From: "Heard, Christopher" <Christopher.Heard AT pepperdine.edu>
To: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Divine body parts, was: Doctorates (PhD or ThD?)
Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2005 11:30:31 -0700
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?