{"id":187,"date":"2018-06-06T15:14:19","date_gmt":"2018-06-06T20:14:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/?p=187"},"modified":"2018-06-08T11:02:21","modified_gmt":"2018-06-08T16:02:21","slug":"gods-body","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2018\/06\/06\/gods-body\/","title":{"rendered":"God’s Body"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"One feature of the Orthodox Jewish synagogue service is the hymn sung near its dismissal which repeatedly affirms that ‘God does not have a body’.\u00a0 This particular hymn was added in the fourth or fifth century as a direct response to, and rejection of, Christianity.\u00a0 On the surface, far removed as we are from the issues in the early debate between the nascent Christian and Rabbinical Jewish communities, we might assume that this is aimed at a rejection of the Christian doctrine of the incarnation.\u00a0 In reality, however, the primary field of debate in that era was over the correct interpretation of the Hebrew scriptures which would become the Christian Old Testament.\u00a0 The repeated reaffirmation that the Jewish believer ought not try to seek out God’s body is a direct rejection of a primary principle of the Christian understanding of these scriptures.\u00a0 Even confining ourselves to a reading of the Old Testament texts, even just to the Pentateuch, the most uncontroversial element of the Hebrew canon, however, this affirmation in the synagogue service seems rather strange.\u00a0 Yahweh, the God of Israel, is depicted in bodily form fairly consistently throughout.\u00a0 This is not just a matter of reference to God’s strong right arm, or sheltering Israel under his wings, or other anthropomorphic statements regarding God which are clearly poetic imagery.\u00a0 Rather, the God of Israel stands, walks, interacts with humans face to face, has conversations with them, touches them with his hand, and even eats with them.<\/p>\n

And so, in Genesis 3:8, in Eden, we read that Adam and Eve hear the sound of God walking in the garden.\u00a0 That this walking creates a sound argues that it is at least being portrayed as physical, bodily walking.\u00a0 Later in Genesis 18, we are told that Yahweh appears to Abraham (v.1) and when this appearance is described, it is described as three men arriving at Abraham’s tents (v.2).\u00a0 Abraham runs and secures food for his guests, and stands by them while they eat (v.8).\u00a0 Two of the men depart to go down to Sodom and Gomorrah to find Lot and his family (v. 22).\u00a0 We are later told that these two men are in fact angels (19:1).\u00a0 Meanwhile, Yahweh remains with Abraham, and Abraham comes closer to him to speak more closely as he pleads for those in Sodom and Gomorrah who may be righteous (18:23).\u00a0 After their conversation, God departs from Abraham and Abraham returns to his tent (v. 33).\u00a0 Abraham’s grandson Jacob, the night before he prepared to reunited with his brother Esau, again encountered a ‘man’ who wrestled with him throughout the night (32:24).\u00a0 This person touches Jacob’s hip, dislocating it during the struggle, and gives Jacob the new name of Israel (v. 25, 28).\u00a0 Afterward, he names the place ‘the face of God’, because he says he had seen God face to face (v. 30).\u00a0 If there is any ambiguity here as to the identity of the wrestler, God appears to Jacob again in Genesis 35:9-10 and repeats his words in giving Israel his new name.<\/p>\n

To these three examples, dozens could be added from throughout the Old Testament scriptures.\u00a0 Prophets see God enthroned and describe his physical appearance (Is 6:1, Ezek 1:26-27).\u00a0 God appears physically enthroned above the mercy seat on the Day of Atonement (Lev 16:2).\u00a0 God writes his covenant on tablets given to Moses with his own finger (Ex 31:18).\u00a0 At the same time, however, there is a tension present in the text, at least hinted at by the episode with Jacob, in that he comments on having seen the face of God and survived (Gen 32:30).\u00a0 All of these clear statements that Yahweh, the God of Israel was seen and interacted with human beings in bodily form are conjoined with statements that no one can see God and live.\u00a0 Possibly the apex of this tension occurs in Exodus 33.\u00a0 We are told at the beginning of the chapter that as Israel sojourned in the wilderness, Moses set up the ‘tent of meeting’ at the edge of the camp.\u00a0 He would enter this tent, the cloud of God’s glory would descend upon it, and God would speak with Moses (Ex 33:7-9).\u00a0 We are told that in these meetings, Yahweh and Moses would speak ‘face to face’ as a man speaks to his friend (v. 11).\u00a0 Mere lines later, however, Moses asks God to show him his glory (v. 18) and God tells Moses that this is impossible because no man can see his face and live (v. 20).\u00a0 God then passes by Moses, protecting him with his hand, and allows him to see his back, but not his face, to preserve Moses’ life (v. 21-23).\u00a0 This apparent contradiction was not lost on those who read these texts in the centuries preceding Christ.\u00a0 In the literature they produced, the solution was reached that there were two hypostases of Yahweh, the God of Israel.\u00a0 One of these appeared to human beings in bodily form, the other was unseeable.\u00a0 As mentioned before in this series, there was then a great deal of conjecture as to the identity and origin of this second hypostasis, and he was drawn together with the ‘Word of God’, the ‘Angel of the Lord’, and ‘the Son of Man’ as one figure.<\/p>\n

