Public
Domain
NOTES AND NOTICES
CRITICAL NOTE ON EXODUS VI. 3
R. D. Wilson
In criticising a document there are at
least three fundamental
principles
upon which we should proceed: First, the
document
must
be supposed to be in harmony with itself and interpreted
accordingly. Secondly, it must be presumed to be in
harmony
with
its sources of information. Thirdly, it
should be in accord-
ance
with its supposed time, place, and circumstances.1
I. The Critical Theory is Inconsistent
I.
The critics hold that Exodus vi. 3, which the RV renders,
"And
I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob as
God
Almighty (El Shaddai); but by my name Jehovah I was
not
known unto them," belongs to P and that P means to say
that
El Shaddai and not Jehovah was the name of God known
to
the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Therefore they
assign
four passages, Gen. xvii. 1, xxviii. 3, xxxv. 11, and xlviii.
3
to P., since El Shaddai is found in them.
It is to be observed,
however,
regarding these passages that, in xvii 1, it is said that
Jehovah
appeared to Abram, saying, I am El Shaddai; and in
xxxv.
11 that Elohim appeared to Jacob saying, I am El Shaddai.
In
xxviii. 3 Isaac says to Jacob, El Shaddai bless thee; and in
xlviii.
3 Jacob says in the presence of Joseph and his two sons,
El
Shaddai appeared unto me. In a fifth
passage, Gen. xliii. 14,
Jacob
uses this appellation in his prayer for his sons who are
starting
for
critics
and the El Shaddai attributed to the Redactor.
Is it not
singular
that if P thought El Shaddai was a proper name for
God
he should have used Elohim about seventy times before Ex.
vi.
3 and El Shaddai only four-times? Is it
not extraordinary
that,
if the writer of Ex. vi. 3 meant that God "appeared" to the
patriarchs
under the name of El Shaddai, only once in P should
it
be said that El Shaddai "appeared," just the same number of
times
that P says that Jehovah "appeared" and that Elohim"
"appeared"?
Jehovah alone (or Jehovah Elohim) is alleged to
have
occurred in J, and Elohim alone in E; but El Shaddai is
found
but four times in P and Elohim seventy times.
1 Briggs, The Higher Criticism of the Hexateuch, p. 4.
NOTES AND NOTICES 109
If P alone thought that El Shaddai was the
only name of God
known
in the time of the patriarchs, how about Gen. xliii. 14,
which
the critics assign to E or J? We have
seen that they
escape
the consequences of this assignment simply by asserting
that
El Shaddai is an interpolation of the Redactor.
But did
the
Redactor also think that the patriarchs used El Shaddai
rather
than Jehovah? Why, then did he not cut
out Jehovah
and
put El Shaddai into the text of J?
Besides, if P alone
thought
that Shaddai was a specifically patriarchal designation,
how
about its use in Gen. xlix. 25 and Num. xxiv. 4, 16, which
are
assigned to J or JE? All of these questions will be appro-
priately
answered if we take Shaddai and El Shaddai as appel-
lations,
"the Almighty" or "a mighty God," and not as proper
names.2
2.
A historical or ostensibly historical document should, if
possible,
be interpreted in harmony with its sources and with
earlier
histories supposedly known to the author.
What then
were
the sources of P? According to datings
advocated by
the
critics they could have been only J, E, D, H, and Judges,
Samuel,
Kings, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Amos, Obadiah,
Nahum,
Zephaniah, and parts of other books. Now
the only
one
of these sources or earlier works in which El Shaddai
occurs
is Ezek. x. 5, "And the sound of the cherubim's wings
was
heard unto the outer court as the voice of Almighty
God
(El Shaddai) when he speaketh."
Shaddai alone occurs in
the
Pentateuch only in Gen. xlix. 25 (J) and in Numbers
xxiv.
