Anthropomorphism in Early Judaism

[maklelan]

Did early Jews subscribe to an anthropomorphic view of deity? Most scholars today say they did. A recent article by Shamma Friedman points to the Jewish scholars of the medieval period as the source of that doctrine's demise in Judaism. In Christianity the doctrine was mitigated much earlier, thanks to the continued presence of Alexandrian exegesis in the Christian tradition and the wholesale assimilation of Greco-Roman ideologies by the early second century apologists. It was Augustine who put the final nail in the Christian anthropomorphic coffin. David Paulsen has dealt with that issue in a few HTR articles: "Early Christian Belief in a Corporeal Deity: Origen and Augustine as Reluctant Witnesses," Harvard Theological Review 83.2 (1990): 105-16; "Reply to Kim Paffenroth's Comment," Harvard Theological Review 86.2 (1993): 235-39; "Augustine and the Corporeality of God," Harvard Theological Review 95.1 (2002): 97-118.

Despite their reputation for conservatism, even the Rabbis appealed to anthropomorphic imagery in their descriptions of God. In Gen. Rab. 8:10 the angels are unable to distinguish Adam's body from God's. In the Avot de-Rabbi Nathan A.1 Adam is said to have been created circumcised, since he was created in the image of God, and God's body is perfect (an uncircumcised human had an imperfect body to the Rabbis). In Lev. Rab. 34:3 and Avot de-Rabbi Nathan B.30 R. Hillel compares public bathing to the washing of statues of kings. The Rabbi asked rhetorically how much more important it was to wash the human body, made in the image and likeness of God, than to wash the likeness of a human king. Very rarely, in fact, in tannaitic and amoraitic literature can the word tselem from Gen 1:26 be shown to be interpreted as anything other than a reference to corporeal image.

See also Morton Smith,

[Zakuska]

It seems to me that the demise of Anthropomorisms and a corporeal God came when the church fell into Helenistic Contact and Neo-platonic influences. For example... the phrase that found its way into the creeds "Unkowable God" as well as an Incorporeal God came from Neo-Platonic sources.

Identification

Neoplatonism, as formulated by Plotinus, suggested a hierarchy of three hypostases, what Neoplatonists referred to as the objective reality of being. In this system, first came the infinite, absolute One, the source of all life. The second hypostasis, the Nous or the Intelligible, emanated from The One. While The One is unknowable, the Nous is the knowable origin of all. Third is the World Soul, another emanation from The One. From the Soul, the physical world came into being.

Plotinus believed that all souls seek reunion with The One and do so through contemplation.

http://www.ehow.com/...oplatonism.html

[volgadon]

R. Hillel compares public bathing to the washing of statues of kings. The Rabbi asked rhetorically how much more important it was to wash the human body, made in the image and likeness of God, than to wash the likeness of a human king.

His disciples saw him on the way to the bath-house and were baffled when he said he was going to carry out a commandment, or a righteouss deed.

he then explained to them how important it was to wash the body made in the image of God, etc.

I think anthropomorphism was killed by both the philosophers and the mystics. The former rationalised it out of existence, the latter did so making it a myth.

[Olavarria]

ooh ohh.

Maybe volgo can help out on this one. But I once read in Mainonides's Guide to the Perplexed[/i, arguments he made against reading the Torah's anthropomorphism as literal; this is evidence that some at least Jews, at least up untill, the middle ages held this view.

[David T]

Margaret Barker seems to argue for a big part of it among many of the then-current mainstraim Israelite sects to Josiah's reform, where the Deteronomists believed (and pushed the agenda with their re-editing of Torah) that God could not be seen, and that the LORD did not, and could not dwell in the Temple, but only His Name did. She seems to argue that the belief remained amongst other more 'underground' sects, and it was many of those who were easily able to accept the doctrines of Christianity - many of which they'd already believed.

[volgadon]

Chapter 1 of the Guide for the Perplexed.

Men have thought that tzelem (image) implied a model of the thing and a description of it, resulting in a complete incarnation...

