Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Daniel Wagner" <dan.wagner AT netzero.net>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: George Athas <gathas AT goconnect.net>
To: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Sent: Monday, March 26, 2001 5:26 PM
Subject: Re: Psalm 77:20[19] and theophanies


> 
> | Can not this theophany also communicate something mysterious
> | and incomprehensible about the ways of God?
> 
> We would have to ask whether this is intended by the author. I have no 
> doubt that many
> people would want to take it that way, but I'm not sure the author is 
> necessarily drawing
> a moral from the theophany in this case.
> 

Divine power is itself a "moral," that is, a doctrine of something about God, 
is it not? I say this because in one way or another, all of the theophany 
presentation must be intended by the author to have significance in the 
context re: God's care, protection, mercy, and/or leading of His people.

> 
> | I agree that power/authority over nature is part of it. But why limit
> | it there?
> 
> I think that's where the author limits it. There are certain 'supernatural' 
> images
> associated with divine appearances, and those in Ps 77 are classic.
> 
> 
> | Perhaps you are correct, but what is your basis for not allowing
> | incomprehensibility or mysteriousness as something that can be intended
> | to communicate by a theophany?
> 
> Context.

Your several responses here were very similar to my thinking originally on 
this passage after looking through the context and seeking to determine 
interrelationship of ideas, since the verses preceding (15-19 [16-18]) focus 
on divine power and might appear to have little relationship to the idea of 
incomprehensibility or mysteriousness. But then i kept coming back to verse 
20[19] and couldn't see any significance to it except for what i concluded, 
namely that incomprehensibility or untraceability of God's ways might just be 
another "moral" about God just like power over nature is a moral. 

But, if my conclusion was not correct, what idea do you see in "Your 
footprints could not be traced"? I.e., what *is* the relationship of this 
phrase to the context of divine providence in leading/caring for the people 
if not some allusion to mysteriousness of God's ways? In what way does it 
relate to, further, or highlight the theophanic concept?

> 
> | Another related question: Does a theophany necessarily intend to
> | communicate "images where nature reacts in all sorts of weird and
> | wonderful ways to the > divine appearance" as you said, or can it intend 
> to
> | be poetic descriptions of some literal phenomenon in nature, such as 
> various
> | types of storms, a flood, perhaps a volcano or earthquake, etc.?
> 
> Probably both. These powerful natural phenomena were probably associated 
> with divine acts,
> and so they came to be used as standard imagery for describing theophanies.

Thanks, that makes sense.

Dan Wagner



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