Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 06/09/2005 13:05, Kevin Graham wrote:

> > I was also referring to the mainstream in ancient Judaism, or perhaps 
> > more accurately mainstream Israelite religion, as represented by the 
> > biblical authors. I would be interested to see examples of biblical 
> > authors attributing body parts to God which cannot be understood as 
> > metaphor. This might end up as a more illuminating discussion than 
> > the one about qualifications.
>
>
> There is clear evidence that Moses understood God anthropomorphically. 
> Firstly, Gen 1:26 says humanity was created in the tselem of God. 
> Numbers and Psalms mention the "form" of Yahweh. ...


Well, the ancient theological tradition is that the "image of God" was 
not physical but moral and spiritual. It is hard to be sure how ancient 
that understanding is. It could well be as old as the text, especially 
if that text is rather late as many hold. I accept that an alternative 
is that an ancient more anthropomorphic sense was reinterpreted by later 
biblical authors.

> ... Moses also mentions his encounter with God's presence on Sinai. He 
> was forbidden to see his face, but referrred to God's "backparts."  
> What is the metaphor behind that?
Well, Moses could not see God's face because he doesn't have a visible 
face - a lesson which God was trying to teach Moses with this incident. 
What was it that Moses actually saw? The text refers to God's 'AXORIYM, 
a word which can refer to the rear parts of an object or a person, but 
is more commonly rather metaphorical, so the translation might be more 
like "from behind". This sounds like a metaphorical description of the 
pillar of cloud and fire, God's shekinah glory, which Moses and the 
Israelites are to follow. I don't think it requires to be taken literally.


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



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