236 



LETTERS ON TREES. 



Note B— Letter XYIII., page 193. 



With regard to the exegetical question referred to in tlie 

 foot-note, one or two additional remarks may be made here. 

 And first, the late Professor Lee of Cambridge, in his Lexicon^ 

 under the head of the Hebrew word EloMm^ observes " It 

 has been supposed occasionally to signify Angels^ but there is 

 no real necessity for this," — adding, in a foot-note, that — 

 " The Jewish commentators and translators of the Scriptures, 

 as well as their Samaritan neighbours, filled as they were with 

 metaphysical notions of the Deity (which Dr Genesius terms 

 puriores) have constantly had recourse to this interpretation, 

 whenever the appearance of God was mentioned in the Scrip- 

 tures." Again, in several parts of the Bible, the Divine pre- 

 sence is associated with that of Angelic presence : — Compare, 

 for example, Exod. iii. 2 with Exod. iii. 4, 6, 7, 11, 13, and, 

 particularly, 14, and with Acts vii. 30, 31, 32, 33, and 35 ; 

 and, again, Acts vii. 38 with Exod. xix. 3. Further, as is 

 maintained by the Eev. J. G. Wright, it might be shewn, 

 from a consideration of the context and the general scope of 

 the argument, that St Paul's meaning, in his reference to the 

 eighth Psalm in Heb. il. 7, although he uses the word Angels 

 (herein following the Septuagint version, as our translators 

 have done), is intelligible only when the word angels is used 

 in its highest sense, e. the primary and proper sense of 

 Elohim, The Apostle's object is to shew the superiority of our 

 Lord Jesus Christ, in his hi; man nature, over the nature of 

 Angels, and this he does by shewing the superiority of mans 

 nature. 



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