The Bodies of God and the World of Ancient Israel
Cambridge University Press, 6/30/2009
EAN 9780521518727, ISBN10: 0521518725
Hardcover, 352 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm
Language: English
Sommer utilizes a lost ancient Near Eastern perception of divinity according to which a god has more than one body and fluid, unbounded selves. Though the dominant strains of biblical religion rejected it, a monotheistic version of this theological intuition is found in some biblical texts. Later Jewish and Christian thinkers inherited this ancient way of thinking; ideas such as the sefirot in Kabbalah and the trinity in Christianity represent a late version of this theology. This book forces us to rethink the distinction between monotheism and polytheism, as this notion of divine fluidity is found in both polytheistic cultures (Babylonia, Assyria, Canaan) and monotheistic ones (biblical religion, Jewish mysticism, Christianity), whereas it is absent in some polytheistic cultures (classical Greece). The Bodies of God and the World of Ancient Israel has important repercussions not only for biblical scholarship and comparative religion but for Jewish-Christian dialogue.
1. Introduction
God's body and the Bible's interpreters
2. Fluidity of divine embodiment and selfhood
Mesopotamia and Canaan
3. The fluidity model in ancient Israel
4. The rejection of the fluidity model in ancient Israel
5. God's bodies and sacred space (1)
tent, ark, and temple
6. God's bodies and sacred space (2)
difficult beginnings
7. The perception of divinity in Biblical tradition
implications and afterlife.
‘An innovative and illuminating exploration of the idea that God in the Hebrew Bible is embodied. Benjamin Sommer explores the various modes of embodiment found in different sources and shows that both rabbinic and mystical Judaism, as well as Christianity, have roots in the variety of presentations in the Hebrew Bible. A characteristically lucid and original book.’ John Barton, Oriel College, University of Oxford
‘Sommer’s audacious and original analyses of fascinating aspects of biblical theology, the fluidity and the embodiment of God against their Near Eastern backgrounds, open new questions and facilitate new solutions as to the later developments of Jewish thought, especially the sources of Kabbalistic theosophy.’ Moshe Idel, Department of Jewish Thought, Hebrew University
‘This very original work raises profound questions about how to understand the way in which the Biblical God (and the gods of the ancient Near East) makes his person manifest in the world. Readers will be stimulated to think about the identity of God in strikingly new ways.’ Gary Anderson, University of Notre Dame
‘This book is an important study of a fascinating topic: how the Hebrew Bible understands the body of God. As Benjamin Sommer shows, whether a deity has a body is a major concern not only of Biblical thought but of the cultures of its ancient Near Eastern neighbours, and of the Judaism and Christianity that succeeded it. The significance here embraces such topics as monotheism versus polytheism, sacred space, the concept and manufacture of divine images, and the priestly and Deuteronomic views of the divine name and glory. Sommer explores all of these in fresh ways, pointing out their profound interconnections and persuasively challenging in the process long-held scholarly views. He is particularly attentive to the variety of perspectives on God’s body that the biblical authors present. As he demonstrates, these perspectives are often in conflict with one another, even in the same biblical tradition, and yet the conflicts are not so much confusing as revealing: showing how as a whole the Bible is able to forge a hermeneutic of paradox to deal with the paradoxical nature of God. Throughout his discussion, Sommer remains the consummate analyst, discerning and discriminating in his reading of the ancient sources and the modern scholarship on them. And yet his book is not only that of a discriminating analyst. In its lively, incisive, and conversational style, it is also a deeply personal encounter with fundamental and troubling issues about the relationship of divinity and humanity – issues that, as he makes clear, have not lost their relevance and their bite.’ Peter Machinist, Hancock Professor of Hebrew and Other Oriental Languages, Harvard University