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b-hebrew - [b-hebrew] Face of God, was: Attributes of YHWH

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: Gene Gardner <g_gardner1234 AT yahoo.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Face of God, was: Attributes of YHWH
  • Date: Fri, 12 Aug 2005 14:25:03 +0100

On 12/08/2005 13:41, Gene Gardner wrote:

... Does the text cited say “face”, or
is it an errant translation. Do other texts say head
or feet in the Hebrew, or are they errant as well.
These are my questions, and they are based strictly on
the Hebrew text and what it says. Maybe the title of
the thread could be better, but my questions are based
solely on language, and not religion.


Gene, you asked quite properly about texts which refer to the "face" of God. Well, there are surely hundreds of places in the Hebrew Bible which formally refer to the face, PANIM, of God. For LIPNEY and similar are used very regularly of bringing people, offerings etc into the presence of God, and LIPNEY is of course the construct state of L- + PANIM. But does that mean that the authors thought that God had a literal face, to which offerings etc were brought? Probably not. But then does Peniel "face of God" really mean any more than a place where offerings were brought LIPNEY God? Maybe not. However, distinguishing literal from metaphorical language here is potentially rather tricky - and is certainly a linguistic question.

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/



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