4, 16 (JE). In Gen. xlix. 24, 25, we
read in the Blessing
of
Joseph that "the arms of his hands were made strong by the
hands
of the Almighty One (rybx) of Jacob (from thence
is
the Shepherd, the stone of
fathers,
who shall help thee, and by the Almighty (Shaddai)
who
shall bless thee." The Samaritan
Hebrew text and version
of
this verse both read El Shaddai instead of Shaddai, a read-
ing
supported by the Syriac and apparently by the Septuagint.
If
we take the latter reading we would find God Almighty to
be
parallel with the Almighty One of Jacob who is also called
the
God of thy fathers (i.e., of Jacob).
This psalm of Jacob re-
fers
in verse 18 to Jehovah in the words, "I have waited for
Thee,
O Jehovah"; so that if P got his information about El
Shaddai
in this psalm he would have known that Jehovah was
110
THE
used
by the Patriarch Jacob at least. Nothing
is said in this
psalm
about either Jehovah or El Shaddai having appeared.
In
Num. xxiv. 4, 16 Balaam uses the phrase: "which saw the
vision
of the Almighty (Shaddai)."2
Since this chapter is as-
signed
to JE, P must have known, if he got his information
here,
that Shaddai was supposed by his sources to have been,
used
after the declaration made in Exodus vi. 3; for JE certain-
ly
places the episode of Balaam about forty years after the
event
recorded in Exodus vi. 3.
These being the only places in the old Testament
where Shad-
dai
occurs in the portions assigned by the critics to a date be-
fore
550 B.C., it follows that the critics' interpretation of Ex.
vi.
3 makes P to be out of harmony with all its known sources.
3.
In documents which in their opinion were written after
550
B.C. we never find El Shaddai; but Shaddai alone occurs
thirty
times in Job, and in Ruth, i, 20, 21; Isa. xiii. 14; Joel i. 15;
Ps.
lxviii. 15, xci. 1. Not one of these
passages refers to the
patriarchs
or to God as "appearing" to them or to anyone else.
In
twenty-seven of them Shaddai is used as parallel to other
names
of God, to wit: nine times to hvlx, thirteen times to
lx, once to Nvylf, and four times to hvhy. There is no in-
timation
that Shaddai was a more ancient designation than these
other
terms. It follows, therefore, that, as interpreted by the
critics,
P in its use of El Shaddai is not congruous with the
usage
of these other books which the critics allege to have been
written
in post-captivity times. To be sure, if
Job was written
in
the time of the patriarchs we can see where the author of P
got
his idea that they had used Shaddai as a name for God.
Or
even if some of the other passages came from the time to
which
they have been assigned by tradition we might see how he
got
the idea; even though they say nothing of revelation or the
patriarchs. But as the case stands for the critics we
find that
the
author of P must have invented the whole conception. For
neither
Ezekiel, Job, J, E, H, D, Joel, Jonah, Deutero-Isaiah,
Ruth,
nor the Psalms, furnish any ground for supposing that the
patriarchs
used this appellation for God; and the certainly late
writings
such as Daniel, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Esther,
2 Shaddai is rendered in Greek
and Syriac by "God," in Arabic by
"the
sufficient one"; and in the Samaritan version by "field," they
hav-
ing
read sadai for shaddai.
NOTES AND NOTICES 111
Chronicles,
Ezra, and Nehemiah, never mention the name at all.
Whether
we take the traditional view of the post-captivity litera-
ture,
or the radical, there would therefore be no contemporary
evidence
to show that the hypothetical writer of P, provided
that
he lived in post-captivity times, was in his use of Shadai
in
harmony with contemporaneous usage and ideas.
II.
Correct Exegesis Supports Unity of
Pentateuch
Having shown that the interpretation of
Exodus vi. 3 a ad-
vanced
by the critics is out of harmony with the rest of P, that
it
does not agree with the rest of the Pentateuch, and that it
does
not fit into the time at which P is alleged to have been
written
it remains to see whether this passage can be so inter-
preted
as to be brought into agreement with the traditional
view
of the Pentateuch as the work of Moses.
