idolatry, the affirmation of the unity of God and of His spirituality, required His complete separation from the manifoldness of visible existence. It was the only way, until the more adequate idea of a personal or spiritual unity, that embraced the manifold in itself, was developed. But it was an unstable conception, which tended on the one hand to empty the unity of all reality, and on the other to replace it by a new multiplicity which was not a unity. Both tendencies appear in post-exilic Judaism.

(a) Transcendence:

The first effect of distinguishing too sharply between God and all created being was to set Him above and apart from all the world. This tendency had already appeared in Ezekiel, whose visions were rather symbols of God's presence than actual experiences of God. In Daniel even the visions appear only in dreams. The growth of the Canon of sacred literature as the final record of the law of God, and the rise of the scribes as its professional interpreters, signified that God need not, and would not, speak face to face with man again; and the stricter organization of the priesthood and its sacrificial acts in Jerusalem tended to shut men generally out from access to God, and to reduce worship into a mechanical performance. A symptom of this fact was the disuse of the personal name Yahweh and the substitution for it of more general and abstract terms like God and Lord.

(b) Skepticism:

Not only an exaggerated awe, but also an element of skepticism, entered into the disuse of the proper name, a sense of the inadequacy of any name. In the Wisdom literature, God's incomprehensibility and remoteness appear for the first time as a conscious search after Him and a difficulty to find Him (Job 16:18-21; 23:3,8,9; Proverbs 30:2-4). Even the doctrine of immortality developed with the sense of God's present remoteness and the hope of His future nearness (Psalms 17:15; Job 19:25). But Jewish theology was no cold Epicureanism or rationalistic Deism. Men's religious experiences apprehended God more intimately than their theology professed.

(c) Immanence:

By a "happy inconsistency" (Montefiore) they affirmed His immanence both in Nature (Psalms 104; The Wisdom of Solomon 8:1; 12:1,2) and in man's inner experience (Proverbs 15:3,11; 1Chronicles 28:9; 29:17,18). Yet that transcendence was the dominating thought is manifest, most of all, in the formulation of a number of mediating conceptions, which, while they connected God and the world, also revealed the gulf that separated them.

(5) Logos, Memra' and Angels:

This process of abstraction had gone farthest in Alexandria, where Jewish thought had so far assimilated Platonic philosophy, that Philo and Wisdom conceive God as pure being who could not Himself come into any contact with the material and created world. His action and revelation are therefore mediated by His Powers, His Logos and His Wisdom, which, as personified or hypostatized attributes, become His vicegerents on earth. But in Palestine, too many mediating agencies grew up between God and man. The memra', or word of God, was not unlike Philo's Logos. The deified law partly corresponded to Alexandrian Wisdom. The Messiah had already appeared in the Prophets, and now in some circles He was expected as the mediator of God's special favor to Israel. The most important and significant innovation in this connection was the doctrine of angels. It was not entirely new, and Babylonian and Persian influences may have contributed to its development; but its chief cause lay in the general scheme of thought. Angels became intermediaries of revelation (Zechariah 1:9,12,19; 3:1), the instruments of God's help (Da 3:28; /APC 2Macc 11:6), and of His punishment (Apoc Baruch 21:23). The ancient gods of the nations became their patron angels (Da 10:13-20); but Israel's hatred of their Gentile enemies often led to their transforming the latter's deities into demons. Incidentally a temporary solution of the problem of evil was thus found, by shifting all responsibility for evil from Yahweh to the demons. The unity and supremacy of God were maintained by the doubtful method of delegating His manifold, and especially His contradictory, activities to subordinate and partially to hostile spirits, which involved a new Polytheism. The problem of the One and the Many in ultimate reality cannot be solved by merely separating them. Hebrew Monotheism was unstable; it maintained its own truth even partially by affirming contradictories, and it contained in itself the demand for a further development. The few pluralistic phrases in the Old Testament (as Genesis 1:26; 3:22; 11:7; Isaiah 6:8, and 'Elohim) are not adumbrations of the Trinity, but only philological survivals. But the Messianic hope was an open confession of the incompleteness of the Old Testament revelation of God.

