RT Book
T1 "When Gods were men": the embodied God in biblical and Near Eastern literature
T2 Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft
JF Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft
A1 Hamori, Esther J.
LA English
PP Berlin u.a.
PB De Gruyter
YR 2008
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/588386707
AB In the texts of Genesis 18 and 32, God appears to a patriarch in person and is referred to by the narrator as a man, both times by the Hebrew word ?sh. In both texts, God as ?sh is described in graphically human terms. This type of divine appearance is identified here as the "?sh theophany". The phenomenon of God appearing in concrete human form is first distinguished from several other types of anthropomorphism, such as divine appearance in dreams. The ?sh theophany is viewed in relation to appearances of angels and other divine beings in the Bible, and in relation to anthropomorphic appearances of deities in Near Eastern literature. The ?sh theophany has implications for our understanding of Israelite concepts of divine-human contact and communication, and for the relationship to Ugaritic literature in particular. The book also includes discussion of philosophical approaches to anthropomorphism. The development of philosophical opposition to anthropomorphism can be traced from Greek philosophy and early Jewish and Christian writings through Avicenna, Averroes, Maimonides and Aquinas, and into the work of later philosophers such as Hume and Kant. However, the work of others can be applied fruitfully to the problem of divine anthropomorphism, such as Wittgenstein's language games.
NO Literaturverz. S. [156] - 173
CN BS1199.T45
SN 978-3-11-020348-6
K1 Theophanies in the Bible
K1 Anthropomorphism