This we shall
attempt
to show by an examination of the text, grammar, and
vocabulary
of the verse, under the following heads:
1) "ap-
peared,"
2) ''as'' (b), 3) "God" (El), 4) "Almighty
(Shaddai),
5)
but" (waw), 6) "name," 7) "known," 8) the form of the
last
sentence,--can it be interrogative?
I.
The "appearing" of God to men is described in several dif-
ferent
ways in the Old Testament.
a.
The most usual expression is that found here in Ex. vi. 3,
where
the Niphal of the verb "to see" (hxr) is used. With the
Deity
as subject this verb occurs forty-three times as follows:
(a).
Jehovah, Gen. xii. 7 bis (J), xviii.1 (J),
xxii.
14 0), xxvi. 2, 24 (J), Ex. lii.4 (E), iv. 1, 5 (J), vi. 3
(P)
Lev. ix. 4 (P), xvi. 2 (P), Num. xiv.14 (JE), Deut. xxxi.
15
(JE), I Kings iii. 5, ix. 2, I Chron. i. 7, iii. I, vii. 12, Jer.
iii.13,
Zech. ix. 14
(b).
The glory of Jehovah, Ex. xvi. 10 (P), Lev. ix. 6, 23
(P), Num. xiv. 10 , xvi.19 (P), xvii. 7, xx. 6 (P)
Isa.
lx. 2, Ps xc. 16
(c). The angel of Jehovah, Ex. iii. 2 (J),
Jud. iii. 21 bis,
vi.12,
xiii. 3, 21.
(d).
Jehovah of Hosts, Mal. iii. 2.
(e)
Jehovah, God of Israel, 1 Kings xi. 2.
(f)
Elohim, Gen. xxxv. 9 (P).
(g)
The man (i.e., the angel of Jehovah), Jud. xiii. 10.
(h)
El, Gen. xxxv. 1
(i). El Shaddai, Gen. xlviii. 3 (P).
112
THE
b. Other expressions are the following:
(I)
In the following cases it is said that man "saw" the Deity,
the
Kal of the verb hxr being used:
(a).
Jehovah, I Kings xxii. 19, 2 Chron. xviii. 18.
(b).
The glory of Jehovah, Ex. xvi. 7 (P), Isa. xxxv. 2.
(c).
The angel of Jehovah, Num. xxii. 31 (E), I Chron. xxi.
16,
20.
(d). The majesty of Jehovah, Isa. xxvi.
10.
(e).
hyhy,
Isa. xxxviii. 11.
(f).
The King, Jehovah of Hosts, Isa. vi. 5.
(g).
Lord (Adonai), Isa. vi. 1, Am. ix. 1.
(h).
The Holy One of Israel, Isa. xvii. 7.
(i).
Elohim, Gen. xxxii. 30 (J), xxxiii. 10 (J), Jud. xiii. 32,
I
Sam. xxviii. 13.
(2)
The Hiphil of hxr, with the Deity as
subject, occurs in
the
Old Testament twenty-two times: Gen. 1, Ex. 2, Deut. 3,
Judg.
1, 2 Kgs. 1, Pss. 4, Jer. 3, Ezek. 1, Nahum 1, Hab. 1,
Zech.
2. In the Pentateuch it is found in J in
Ex. ix. 16, in E
in
Gen. xlviii. 11; in P in Ex. xxv. 9, Num. viii. 4; in D in
Deut.
iii. 24, iv. 36, and v. 21,
(3)
The verb hzH "to see" is used in Ex. xxiv. 11 (J)
with
Elohim
as object, in Job xix. 26 with Eloah as object, and in
Num.
xxiv. 4, 16 (JE) with Shaddai as object.
