created things. (17) The Jews maintain, for this reason, that this is,
strictly speaking, the only name of God; that the rest of the words used are
merely titles; and, in truth, the other names of God, whether they be
substantives or adjectives, are merely attributive, and belong to Him, in
so far as He is conceived of in relation to created things, or manifested
through them. (18) Thus El, or Eloah, signifies powerful, as is well known,
and only applies to God in respect to His supremacy, as when we call Paul an
apostle; the faculties of his power are set forth in an accompanying
adjective, as El, great, awful, just, merciful, &c., or else all are
understood at once by the use of El in the plural number, with a singular
signification, an expression frequently adopted in Scripture.

(19) Now, as God tells Moses that He was not known to the patriarchs by the
name of Jehovah, it follows that they were not cognizant of any attribute of
God which expresses His absolute essence, but only of His deeds and promises
that is, of His power, as manifested in visible things. (20) God does not
thus speak to Moses in order to accuse the patriarchs of infidelity, but,
on the contrary, as a means of extolling their belief and faith, inasmuch
as, though they possessed no extraordinary knowledge of God (such as
Moses had), they yet accepted His promises as fixed and certain; whereas
Moses, though his thoughts about God were more exalted, nevertheless doubted
about the Divine promises, and complained to God that, instead of the
promised deliverance, the prospects of the Israelites had darkened.

(21) As the patriarchs did not know the distinctive name of God, and as God
mentions the fact to Moses, in praise of their faith and single-heartedness,
and in contrast to the extraordinary grace granted to Moses, it follows, as
we stated at first, that men are not bound by, decree to have knowledge of
the attributes of God, such knowledge being only granted to a few of the
faithful: it is hardly worth while to quote further examples from Scripture,