This second root is in harmony with the teaching of the Scriptures,

that for the purpose of Redemption, God the Creator enters into covenant

relationship with His creatures, which covenant necessitated the assumption

of such titles as 'The Word' and 'The Image', and is seen in actual operation

at the creation of man, where 'God said, Let Us make man'.

'It is this relation of the Absolute to the creature that constitutes

the peculiar significance of the name Jehovah ... the application of

this name to Jesus Christ, which the writers of the New Testament  do

not scruple to make is a pregnant and unanswerable proof of His

absolute Divinity' (Thornwell).

The Hebrew word Ed means 'witness', and is the word used in Isaiah

43:10 where the Lord says of Israel, 'Ye are My witnesses'.  Israel have for

centuries seen themselves as witnesses to the fact that there is One God, and

this is demonstrated by a curious feature of calligraphy.  If we open any

Hebrew Bible at Deuteronomy 6:4, we shall observe that two Hebrew letters are

larger than the rest, and so stand out on the page.  These two letters are E

and D.  The sentence which is thus marked, reads in the A.V.:

'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord'.

The order of the Hebrew words is a trifle different from the English, reading

'Hear, O Israel, Jehovah, our God, Jehovah one'.

The word translated 'hear' is shamE, the word translated 'one' is

echaD, and it is these two final letters E and D which spell out the word

'witness' and which show how keenly the Hebrew people felt concerning the

nature and substance of their peculiar testimony.  This witness finds a

justification in the words of Isaiah which read:

'Ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord, and My servant whom I have

chosen: that ye may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He: before

Me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after Me.  I, even I, am

the Lord; and beside Me there is no Saviour' (Isa. 43:10,11).

'Ye are even My witnesses.  Is there a God beside Me? yea, there is no

God; I know not any' (Isa. 44:8).

These words are pregnant with meaning, and their consequences are far -

reaching.  We shall have to weigh them in the balances of the Sanctuary, and

pray that we may make no false step and draw no false conclusion.  Before we

are in the position to do this, we must make some attempt to define our

It is affirmed by some students of the Scriptures that Christ is 'the

Word of Jehovah'.  This does not go far enough.  We believe that the

Scripture teaches that Christ Is Jehovah.  It is affirmed by many, that

Christ was begotten of the Father before time began.  The passage from Isaiah

just cited makes Jehovah declare, 'Before Me there was no God formed'.  A

number of believers accept the translation of John 1:1 as being 'The Word was

A God'.  We hope to show that this is an impossible translation, but at the

moment we place the words, 'The Word was A God' over against 'Before Me there