III. The Idea of God in the New Testament.

1. Dependence on the Old Testament:

The whole of the New Testament presupposes and rests upon the Old Testament. Jesus Christ and His disciples inherited the idea of God revealed in the Old Testament, as it survived in the purer strata of Jewish religion. So much was it to them and their contemporaries a matter of course, that it never occurred to them to proclaim or enforce the idea of God. Nor did they consciously feel the need of amending or changing it. They sought to correct some fallacious deductions made by later Judaism, and, unconsciously, they dropped the cruder anthropomorphisms and limitations of the Old Testament idea. But their point of departure was always the higher teaching of the prophets and Psalms, and their conscious endeavor in presenting God to men was to fulfill the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 5:17). All the worthier ideas concerning God evolved in the Old Testament reappear in the New Testament. He is One, supreme, living, personal and spiritual, holy, righteous and merciful. His power and knowledge are all-sufficient, and He is not limited in time or place. Nor can it be said that any distinctly new attributes are ascribed to God in the New Testament. Yet there is a difference. The conception and all its factors are placed in a new relation to man and the universe, whereby their meaning is transformed, enhanced and enriched. The last trace of particularism, with its tendency to Polytheism, disappears. God can no longer bear a proper name to associate Him with Israel, or to distinguish Him from other gods, for He is the God of all the earth, who is no respecter of persons or nations. Two new elements entered men's religious thought and gradually lifted its whole content to a new plane--Jesus Christ's experience and manifestation of the Divine Fatherhood, and the growing conviction of the church that Christ Himself was God and the full and final revelation of God.

2. Gentile Influence:

Gr thought may also have influenced New Testament thought, but in a comparatively insignificant and subordinate way. Its content was not taken over bodily as was that of Hebrew thought, and it did not influence the fountain head of New Testament ideas. It did not color the mind and teaching of Jesus Christ. It affected the form rather than matter of New Testament teaching. It appears in the clear-cut distinction between flesh and spirit, mind and body, which emerges in Paul's Epistles, and so it helped to define more accurately the spirituality of God. The idea of the Logos in John, and the kindred idea of Christ as the image of God in Paul and He, owe something to the influence of the Platonic and Stoic schools. As this is the constructive concept employed in the New Testament to define the religious significance of Christ and His essential relation to God, it modifies the idea of God itself, by introducing a distinction within the unity into its innermost meaning.

3. Absence of Theistic Proofs:

Philosophy never appears in the New Testament on its own account, but only as subservient to Christian experience. In the New Testament as in the Old Testament, the existence of God is taken for granted as the universal basis of all life and thought. Only in three passages of Paul's, addressed to heathen audiences, do we find anything approaching a natural theology, and these are concerned rather with defining the nature of God, than with proving His existence. When the people of Lystra would have worshipped Paul and Barnabas as heathen gods, the apostle protests that God is not like men, and bases His majesty upon His creatorship of all things (Acts 14:15). He urges the same argument at Athens, and appeals for its confirmation to the evidences of man's need of God which he had found in Athens itself (Acts 17:23-31). The same natural witness of the soul, face to face with the universe, is again in Romans made the ground of universal responsibility to God (Acts 1:18-21). No formal proof of God's existence is offered in the New Testament. Nor are the metaphysical attributes of God, His infinity, omnipotence and omniscience, as defined in systematic theology, at all set forth in the New Testament. The ground for these deductions is provided in the religious experience that finds God in Christ all-sufficient.

4. Fatherhood of God:

The fundamental and central idea about God in New Testament teaching is His Fatherhood, and it determines all that follows. In some sense the idea was not unknown to heathen religions. Greeks and Romans acknowledged Father Zeus or Jupiter as the creator and preserver of Nature, and as standing in some special relation to men. In the Old Testament the idea appears frequently, and has a richer content. Not only is God the creator and preserver of Israel, but He deals with her as a father with his child. "Like as a father pitieth his children, so Yahweh pitieth them that fear Him" (Psalms 103:13; compare Deuteronomy 1:31; Jeremiah 3:4,19; 31:20; Isaiah 63:16; Hosea 11:1; Malachi 3:17). Even His chastisements are "as a man chasteneth his son" (Deuteronomy 8:5; Isaiah 64:8). The same idea is expressed under the figure of a mother's tender care (Isaiah 49:15; 66:13; Psalms 27:10), and it is embedded in the covenant relation. But in the Old Testament the idea does not occupy the central and determinative position it has in New Testament, and it is always limited to Israel.

(1) In the Teaching of Jesus Christ:

God is preeminently the Father. It is his customary term for the Supreme Being, and it is noteworthy that Jesus' usage has never been quite naturalized. We still say "God" where Jesus would have said "the Father." He meant that the essential nature of God, and His relation to men, is best expressed by the attitude and relation of a father to his children; but God is Father in an infinitely higher and more perfect degree than any man. He is "good" and "perfect," the heavenly Father, in contrast with men, who, even as fathers, are evil (Matthew 5:48; 7:11). What in them is an ideal imperfectly and intermittently realized, is in Him completely fulfilled. Christ thought not of the physical relation of origin and derivation, but of the personal relation of love and care which a father bestows upon his children. The former relation is indeed implied, for the Father is ever working in the world (John 5:17), and all things lie in His power (Luke 22:42). By His preserving power, the least as well as the greatest creature lives (Matthew 6:26; 10:29). But it is not the fact of God's creative, preserving and governing power, so much as the manner of it, that Christ emphasizes. He is absolutely good in all His actions and relations (Matthew 7:11; Mark 10:18). To Him men and beasts turn for all they need, and in Him they find safety, rest and peace (Matthew 6:26,32; 7:11). His goodness goes forth spontaneously and alights upon all living things, even upon the unjust and His enemies (Matthew 5:45). He rewards the obedient (Matthew 6:1; 7:21), forgives the disobedient (Matthew 6:14; compare Matthew 18:35) and restores the prodigal (Luke 15:11). "Fatherhood is love, original and underived, anticipating and undeserved, forgiving and educating, communicating and drawing to his heart" (Beyschlag, New Testament Theology, I, 82). To the Father, therefore, should men pray for all good things (Matthew 6:9), and He is the ideal of all perfection, to which they should seek to attain (Matthew 5:48). Such is the general character of God as expressed in His Fatherhood, but it is realized in different ways by those who stand. to Him in different relations.

