Theomorphisms

Anthropomorphism

Any half-informed Bible student knows the word. It's the standard explanation for what the Bible means when it talks about a non-physical, transcendant God 'baring His arm' or having 'eyes'. We know God doesn't have an arm, right? So it must be an anthropomorphism.

But what is an anthropomorphism?

Well, the word comes straight from the Greek. Anthropos means mankind, as in anthropology (the study of mankind) and philanthropist (one who loves mankind). Morph means form (which carries over into our usage, which usually entails changing form). So, you put the two together and anthropo morphism becomes human form. The implication is that something which is not human is being assigned human characteristics as a figure of speech.

A handy correlary I ran across recently (thanks to D.A. Carson's great little book, The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God) is anthropopathism. Pathos, of course, is emotion, and so an anthropopathism is a figure of speech in which something non-human is assigned human feeling.

But...

Is that really an accurate explanation for these Scriptural expressions? Is God simply using an analogy to illustrate for us something that we otherwise couldn't comprehend? I would argue that there's something much more profound going on here, because, strictly speaking, we are created in God's image (or form). I reject out-of-hand any hint of the idea that God first created man and then had to start picking from our organs and limbs to illustrate Himself for us. Rather, I believe He made our arms and our eyes to demonstrate certain aspects of His own Being (for starters, His activity and His consciousness).

That said, I propose what I believe is a more accurate explanation of the Bible's speaking of God's arm and eyes. These aren't anthropomorphisms at all; these are in fact the most natural and basic usage of these words. Instead, when we speak of our own arms or eyes, we are speaking in theopomorphisms - figures of speech which speak of humans as if they somehow have some aspect of God's form.