n attempt to
give a grammatical expression to that plurality in unity indicated by
the appearance of the Spirit or breath of God and his Word, or
manifested will and power, as distinct agents in the succeeding
verses. This was probably always held by the Hebrews in a general
form; and was by our Saviour and his apostles specialized in that
trinitarian doctrine which enables both John and Paul explicitly to
assert the agency of the second person of the Trinity in the creative
work.

This elementary trinitarian idea of the first chapter of Genesis may
be further stated thus: The name Elohim expresses the absolute
unconditioned will and reason--the Godhead. The manifestation of God
in creative power, and in the framing and ordering of the cosmos, is
represented by the formula "God said"--the equivalent of the Divine
Word. The further manifestation of God in love of and sympathy with
his work is represented by the Breath of God, and by the expression,
"God saw that it was good"--operations these of the Divine Spirit.

The aboriginal root of the word Elohim probably lies far back of the
Semitic literature, and comes from the natural exclamations "al,"
"lo," "la," which arise from the spontaneous action of the human vocal
organs in the presence of any object of awe or wonder. The plural form
may in like manner be simply equivalent to our terms Godhead or
Divinity, implying all that is essentially God without specification
or distinction of personalities. As Dr. Tayler Lewis well remarks in
his "Introduction to Genesis," we should not dismiss such plurals as
mere _usus loquendi_. The plural form of the name of God, of the
heavens (literally, the "heights"), of the _olamim_, or time-worlds,
of the word for life in Genesis (lives), indicates an idea of vastness
and diversity not measurable by speech, which must have been impressed
on the minds of early men, otherwise these forms would not have
arisen. God, heaven, time, life, were to them existences stretching
outward to infinity, and not to be denoted by the bare singular form
suitable to ordinary objects.

Fairly regarding, then, this ancient form of words, we may hold it as
a clear, concise, and accurate enunciation of an ultimate doctrine of
the origin of things, which with all our increased knowledge of the
history of the earth we are not in a position to replace with any
thing better or more probable. On the other hand, this sublime dogma
of creation leaves us perfectl