(a) Its Relation to Himself:

Jesus Christ knows the Father as no one else does, and is related to Him in a unique manner. The idea is central in His teaching, because the fact is fundamental in His experience. On His first personal appearance in history He declares that He must be about His Father's business (Luke 2:49), and at the last He commends His spirit into His Father's hands. Throughout His life, His filial consciousness is perfect and unbroken. "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30). As He knows the Father, so the Father knows and acknowledges Him. At the opening of His ministry, and again at its climax in the transfiguration, the Father bears witness to His perfect sonship (Mark 1:11; 9:7). It was a relation of mutual love and confidence, unalloyed and infinite. "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand" (John 3:35; 5:20). The Father sent the Son into the world, and entrusted Him with his message and power (Matthew 11:27). He gave Him those who believed in Him, to receive His word (John 6:37,44,45; 17:6,8). He does the works and speaks the words of the Father who sent Him (John 5:36; 8:18,29; 14:24). His dependence upon the Father, and His trust in Him are equally complete (John 11:41; 12:27 f; 17). In this perfect union of Christ. with God, unclouded by sin, unbroken by infidelity, God first became for a human life on earth all that He could and would become. Christ's filial consciousness was in fact and experience the full and final revelation of God. "No one knoweth the Son, save the Father; neither doth any know the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal him" (Matthew 11:27). Not only can we see in Christ what perfect sonship is, but in His filial consciousness the Father Himself is so completely reflected that we may know the perfect Father also. "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father" (John 14:9; compare John 8:19). Nay, it is more than a reflection: so completely is the mind and will of Christ identified with that of the Father, that they interpenetrate, and the words and works of the Father shine out through Christ. "The words that I say unto you I speak not from myself: but the Father abiding in me doeth his works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me" (John 14:10,11). As the Father, so is the Son, for men to honor or to hate (John 5:23; 15:23). In the last day, when He comes to execute the judgment which the Father has entrusted to Him, He shall come in the glory of the Father (Matthew 16:27; Mark 8:38; Luke 9:26). In all this Jesus is aware that His relation to the Father is unique. What in Him is original and realized, in others can only be an ideal to be gradually realized by His communication. "I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). He is, therefore, rightly called the "only begotten son" (John 3:16), and His contemporaries believed that He made Himself equal to God (John 5:18).

(b) To Believers:

Through Christ, His disciples and hearers, too, may know God as their Father. He speaks of "your Father," "your heavenly Father." To them as individuals, it means a personal relation; He is "thy Father" (Matthew 6:4,18). Their whole conduct should be determined by the consciousness of the Father's intimate presence (Matthew 6:1,4). To do His will is the ideal of life (Matthew 7:21; 12:50). More explicitly, it is to act as He does, to love and forgive as He loves and forgives (Matthew 5:45); and, finally, to be perfect as He is perfect (Matthew 5:48). Thus do men become sons of their Father who is in heaven. Their peace and safety lay in their knowledge of His constant and all-sufficient care (Matthew 6:26,32). The ultimate goal of men's relation to Christ is that through Him they should come to a relation with the Father like His relation both to the Father and to them, wherein Father, Son, and believers form a social unity (John 14:21; 17:23; compare John 17:21).

(c) To All Men:

While God's fatherhood is thus realized and revealed, originally and fully in Christ, derivatively and partially in believers, it also has significance for all men. Every man is born a child of God and heir of His kingdom (Luke 18:16). During childhood, aIl men are objects of His fatherly love and care (Matthew 18:10), and it is not His will that one of them should perish (Matthew 18:14). Even if they become His enemies, He still bestows His beneficence upon the evil and the unjust (Matthew 5:44,45; Luke 6:35). The prodigal son may become unworthy to be called a son, but the father always remains a father. Men may become so far unfaithful that in them the fatherhood is no longer manifest and that their inner spirits own not God, but the devil, as their father (John 8:42-44). So their filial relation to God may be broken, but His nature and attitude are not changed. He is the Father absolutely, and as Father is He perfect (Matthew 5:48). The essential and universal Divine Fatherhood finds its eternal and continual object in the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father. As a relation with men, it is qualified by their attitude to God; while some by faithlessness make it of no avail, others by obedience become in the reality of their experience sons of their Father in heaven.

