www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTkRfKnCn1g
Early Christianity on the
Personification of God the Father
Post-Apostolic Church
INTRO
This is the twelfth video in a series on what
the Pre-Nicene Christians believed about the Divinity. And this is the ninth
video about God the Father.
The last video
explained the invisibility of God the Father and how no one has ever seen Him
and how no one can see Him. But if no one has seen or can see
the Father, then what about those times when the Scriptures describe God in
physical or human-like ways? When
non-human things or abstract concepts are given human attributes, this is called anthropomorphism,
or personification. Some examples of
personification include: “My
car died yesterday” or, “The
sunrise smiles at me and welcomes a new day” or, “He realized that opportunity was knocking at the door.”
What have we heard about the personification
of God? Some might say, “God has taken physical form in things such
as a cloud, smoke, or wind.” Others might say, “God is spirit but
is able to act similarly to mankind.” Others might say, “God has a
body.” Others might say, “Any manifestation of God is not physical or
literal but is personification.”
PRE-NICENE CHRISTIANS: GOD THE FATHER IS IN NO
WAY PHYSICAL
The early
Christians believed that when the Scriptures describe God the Father in
physical or human-like ways, these were not to be taken literally but are
personification. For example, one of the earliest personifications of God is
found in Genesis 3,
Then the man and his
wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the
evening breeze, and they hid themselves from the Lord God among the trees of
the garden. (Gen 3:8)
The early
Christians believed that this description of God was not to be taken literally
but was written this way so that humans can better understand what God
does. Aristides wrote,
I say, then, that God
is not born, not made, an ever-abiding nature without beginning and without end,
immortal, perfect, and incomprehensible….
He has no form, nor any union of members. For whatsoever possesses these is kindred to
things fashioned. He is neither male nor
female. (Aristides. AD 125.
ANF, vol 9, page 263-264.)
(http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf09.xiii.iv.html,
“I say, then, that God…”)
Justin Martyr wrote about religious shrines
and images,
[These do] not have the
form of God. For we do not consider that
God has such a form as some say that they imitate [or fashion] in His honor. (Justin Martyr. AD 160.
ANF, vol 1, page 165.)
Clement of Alexandria wrote,
Form and motion, or
standing, or a throne, or place, or right hand or left, are not at all to be
conceived as belonging to the Father of the universe, although it is so
written. But what each of these means
will be shown in its proper place. The
First Cause [that is, God the Father] is not then in space, but above both
space, and time, and name, and conception. (Clement of Alexandria. AD 195.
ANF, vol 2, page 461.)
(http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.vi.iv.v.xi.html,
“If, then, abstracting all…”)
Perhaps Novatian explained it best, writing,
Although the heavenly
Scripture often turns the divine appearance into a human form,—as when it says,
“The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous;” [Ps 34:15] or when it says, “The
Lord God smelled the smell of a good savor;” [Gen 8:21] or when there are given
to Moses the tables “written with the finger of God;” [Ex 31:18] or when the
people of the children of Israel are set free from the land of Egypt “with a
mighty hand and with a stretched out arm;” [Ps 136:12] or when it says, “The
mouth of the Lord has spoken these things;” [Is 1:20] or when the earth is set
forth as “God’s footstool;” [Is 66:1] or when it says, “Incline Your ear, and
hear…,” [2Chr 19:16] [and,] “If I shall
ascend into heaven, You are there; if I shall descend into hell [that is,
Hades], You are there also; and if I shall take my wings, and go away across
the sea, there Your hand shall lay hold of me, and Your right hand shall hold
me.” [Ps 139:8-10] For we recognize the plan of the divine Scripture according
to the proportion of its arrangement. For the prophet then was still speaking about
God in parables according to the period of the faith, not as God was, but as
the people were able to receive Him. And
thus, that such things as these should be said about God, must be imputed not
to God, but rather to the people. Thus
the people are permitted to erect a tabernacle, and yet God is not contained
within the enclosure of a tabernacle. Thus
a temple is reared, and yet God is not at all bound within the restraints of a
temple. Therefore, it is not God who is
limited, but the perception of the people is limited; nor is God cramped, but
the understanding of the reason of the people is held to be cramped.... For why should He require eyes who is Himself the light? Or why should He ask for feet who is
everywhere? Or why should He wish to go
when there is nowhere where He can go beyond Himself? Or why should He seek for hands whose will is,
even when silent, the architect for the foundation of all things? He needs no ears who knows the wills that are
even unexpressed. Or for what reason
should He need a tongue whose thought is a command? These
members assuredly were necessary to men, but not to God.... Moreover, He Himself is all eye because He
all sees, and all ear because He all hears, and all hand because He all works,
and all foot because He all is everywhere.
(Novatian. AD 235. ANF, vol 5, page 615-616.)
Origen wrote,
With regard to such a
style of speaking about God, we find in the book of Deuteronomy the following:
“The Lord your God bear with your manners, as a man would bear with the manners
of his son.” * It is, as it were,
assuming the manners of a man in order to secure the advantage of men [that is,
so that they can understand it] that the Scripture makes use of such
expressions. For it would not have been
suitable to the condition of the multitude, that what God had to say to them
should be spoken by Him in a manner more befitting the majesty of His own
person. (Origen. AD 248.
