Article June 1, 1940 Issue

Bible Notes

[The Biblical citations given in the Christian Science Quarterly are from the Authorized King James Version. The Bible Notes in this column can be used, if deemed necessary, to elucidate some of the words or passages contained in the Bible Lessons.]

"There is none else" (Isa. 46:9)—The Hebrew phrase which is thus translated in this verse, and in a number of other Old Testament passages, especially in the book of Isaiah, can be rendered either, "There is none (i.e., no one) else," or simply, "There is nothing else."

"Mind idol ... my graven image, and my molten image" (Isa. 48:5)—The Hebrew word rendered "idol" occurs nowhere else in the Old Testament, and it means literally "that which is shaped or fashioned." The "pesel," or "graven image," was properly an idol of wood, stone, or even metal, "hewn" or "carved" into shape; while the "nesek," or "molten image" (literally, "that which is poured out"), was so called because it was made by pouring liquid metal into a mold.

"When I call unto them, they stand up together" (Isa. 48:13)—Moffatt suggests the rendering: "Whenever I call them, they answer to the summons;" while the Septuagint had: "I will call them, and they shall stand together."

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