So doth Philo express their sense, De Confusione Linguarum: Kay pnderw wevror ruyxavn rig aEsixpews dv vibe sol rpoowyopereodas, omovdale xoomsiobas xard roy mpwréyovoy aurod Adbyov, rv Hyyerov mpeotb- rarov we apydyyerov ToAuwvumoy Lrcpyovrar Kal yop apn, nol bvome Osod, xe) Abyos, nal 6 nur’ eixéva cvOpwmos, nul dpory ‘lopanrh wpoocuyopeveras— “Tf any be not yet worthy to be called the son of God, yet en- deavour thou to be conformed unto his first-begotten Word, the most ancient angel, the archangel with many names; for he is called the
218 APPEARANCES OF THE SON OF GOD [EXERC. x.
Beginning, the Name of God, the Man according to the image of God, the Seer of Israel”’ How suitably these things are spoken unto the mysteries revealed in the Gospel shall elsewhere be de- clared. Here I only observe how he calls that Angel which ap- peared unto the fathers, and that sometimes in human shape, the Word, “The first-begotten Word.” And he expresseth himself again to the same purpose: Kal y&p of wjrw inavod Ocod ratdes vouiCeodou yeyovawev, AKG For THs Kidiov Eixévog aUTOU, Adyou rod lepwrdrov, Osod yap cindy Abyos 6 xpeoCirarog:-— For if we are not yet meet to be called the sons of God, let us be so of his eternal image, the most sacred Word; for that most ancient Word is the image of God.” How these things answer the discourses of our apostle about Jesus Christ, Col. i. 15-18, Heb. i. 3, is easily discerned. And this conception of theirs was so far approved by the Holy Ghost, as suitable unto the mind of God, that John in the beginning of his Gospel, declar- ing the eternal deity of Christ, doth it under this name of 6 Aéyog, “the Word,” that is, "1 19", “the Word of God:” “The Word was with God, and the Word was God,” John i. 1. For as he alludeth therein to the story of the first creation, wherein God is described as making all things by his word; for he said of every thing, “ Let it be,” and it was made; (as the psalmist expresseth it, “ He spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast,” Ps. xxxiii. 9: which he fully declares, verse 6, “ By the word of the LorD were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth:” in answer whereunto John teacheth that all things were made by this Word of God whereof he speaks, chap. i. 8: which in the Chaldee is elsewhere also assigned unto this Word, where mention is not made of it in the original, as Isa. xlv. 12, and chap. xlviii. 13; whence it is in like manner expressed by Peter, 2 Epist. 111. 5 ;)—so he might have respect unto that ascription of the work of the redemp- tion of the church to this Word of the Lord which was admitted in the church of the Jews. That place, amongst others, is express to this purpose, Hos. i. 7, where the words of the prophet, “I will save them by the Lorp their God,” are rendered by the Targum- ist, PATON ™ SDI pprDN;—“ 1 will save” (or “redeem”) “ them by the Word of the Lord their God ;” the Word, the Redeemer. And it is not unworthy of consideration, that as the wisest and most contemplative of the philosophers of old had many notions about 6 Aéyos adidsos, “the eternal Word,’ which was unto them dbvame ris ons uricswg romrimy, “the formative or creative power of the universe,’—to which purpose many sayings have been observed, and might be reported, out of Plato, with his followers, Amelius, Chal- cidius, Proclus, Plotinus, and others; whose expressions are imitated by our own writers, as Justin Martyr, Clemens, Athenagoras, Tatian, and many more;—so among the Mohammedans themselves:
SECT. 3.] UNDER THE OLD TESTAMENT. 219
this is the name that in their Koran they give unto Jesus, nbs noox,—“ The Word of God.” So prevalent hath this notion of the Son of God been in the world. And as these words, Ezek. i. 24, “TI heard the voice of their wings, “IdipD ,’ “as the voice of the Almighty,” are rendered by the Targumist, sw Dp }9 xdpo, “as the voice from the face of the Almighty,”—which what it is shall be afterwards shown,—so some copies of the LX X. render them by QuvAv rot Adyou, “ the voice of the Word,” that is, of God, who was represented in that vision, as shall be manifested.
Some would put another sense on that expression of the Tar- gumists, as though it intended nothing but God himself. And in- stances of the use of it in that sense have been observed: as, Eccles. viii, 17, “If a wise man say nbn 03,” “in his word,’—that is, say in himself; Gen. vi. 6, “It repented the Lorp n>p ‘93,’ “in his word.” Also, Ruth iii 8 is urged to give countenance unto this suspicion: “As did Phaltiel the son of Laish, who placed his sword Siew na Ss pa “pn pr,” “between his word and Michal the daughter of Saul, the wife of David.” But,—(1.) The former places use not the word 7», which is peculiar unto the sense contended for; (2.) The Targums on the Hagiographa are a late post-Talmudical endeavour, made in imitation of those of Onkelos and Ben Uzziel, when the Jews had lost both all sense of their old traditions and use of the Chaldee language, any other than what they learned from those former paraphrases. Nothing, therefore, can hence be concluded as to the intention of the Targumists in these words. And they can have no other sense in that of Psalm cx. 1, "7s myn'n2 ;—“ The Lor said in” (or “ to”) “his Word,” for, “to my Lord,” as in the original.