Ancient Jewish understanding of God

[SimpleCaveman]

Hello Everyone,

I’m trying to understand what we know or think we know about the anthropropathism of the Jewish people (and all other people, for that matter), that is of them ascribing human emotions to God. Certainly since the time of Christ and the Church Fathers we understand these as figurative expressions and metaphors. My question is when the Jewish people wrote the books of the OT do we have any idea whether or not they did think that God was actually jealous or angry or repenting? And only over time did they come to understand He was not as a human?

Any references to support responses would be much appreciated.

 

[James_S_Saint]

I can’t give you my references, but just for sake of my 2 cents…

At the time of Ahdam, those typical metaphors were not believed. Although a higher understanding of life was understood and still is among some. That understanding of life includes what the very definition of God entails and thus to refer to God as being angry, wasn’t even a metaphor to them (nor me). The real issue is not the anthropomorphization, but the degradation of the concept of a “living being”.