WHO IS GOD? Spirit Or Body Parts? (PART 5)

WHO IS GOD?

Spirit Or Body Parts? (PART 5)

Brett A. Todd

Wait a minute, are you trying to tell me that God, the big guy in the sky, had a physical wrestling match with Jacob?

I’m not going to get into the theological or hermeneutical aspects of what the author of the Gospel John meant when he said, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:24).  But I do find it interesting how so many assume that God is spirit and because God is spirit, then God must never have had body parts.  But why would we make such an assumption when throughout the Hebrew Scriptures (The Old Testament), God is described as having body parts?  The early Jews and their ancestors just assume that God had a body.

Modern scholars have done their best to explain away or cover up this idea of God having a body by using the big word “Anthropomorphic” which means God has human-like qualities or characteristics, but they are not real, God’s body parts only look real. This big word may help modern Bible readers to compartmentalize their thoughts on God and take away any notion or confusion they have of whether or not God has a body, but sadly, in the process, it completely disregards what early Jews and their ancestors believed. Here, it should interest the reader that the word “Anthropomorphic” was not even used until 1753 in reference to the heresy of making God look like human beings.  I guess someone forgot the decisive words of Genesis 1:26, where God was making humans look like Gods, “Then God said, “Let us make humans in our image, according to our likeness…”  Just a thought, why is it okay for Jesus (God?) to have a body, but not the Gods of the Hebrew Scripture?

What should interest the reader in this discussion is not what we believe as modern Bible readers, but what these early Jews and their ancestors believed.  As already stated, many, if not all of them, believed that God had a body.  Not only did they believe that God had a body, but they believed God’s body parts were glorious, genuine, and gigantic: his feet, his hands, and his lower members.  No fig leaf there, and yes, God (Yahweh) was a male. (See Francesca Slavrakopoulou, “God: An Anatomy”)

So, what about this wrestling match between Jacob and God?  In Genesis 32:22-32, we read of an unusual wrestling match.  This is not a two-period 6-minute match between two Olympic competitors, it was an all-night match between Jacob and God. The story goes that one night, while Jacob was alone, out of nowhere, he found himself in a wrestling match with another “man” (v.24).  While they were wrestling, the man knocked Jacob’s hips out of joint, however, Jacob was not willing to give up, he held on until finally, this “man” tells Jacob, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” (v.26), but Jacob would not let go until this “man” blessed him.  

So far, all sounds fine, Jacob was wrestling a man.  He looked like a man, sweat like a man, and talked like a man, but then the story takes a turn, and almost out of nowhere, this “man” who Jacob was wrestling with called himself, God, saying, “you have striven with God” (Genesis 32:28), and Jacob, in turn, called this “man” God, “For I have seen God face to face…” [ פָּנִ֔ים אֶל־ פָּנִ֣ים  אֱלֹהִים֙] (Genesis 32:30)  The Hebrew words here mean that Jacob's encounter with this “man”, this “God” was a deep and personal encounter, they were eye to eye.  Their arms and bodies were locked together with sweat dripping from their foreheads as each man tried to outmaneuver the other.  Jacob was wrestling someone who in all appearance looked like a man, but the man was God.

There is nothing here to debate, Jacob wrestled with God, and it was a one-on-one physical match that got pretty brutal.  This God, Jacob wrestled with was called a “man” which means he obviously looked like a man, talked like a man, and smelled like a man.  Even more significant, Jacob said he saw God, “face to face”.  God had a face.  God had body parts.  Let’s get this straight, Jacob could not have wrestled with God unless God had body parts.

Understandably, for many, this story tips over the modern Bible readers' “apple cart”.  Again, one might ask, if God is a spirit, how could God have a body? Step back for a moment and remember that each book of the Bible has a different perspective on God.  In one book, it will say that God had a body; in another, it will say something else.  The Judeo-Christian understanding of God comes from thousands of years of development.  As we have already said, early Jews and their ancestors had no problem with the idea that God had a body.  This is obvious from our above readings.  However, as time progressed so did the Jewish concept of God, even to the point that it became unlawful to make any image of God.  For example, Jerusalem's Temple had their own coins they used with no image of God on them, but we also know that earlier Jews did have coins with an image of God on them.  Our views of God have been changing and are constantly changing right from the beginning. 

It might interest some whether I believe God has a body.  Again, remember, in this study, it is not important what you or I think about God, what is important is what these early Jews and their ancestors believed.  Down the road, I hope to give you a more detailed view of what I believe, but for now, our interest is focused on what the Bible says.