Does God have the forms of humanity?
Recognizing and Interpreting Anthropomorphic Language
We find multiple examples of anthropomorphism in Scripture. For example, God is described as having an arm (Job 40:9), a back (Exod. 33:21-23), breath (Job 33:4), ears (2 Sam. 22:7), eyes (Ps. 34:15), a face (Exod. 33:11), feet (Gen. 3:8), fingers (Deut. 9:10), hair (Dan. 7:9), a hand (Ps. 95:4-5), a head (Dan. 7:9), a heart (2 Chron. 7:16), lips (Ps. 89:34), a mouth (Deut. 8:3), nostrils (2 Sam. 22:9, 16), shoulders (Deut. 33:12), a tongue (Isa. 30:27), and a voice (Exod. 3:4). |
Here's where I stumble on this topic: if God has a nose, does He need air to breathe? If so, then air must precede God. If not, then what is the purpose of nostrils. Even if He doesn't need air to breathe, and He uses nostrils only to blow, it seems like there's nothing to blow before there is air. Did God make no use of nostrils until he created air?
If God has a mouth, tongue, and voice did He use them for what we do ours? Does He take in food with them? Is the food material in nature, or "spiritual" (energy or something else?)? Did He talk with His mouth? Does the "sound" need to move air molecules to actually exist as sound, like ours?
Did the other members of the trinity use ears to hear what the Father said with His mouth?
Feet: does God have something to walk on? Did it precede Him?
Fingers: Was there something to hold before the material world was created?
Back, shoulders, arms: Was there something to lift or lean against or push on?
I'm not saying there's nothing for God to do with His facial features and limbs, because I don't know how the spirit world works. But it seems strange to consider that there had to be something there for God to use His limbs for before God made anything. Or maybe God had these features before there was any material thing, and He made the material things (or possibly spiritual things) to take advantage of His features.
Does God actually have a heart like we do, that pumps blood? I think this one is the one most likely to be anthropomorphism, or anthropopathism, or both, because we use "heart" as a source of emotions or desires, so even in humans it is not just a pumper of blood. Even less so in ancient Hebrew, it seems.
How far does the image of God go in us? Does God have an immune system? Nerve cells? A brain or kidneys or liver? Sex organs? None of these make sense to me, based on their functions. Perhaps "image" is a surface-only thing, and the internal organs are not part of the image of God (heart being clearly a seat of emotions rather than a physical organ).
Anthropopathisms are a different subject. While the A-morphisms can be suggestive of an ability (like a "hand" showing God can gather and retain things), the A-pathisms should also be suggestive of...what? If they aren't emotions, what are they? What is "anger" for God, if not actually anger? The Hebrew words for these things, from what I understand, are more physical than we are used to.
'The Hebrew terms [for anger] are ḥaron af, literally, "the burning of the nose"' (from
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/1523-anger)
Thus, even the anthropopathisms are sometimes actual, and not just implied, anthropomorphisms. I have a hard time believing that the language for anthropopathisms are really nested anthropomorphisms that really mean that God
didn't have those feelings, which is the interpretation of some.