CHAPTER X.
ARGUMENT FROM THE DOCTRINE OF ANGELS.
The facts on which our argument is based are mainly the
passages in Job which refer to 'sons of Elohim' (or better, as
Davidson, 'of the Elohim'), to 'the Satan,' and to the mal'akim.
The first of these three phrases means probably inferior
members of the class of beings called Elohim (i.e. 'superhuman
powers'); the second, 'the adversary (or opposer);'
the third, 'envoys or messengers' ([Greek: angeloi]). We may at
once draw an inference from the expression 'the Satan,' the
full importance of which will be seen later on. 'The Satan'
being an appellative, the book in which it occurs was probably
written before Chronicles, where we find 'Satan' without the
article, almost[1] as if a proper name; and being applied to a
minister and not an opponent of Jehovah, the Book of Job
is probably earlier than the prophecies of Zechariah and the
Books of Chronicles; see Zech. iii. 1, 2 (where observe that
Jehovah's only true representative gives a severe reproof to
'the Satan'), 1 Chron. xxi. 1 (where 'Satan,' uncommissioned,
'entices' David to an act displeasing to Jehovah[2]). The difference
between the notices of the Satan (or Satan) may not
seem great to an unpractised student, but no one who has
followed the development of any single doctrine will undervalue
such traces of a growing refinement in the conceptions
of good and evil. Whether or no the ideas of the Chronicler
- ↑ It is not likely that Satan was ever used entirely as a proper name; but being frequently in men's mouths, it naturally lost the article. At last the name Sammael was invented for the arch-Satan (see above).
- ↑ In 2 Sam. xxiv. 1, the temptation is ascribed to Jehovah; the Chronicler is at any rate on the road to James i. 13. Contrast the stationariness of Mohammed ('God misleadeth whom He will,' Korán, xxxv. 9).
