Article November 29, 1941 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. The Notes in this issue are related to the Lesson-Sermon designated to be read in Christian Science churches on December 7, 1941.]

"God ... formed the earth ... he created it not in vain" (Isa. 45:18)—The literal meaning of the Hebrew term which is here rendered "in vain" (and "without form" in the description of the earth given in Genesis 1:2) is "formlessness, emptiness, unreality, confusion, waste or chaos;" thought it was sometimes used adverbially to mean "emptily" or "to no purpose."

"There is none else" (Isa. 46:9)—It is significant that the Hebrew phrase which is thus translated both here and in numerous other Old Testament passages, particularly in the book of Isaiah, can be translated either, "There is none (that is, 'no one') else," or, even more strongly, "There is nothing else."

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