Forlong - Rivers of Life

524
Abraham, say 1900 B.C.
Samuel ,, 1100 ,,
Septuagint ,, 3d century ,,
Rivers of Life, or Faiths of Man in all Lands.
fÚsij from fÝw.” Thus the conclusion arrived at is, that though the Jews changed the
name of their principal deity from Elohim to Yahveh about the seventh century B.C., yet
the idea expressed was only a little more Solar, and less Phallic or generative. From a
Phenician inscription, which Mr Heath calls “The Carpenters,” we observe that a
priest—Ta-ha-pi—of “Osiris Eloh,” when seeking the divine blessing on his child, calls
the great god Osiris Eloh, which was the very name given by the ten tribes to the
god of the two tribes. “Jehovah Eloh, 1 in the version used by Ephraim, corresponds
to Jehovah Elohim in that used by Judah and by ourselves:” so that Osiris-Eloh, and
Jahveh or Jehovah Eloh, are precisely the same, Eloh merely meaning a god, whilst the
prefix Osiris or Jahveh denotes his nationality. Accordingly, we find that
With the two Tribes, “Thy God” was Eloh-ik
,, ten ,, ,, ,, Elohim-ek.
,, two ,, “Our God” ,, Eloh-i-nu.
,, ten ,, ,, ,, Eloh-nu 1
The natural inference, then is, that from Abraham to Samuel the tribal god
was Eloh, but as there were several, then that Elohim was the common term used;
that from Samuel to Ezra, and to 250 B.C., or the life-
time of those who wrote the Old Testament Scriptures in
the Spirit of Ezra, the tribes too to an intensely personal
Jahveh who could not only “hear and see,” but “eat and
smell.” 2 In the second century B.C., as education advanced,
this Jahveh became a spiritual but still very personal
god; and his solarisms decreased, except in the matter of temple rites, sacrifices and
vestments. Another conclusion from the above is, that the Jews had no Jehovah for
3,300 years, and that they then rejected their “first love”—Eloh and Elohim—to follow
this new god or form of Sun-God. The disruption of the ten from the two tribes,
or rather the heresy of the latter, very probably brought about the quarrel which
took place in the days of Nehemiah. It was natural that the ten tribes should oppose
the rebuilding of the Hebron shrine by those who no longer spoke only of Eloim,
Helo-him or Elohim, and therefore Christianity owes much of its God and God-ideas
to Phenicians and Samaritans. All this strengthens the argmnent as to the God Christ
called upon being Elohim..
In regard to Rephaim meaning “giants,” we know that aboriginal races often went
by this name; they were called gorgons, imps, fiends, &c., and in India, “fierce monkey
tribes.” The Syrian aborigines clung longest to the valley which runs from Jerusalem
to Bethlehem, but Rephaim also dwelt in a valley N.W. of the capital, and on the adjoining
high bare “commons” or wild heath lands, where no doubt they long levied
black mail and were much feared. The writer of Joshua calls them giants and connects
their place with Hinnom, 3 famous for its fire rites and sacrifices; but in xviii. 16,
1 Phen. Inscrip., p. 93 and see Gen. iii. 21.
2 Strongly expressed in Deut. iv. 28 and elsewhere.
3 Josh xv. 8. This was the western seat of the
Empire of Kepheus of pre-Noachian days. [NIV
leaves Rephaim untranslated here. — T.S.]