If Moses and the Jews held the doctrine of the Trinity, and the word _Elohim_ imports _plurality_, it is natural to ask, How comes it to pass that the Septuagint version renders the plural name Elohim, when used for the true God, by the singular one <<Theos>>, and never by the plural <<Theoi>>? The learned Ridley,[12] after Allix, has answered this question. He says, "The Talmudists own that the LXXII Interpreters did purposely change the notion of _plurality_ implied in the Hebrew _Elohim_ into the Greek singular, lest Ptolemy Philadelphus should conclude that the Jews, as well as himself, had a belief of Polytheism." And Bishop Huntingford adds, "Of all the Greek appellations of Divinity, <<Theos>> was the only simple and direct term which they could adopt, to counteract idolatrous misconceptions."
This phraseology, as to its signification, is not peculiar to Moses, but is used by the other sacred writers also, and exactly accords with the whole tenor of Divine revelation. The creation of the world is ascribed to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as joint, concurring, equal, and efficient causes thereof, in the Scriptures. It will not surely be presuming too much, says Bishop Huntingford, if we suppose Joshua and Solomon to be more deeply instructed in the Jewish Religion, than to be capable of using improper language respecting the Deity. Yet the former says, "Ye cannot serve the Lord: for he is the Holy Gods;" and the latter says, "The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom; and the knowledge of the Holies is understanding."[13] Such is the phraseology of the Hebrew text. In these passages, and others that might be produced, the word in the Hebrew is in the plural number, because of the _plurality_ of persons in the Godhead; but in our translation it is in the _singular_ number, because of the unity of their essence.
But more particularly. The creation of the world is ascribed to JEHOVAH: "I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded. I am the Lord that maketh all things, that stretcheth forth the heavens alone, that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself." He had no _moving causes_ exciting him to create matter and produce a universe, but his own will, goodness, wisdom, and power. He created all things himself, without the assistance of _any instruments_. The prophet ascribes to God alone the framing and stretching out of the heavens and the earth without the counsel, direction, or ministry of any subordinate agency. "Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with a span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and showed to him the way of understanding?" He created all things without any _toil_, _labor_, _change_, or _alteration_ in himself. There was not in him any transition from rest to labor, from idleness to business, from strength to weariness. Though "every good and perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights," yet "with him there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." The Prophet says, "Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?" And he proceeded in the work of creation without _any delay_: it was not a successive forming of things by alteration, which required much time to render them perfect, but was as in a moment, as quickly and readily as a word is spoken, produced in the rapid succession as recorded by Moses. This work then God is said to have done _alone_, to the exclusion, not of the Son and the Spirit, but of all that are not God by nature; and by himself, to the exclusion of all second causes or inferior agents.