Seite - 25 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Band 02/01

The Body and Voice of God in the Hebrew Bible | 25www.jrfm.eu 2016, 2/1, 23–33 dab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel “saw the God of Israel. Under his feet there was something like a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. God did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; also they beheld God” (Exod. 24:10–11, NRSV). The prophet Isaiah is anxious when he sees the Lord, sitting on a throne, his flow- ing garments filling the temple (Isa. 6:1). Reflecting the Torah7 tradition from Exodus 33 just referred to, Isaiah appears to fear for his life, having set eyes on the deity. Ezekiel, another of the prophets, gives a much longer, though rather tongue-tied, account of his theophany. Following an elaborate description of moving creatures and a chariot throne, Ezekiel hesitates when he reaches the figure on the throne. He refers to “the likeness of a throne” above which was what “seemed like a human like- ness” (demût kemar’ēh ’ādām; Ezek. 1:26).8 Dazzled by the being’s loins and the blaze and firelight around them, Ezekiel is able to conclude only with the convoluted, “This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD” (Ezek. 1:28, NRSV). The effect of the theophany is powerful – Ezekiel falls on his face. What emerges from all these Hebrew Bible examples is that God looks like something: God can be seen. Moreover, although seeing God is sometimes dangerous and dazzling and overpow- ering, even possibly deadly, God seems to have human features: hands and a back and a face; God sits on a throne. Elsewhere, quite markedly different from these examples, such anthropomor- phism is not in evidence. In the first creation story the description is of God’s wind, breath, or spirit (rûach),9 hovering or sweeping over the primordial waters (Gen. 1:2). In Exodus 3 the messenger of God (v. 2), or God, appears in the flame of a bush that seems to be blazing yet is not consumed. Reflecting on this disembodied vision Deu- teronomy 4 is most emphatic of all: “YHWH10 spoke to you from the midst of the fire sound of words” (qôl debārîm). You heard but form (temûnâ) there was not – only a voice (or, a sound, qôl). … Be very mindful of yourselves, because you did not see any form (temûnâ) on the day YHWH spoke to you in Horeb from the midst of the fire, lest you be corrupted and make for yourselves an idol (pesel) in the form of any image (temûnat kol-sāmel)” (Deut. 4:12, 15–16).11 Here the notion of divine corporeal- 7 “Torah” refers to the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, also known as the Pentateuch. 8 Here once more is the noun demût, used of both divine (Gen. 1:26) and human (Gen. 5:3) likeness. In this verse it pertains very definitely to visual experience. 9 In his commentary Ephraim Speiser comments that the Hebrew word “means primarily ‘wind, breeze,’ secondarily ‘breath,’ and thus ultimately ‘spirit.’ But the last connotation is more concrete than ab- stract” (Speiser 2007, 5). Again, this complicates whether what is described is more disembodied and abstract or more physical and concrete. 10 “YHWH” is a transliteration of the consonants of the primary divine name of the God of the Hebrew Bible. In English bibles it tends to be rendered “the LORD”. 11 A similar expression pesel hassemel (“the idol of an image”, cf. NRSV “the carved image of an idol”) occurs at 2 Chron. 33:7, also in a context of disapproved idolatry. Deuteronomy 4:16–18 elaborates that such an idol can be anthropomorphic or theriomorphic. Wagner specifies that pesel refers to a plastic, three-dimensional hewn form or idol; see Wagner 2010, 26.