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Does God have body parts? (R)
Readers’ comments
Dear Mr B.
Thank you for your comments. You raise interesting and important issues.
I must admit that I doubt that God the Father has any physical form, e.g.
God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? Numbers 23:19
There are some anthropomorphisms, as the article said, but they no more prove that God has a physical form like a man than biblical ornithomorphisms prove that he’s like a bird:
“He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.” Psalm 91:4
When people saw God in the Old Testament, it was either the Shekinah glory or a Christophany, rather than an appearance of God the Father (a patriphany?). (See also The Incarnation: Why did God become Man?.)
The “image of God” also has connotations of being God’s representative. E.g. consider Jesus’ famous command, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” This was in reference to a coin bearing Caesar’s image, thus belonging to him, and representing him. This is a contrast with man, made in God’s image, thus representing God and belonging to Him. (See also The use of Genesis in the New Testament.)
Another idea is based on the fact that Christ predated creation, as did the book of Life. Thus the Incarnation was pre-ordained before creation. This meant that God would take on human nature, becoming a descendant of Adam. Yet because of the fore-ordination, God decreed that His Son would take on a certain nature, and it was Adam who was made in the image that the future Incarnate Christ would possess.
Jeremy S., United Kingdom, 6 May 2012
I wonder whether you are unnecessarily conceding ground to the person who asked you the question in the first place. I don’t think the examples given are anthropomorphisms at all. For example, I don't see why "God saw" is an anthropomorphism. There is a distinction between having the ability to see and possessing certain means by which one sees. If one reads "God saw" and concludes that God has "eyes with pupils and retinas", the reader has clearly gone wrong somewhere, but where? One might say that he's reading the text too literally and that the text is using human things to describe what God does (anthropomorphism). However, all that the text actually says is that God can "see". The error of the reader is in using reasoning along the lines of:
1. God can see
2. Humans see with eyes
Therefore
3. God has eyes
The problem with this is that it assumes that the human way of doing things is the only way. "Seeing" is about being able to perceive what is around you. The way humans do this uses eyes, but the way bats do this is with their ears. We don’t know exactly how God perceives things, but I don't see any problem with the idea that God is able to perceive what is around him. Whether he does this with an eye or not doesn't seem to be very relevant; he can do it somehow. The text shows that God is able to do something, but says nothing about the means by which he does it. Therefore all we can get from the text is that God is able to "see", but we aren't told how he does this.
The other examples given from Genesis are similar (apart from “walking”, though this can be translated as “moving about” (NET)). In one of the examples, God “speaks”. No, he doesn’t have vocal cords, but he can speak. He has audible conversations with various people in the Bible.
I’m not saying there are no anthropomorphisms in the Bible. Proper anthropomorphisms seem to me to be when God is said to have a physical attribute. For example, 1 Peter 3:12 says:
“For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
and his ears are open to their prayer.
But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
This is clearly an anthropomorphism. It should be interpreted as “the means by which God sees are on the righteous”, etc. The presence of anthropomorphisms therefore can’t be used to question the interpretation of these passages, as there actually aren’t any.
Douglas B., United States, 8 March 2012
Regarding “God is spirit”—Angels are spirits, as well, yet they have a distinct form in Heaven that can be manifested to the sight of men. In one instance, God allowed Moses to see part of His form, but did not allow His face to be seen. In another instance, Moses, Joshua, and 70 elders of Israel saw the lower half of God seated on His throne, come down upon Mount Sinai.
Jesus is God, and is in Heaven. He has an actual, physical (albeit resurrected and glorified) human body. Man was made in God’s image and likeness. It seems to me that, yes, God the Father also has a form, like that of a man.