See CHILDREN OF GOD.

(2) In Apostolic Teaching:

In the apostolic teaching , although the Fatherhood of God is not so prominently or so abundantly exhibited as it was by Jesus Christ, it lies at the root of the whole system of salvation there presented. Paul's central doctrine of justification by faith is but the scholastic form of the parable of the Prodigal Son. John's one idea, that God is love, is but an abstract statement of His fatherhood. In complete accord with Christ's teaching, that only through Himself men know the Father and come to Him, the whole apostolic system of grace is mediated through Christ the Son of God, sent because "God so loved the world" (John 3:16), that through His death men might be reconciled to God (Romans 5:10; 8:3). He speaks to men through the Son who is the effulgence of His glory, and the very image of His substance (Hebrews 1:2,3). The central position assigned to Christ involves the central position of the Fatherhood.

As in the teaching of Jesus, so in that of the apostles, we distinguish three different relationships in which the fatherhood is realized in varying degrees:

(a) Father of Jesus Christ:

Primarily He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 15:6; 2Corinthians 1:3). As such He is the source of every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). Through Christ we have access unto the Father (Ephesians 2:18).

(b) Our Father:

He is, therefore, God our Father (Romans 1:7; 1Corinthians 1:3). Believers are sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:26). "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God" (Romans 8:14). These receive the spirit of adoption whereby they cry, Abba, Father (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6). The figure of adoption has sometimes been understood as implying the denial of man's natural sonship and God's essential Fatherhood, but that would be pressing the figure beyond Paul's purpose.

(c) Universal Father:

The apostles' teaching, like Christ's, is that man in sin cannot possess the filial consciousness or know God as Father; but God, in His attitude to man, is always and essentially Father. In the sense of creaturehood and dependence, man in any condition is a son of God (Acts 17:28). And to speak of any other natural sonship which is not also morally realized is meaningless. From God's standpoint, man even in his sin is a possible son, in the personal and moral sense; and the whole process and power of his awakening to the realization of his sonship issues from the fatherly love of God, who sent His Son and gave the Spirit (Romans 5:5,8). He is "the Father" absolutely, "one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all. But unto each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ" (Ephesians 4:6,7).

5. God is King:

After the Divine Fatherhood, the kingdom of God (Mark and Luke) or of heaven (Matthew) is the next ruling conception in the teaching of Jesus. As the doctrine of the Fatherhood sets forth the individual relation of men to God, that of the kingdom defines their collective and social condition, as determined by the rule of the Father.

(1) The Kingdom of God:

Christ adopted and transformed the Old Testament idea of Yahweh's rule into an inner and spiritual principle of His gospel, without, however, quite detaching it from the external and apocalyptic thought of His time. He adopts the Jewish idea in so far as it involves the enforcing of God's rule; and in the immediate future He anticipates such a reorganization of social conditions in the manifestation of God's reign over men and Nature, as will ultimately amount to a regeneration of all things in accordance with the will of God (Mark 9:1; 13:30; Matthew 16:28; 19:28). But He eliminated the particularism and favoritism toward the Jews, as well as the non-moral, easy optimism as to their destiny in the kingdom, which obtained in contemporary thought. The blessings of the kingdom are moral and spiritual in their nature, and the conditions of entrance into it are moral too (Matthew 8:11; 21:31,43; 23:37,38; Luke 13:29). They are humility, hunger and thirst after righteousness, and the love of mercy, purity and peace (Matthew 5:3-10; 18:1,3; compare Matthew 20:26-28; 25:34; 7:21; John 3:3; Luke 17:20,21). The king of such a kingdom is, therefore, righteous, loving and gracious toward all men; He governs by the inner communion of spirit with spirit and by the loving coordination of the will of His subjects with his own will.

(2) Its King:

But who is the king?

(a) God:

Generally in Mark and Luke, and sometimes in Matthew, it is called the kingdom of God. In several parables, the Father takes the place of king, and it is the Father that gives the kingdom (Luke 12:32). God the Father is therefore the King, and we are entitled to argue from Jesus' teaching concerning the kingdom to His idea of God. The will of God is the law of the kingdom, and the ideal of the kingdom is, therefore, the character of God.

(b) Christ:

But in some passages Christ reveals the consciousness of his own Kingship. He approves Peter's confession of his Messiahship, which involves Kingship (Matthew 16:16). He speaks of a time in the immediate future when men shall see "the Son of man coming in his kingdom" (Matthew 16:28). As judge of all men, He designates Himself king (Matthew 25:34; Luke 19:38). He accepts the title king from Pilate (Matthew 27:11,12; Mark 15:2; Luke 23:3; John 18:37), and claims a kingdom which is not of this world (John 18:36). His disciples look to Him for the restoration of the kingdom (Acts 1:6). His kingdom, like that of God, is inner, moral and spiritual.