(4)
Of the words for "vision" mar'eh
is used in Gen. xv. 1
(E),
in connection with Jehovah and mahazeh
in Num. xxiv. 4,
16,
with Shaddai.
(5)
The verb "to reveal" (hlgn) is found in the
Pentateuch
only
in Genesis xxxv. 7 (E). Isaiah employs
it in xl. 5, liii. 1, lvi.
1. It is found also in I Samuel in ii. 27, iii.
7, 21.
It is clear from the above evidence that
the Deity is said in all
the
documents J, E, D, H, and P to have "appeared" and that
the
Niphal of hxr,
"to see," the most common expression
used
to describe it, is found in all of them.
2. The preposition b which occurs in Ex. vi.
3 before
Shaddai
is the so-called Beth essentiae and
is to be
ordinarily
by ''as,'' or ''as being," or "in the character of." It
found
in Gen. xxi. 12 (P), in Ex. xviii. 4, xxxii. 22, (both
and
in Deut. xxvi. 5, xxviii. 62, xxxiii. 26, and in Lev. xvii. 11
(H). It occurs also in Jud. xi. 35, Pss. xxxv. 2,
xxxvii. 20,
NOTES AND NOTICES 113
xxxix.
7, liv. 6, Iv. 19, lxviii. 5, 33, cxviii. 7, cxlvi. 5, Prov. iii. 26,
Ecc.
vii. 14, Job xxiii. 13, Isa. xxvi. 4, xl. 10, xlviii. 10, Ho.
xiii
9.
In Ex. vi. 3 we should translate ''as
being El Shaddai," and
''as
being Shemi Jahweh" or "in the character of a mighty God"
and
"in the character of my name Jehovah," the force of the
proposition
being regarded as carried over to the second phrase.
3.
El occurs about two hundred and twenty times in the Old
Testament,
in Gen. 9, Ex. 4, Num. 11, Deut. 10, Josh. 3 (or 35
times
in the Hexateuch, J 2, E 5, D 10, P 53), I Sam. 1, 2 Sam.
2,
Isa. 25, Jer. 2, Ezek 7, Dan. 4, Hos. 3, Jonah 1, Micah 2,
Nahum
1, Zech. 2, Mal. 2, Pss. 71, Job 55, Prov. 1.
It frequently
takes
after it an attributive adjective, or a noun in construction.
Thus
E represents El as jealous, D as great and terrible and
merciful,
JE as jealous, merciful, gracious and living; and J
speaks
of a seeing God (El Ro'i) an eternal
God (El 'Olam),
Deut.
xxxii, of a God of a stranger (or a strange God), a
of
trustworthiness, and a God who begat us, I Sam. ii. 3
a
God of knowledge. Gen. xiv. four times
calls El the Most
High
('Elyon), and Deut. xxxii. 8 names
him simply 'Elyon.
From
this evidence it seems clear, that El was in use in all
periods
of Hebrew literature and also that the limiting adjec-
tives
and genitives did not denote names of different gods, but
were
generally at least nothing but appellations of attributes or
characteristics.
4.
As to the word Shaddai, there is uncertainty as to its root,
form,
and meaning. If it were from a root hdw it would be
of
the same form as sadai which is
sometimes read in the
Hebrew
text instead of sade
"field." In Babylonian the
root
means
"to be high," and derivatives mean "mountain."
and
"the summit of a mountain" and perhaps "majesty." In
case,
we might take shaddai as a synonym of
'elyon "Most
High"
as used in Gen. xiv.
A second derivation is from the root shadad "to be strong"
The
ending ai is found also in yrH (Isa. xix. 9) and
in ybvg
(Am.
vii. I, Neh. iii. 17) and perhaps in ylyk (Isa. xxxii. 5;
3 It is not found in H
4 In fact, the Samaritan
version reads Shaddai as sadai in
Num.
xxiv.
4, 16.
