The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 3 of 4: The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and PhilosophyBlavatsky, H. P. (Helena Petrovna)
Religion
The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 3 of 4: The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy
Blavatsky, H. P. (Helena Petrovna)
Theosophy
A learned Western Kabalist, Mr. S. L. MacGregor Mathers, whose reasoning
and conclusions will be the more above suspicion since he is untrained in
Eastern Philosophy and unacquainted with its Secret Teachings, writes on
the first verse of _Genesis_ in an unpublished essay:
_Berashith Bara_ Elohim—“In the beginning the Elohim created!” Who
are these Elohim of _Genesis_?
_Va‐Yivra Elohim Ath Ha‐Adam Be‐Tzalmo, Be‐Tzelem Elohim Bara
Otho, Zakhar Vingebah Bara Otham_—“And the Elohim created the Adam
in Their own Image, in the Image of the Elohim created They them,
Male and Female created They them!” Who are they, the Elohim? The
ordinary English translation of the _Bible_ renders the word
Elohim by “God:” it translates a _plural_ noun by a _singular_
one. The only excuse brought forward for this is the somewhat lame
one that the word is certainly plural, but is not to be used in a
plural sense: that it is “a plural denoting excellence.” But this
is only an assumption whose value may be justly gauged by
_Genesis_ i. 26, translated in the orthodox Biblical version thus:
“And God [Elohim] said, ‘Let us make man in our own image, after
our likeness.’ ” Here is a distinct admission of the fact that
“Elohim” is _not_ a “plural of excellence,” but a plural noun
denoting more than one being.(387)
What, then, is the proper translation of “Elohim,” and to whom is
it referable? “Elohim” is not only a plural, but a _feminine
plural_! And yet the translators of the _Bible_ have rendered it
by a _masculine singular_! Elohim is the plural of the feminine
noun El‐h, for the final letter, ‐h, marks the gender. It,
however, instead of forming the plural in ‐oth, takes the usual
termination of the masculine plural, which is ‐im.
Although in the great majority of cases the nouns of both genders
take the terminations appropriated to them respectively, there are
yet many masculines which form the plural in ‐oth, as well as
feminine which form it in ‐im while some nouns of each gender take
alternately both. It must be observed, however, that the
termination of the plural does not affect its gender, which
remains the same as in the singular....
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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