They believed that were they to reject that notion they would be denying what was written, indeed God would be missing were he not to have a body with a face and hand like theirs...

I think he is mostly talking about the Shiur Qomah crowd, because he goes on to say how they thought his body was merely "larger and more glorious than theirs."

That in itself is a fascinating line.

[volgadon]

A lot of the Christian rhetoric on image being a moral thing appears to be drawn from Maimonides, who was immensley popular among the scholastics.

[Zakuska]

I think Paul could give us an upper bound to the idea.

Acts 17

22

[Zakuska]

A lot of the Christian rhetoric on image being a moral thing appears to be drawn from Maimonides, who was immensley popular among the scholastics.

I think this post should be added to the record here too...

I have put forward that this doctrine has lead to the inability of its adherents to visualize God the Father in human like bodily form thus crippling the thinking of most Catholics and Christians of other denominations, thereby limiting their knowledge of the true nature of God.

But in biblical terms, even as Paul might have admonished, Trinitarian theology is the milk feed to babes in the cradling arms of its mother; but LDS doctrine is the lesson a son goes off and learns on a walk with his Father.

And yet they used to be able to...

(Genesis 1: 26-27)

"God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him" (Genesis 1: 27).

The focal point of the episode of the Creation of man is the contact between the fingers of the Creator and those of Adam, through which the breath of life is transmitted. God, supported by angels in flight and wrapped in a mantle, leans towards Adam, shown as a resting athlete, whose beauty seems to confirm the words of the Old Testament, according to which man was created to the image and likeness of God.

http://mv.vatican.va...StCentr_06.html

Notice the wording from the Vatican itself. It was much more than a "Moral Image" being spoken of.

[Zakuska]

Notice Johns words here betray a reluctant witness of a seeable knowable God and Father...

John 5: 37

37 And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape

John 6:46

46 Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father.

Who has a Shape that can be seen.

[Vance]

Bump for people like CK.

[WalkerW]

I liked this part of Friedman's article:

"...the beauty of our Father Jacob was like the beauty of Adam, the beauty of Adam was like the beauty of the Divine Presence!" (Bava Batra 58a; Bava Metzia 84a) Comparing the beauty of Adam to the Divine Presence is an elaboration of the biblical theme that man was created in the image of God. According to the rabbinic tradition, that image was passed on to Adam's descendents in a general sense, while the exact 'spit and image', with identical facial features, was inherited by a select few, the first of whom was Jacob...There was a specific tradition that included Jacob in a list of humans whose countenance preserved the exact features that the Creator gave to Adam, making them as indistinguishable from Him as was Adam in the eyes of the angels.

Reminded me of the following:

And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts? (Alma 5:14)

[SearchDog]

I think this post should be added to the record here too...

Well, if you are going to do that...I am going to correct the spelling.

I have put forward that Trinitarian doctrine has led to the inability of its adherents to visualize God the Father in human like bodily form thus crippling the thinking of most Catholics and Christians of other denominations, thereby limiting their knowledge of the true nature of God.

But in biblical terms, even as Paul might have admonished, Trinitarian theology is the milk fed to babes in the cradling arms of its mother; but LDS doctrine is the lesson a son goes off and learns on a walk with his Father.

[Luigi]

This isn't particularly surprising since almost all ancient religions anthromorphized God.

I recently watched the documentary "The Bible's Buried Secrets" which discussed some of the likely roots of Judaism and subsequently the major religions of Christianity and Islam. The people who lived in the land of Israel worshiped Jehovah along with other gods and even apparently believed Jehovah had a wife, Asherah, a fertility goddess.

[Vance]

Bump.

[maklelan]

This isn't particularly surprising since almost all ancient religions anthromorphized God.

I recently watched the documentary "The Bible's Buried Secrets" which discussed some of the likely roots of Judaism and subsequently the major religions of Christianity and Islam. The people who lived in the land of Israel worshiped Jehovah along with other gods and even apparently believed Jehovah had a wife, Asherah, a fertility goddess.

Also attested in the Kuntillet Ajrud inscriptions: "I bless you by YHWH of Tehman/Samaria and his asherah."