eive the spirit as a personal being, and place him beside God
as an angel.

The prophets and psalmists, feeling the spirit of God upon them,
considered it an emanation of the Deity. Still, a profounder insight soon
disapproved the severance of the Spirit of God from God himself, as if He
were not altogether _spirit_. Therefore the accepted term came to be the
_Holy Spirit_.(606) In this form, however, his personality became more
distinct and his separate existence more defined. Henceforth he is the
messenger of God, performing miracles or causing them, speaking in the
place of God, or defending His people Israel. Nay, more, the Holy Spirit
is supposed to have dictated the words of Scripture to the sacred writers,
and to have inspired the Men of the Great Synagogue in collecting the
sacred writings into a canon.(607)

Moreover, the workings of the Holy Spirit continued long after the
completion of the Biblical canon. All the chief institutions of the
Synagogue originally claimed that they were prompted by the Holy Spirit,
resting upon the leaders of the community. This claim was basic to the
authority of tradition and the continuity of the authority of Jewish lore.
It seems, however, that certain abuses were caused by miracle-workers who
disseminated false doctrines under the alleged inspiration of the Holy
Spirit. Therefore the rabbis restricted such claims to ancient times and
insisted more strongly than ever upon the preservation of the traditional
lore. For a time a substitute was found in the _Bath Kol_ ("Echo" or
"Whisper of a heavenly voice"), but this also was soon discredited by the
schools.(608) Obviously the rabbis desired to avert the deification of
either the Holy Spirit or the Word. Sound common sense was their norm for
interpreting the truth of the divine revelation. In other words, they
relied on God alone as the living force in the development of Judaism.

6. But some sort of mediation was ascribed to several other spiritual
forces. First, the _Name_ of God often takes the place of God
himself.(609) When the name of the Deity was called over some hallowed
spot, the worshipers felt that the presence of God also was bound up with
the sacred place.(610)

"My name is in him," says God of the angel whom He sends to lead the
people.(611) The invocation of the name was believed to have an actual
influence upon the Deity. Furthermore, since God is frequently represented
as swearing by His own name,(612) this