>A name is an arbitrary sign
>tacked onto something but is not the thing itself---
It may be, but the ancients and the Bible obviously felt otherwise.
Names were, in fact, thought to be the essence of the thing.
<thus a sign of
>the deity dwells in the temple but not the deityh himself---compare
>to Exodus and Numbers where the tabernacle was thought to be the
>dwelling place of the deity.
> In his vision of god, Ezekiel is careful to say that he saw the
>"appearance" of Yaweh rather than Yaweh, himself. (This pronoun is
>not meant to be a sexist designation but rather is used to indicate
>that this is a masculine god.)
Gee, thanks for clearing that up--I'd have been up all night. ;-)
Will Wagers hyle AT gte.net "Reality is the best metaphor."