Abstract
This paper seeks to interrogate the anthropomorphic expressions as couched in the Bible used to describe God in the light of the fact that He is a Spirit Being, a fact which presupposes that He is not human. The declaration that "God is Spirit" (John 4: 24) and God's invitation to the co-creators of mankind, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness...". (Genl: 26) pose a problem understanding the Holy Writ and conceptualizing the nature of God and hence raise a number of posers such as: "Is God knowable as man is since He is Spirit?" "Does He possess a corporeal substance the way man possesses members such as hands, eyes, ears, back and so on?" "Is God being literal or figurative when He semiotises His nature in anthropomorphic terms- when He makes reference to His hands, eyes, ears, back, and so on in His communication with men?" These posers become imperative in the light of Peircean semiotic theory, which this paper has adopted in its analysis, and which postulates that there is no direct relationship between a word and its referent. These are the questions this paper attempts to answer by interrogating the anthropomorphic terms that intersperse the Bible. The paper seeks to help Bible readers conceptualize God and so afford them biblical literacy, which knowledge Christians claim, can afford an enquirer salvation.
Introduction
The Bible abounds in instances of phraseology about God that are either contradictory and curious or seemingly inconsistent with His nature. The concept "God" decidedly conjures up in the mind a Spirit-being; that is one who is invisible and, hence, unknowable. The questions, "Is there God?" and "How can man know God?" cannot be adequately answered by man's intuitive method of search as postulated by the mystic religions such as Eckankar, AMORC, Grail Message, etc., nor by reason (epistemology), wisdom and understanding as postulated by philosophers.
Content
The questions cannot also be answered by the study of History, natural sciences, Literature, and Ethics or even by moralizing. God cannot be adequately known through these methods because His Being, which is metaphysical, is beyond man's methods of inquiry. Conceptualizing Him must, therefore, be by His own means that of 'special revelation' of Himself - through the Bible (Hammond 1968, p.18). Each of man's methods of inquiry about God may give imperfect glimpses of God. Only a special revelation can give someone knowledge of God and Christians claim it is this type of knowledge of God that can save mankind. By salvation it means redemption from damnation; i.e., from condemnatory judgment that unsaved people shall suffer. "Revelation", according to Lloyd-Jones (2003) "is the act by which Gop communicates to human beings the truth concerning Himself, His nature, will or purpose, and it also includes the unveiling of all this - the drawing back of the veil that conceals this, in order that we may see it" (p.13). This revelation avails man the character and the nature of God as composites of His saving grace. This special revelation is not like man's search for knowledge of God. While the first is an attempt by man to look for God, the second is an attempt by God Himself, of drawing back the veil that veils man and giving the latter an insight of Himself that leads to saving knowledge. This is called redemptive revelation. Christians assert that this is an exclusive preserve of people who submit to the redemptive revelation, i.e., Christians.
Even the Christian knowledge of God cannot be exhaustive: God cannot be fully comprehended by man, nor can His nature be fully grasped by man's senses-the tactile, visual, auditory, gustatory and olfactory senses. God is a Spirit, a Supernatural Being. The notion of Spirit conveys the notion of intangibility, immaterialness, non-substantiality and formlessness, which cannot be "projected in discursive form and expression" (Langer 2014, p.139). А number of Bible verses corroborate this notion about Him: 'No man hath seen God at any time" (John 1:18); "Now unto the King, eternal, and immortal, invisible..." (1Tim 1:17); "You hath neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape" (Jn 5:37); and "God is not a man that He should lie, or son of man that He should repent" (Num. 23:19). But in dealing with man, in His revelation to man - man who is tangible and whose discursive and expressive model attempts to capture every experience or abstraction in linguistic terms, God or his human channel or both may deploy human terms to communicate His message, His nature, His character and His works. And they are supernatural and metaphysical. This is what is technically called "anthropomorphism". It, therefore, "attributes human form, shape or other characteristics" to God. And when the reference is to his emotion, it is termed, 'anthropopathism' (Keith Schoville, 2018, Caird, 1980). Caird asserts that "...the transcendent does not come to finite creatures unmediated, but always under cover of something else..." (p.177). In the same vein, anthropomorphic imagery comes in handy to mediate God to finite beings linguistically speaking. He identifies five common anthropomorphic metaphors used "to express God's relationship with his worshippers as king/subject, judge/litigant, husband/wife, father/child, master/servant" (p.177).
Even the Christian knowledge of God cannot be exhaustive: God cannot be fully comprehended by man, nor can His nature be fully grasped by man's senses-the tactile, visual, auditory, gustatory and olfactory senses. God is a Spirit, a Supernatural Being. The notion of Spirit conveys the notion of intangibility, immaterialness, non-substantiality and formlessness, which cannot be "projected in discursive form and expression" (Langer 2014, p.139). А number of Bible verses corroborate this notion about Him: 'No man hath seen God at any time" (John 1:18); "Now unto the King, eternal, and immortal, invisible..." (1Tim 1:17); "You hath neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape" (Jn 5:37); and "God is not a man that He should lie, or son of man that He should repent" (Num. 23:19). But in dealing with man, in His revelation to man - man who is tangible and whose discursive and expressive model attempts to capture every experience or abstraction in linguistic terms, God or his human channel or both may deploy human terms to communicate His message, His nature, His character and His works. And they are supernatural and metaphysical. This is what is technically called "anthropomorphism". It, therefore, "attributes human form, shape or other characteristics" to God. And when the reference is to his emotion, it is termed, 'anthropopathism' (Keith Schoville, 2018, Caird, 1980). Caird asserts that "...the transcendent does not come to finite creatures unmediated, but always under cover of something else..." (p.177). In the same vein, anthropomorphic imagery comes in handy to mediate God to finite beings linguistically speaking. He identifies five common anthropomorphic metaphors used "to express God's relationship with his worshippers as king/subject, judge/litigant, husband/wife, father/child, master/servant" (p.177).
