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Elmo's Fire (St.). Comazants, or electric lights occasionally seen on the masts of ships before and
after a storm; so called by the Spaniards because St. Elmo is with them the patron saint of sailors. (See
Castor And Pollux.)
"Sudden, breaking on their raptured sight,
Appeared the splendour of St. Elmo's light."
Hoole: Orlando
Furioso, book ix. Elohim The genus of which ghosts, Chemosh, Dagon, Baal, Jahveh, etc., were species.
The ghost or spectre which appeared to Saul (1 Sam. xxviii. 14-20) is called Elohim. "I see Elohim
coming up out of the earth," said the witch; and Saul asked, "What is HE like?" (Huxley: Nineteenth Century,
March, 1886.)
"The word Elohim is often applied in the Bible to the gods of the Gentiles." - Lenormant: Beginnings of
History, chap. vii. In theology, Elohim (the plural of Eloah) means the "Lord of Hosts," or Lord of all power
and might. Jehovah signifies rather the God of mercy and forgiveness. Hence, Elohim is used to express
the God of creation, but Jehovah the God of the covenant of mercy.
"Elohim designates the fulness of Divine power." - Religious Encyclopædia. Elohistic and Jehovistic
Scriptures. The Pentateuch is supposed by Bishop Colenso and many others to have been written
at two widely different periods, because God is invariably called Elohim in some paragraphs, while in
others He is no less invariably called Jehovah. The Elohistic paragraphs, being more simple, more primitive,
more narrative, and more pastoral, are said to be the older; while the Jehovistic paragraphs indicate
a knowledge of geography and history, seem to exalt the priestly office, and are altogether of a more
elaborate character. Those who maintain this theory think that some late transcriber has compiled the
two Scriptures and combined them into one, much the same as if the four Gospels were collated and
welded together into a single one. To give one or two examples: - Gen. i. 27, it is said, "So God (Elohim)
created man in His own image, (both) male and female"; whereas, in the next chapter (21-24), it is
said that God (Jehovah) caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and that He then took from the sleeping
man a rib and made it a woman; and therefore (says the writer) a man shall cleave unto his wife, and
the two be considered one flesh. Again (Gen. vi. 19) Elohim tells Noah, "Two of every sort shalt thou
bring into the ark, a male and a female"; and (vii. 9) "There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark,
the male and the female, as God (Elohim) commanded Noah." In Gen. vii. 2 Jehovah tells Noah he is
to make a distinction between clean and unclean beasts, and that he is to admit the former by sevens
and the latter by twos. In the first example, the priestly character is indicated by the moral, and in the
latter by the distinction made between clean and unclean animals. We pass no opinion on this theory,
but state it as fairly as we can in a few lines.
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