114
THE
Olshausen,
Lehrbuch p. 216). This ending is found also in
Arabic
and Ethiopic (Wright, Arabic Grammar,
mann,
Aethiopische Grammatik, p. 204). If from this root the
word
shaddai would mean "might,
strength." The Greek trans-
lator
of Job apparently had this derivation before him when he
rendered
shaddai by pantokr<twr, "Almighty"5--a
translation
which
has been generally followed in the English version. In
the
Syriac an equivalent word hassino
"strong" is found in Job
vi.
4, viii. 3, 5, xi. 7, xiii. 3, xv. 25, xxvii. 2,13, xxix. 5, xxxvii. 23.
A third derivation is from the relative
pronoun (w)
and the
word
"sufficiency" (yd ). The
Greek i[kanoj found in Job xxi. 15,
xxxi.
2, xxxix. 32, Ruth i. 20, 21, Ezek. i. 24, comes from this
interpretation. It also accounts for the usual rendering of
shad-
dai
in the Samaritan version and in the Arabic version of
Saadya. The Arabic always renders it Alkafi, "the sufficient,”
and
the Samaritan always safuka, except
in Num. xxiv. 4, 16,
where
it had read sadai (field).
Our ignorance of the real meaning of the
word is further
illustrated
by the fact that the Greek translators of the Penta-
teuch
invariably render both Shaddai and El Shaddai by qeo<j,
that
the translation of Job renders it eight times by ku<rioj, that
the
Syriac version renders it twenty-two times by Aloho
(God),
and in the Pentateuch usually transliterates it.
In
conclusion, the evidence clearly shows that the Hebrews
who
translated the Old Testament, or part of it, into Samaritan,
Syriac,
Greek, and Arabic, knew nothing of a god called Shaddai
or
of Shaddai as a name for God. Only in
the Greek of Ezek.
i.
24 and in the Syriac of Gen. xvii. 1, xxxv. 11, and Ex. vi. 3
is
there any indication that either El Shaddai or Shaddai was
ever
considered to be a proper name like Jehovah.
5. The particle Wau usually means
"and." The meaning
"but"
is comparatively seldom the correct one.
6. Shemi
has been taken by most interpreters and trans-
lators
as meaning "my name." The
Syriac, however, renders
"the
name of," taking the final i as
the old nominal ending, as
ynb (Gen. xlix. 11), ylykH (Gen. xlix. 12), yrsx (Gen. xlix
11),
ytbng
(Gen. xxxi. 39), yncw (Deut. xxxiii. 16), ytyrb
5 Fifteen times in all. to
wit: v. 17. viii. 5, xi. 7. xv. 25,
xxii.17, 25, xxiii
16,
xxvii. 2, 11, 13, xxxii. 8, xxxiii. 4, xxxiv. 10, xxxv. 13, xxxvii. 22.
NOTES AND NOTICES 115
Lev.
xxvi. 42),6 or else having read but one Yodh where the
Hebrew
text now gives two.7
As to the syntactical relation of the
phrase "my name Jeho-
vah"
the ancient and modern versions vary.
Some take it as the
preposed
object "my name Jehovah did I not make known" (so
the
Septuagint, Latin Vulgate, Syriac, and the Targum of
Onkelos)
and seem to have read the Niphal as a Hiphil.
The
Samaritan
Targum gives a literal rendering. The AV
puts "by”
before
"my name" and inserts "the name of" before El Shaddai.
The
RV puts ''as'' before El Shaddai and "by" before "my
name." The RV margin suggests ''as to" before
"my name" and omits
"the
name of" before "El Shaddai."
The Targum of Jonathan renders
literally
except that it explains "and my name Jehovah" as meaning "but
as
the face (or presence) of my Shekina."
By this simple interpretation
the
Targum of Jonathan, without any change of text, brings the verse
into
agreement with the preceding history of the Pentateuch.
