But pure and holy as are each of these aspects of deity in the Mosaic conception, still no race could be trusted to preserve them in their purity, unless they were seen to be different aspects of one eternal fact. Hear, O Israël, the deliverer from bondage is One. The same idea is expressed in a lovely old lullaby hymn, in which, five times over, the name Saviour is given to the grouping of the three attributes, "Elohim," "Adonai," and "King" (or Orderer, or Organizer). By some Christian theologians, strange to say, not only are the three aspects of the God-idea made into three individuals,[1] three real personalities, but one of these personalities alone is considered to be the Saviour; and that one was manifested in human shape to avert the wrath of another.
Nothing, however, could be clearer than that each of the three principal facets of the God-idea is distinctly traceable in the Hebrew Scriptures; and Jewish theologians might gracefully make the admission that, in that respect, Christians have seen something in their sacred books which most of themselves have missed. But, though individual rabbis may have failed to detect the use made in the Pentateuch of the old Trinity-Myth, the Synagogue ritual still enshrines it. Not only is the triple Kadosh a recognition of the threefoldness of religious emotion; but each aspect of the God-idea receives its special and appropriate greeting. It would be impossible to convey to Jews, accustomed from infancy to their worship, any notion of the impression made on a Christian visitor by the difference in the tone of the three strains interwoven in it:—The homage of
- ↑ Persona means a mask, not an individual.