Conclusion
Anthropomorphism is an attempt to pigeon-hole the cognition of God by man who has limited intelligence. Anthropomorphic terms constitute expressive form of semiotising God as having tangible parts as humans. They are signs pointing to the actual meaning, which is that God is a Spirit Being; transcendental. And this is beyond man's cognition. Only God is perfect in knowledge, wisdom, understanding and discernment. He knows all His creatures inside out. Man cannot know everything nor can he totally comprehend God. He can only know God or know about Him to that extent which God reveals Himself, the anthropomorphic language, notwithstanding. This is because in flesh man is limited. This attempt to 'embody' God contradicts His very nature. And any God that is known in all His ramifications ceases to be God. So, even though God gave man language and glimpses of Himself, man cannot fully comprehend God, for His ways are past finding. However, anthropomorphism in the scriptures helps mortal man to figure out a personal, holy, almighty, invisible and infinite God- a God who dwells in heaven and yet in human body, rather than in earthly building, and who inhabits the praise or His people. He is, indeed, an enigma, really a stumbling block to the logical and academic mind. Biblical literacy, therefore, tasks us to go beyond logic to the metaphysical realm, which demands that we understand the spiritual in anthropomorphic terms.
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ed.). U.S.A. Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Bailey, K.E (2008). Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the
Gospels. Downers Grove, Illinois: IVP Academic.
Berkouwer, G. C. (1972). The return of Christ. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William
B. Eerdman Publishing Company.
Blair, S. C. (n.d.). The Chaplain's Report. Journeys in Faith and Work Blog at
Wordpress.com (Retrieved on 01/18/2022).
Caird, G. B. (1980). The language and imagery of the Bible. London:
Gerald, Duckworth & Co/Ltd.
Chandler, D. Semiotics: The Basics 2nd edn. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon:
Routledge.
Durgin, C. (n.d.). Are you Bible-Literate? Confer for Hebraic Thought, King's
College, New York. https://hebraicthought.org.bible-lit... (Retrieved
01/26/2022.
Ellison, H. L. (1979). The Theology of the Old Testament. In New International
Bible Commentary: Based on the NIV. Grand Rapids, Michigan;
Zondervan, PP. 55-59.
Hammond, T.C. (1968). In Understanding, Be Men: A Handbook of Christian
Doctrine Revised and Edited by David F. Wright. London: Inter-Varsity
Press.
Kendall, R. T. (1996). Understanding Theology. Fearn, Ross-shire.
Ladd, G. E. (1987). A Theology of the New Testament. Grand Rapids, Michigan:
William B. Eerdmans.
Langer, S. K. (2014). Expressiveness. In Timothy Naylor, Patricia Dansby & the
English Department (Compilers) The San Jacinto Reader 2nd Edition.
Pearson Custom Publishing, 135-141
Lloyd-Jones, M. (2003). Great Doctrines of the Bible: God the Father, God the
Son vol.1. Wheatney: Crossway Books.
McKeon, R. (2001). (Ed). The Basic Works of Aristotle. With an introduction by
C.D.C. Reeve. (Originally published by Random House in 1941). New
York: The Modern Library.
Mikolaski, S. J. (1979). The Theology of the New Testament. in The Expositor's
Bible Commentary with the New International Version, Vol. 1. Grand
Rapid, Michigan: Zondervan pp.462-464
Mikolaski, S. J. (1978). The Theology of the New Testament. In The Expositor's
Bible Michigan: Commentary Zondervan, with pp. the 457-480 New International Version. Grand Rapids,
Nelson, F. (2011). The Importance of Biblical Literacy for the Next Generation
(Paper presented at Children Desiring God Conference: Holding Fast to the Word of Truth) Retrieved 02/10/22.
New International Version of the Holy Bible. Grand Rapids, Michigan. Zondervan Publishing House, 1986. Schoville, K. (2018).
http://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/anthropomorphism/ retrieved 14 November.
SparksNotes.com/plus 2022. Donne's Poetry. Retrieved on 24 September, 2022 Strauss, D. F. M., "God in Himself' and “God as Revealed to Us”: The Impact of Substance Concept".Acta Theologica 2010 30(1): 123-144 1015-87580 UV/UFS http://www.uovs.ac.za/actatheologica
(1979). The Holy Bible Authorised King James, Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers.
Tozer,A. W. (2003). The Attributes of God: Deeper into the Father's Heart, Vol. 2. Kaduna: Evangel Publishers Ltd.