As to the meaning of "name" it
can scarcely be held that any
post-captivity
writer really thought that the mere sound of the
name
itself had never been heard before the time of Moses. But
the
writer of P did think so, it is preposterous to suppose
that
the Redactor who put J and P together should have ac-
ccepted
P's opinion and then allowed the Jehovah of J to remain
6 See other examples in Ex. xv. 6, Isa. i. 21,
xxii. 16, Ho. x. 11, Ob. 3,
Jer.
x. 17, xxii. 23, xxxiii. 20, bis, 25, xlix.16, bis, li.13, Zech. xi.17, Lam. i.
l,
iv.
21, Ezek. xxvii. 3, Mi. vii. l4,
Pss. ci. 5, cx. 4, cxiii. 5-9, cxiv. 8, cxvi.
1. See Gesenius-Kautzsch, Hebrew Grammar, §90 l, m, Olshausen, Lehr-
buch, and Ewald Ausfuhrluches Lehrbuch.
7 That is the original text may
have read hy Mw
where we now have
hvhy ymw Jehovah was possibly written hy here, as in Isa.
xxvi.4, Ps.
lxviii.5,
Ex. xv.2 and other places, and the Yodh was read twice. This
monographic
writing where the letter is to be doubled in reading is to be
found
on the inscriptions as well as in the Scriptures of the Old Testa-
ment. It is familiar to all Semitic scholars in the
so-called intensive
stems
where the second radical is written once and read twice. E.g
ktl
may be read kittel. So in the Panammu
inscription (1.19) bkyk
is
to be read Bar-rekab; in Clay's Aramaic
Indorsements. Xyuwnb is to be
read
read Bana-neshaya. So, also, in the Spicilegium Syriacum (p. 21),
lbkk is to be read Kokab-Bel, and in Jud.
vi.25 ;lxbry is Yerub-Baal.
Massoretic
notes also give an example in Lam. iv.16, suggesting that u
should
be read twice. The ancient versions,
especially the Septuagint,
afford
many cases of this doubling of the letters of the Hebrew text,
e.g.,
Hos. vi. 3, 2 Chron. xii. 2, Neh. x. 7.
116
THE
in
Genesis as the ordinary name of God. The
Redactor at least,
and
the people who accepted his composite work as the work of
Moses,
must have interpreted this verse in a sense agreeing with
what
had gone before. Now such sentences as
"my name is in
him"
(Ex. xxiii. 21), "to put his name there" (Deut. xii. 5),
"for
his name's sake" (Ps. lxxi .9), "according to thy name so
is
thy praise" (Ps. xlviii. 11), show that the name meant the
power,
visible presence, honor, or repute, of the person named.
The
Targum of Jonathan explains "my name Jehovah" as "the
face
(or presence) of my Shekinah."
7.
That "knowing" the name of Jehovah means more than
merely
knowing the word itself, is apparent from Is. xix. 21,
where
we read: And Jehovah shall be known to
The form used here in Ex. vi. 3 may mean:
I was known, I
was
made known, or I allowed myself to be known.
8.
Questions in Hebrew and other Semitic languages may be
asked
either with or without an interrogative particle. The fol-
lowing
evidence goes to show that the last clause of Ex. vi. 3
might
be read "was I not made known to them?" This interpre-
tation
would remove at one blow the whole foundation of the
critical
position, so far as it is based on this verse.
In Arabic
"a question is sometimes indicated by the tone of
the
voice" (Wright, Arabic Grammar,
II, 165); Potest quidem
interrogatio solo tono
notari (Ewald,
Grammatica Critica Lin-
guae Arabicae, §703).
In Syriac
there is no special syntactical or formal method of
indicating
direct questions. Such interrogative
sentences can
only
be distinguished from sentences of affirmation by the em-
phasis. Thus xhlx vh br, may mean "God is
great," or "Is God
great?"
