Article November 21, 1942 Issue

Bible Notes

[The Biblical citations given in the Christian Science Quarterly are from the Authorized King James Version. The Bible Notes in these columns 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 6, 1942.]

"All the gods of the nations are idols" (Ps. 96:5)—The word translated "idols" is "elilim," which has the literal meaning of "nothingnesses" or, as the margin of the Revised Version puts it, "things of nought." It may well be that, as scholars contend, there is a play upon words intended in the original: "All the gods (elohim) of the nations are things of nought (elilim)."

"The Lord of hosts" (Isa. 44:6)—The exact significance of this phrase, which is found more than two hundred and eighty times in the Old Testament, is not entirely certain, though David's statement that he came "in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel" (I Sam. 17:45) would seem to suggest that when God is called "the Lord of hosts" He is conceived of by the Hebrews as the true leader and guide of the forces of Israel. Elsewhere, however, as Dr. Hastings suggests, the "hosts" referred to would seem to be "the spiritual forces which stand at God's disposal."

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