Throughout the Bible, divine interaction with humanity is portrayed
in almost embarrassingly human terms. God sees, hears, thinks,
feels, runs, rides chariots, laughs, wields weapons, gives birth,
and even repents. Many of these descriptions, taken at face value,
seem to run afoul of classical thought about God's qualities of
divine simplicity, transcendence, omniscience, omnipotence,
omnipresence, and, especially, immutability. Traditionally, such
representations have been seen as "accommodations" to human
intellectual and moral limitations. They allowed God to be more
comprehensible but did not actually describe any "real" part of His
character, being, or interaction with humanity. References to God
seeing or hearing, for example, are not deemed to represent real
acts, as God is all-knowing. This view is largely based on the
Aristotelian conception of metaphors: they are rhetorical devices
and should not be taken literally. Since the 1970s, our
understanding of the ways in which metaphors convey meaning has
become much more sophisticated. We are better able to unlock the
function of "human" acts of God within the Bible. This book aims to
explore the biblical metaphor of divine sight in Genesis and how
current conceptions of metaphorical function can enrich our reading
of the text and its theology. Brian C. Howell is a lecturer for the
West of England Ministerial Training Course, and a freelance
writer, lecturer, speaker, saxophonist, and music teacher. "Learned
and lucid, this fine work explores the nature of anthropomorphic
language in Scripture and Christian theology. What it means to
describe God in human terms has long been controversial, but this
book tackles the issues in an irenic and scholarly way. Using
modern insights into metaphors, Howell examines the places in
Genesis where God is said to see to produce a most illuminating
discussion that biblical scholars and systematic theologians should
not overlook." Gordon Wenham, Trinity College, Bristol.
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