The Body and Voice of God in the Hebrew Bible

In both Judaism and Christianity the question as to whether God has a body is sensitive and contested terrain. The answer now tends to be ‘no’ and yet the most straightforward interpretation of numerous Hebrew Bible passages is that God is conceived of in bodily, anthropomorphic terms – though often...

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সংরক্ষণ করুন:
গ্রন্থ-পঞ্জীর বিবরন
প্রধান লেখক: Johanna Stiebert
বিন্যাস: Online
ভাষা:ইংরেজি
প্রকাশিত: Schüren Verlag 2021
অনলাইন ব্যবহার করুন:47085
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author Johanna Stiebert
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author_sort Johanna Stiebert
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description In both Judaism and Christianity the question as to whether God has a body is sensitive and contested terrain. The answer now tends to be ‘no’ and yet the most straightforward interpretation of numerous Hebrew Bible passages is that God is conceived of in bodily, anthropomorphic terms – though often there also exist attendant possibilities of ambiguity and ambivalence. The familiar divine statement, ‘let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness…’, betsalmēnû kidmûtēnû (Gen 1:26), for example, seems to envisage – particularly in the case of the first term, tselem (‘image’) – a physical form; not least, because in the Hebrew Bible tselem most often pertains to concrete, hewn images, including to idols. This is very clear at 1 Samuel 6:11 where the people are instructed to make (from ‘śh, a verb pertaining to crafting and shaping) models of mice and tumours; as well as Numbers 33:52, with its reference to molten images (cf. 2 Kgs 11:18; 2 Chron 23:17); and also in the Aramaic account of Daniel 3:1, where a cognate (tselēm) refers to Nebuchadnezzar’s golden idol. But in two occurrences at least physicality of tselem is undermined: hence in Psalms 39:7 and 73:20 the noun pertains to elusiveness, possibly to a semblance, or phantom. If tselem refers more widely to either a seeming (i.e. a phantom), or to a more inclusive, not-only-physical form or image, this could indeed complicate matters for interpreting Genesis 1:26-27.
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-632212022-02-11T15:07:33Z The Body and Voice of God in the Hebrew Bible Johanna Stiebert In both Judaism and Christianity the question as to whether God has a body is sensitive and contested terrain. The answer now tends to be ‘no’ and yet the most straightforward interpretation of numerous Hebrew Bible passages is that God is conceived of in bodily, anthropomorphic terms – though often there also exist attendant possibilities of ambiguity and ambivalence. The familiar divine statement, ‘let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness…’, betsalmēnû kidmûtēnû (Gen 1:26), for example, seems to envisage – particularly in the case of the first term, tselem (‘image’) – a physical form; not least, because in the Hebrew Bible tselem most often pertains to concrete, hewn images, including to idols. This is very clear at 1 Samuel 6:11 where the people are instructed to make (from ‘śh, a verb pertaining to crafting and shaping) models of mice and tumours; as well as Numbers 33:52, with its reference to molten images (cf. 2 Kgs 11:18; 2 Chron 23:17); and also in the Aramaic account of Daniel 3:1, where a cognate (tselēm) refers to Nebuchadnezzar’s golden idol. But in two occurrences at least physicality of tselem is undermined: hence in Psalms 39:7 and 73:20 the noun pertains to elusiveness, possibly to a semblance, or phantom. If tselem refers more widely to either a seeming (i.e. a phantom), or to a more inclusive, not-only-physical form or image, this could indeed complicate matters for interpreting Genesis 1:26-27. 2021-02-12T10:12:49Z 2021-02-12T10:12:49Z 2020-09-08 08:44:19 2016 chapter 47085 2414-0201 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/63221 eng Journal for Religion, Film and Media image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International https://www.schueren-verlag.de/programm/titel/521-i-sing-the-body-electric-jrfm-1-2016.html https://jrfm.eu/index.php/ojs_jrfm/article/view/4 Schüren Verlag "I Sing the body electric". Body, Voice, Technology and Religion 5b80c228-3393-4862-a8e9-6c35a63484f1 82157bb3-a608-4616-846f-47d405438eca 23-35 open access
spellingShingle Johanna Stiebert
The Body and Voice of God in the Hebrew Bible
title The Body and Voice of God in the Hebrew Bible
title_full The Body and Voice of God in the Hebrew Bible
title_fullStr The Body and Voice of God in the Hebrew Bible
title_full_unstemmed The Body and Voice of God in the Hebrew Bible
title_short The Body and Voice of God in the Hebrew Bible
title_sort body and voice of god in the hebrew bible
url 47085
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