(c) Their Relation:

But there can be only one moral kingdom, and only one supreme authority in the spiritual realm. The coordination of the two kingships must be found in their relation to the Fatherhood. The two ideas are not antithetical or even independent. They may have been separate and even opposed as Christ found them, but He used them as two points of apperception in the minds of His hearers, by which He communicated to them His one idea of God, as the Father who ruled a spiritual kingdom by love and righteousness, and ordered Nature and history to fulfill His purpose of grace. Men's prayer should be that the Father's kingdom may come (Matthew 6:9,10). They enter the kingdom by doing the Father's will (Matthew 7:21). It is their Father's good pleasure to give them the kingdom (Luke 12:32). The Fatherhood is primary, but it carries with it authority, government, law and order, care and provision, to set up and organize a kingdom reflecting a Father's love and expressing His will.

And as Christ is the revealer and mediator of the Fatherhood, He also is the messenger and bearer of the kingdom. In his person, preaching and works, the kingdom is present to men (Matthew 4:17,23; 12:28), and as its king He claims men's allegiance and obedience (Matthew 11:28,29). His sonship constitutes His relation to the kingdom. As son He obeys the Father, depends upon Him, represents Him to men, and is one with Him. And in virtue of this relation, He is the messenger of the kingdom and its principle, and at the same time He shares with the Father its authority and Kingship.

(3) Apostolic Teaching:

In the apostolic writings, the emphasis upon the elements of kingship, authority, law and righteousness is greater than in the gospels. The kingdom is related to God (Colossians 4:11; 1Thessalonians 2:12; 2Thessalonians 1:5), and to Christ (Colossians 1:13; 2Timothy 4:1,18; 2Peter 1:11), and to both together (Ephesians 5:5; compare 1Corinthians 15:24). The phrase "the kingdom of the Son of his love" sums up the idea of the joint kingship, based upon the relation of Father and Son.

6. Moral Attributes:

The nature and character of God are summed up in the twofold relation of Father and King in which He stands to men, and any abstract statements that may be made about Him, any attributes that may be ascribed to Him, are deductions from His royal Fatherhood.

(1) Personality:

That a father and king is a person needs not to be argued, and it is almost tautology to say that a person is a spirit. Christ relates directly the spirituality of God to His Fatherhood. "The true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: for such doth the Father seek to be his worshippers. God is Spirit" (John 4:23,14 margin). Figurative expressions denoting the same truth are the Johannine phrases, `God is life' (1John 5:20), and "God is light" (1John 1:5).

(2) Love:

Love is the most characteristic attribute of Fatherhood. It is the abstract term that most fully expresses the concrete character of God as Father. In John's theology, it is used to sum up all God's perfections in one general formula. God is love, and where no love is, there can be no knowledge of God and no realization of Him (1John 4:8,16). With one exception (Luke 11:42), the phrase "the love of God" appears in the teaching of Jesus only as it is represented in the Fourth Gospel. There it expresses the bond of union and communion, issuing from God, that holds together the whole spiritual society, God, Christ and believers (John 10; 14:21). Christ's mission was that of revelation, rather than of interpretation, and what in person and act He represents before men as the living Father, the apostles describe as almighty and universal love. They saw and realized this love first in the Son, and especially in His sacrificial death. It is "the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:39). "God commendeth his own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8; compare Ephesians 2:4). Love was fully made known in Christ's death (John 3:16). The whole process of the incarnation and death of Christ was also a sacrifice of God's and the one supreme manifestation of His nature as love (1John 4:9,10; compare John 3:16). The love of God is His fatherly relation to Christ extended to men through Christ. By the Father's love bestowed upon us, we are called children of God (1John 3:1). Love is not only an emotion of tenderness and beneficence which bestows on men the greatest gifts, but a relation to God which constitutes their entire law of life. It imposes upon men the highest moral demands, and communicates to them the moral energy by which alone they can be met. It is law and grace combined. The love of God is perfected only in those who keep the word of Jesus Christ the Righteous (1John 2:5). "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments" (1John 5:3). It is manifested especially in brotherly love (1John 4:12,20). It cannot dwell with worldliness (1John 2:15) or callous selfishness (1John 3:17). Man derives it from God as he is made the son of God, begotten of Him (1John 4:7).

(3) Righteousness and Holiness:

Righteousness and holiness were familiar ideas to Jesus and His disciples, as elements in the Divine character. They were current in the thought of their time, and they stood foremost in the Old Testament conception. They were therefore adopted in their entirety in the New Testament, but they stand in a different context. They are coordinated with and even subordinated to, the idea of love. As kingship stands to fatherhood, so righteousness and holiness stand to love.

