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CONFLUENCE OF OPPOSITES
"The word Ilah (identical with the eloah of Job)............ appears from its form to be originally a plural, and, indeed, of the earlier semitic il (Heb. el). ............. Of ilah itself the Biblical elohim is a further plural, of which, curiously, there appears to be a trace in the Arabic vocative of Allah, viz., illahumma, which the native grammarians find the greatest difficulty in explaining."
315
The etymological significance of the word God is not quite clear, but according to the Imperial Dictionary, it was applied in Old Norse or Icelandic, the oldest of the Scandinavian group of tongues, ་་ to heathen deities (neuter and almost always plural, and afterwards changed to gud, to signify God." But if the etymology of the word is not quite traceable, the Bible itself leaves no doubt about the plurality of the Godhead. In the very first book of the Old Testament Godhead is spoken of in the plural.
51
"Behold the man has become as one of us (Genesis, iii. 22).
The italics, no doubt, are mine; but not the words they emphasize. According to the fifth verse of the third chapter of the book of Genesis the serpent tempted Eve, saying "Ye shall be as gods." In the sixth verse of the 82nd Psalm it is said:
"I have said, ye are gods; and all of you are children of the Most High."
In John x. 33-34 Jesus says directly with reference to this statement :
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