When the New Testament authors and the early Fathers speak of the divinity of Christ, they are identifying the person of Jesus Christ as this figure from the Old Testament, now incarnate in human flesh.\u00a0 They do not need to theorize, or invent, or construct Binitarian or Trinitarian doctrine in order to elevate Jesus or explain their worship of him.\u00a0 The idea of one God existing in multiple hypostases, in this case three eternally existent hypostases, was not a new idea. \u00a0\u00a0 When we understand this, we can better understand the teaching of the apostles.\u00a0 To use but one example, when St. John the Theologian says that “no one has seen God at any time, but the unique God, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known” (Jn 1:18), he is not saying that in the Old Testament no one had ever seen God, but now they had seen Jesus, and Jesus had made God known to them.\u00a0 Rather, St. John is saying that when God was seen in bodily form by the Old Testament saints, they were in fact seeing Christ, who makes the unseen Father known to men.\u00a0 In the person of Jesus Christ, through the incarnation, we have now come to know the one true God personally and intimately, far moreso than the Old Testament saints were ever able.<\/p>\n

And so, it is the unitarian monotheism of Rabbinic Judaism that is the innovation in the centuries after Christ, not the doctrine of the Holy Trinity.\u00a0 In the second century, the idea that there was a second power in heaven, a second hypostasis of Yahweh, was made a heresy in Rabbinic Judaism.\u00a0 There is an old rabbinic story of Rabbi Akiva himself needing to be corrected on this matter.\u00a0 This was done in response to Christianity.\u00a0 Likewise, the repeated affirmation in the synagogue that God does not have a body was an even later addition, despite its contradiction of the Hebrew scriptures, because of Christian uses.\u00a0 Ss. Justin Martyr and Basil the Great, as well as Origen, all testify that in their respective eras, Jewish teaching still held that God had a body or a form.\u00a0 These Fathers sought to correct this notion among Christian believers lest they think that God the Father had a body.\u00a0 Christianity did not bring in foreign elements, pagan or otherwise, to Judaism in order to create a new religion.\u00a0 Rather, Rabbinic Judaism cut off huge swathes of the belief and practice of Second Temple Judaism in order to create a deliberately non-Christian religion based in a denuded reading of the Hebrew scriptures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One feature of the Orthodox Jewish synagogue service is the hymn sung near its dismissal which repeatedly affirms that ‘God does not have a body’.\u00a0 This particular hymn was added in the fourth or fifth century as a direct response to, and rejection of, Christianity.\u00a0 On the surface, far removed as we are from the issues in the early debate between the nascent Christian and Rabbinical Jewish communities, we might assume that this is aimed at a rejection of the Christian doctrine of the incarnation.\u00a0 In reality, however, the primary field of debate in that era was over the correct interpretation of the Hebrew scriptures which would become the Christian Old Testament.\u00a0 The repeated reaffirmation that the Jewish believer ought\u2026 <\/i> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"God's Body - The Whole Counsel Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2018\/06\/06\/gods-body\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"God's Body - The Whole Counsel Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One feature of the Orthodox Jewish synagogue service is the hymn sung near its dismissal which repeatedly affirms that ‘God does not have a body’.\u00a0 This particular hymn was added in the fourth or fifth century as a direct response to, and rejection of, Christianity.\u00a0 On the surface, far removed as we are from the issues in the early debate between the nascent Christian and Rabbinical Jewish communities, we might assume that this is aimed at a rejection of the Christian doctrine of the incarnation.\u00a0 In reality, however, the primary field of debate in that era was over the correct interpretation of the Hebrew scriptures which would become the Christian Old Testament.\u00a0 The repeated reaffirmation that the Jewish believer ought\u2026\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2018\/06\/06\/gods-body\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Whole Counsel Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-06-06T20:14:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-06-08T16:02:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2018\/06\/1-360x200.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fr. Stephen De Young\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fr. Stephen De Young\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2018\/06\/06\/gods-body\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2018\/06\/06\/gods-body\/\",\"name\":\"God's Body - The Whole Counsel Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2018\/06\/06\/gods-body\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2018\/06\/06\/gods-body\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2018\/06\/1-360x200.