(a) Once we find the phrase "Holy Father" spoken by Jesus (John 17:11; compare 1Peter 1:15,16). But generally the idea of holiness is associated with God in His activity through the Holy Spirit, which renews, enlightens, purifies and cleanses the lives of men. Every vestige of artificial, ceremonial, non-moral meaning disappears from the idea of holiness in the New Testament. The sense of separation remains only as separation from sin. So Christ as high priest is "holy, guileless, undefiled, separated from sinners" (Hebrews 7:26). Where it dwells, no uncleanness must be (1Corinthians 6:19). Holiness is not a legal or abstract morality, but a life made pure and noble by the love of God shed abroad in men's hearts (Romans 5:5). "The kingdom of God is .... righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Romans 14:17).

(b) Righteousness as a quality of character is practically identical with holiness in the New Testament. It is opposed to sin (Romans 6:13,10) and iniquity (2Corinthians 6:14). It is coupled with goodness and truth as the fruit of the light (Ephesians 5:9; compare 1Timothy 6:11; 2Timothy 2:22). It implies a rule or standard of conduct, which in effect is one with the life of love and holiness. It is brought home to men by the conviction of the Holy Spirit (John 16:8). In its origin it is the righteousness of God (Matthew 6:33; compare John 17:25). In Paul's theology, "the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ unto all them that believe" (Romans 3:22) is the act of God, out of free grace, declaring and treating the sinner as righteous, that he thereby may become righteous, even as "we love, because he first loved us" (1John 4:19). The whole character of God, then, whether we call it love, holiness or righteousness, is revealed in His work of salvation, wherein He goes forth to men in love and mercy, that they may be made citizens of His kingdom, heirs of His righteousness, and participators in His love.

7. Metaphysical Attributes:

The abstract being of God and His metaphysical attributes are implied, but not defined, in the New Testament. His infinity, omnipotence and omniscience are not enunciated in terms, but they are postulated in the whole scheme of salvation which He is carrying to completion. He is Lord of heaven and earth (Matthew 11:25). The forces of Nature are at His command (Matthew 5:45; 6:30). He can answer every prayer and satisfy every need (Matthew 7:7-12). All things are possible to Him (Mark 10:27; 14:36). He created all things (Ephesians 3:9). All earthly powers are derived from Him (Romans 13:1). By His power, He raised Christ from the dead and subjected to Him "all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion" in heaven and on earth (Ephesians 1:20,21; compare Matthew 28:18). Every power and condition of existence are subordinated to the might of His love unto His saints (Romans 8:38,39). Neither time nor place can limit Him: He is the eternal God (Romans 16:26). His knowledge is as infinite as His power; He knows what the Son and the angels know not (Mark 13:32). He knows the hearts of men (Luke 16:15) and all their needs (Matthew 6:8,32). His knowledge is especially manifested in His wisdom by which He works out His purpose of salvation, "the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Ephesians 3:10,11). The teaching of the New Testament implies that all perfections of power, condition and being cohere in God, and are revealed in His love. They are not developed or established on metaphysical grounds, but they flow out of His perfect fatherhood. Earthly fathers do what good they can for their children, but the Heavenly Father does all things for the best for His children--"to them that love God all things work together for good"--because He is restricted by no limits of power, will or wisdom (Matthew 7:11; Romans 8:28).

8. The Unity of God:

It is both assumed through the New Testament and stated categorically that God is one (Mark 12:29; Romans 3:30; Ephesians 4:6). No truth had sunk more deeply into the Hebrew mind by this time than the unity of God.

(1) The Divinity of Christ:

Yet it is obvious from what has been written, that Jesus Christ claimed a power, authority and position so unique that they can only be adequately described by calling Him God; and the apostolic church both in worship and in doctrine accorded Him that honor. All that they knew of God as now fully and finally revealed was summed up in His person, "for in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (Colossians 2:9). If they did not call Him God, they recognized and named Him everything that God meant for them.

(2) The Holy Spirit:

Moreover, the Holy Spirit is a third term that represents a Divine person in the experience, thought and language of Christ and His disciples. In the Johannine account of Christ's teaching, it is probable that the Holy Spirit is identified with the risen Lord Himself (John 14:16,17; compare John 14:18), and Paul seems also to identify them in at least one passage: "the Lord is the Spirit" (2Corinthians 3:17). But in other places the three names are ranged side by side as representing three distinct persons (Matthew 28:19; 2Corinthians 13:14; Ephesians 4:4-6).

