Read on Twitter
#Exodus 33:17-23
God’s body
Does God have a body? Is it...like a human body? You may not think so, but ancient Israelites sure did. “You can’t see my face, I’ll cover your eyes with my hand, then you can see my back.” Might not be human shaped, but there’s face, hand, and back.
God’s body
Does God have a body? Is it...like a human body? You may not think so, but ancient Israelites sure did. “You can’t see my face, I’ll cover your eyes with my hand, then you can see my back.” Might not be human shaped, but there’s face, hand, and back.
Just because God has a human form doesn’t make seeing it less dangerous. No one is supposed to be allowed to see any part of YHWH - what’s happening here is Moses is getting a special dispensation to see YHWH’s back, which no one usually gets to. The face is a no even for Moses.
But isn’t God invisible? Again, whatever we might think, I’m not sure ancient Israelites thought. They sure go to lengths to ensure that you couldn’t see YHWH, which suggests that he could in theory be seen. And he can definitely manifest as visible, like here. And most places.
And isn’t God omnipresent? That one for sure is totally foreign to ancient Israelite thought. Whether in the heavens, or in the sanctuary, or visiting Abraham, or in a bush, or here on the mountain - “there’s a place near me” - YHWH is always somewhere. Like...people are.
I’ve said all this before. But here’s another good text to remind us that our ideas of God are distinctly different from those of ancient Israel. And trying to fit one into the other is a square peg/round hole problem.
So while you may read the language here as metaphorical, at least recognize that you’re doing so in order to solve a problem, which is the gap between your understanding of God and the plain sense of the text (here and elsewhere). It’s not “what the text means.”
And for the literary historians among us, this is still good J, continuing the theme of the visual theophany, with clear links back to the previous passage, and its request for YHWH’s accompaniment. This will come in useful next time.