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The Body and Voice of God in the Hebrew Bible |
25www.jrfm.eu
2016, 2/1, 23â33
dab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel âsaw 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 Godâ (Exod. 24:10â11, 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 âthe likeness of a throneâ above which was what âseemed like a human like-
nessâ (demĂ»t kemarâÄh âÄdÄm; Ezek. 1:26).8 Dazzled by the beingâs loins and the blaze
and firelight around them, Ezekiel is able to conclude only with the convoluted, âThis
was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORDâ (Ezek. 1:28, NRSV). The
effect of the theophany is powerful â 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 Godâs 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: âYHWH10 spoke to you from the midst of the fire
sound of wordsâ (qĂŽl debÄrĂźm). You heard but form (temĂ»nĂą) there was not â only a
voice (or, a sound, qÎl). ⊠Be very mindful of yourselves, because you did not see
any form (temûnù) 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 (temĂ»nat kol-sÄmel)â (Deut. 4:12, 15â16).11 Here the notion of divine corporeal-
7 âTorahâ 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 âmeans primarily âwind, breeze,â
secondarily âbreath,â and thus ultimately âspirit.â But the last connotation is more concrete than ab-
stractâ (Speiser 2007, 5). Again, this complicates whether what is described is more disembodied and
abstract or more physical and concrete.
10 âYHWHâ 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 âthe LORDâ.
11 A similar expression pesel hassemel (âthe idol of an imageâ, cf. NRSV âthe carved image of an idolâ)
occurs at 2 Chron. 33:7, also in a context of disapproved idolatry. Deuteronomy 4:16â18 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.
JRFM
Journal Religion Film Media, Band 02/01
- Titel
- JRFM
- Untertitel
- Journal Religion Film Media
- Band
- 02/01
- Autoren
- Christian Wessely
- Daria Pezzoli-Olgiati
- Herausgeber
- Uni-Graz
- Verlag
- SchĂŒren Verlag GmbH
- Ort
- Graz
- Datum
- 2016
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY-NC 4.0
- Abmessungen
- 14.8 x 21.0 cm
- Seiten
- 132
- Kategorien
- Zeitschriften JRFM