(3) The Church's Problem:

But how does the unity of God cohere with the Divine status of the Son and the distinct subsistence of the Holy Spirit? Jesus Christ affirmed a unity between Himself and the Father (John 10:30), a unity, too, which might be realized in a wider sphere, where the Father, the Son and believers should form one society (John 17:21,23), but He reveals no category which would construe the unity of the Godhead in a manifoldness of manifestation. The experience of the first Christians as a rule found Christ so entirely sufficient to all their religious needs, so filled with all the fullness of God, that the tremendous problem which had arisen for thought did not trouble them. Paul expresses his conception of the relation of Christ to God under the figure of the image. Christ "is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation" (Colossians 1:15; 2Corinthians 4:4). Another writer employs a similar metaphor. Christ is "the effulgence of (God's) glory, and the very image of his substance" (Hebrews 1:3). But these figures do not carry us beyond the fact, abundantly evident elsewhere, that Christ in all things represented God because He participated in His being. In the prologue to the Fourth Gospel, the doctrine of the Word is developed for the same purpose. The eternal Reason of God who was ever with Him, and of Him, issues forth as revealed thought, or spoken word, in the person of Jesus Christ, who therefore is the eternal Word of God incarnate. So far and no farther the New Testament goes. Jesus Christ is God revealed; we know nothing of God, but that which is manifest in Him. His love, holiness, righteousness and purpose of grace, ordering and guiding all things to realize the ends of His fatherly love, all this we know in and through Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit takes of Christ's and declares it to men (John 16:14). The problems of the coordination of the One with the Three, of personality with the plurality of consciousness, of the Infinite with the finite, and of the Eternal God with the Word made flesh, were left over for the church to solve. The Holy Spirit was given to teach it all things and guide it into all the truth (John 16:13). "And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world" (Matthew 28:20).

See JESUS CHRIST; HOLY SPIRIT; TRINITY.

LITERATURE.

Harris The Philosophical Basis of Theism; God the Creator and Lord of All; Flint, Theism; Orr, The Christian View of God and the World; E. Caird, The Evolution of Religion; James Ward, The Realm of Ends; Fairbairn, The Philosophy of the Christian Religion; W.N. Clarke, The Christian Doctrine of God; Adeney, The Christian Conception of God; Rocholl, Der Christliche Gottesbegriff ; O. Holtzmann, Der Christliche Gottesglaube, seine Vorgeschichte und Urgeschichte; G. Wobbernim, Der Christliche Gottesglaube in seinem Verhaltnis zur heutigen Philosophie und Naturwissenschaft; Kostlin, article "Gott" in See Hauck-Herzog, Realencyklopadie fur protestantische Theologie und Kirche; R. S. Candlish, Crawford and Scott-Lidgett, books on The Fatherhood of God: Old Testament Theologies by Oehler, Schultz and Davidson; New Testament Theologies by Schmid, B. Weiss, Beyschlag, Holtzmann and Stevens; Wendt, The Teaching of Jesus; sections in systems of Christian Doctrine by Schleiermacher, Darner, Nitzsch, Martensen, Thomasius, Hodge, etc.

T. Rees

GOD:

This name, the derivation of which is uncertain, we give to that eternal, infinite, perfect, and incomprehensible Being, the Creator of all things, who preserves and governs all by his almighty power and wisdom, and is the only proper object of worship. The proper Hebrew name for God is JEHOVAH, which signifies He is. But the Jews, from a feeling of reverence, avoid pronouncing this name, substituting for it, wherever it occurs in the sacred test, the word ADONAI, Lord; except in the expression, ADONAI JEHOVAH, Lord Jehovah, for which they put, ADONAI ELOHIM, Lord God. This usage, which is not without an element of superstition, is very ancient, dating its origin some centuries before Christ; but there is no good ground for assuming its existence in the days of the inspired Old Testament writers. The proper word for God is ELOHIM, which is plural in its form, being thus used to signify the manifold perfections of God, or, as some think, the Trinity in the godhead. In Exodus 3:14, God replies to Moses, when he asks Him His name, I AM THAT I AM; which means either, I am he who I am, or, I am what I am. In either case the expression implies the eternal self-existence of Jehovah, and his incomprehensible nature. The name I AM means the same as JEHOVAH, the first person being used instead of he third.

The Bible assumes and asserts the existence of God, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth;" and is itself the most illustrious proof of his existence, as well as our chief instructor as to his nature and will. It puts a voice into the mute lips of creation; and not only reveals God in his works, but illustrates his ways in providence, displays the glories of his character, his law, and his grace, and brings man into true and saving communion with him. It reveals him to us as a Spirit, the only being from everlasting and to everlasting by nature, underived, infinite, perfect, and unchangeable in power, wisdom, omniscience, omnipresence, justice, holiness, truth, goodness, and mercy. He is but one God, and yet exists in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and this distinction of the Thee in One is, like his other attributes, from everlasting. He is the source, owner, and ruler of all beings, foreknows and predetermines all events, and is the eternal judge and arbiter of the destiny of all. True religion has its foundation in the right knowledge of God, and consists in supremely loving and faithfully obeying him.

See JESUS CHRIST, and HOLY, HOLINESS SPIRIT.

God, (A.S. and Dutch God; Dan. Gud; Ger. Gott), the name of the Divine Being. It is the rendering

    (1) of the Hebrew 'El, from a word meaning to be strong;

    (2) of 'Eloah, plural 'Elohim.

