Footnote

After making partial quotations from the above book by James Bruce, Calmet’s Dictionary of The Holy Bible goes on to say:

“On the use of this officer, Mr. Bruce gives several striking instances: in particular, one on the trial of a rebel, when the king, by his Kal Hatzè, asked a question, by which his guilt was effectually demonstrated. It appears, then, that the king of Abyssinia makes inquiry, gives his opinion, and declares his will by a deputy, a go-between, a middle-man, called ‘his WORD.’ Assuming for a moment that this was a Jewish custom, we see to what the ancient Jewish paraphrasts referred by their term, ‘Word of JEHOVAH,’ instead of JEHOVAH himself; and the idea was familiar to their recollection, and to that of their readers: a no less necessary consideration than that of their own recollection. . . . Shall we not, hereafter, acquit the evangelists from adopting the mythological conceptions of Plato? Rather, did not Plato adopt eastern language? and is not the custom still retained in the East? See all accounts of an ambassador’s visit to the grand seignior; who never himself answers, but directs his vizier to speak for him. So in Europe, the king of France directs his keeper of the seals to speak in his name; and so the lord chancellor in England prorogues the parliament, expressing his majesty’s pleasure, and using his majesty’s name, though in his majesty’s presence.”—Quoted from page 935 of Calmet’s Dictionary of The Holy Bible, as published by the late Mr. Charles Taylor, American Edition. Revised, with large additions, by Edward Robinson. Boston: published by Crocker and Brewster, . . . New York: Jonathan Leavitt, 1832.

A royal officer similar to the Abyssinian Kal Hatzè described above was used as an illustration on pages 85, 86 of the book The Atonement Between God and Man written in 1897 by Chas. T. Russell; also in his Scenario entitled “The Photo-Drama of Creation,” 1914 edition, page 54, paragraph 3. The illustration was used in connection with John 1:1.