ECCLESIASTICAL INSTITUTIONS. 209 



Calmly assuming, as if there was no doubt about 

 it, that Jahveh " was originally one god among 

 many the god who became supreme," who from 

 being "originally a local potentate " came to be 

 considered " a local god ' the God of Israel,' " 

 Mr. Spencer adds, " The command, ' Thou shalt 

 have none other gods but Me,' did not imply that 

 there were none, but that the Israelites were not to 

 recognize their authority." And yet we do not 

 believe that Mr. Spencer is consciously dishonest 

 He is only blinded by his prepossession in favour 

 of an a priori assumption, which requires that the 

 monotheistic idea should only gradually emerge. 

 Whatever traces of idolatry there may be, and 

 there are many, and whether that idolatry was a 

 survival, or a revival, or an importation, all the 

 authoritative teaching is on the side of the truth 

 of One only God. The phrase the " God of Israel " 

 expresses, not the existence of other gods, but the 

 unique relationship in which the Hebrews believed 

 themselves to stand towards the One God. To 

 argue that the mention of other gods is an 

 admission that they were really gods, though 

 inferior to Jahveh, is to lay one's self open to 

 a reductio ad absurdum. Even the passage which 

 Mr. Spencer quotes from the Song of Moses is 

 interpreted a few verses later 1 by Moses him- 

 self, when he says, "They have moved me to 



1 Deut, xxxi. 21. 



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