The singular form, Eloah, is used only in poetry. The plural form is more commonly used in all parts of the Bible, The Hebrew word Jehovah (q.v.), the only other word generally employed to denote the Supreme Being, is uniformly rendered in the Authorized Version by "LORD," printed in small capitals. The existence of God is taken for granted in the Bible. There is nowhere any argument to prove it. He who disbelieves this truth is spoken of as one devoid of understanding (Ps. 14:1).

The arguments generally adduced by theologians in proof of the being of God are:

    (1.) The a priori argument, which is the testimony afforded by reason.

    (2.) The a posteriori argument, by which we proceed logically from the facts of experience to causes.

These arguments are,

    (a) The cosmological, by which it is proved that there must be a First Cause of all things, for every effect must have a cause.

    (b) The teleological, or the argument from design. We see everywhere the operations of an intelligent Cause in nature.

    (c) The moral argument, called also the anthropological argument, based on the moral consciousness and the history of mankind, which exhibits a moral order and purpose which can only be explained on the supposition of the existence of God. Conscience and human history testify that "verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth."

GOD:

(good). Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures two chief names are used for the one true divine Being--ELOHIM, commonly translated God in our version, and JEHOVAH, translated Lord . Elohim is the plural of Eloah (in Arabic Allah); it is often used in the short form EL (a word signifying strength , as in EL-SHADDAI, God Almighty, the name by which God was specially known to the patriarchs. (ge 17:1; ge 28:3; ex 6:3) The etymology is uncertain, but it is generally agreed that the primary idea is that of strength, power of effect , and that it properly describes God in that character in which he is exhibited to all men in his works, as the creator, sustainer and supreme governor of the world. The plural form of Elohim has given rise to much discussion. The fanciful idea that it referred to the trinity of persons in the Godhead hardly finds now a supporter among scholars. It is either what grammarians call the plural of majesty , or it denotes the fullness of divine strength, the sum of the powers displayed by God. Jehovah denotes specifically the one true God, whose people the Jews were, and who made them the guardians of his truth. The name is never applied to a false god, nor to any other being except one, the ANGEL-JEHOVAH who is thereby marked as one with God, and who appears again in the New Covenant as "God manifested in the flesh." Thus much is clear; but all else is beset with difficulties. At a time too early to be traced, the Jews abstained from pronouncing the name, for fear of its irreverent use. The custom is said to have been founded on a strained interpretation of (le 24:16) and the phrase there used, "THE NAME" (Shema), is substituted by the rabbis for the unutterable word. In reading the Scriptures they substituted for it the word ADONAI (Lord), from the translation of which by Kurios in the LXX., followed by the Vulgate, which uses Dominus , we have the LORD of our version. The substitution of the word Lord is most unhappy, for it in no way represents the meaning of the sacred name. The key to the meaning of the name is unquestionably given in God’s revelation of himself to Moses by the phrase "I AM THAT I AM," (ex 3:14; ex 6:3) We must connect the name Jehovah with the Hebrew substantive verb to be , with the inference that it expresses the essential, eternal, unchangeable being of Jehovah. But more, it is not the expression only, or chiefly, of an absolute truth: it is a practical revelation of God, in his essential, unchangeable relation to this chosen people, the basis of his covenant.

GOD:

a. & n. Good. [Obs.] Chaucer.
(gŏd), n. [AS. god; akin to OS. & D. god, OHG. got, G. gott, Icel. guð, goð, Sw. & Dan. gud, Goth. gup, prob. orig. a p. p. from a root appearing in Skr. hū, p. p. hūta, to call upon, invoke, implore. √30. Cf. Goodbye, Gospel, Gossip.]

    1. A being conceived of as possessing supernatural power, and to be propitiated by sacrifice, worship, etc.; a divinity; a deity; an object of worship; an idol.
        He maketh a god, and worshipeth it. Isaiah 44:15.
        The race of Israel . . . bowing lowly down
        To bestial gods. Milton.

    2. The Supreme Being; the eternal and infinite Spirit, the Creator, and the Sovereign of the universe; Jehovah.
        God is a Spirit; and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. John 4:24.

    3. A person or thing deified and honored as the chief good; an object of supreme regard.
        Whose god is their belly. Philippians 3:19.

    4. Figuratively applied to one who wields great or despotic power. [R.] Shak.
        Act of God. (Law) See under Act.

- Gallery gods, the occupants of the highest and cheapest gallery of a theater. [Colloq.]

- God's acre, God's field, a burial place; a churchyard. See under Acre.

- God's house.
    (a) An almshouse. [Obs.]
    (b) A church.

- God's penny, earnest penny. [Obs.] Beau. & Fl.

- God's Sunday, Easter.

v. t. To treat as a god; to idolize. [Obs.] Shak.