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-06-06T20:14:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-06-08T16:02:21+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/#\/schema\/person\/247da0ea47cc50719afc0ec2a8ee5e90\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2018\/06\/06\/gods-body\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2018\/06\/06\/gods-body\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2018\/06\/06\/gods-body\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2018\/06\/1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2018\/06\/1.jpg\",\"width\":852,\"height\":480},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2018\/06\/06\/gods-body\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"God’s Body\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/\",\"name\":\"The Whole Counsel Blog\",\"description\":\"The Scriptures in the Orthodox Church\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/#\/schema\/person\/247da0ea47cc50719afc0ec2a8ee5e90\",\"name\":\"Fr. Stephen De Young\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/54dc899af5499978d3770526996cf817d0a8e3c9e776a06507dd686f6923d420?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/54dc899af5499978d3770526996cf817d0a8e3c9e776a06507dd686f6923d420?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Fr. Stephen De Young\"},\"description\":\"The V. Rev. Dr. Stephen De Young is Pastor of Archangel Gabriel Orthodox Church in Lafayette, Louisiana. He holds Master's degrees in theology, philosophy, humanities, and social sciences, and a Ph.D. in Biblical Studies from Amridge University. Fr. Stephen is also the host of the Whole Counsel of God podcast from Ancient Faith and author of four books, the Religion of the Apostles, God is a Man of War, the Whole Counsel of God, Apocrypha, and Saint Paul the Pharisee. He co-hosts the live call-in show and podcast Lord of Spirits with Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/stgabriellafayette.org\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/author\/frstevedeyoung\/\"}]}<\/script>","yoast_head_json":{"title":"God's Body - The Whole Counsel Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2018\/06\/06\/gods-body\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"God's Body - The Whole Counsel Blog","og_description":"One feature of the Orthodox Jewish synagogue service is the hymn sung near its dismissal which repeatedly affirms that ‘God does not have a body’.\u00a0 This particular hymn was added in the fourth or fifth century as a direct response to, and rejection of, Christianity.\u00a0 On the surface, far removed as we are from the issues in the early debate between the nascent Christian and Rabbinical Jewish communities, we might assume that this is aimed at a rejection of the Christian doctrine of the incarnation.\u00a0 In reality, however, the primary field of debate in that era was over the correct interpretation of the Hebrew scriptures which would become the Christian Old Testament.\u00a0 The repeated reaffirmation that the Jewish believer ought\u2026","og_url":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2018\/06\/06\/gods-body\/","og_site_name":"The Whole Counsel Blog","article_published_time":"2018-06-06T20:14:19+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-06-08T16:02:21+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2018\/06\/1-360x200.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Fr. Stephen De Young","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Fr. Stephen De Young","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2018\/06\/06\/gods-body\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2018\/06\/06\/gods-body\/","name":"God's Body - The Whole Counsel Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2018\/06\/06\/gods-body\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2018\/06\/06\/gods-body\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2018\/06\/1-360x200.jpg","datePublished":"2018-06-06T20:14:19+00:00","dateModified":"2018-06-08T16:02:21+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/#\/schema\/person\/247da0ea47cc50719afc0ec2a8ee5e90"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2018\/06\/06\/gods-body\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2018\/06\/06\/gods-body\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2018\/06\/06\/gods-body\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2018\/06\/1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2018\/06\/1.jpg","width":852,"height":480},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2018\/06\/06\/gods-body\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"God’s Body"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/","name":"The Whole Counsel Blog","description":"The Scriptures in the Orthodox Church","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/#\/schema\/person\/247da0ea47cc50719afc0ec2a8ee5e90","name":"Fr. Stephen De Young","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/54dc899af5499978d3770526996cf817d0a8e3c9e776a06507dd686f6923d420?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/54dc899af5499978d3770526996cf817d0a8e3c9e776a06507dd686f6923d420?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Fr. Stephen De Young"},"description":"The V. Rev. Dr. Stephen De Young is Pastor of Archangel Gabriel Orthodox Church in Lafayette, Louisiana. He holds Master's degrees in theology, philosophy, humanities, and social sciences, and a Ph.D. in Biblical Studies from Amridge University. Fr. Stephen is also the host of the Whole Counsel of God podcast from Ancient Faith and author of four books, the Religion of the Apostles, God is a Man of War, the Whole Counsel of God, Apocrypha, and Saint Paul the Pharisee. He co-hosts the live call-in show and podcast Lord of Spirits with Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick.","sameAs":["http:\/\/stgabriellafayette.org"],"url":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/author\/frstevedeyoung\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":196,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187\/revisions\/196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}