(Noldeke, Syriac Grammar, §331). "Il n'existe de par-
ticule
Syriaque pour l'interrogation; le phrase interrogative ne
se
distingue donc que par la sense general" (Duval, Grammaire
Syriaque, §382). "Generally, he interrogative is denoted
by the
inflection
or connection without any particle" (Wilson, Ele-
ments of Syriac Grmamar, §132. 2. ).
In Ethiopic,
the question be denoted by the arrangement
of
the words or by the tone; though ordinarily a particle of
interrogation
is used (Dillmann, Aethiopische Grammatik,
§198).
NOTES AND NOTICES 117
In Hebrew "frequently the natural emphasis upon
the words
(especially
when the most emphatic word is placed at the begin-
ning of the sentence) is of itself sufficient
to indicate an inter-
rogative
sentence" (Gesenius-Kautzsch, Hebrew
Grammar,
§
I 50). "Ist der Satz im ganzen fragend, so stellt sich das Wort
welches
die Kraft der Frage vorzuglich trifft in seiner Reihe
voran;
und die 'kraftliche Voranstellung dieses Wortes kann
allerdings
in Verbindung mit dem fragenden Tone ohne jedes
Fragwortchen
genugen" (Ewald, Ausfuhrliches
Lehrbuch,
§324).
As examples of this type of interrogative
sentence, the
lowing
may be cited: Gen. xviii. 12, After I am waxed old shall
I
have pleasure, my lord being old also?
Gen. xxvii. 24, Thou
art
my son Esau? Ex. viii. 22, Should we
sacrifice the abomiba-
tion
of the Egyptian's before them, would they not stone us? Ex.
ix.
11, As yet exaltest thou thyself against my people, that thou
wilt
not let them go? Ex. xxxiii. 14, Shall
my presence go, then
I
shall give thee rest? (So Ewald, Gram.
§324, and Gesenius,
Gram. §150). Jud. xi. 23, And shouldest thou possess it?
xiv.
16, Behold I have not told it my father nor my mother, and
shall
I tell it thee? I Sam. xi. 12, Shall
Saul reign over us?
xx.
9, If I knew certainly that evil was determined by my father
to
come upon thee, then would not I tell it thee?
xxii. 7, Will
the
son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards?
xxii.
15, Did I then begin to inquire of God for him? xxiv. 14,
If
a man find his enemy, will he let him go well away? xxv. 11,
Shall
I then take my bread and my water? xxx.
8, Shall I pursue
after
this troop? 2 Sam. xi. 11, Shall I then
go into my horse?
xvi.
17, Is this thy kindness to thy friends? xviii. 29, Is the
young
man Absalom safe? xix. 23, Shall there
any man be put
this
day in
grow? I Kings, i. 24, Hast thou said Adonijah shall
reign after
me? xxi. 7, Dost thou govern the
v.
26, Went not mine heart with thee? Hos. x. 9, Shall not the
the
against the unjust overtake them in Gibeah?
(Ewald, en-
et
al.). Is. xxxvii. 11, And shalt thou be
delivered? Jer.
xxv.
29, Like a hammer which breaketh the rock in pieces? xlv.
5,
And seekest thou great things for thyself?
xlix. 12, And art
thou
he that shall go altogether unpunished?
Ezek. xi. 3, Is not
the
building of houses near? (Ewald). xi. 13. Wilt thou make
118
THE
a
full end of the remnant of
I
be inquired of by you? xxxii. 2, Art
thou like a young lion of
the
nations? (Ewald). Jon. iv. 11, Should I
not spare
Hab.
ii. 19, Shall it teach? Zech. viii. 6,
Should it also be mar-
velous
in my eyes? Mal. ii. 15, And did not he
make one?
