Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 06/09/2005 19:30, Heard, Christopher wrote:

> On Sep 6, 2005, at 5:20 AM, Peter Kirk wrote:
>
> 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.
>
>
>
> Peter, could you be a little more specific/clear about what you mean by
> "ancient theological tradition"? There is certainly no such "tradition"
> in the Tanakh itself, which refers to the "image of God" concept quite
> infrequently, and almost exclusively in Genesis 1-11. To what "ancient
> theological tradition" are you referring, and where may it be discerned?
>
>  
I was not claiming that this tradition goes explicitly back to the 
writers of the Tanakh - although I am seeking to prove that that was 
their underlying thinking when using words like CELEM. But this is an 
idea which is I think found in the Hellenistic period, and certainly in 
the New Testament and in early Christian thought. I understand the 
argument that these ideas come from Hellenism rather than from original 
Jewish thought, on the other hand there are links to ancient Egyptian 
thinking which is not completely anthropomorphic as I pointed out before.

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



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