same
Great Being who is called simply Elohim by the older writer, and notably
in the first account of the creation."(40)

40) Lectures on the Pentateuch and the Moabite Stone, p. 7.

We are informed by Bunsen that El, or Elohim, comprehends the true
significance of the Deity among all the Aramaic or Canaanitish races,
El representing the abstract principle taken collectively, Elohim
pertaining to the separate elements as Creator, Preserver, and
Regenerator. Each of these Canaanitish races had inherited these ideas
from their fathers, and, although they had become grossly idolatrous,
"Moses knew, and educated Israelites remained a long time conscious,
that they used them not merely in their real but in their most ancient
sense."(41) Maurice and other writers call attention to the fact that
Moses himself uses this word Elohim with verbs and adjectives in the
plural. That the God worshipped by the more ancient peoples, namely
Aleim, or Elohim, the same who said, "Let us make man in our image," was
not the Lord adored at a later age by the Jews, is a fact which at the
present time seems to be clearly proven; that it constituted, however,
the dual or triune unity venerated by all the nations on the globe of
which we have any record, appears to be well established.

41) Bunsen, History of Egypt, vol. iv., p. 421.

We have seen that although the two sex-principles which underlie Nature
constituted the Creator, the ancients thought of it only as one and
indivisible. This indivisible aspect was the sacred Iav, the Holy
of Holies. When it was contemplated in its individual aspect it was
Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer, each of which was female and male.

The difficulty of the ancients in establishing a First Cause seems to
have been exactly the same as is ours at the present time. When we say
there must have been a God who created all things, the question at once
arises, Who created God? According to their theories, nothing could be
brought forth without the interaction of two creative principles, female
and male; yet everything, even these principles, must proceed from an
indivisible energy--an energy which, as the idea of the sex functions
became more and more clearly defined, could not be contemplated except
in its dual aspect. So soon, therefore, as the Great First Cause was
separated into its elements, a still higher power was immediately
stationed above it as its Creator. This Creator was designated