Job
ii. 9, Dost thou still retain thy integrity?
ii. 10, Shall we re-
ceive
good? x. 9, And wilt thou bring me into
dust again? xiv. 3,
Dost
thou open thy eyes? xxxvii. 18, Hast
thou with him spread
out
the sky? xxxvii. 18, Hast thou perceived
the breadth of
the
earth? xxxix. 2, canst thou number the
months? xli. 1,
Canst
thou draw out Nathan? Lam. 1. 12, Is it
nothing to you,
all
ye that pass by? iii. 38, Out of the
mouth of the most high
proceedeth
not evil and good? Neh. v. 7, Do ye
exact usury
everyone
of his brothet ?
In view of the exegetical problems which
are involved in the
interpretation
of this verse, the Versions, both ancient and
modern
are of unusual interest. The following
may be cited
I.
The Greek Septuagint: And God (o[
qeo<j)
spake to Moses
and
said to him: I am (the) Lord (ku<rioj) and he appeared
to
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, being their God, and my name
ku<rioj I manifested not to
them.
2.
The Latin Vulgate: And spake the
Lord (Dominus) to
Moses,
saying: I am the Lord who appeared to
Abraham, Isaac
and
Jacob, as (in) omnipotent God, and my name Adonai I did
not
show (indicavi) to them.
3.
The Targum of Onkelos: And spake
Jehovah with Moses
and
said to him: I am Jehovah, and I was
revealed to Abraham,
to
Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty (ydw lxb) and my name
Jehovah
I did not make known (tyfdvx) to them.
4. The Targum of Pseudo- Jonathan: And Jehovah spake
with
Moses and said to him: "I am Jehovah who revealed him
self
unto thee in the midst of the bush and said to thee, I am
Jehovah,
and I revealed myself to Abraham, to Isaac, and Jacob
as
an Almighty God. (ydw lxb) and my name Jehovah, but as
the
face of my Shekina (ytnykw ypxb) I was not made known
to
them.
5.
The Peshito: And spake the Lord
(Moryo) with Moses
and
said to him: I am the Lord and I
appeared to Abraham
and
to Isaac and to Jacob as the God El Shaddai (xhlx ydw
lyxb)
and
the name of the Lord I did not show to them.
NOTES AND NOTICES 119
6.
The Samaritan Hebrew text agrees with the Hebrew, ex-
cept
that it has Jehovah instead of God in verse 2, reads hxrxv
instead
of xrxv
in verse 3, and adds Wau (and) after Abra-
ham.
7.
The Samaritan Targum is a literal rendering of the He-
brew.
8.
The Arabic of Saadya: Then spake
God to Moses and said
to
him: I am God who named myself to
Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob
as the Mighty, the Sufficient, and my name is God.
9. The English version: And God spake unto Moses and
said
unto him: I am the Lord (RV, Jehovah) and I appeared
unto
Abraham and unto Isaac and unto Jacob by the
name of
(RV,
as) God Almighty; but by (RV, or ''as to") my name
Jehovah
was I (RV I was) not known (RV or made
known)
unto
them.
10.
The Dutch translation: Then spake
God unto Moses and
said
unto him: I am the Lord and I appeared
to Abraham, Isaac
and
Jacob as God the Almighty; but by my name Lord I was not
known
to them.
11.
Luther's German version: And God
spake with Moses
and
said unto him: I am the Lord and I appeared to Abraham,
Isaac,
and Jacob that I would be their Almighty God but my
name
Lord was not revealed to them.
On the basis of the investigation of the
verse given above the
writer
would suggest the following renderings:
And God spake
unto
Moses and said unto him; I am Jehovah and I appeared
unto
Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob in the character of
the
God of Might (or, mighty God) and in the character of my
name
Jehovah I did not make myself known unto them.
Or, if
the
last part of the verse is to be regarded as a question, the
rendering
should be: And in the character of my name Jehovah
did
I not make myself known unto them?
Either of these sug-
gested
translations will bring this verse into entire harmony
with
the rest of the Pentateuch.
Consequently, it is unfair and
illogical
to use a forced translation of Exodus vi. 3 in support
of
a theory that would destroy the unity of authorship and the
Mosaic
origin of the Pentateuch.