ANF, vol 4, page 529.)
* Deut 1:31
Arnobius wrote,
If you are willing to
hear our conclusions, then learn that we are so far from attributing bodily
shape to the Deity, that we fear to ascribe to so great a being even mental
graces, and the very excellences by which a few have been allowed with
difficulty to distinguish themselves. For who will say that God is brave, firm,
good, wise? who will say that He has integrity, is temperate, even that He has
knowledge, understanding, forethought? that He directs towards fixed moral ends
the actions on which He determines? These things are good in man; and being
opposed to vices, have deserved the great reputation which they have gained.
But who is so foolish, so senseless, as to say that God is great by merely
human excellences...? Whatever you say, whatever in
unspoken thought you imagine concerning God, passes and is corrupted into a
human sense, and does not carry its own meaning, because it is spoken in the
words which we use, and which are suited only to human affairs. There is but
one thing man can be assured of regarding God’s nature, to know and perceive
that nothing can be revealed in human language concerning God. (Arnobius.
AD 305. ANF, vol 6, page 469.)
One of the most frequent ways the Scriptures
personify God is by referring to Him in the masculine, calling God a “He.” The early Christians did not believe this is
literal but is personification as well. Arnobius
wrote,
That no thoughtless
person may raise a false accusation against us, as though we believed God whom
we worship to be male (that is, for this reason that when we speak of Him we
use a masculine word), let him understand that it is not sex which is
expressed, but His name and its meaning according to custom and the way in
which we are in the habit of using words. For the Deity is not male, but His name is of
the masculine gender. (Arnobius. AD 305.
ANF, vol 6, page 466.)
SCRIPTURES: GOD IS INVISIBLE AND IS SPIRIT
What do the Scriptures say? The Scriptures do not address the
personification of God explicitly, but they seem to address it implicitly. For example, Paul wrote,
His [God the Father’s] invisible
attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly
seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what He has
made. (Rom 1:20)
God said,
For My thoughts are not
your thoughts, and your ways are not My ways.
For as the heaven is higher than earth, so My ways are higher than your
ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.
(Is 55:8-9)
Paul wrote,
To the King eternal,
immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
(1Tim 1:17)
Jesus said,
God is spirit. (John 4:24)
Paul wrote,
He [the Son] is the
image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. (Col 1:15)
GOD REPENTS
There is one personification of God that has troubled
Christians for ages. This is when the
Scriptures speak of God repenting. One example
is when God repented that He had made Saul king. He also said He will not repent about the
upcoming division of the kingdom.
The word of the Lord
came to Samuel, saying, “I have repented that I have made Saul to be king; for
he has turned back from following Me, and has not kept My word….” Samuel said to him [Saul], “The Lord has rent
your kingdom from Israel out of your hand this day, and will give it to your
neighbor who is better than you. And
Israel will be divided into two. And God
will not turn nor repent; for He is not as a man to repent.” (1Sam 15:10-11, 15:28-29)
Did God
sin and then repent of it? Absolutely
not, since this would be against God’s perfect goodness, which was discussed in
a previous video. Tertullian brings our attention to the actual meaning of the
original word: repent. He wrote,
And it now remains that
we should understand what God’s repentance means. For although man repents most frequently on
the recollection of a sin, and occasionally even from the unpleasantness of
some good action, this is never the case with God…. Then what will be the mode of God’s
repentance? It is already quite clear,
if you avoid referring it to human conditions.
For it will have no other meaning than a simple change of a prior
purpose. And this is admissible without
any blame even in a man, much more in God, whose every purpose is
faultless. Now in Greek the word for
repentance is formed, not from the confession of a sin, but from a change of
mind. (Tertullian. AD 207.
ANF, vol 3, page 316.)
(http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf03.v.iv.iii.xxiv.html)
Whether
one says that God repents—or its more accurate meaning: that God changes His
mind—these are personifications that help us understand God’s will for people.
CONCLUSION
And this personification of God repenting should
be a reason to bring real joy and gratitude into our lives. For God can decree punishment on people …but later
repent! God said,
If I pronounce a decree
upon a nation, or upon a kingdom, to cut them off, and to destroy them, and
that nation turns from all their sins, then I will repent of the evils which I
purposed to do to them. (Jer 18:8-10,
LXX)
In the book of Jonah,
Jonah began to enter
into the city [of Nineveh] about a day’s journey, and he proclaimed, and said,
“Yet three days, and Nineveh will be overthrown….” So men and cattle were clothed in sackcloth, and cried earnestly to God. And they turned everyone from their evil way,
and from the iniquity that was in their hands, saying, “Who knows if God will
repent, and turn from His fierce anger, and so we will not perish?” And God saw their works, that they turned
from their evil ways. And God repented
of the evil which He had said He would do to them. And He did not do it. (Jonah 3:4, 3:8-10)
God does not repent or change His mind as we
humans understand it. These
personifications help us understand what God can do. Christians should find joy and gratitude in
the fact that our God is a God who personifies repentance, which He gives to us
in eternal love and compassion—just as God had done for the city of Nineveh!
The early
Christians’ belief in the personification of God is very closely tied to their
belief in the invisibility of God. And in turn, these two beliefs are
very closely tied to their belief about the emotions of God, which will be discussed
in the next video.
Blessings
and so forth.
