The theologumenon of the ‘angel of Jahweh’ is wholly wanting in the pre-exilic prophets ; and in Zee Lif 31-58 where it reappears after a long interval, there can be no doubt as to the creaturely character of this ‘angel of Jahweh.’ For he prays to Jahweh, and Jahweh answers him in comforting words. He delivers the Divine commission (14) ; he is met by ‘another angel’ (27@)); and again in
2 [where, in view of y.1, read ‘and the angel of Jahweh said’] he is once more expressly distin- guished from J ahweh. In the considerably later passage, Zec 12%, * the angel of J ahweh’ stands in parallelism with Elohim ; but the latter term is here manifestly not simply the equivalent of Jahweh, but stands for ‘a supramundane, Divine being’; so that even here ‘the angel of Jahweh’ is kept quite distinct from Jahweh Himself. One might rather be tempted to think of a self-revela- tion of Jahweh in the ‘angel of the covenant’ of Mal 31, seeing that he is named immediately after ‘the Lord,’ i.e. Jahweh. In reality, however, he is coupled with Jahweh only as His attendant and instrument, and thus at the same time distin- guished from Him. cat
(6) Closely akin to the ‘angel of J abweh,’ in its original sense, we have sometimes the ‘face (0°38 panim }) of Jahweh,’ i.c. simply J ahweh Himself
* The Massoretic text has ‘an angel’ (as in Nu 2016) ; but doubtless we should read, with the Samaritan text and Lucian’s recension of the LXX, ‘my angel’ (malakhi). Of. even the MT of v.23 ‘For mine angel shall go before thee,’ etc.; and Gn 247. 40, where we already read, ‘ He shall send his angel before
thee.’ , : + A remarkable light is thrown upon this peculiar designation
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as personally present, although (like the mal’akh Jahweh) in a form of manifestation which does not exhaust His full being. Unfortunately, the prin- cipal passage which treats of this theologumenon, namely Ex 33, has not been preserved entire, and hence its interpretation is difficult. In the text (v.3%), which is a combination of various sources and strata of sources, God declares that He cannot [personally] go up in the midst of the people, else He should have to consume them. Israel is much disturbed at this announcement ; but at God’s com- mand the people put off their ornaments, while He announces His intention of considering how He may provide a substitute for His personal presence. ‘After y.° there must have been (from the pen of E) an account of the constructing of the tent and the sacred Ark from the ornaments of the people, for the existence of the tent is all at once assumed in y.7, The Ark, in fact, which represents Jahweh, is the substitute for His personal presence. When, now, in J’s parallel (v.”:) God, in answer to Moses’ question whom He means to send with the people, replies (v.14), ‘My face shall go [with you],’ this cannot, in flat opposition to E, mean ‘ Tin wy own person.’ That is to say, J, as well as E, must have had in view something secondary, some partial representation of the full being of Jahweh, whether he, too, thought of the sacred Ark, or the self-mani- festation of God in the form of the mal’akh J ahweh was before his mind’s eye. It is to Ex 33”, beyond doubt, that allusion is made in Dt 437 and Is 63°. In the latter passage the present text speaks of ‘the angel of his face (panim).’ That would mean the angel in whom His panim, the manifestation of His presence, was found. But we should cer- ara read, with the LXX, ‘No messenger or angel [read aydoy ‘y], but his face, saved them.’ Here, plainly, panim, as the proper manifestation of Jahweh, is opposed to messengers and angels, who are quite distinct from Him. Yet even the author of Is 63° cannot have regarded the panim of Jahweh as absolutely identical with Him, else he would surely have said simply ‘Jahweh, he saved them,’ and not ‘his face saved them.’ In three other passages the panim of J ahweh denotes His appearing to execute judgment upon the foes of Israel (Ps 21°), or upon Israel itself (Ps 8017 (9), La 4!° «Phe angry glance of Jahweh hath scattered them’).
(c) To the category of forms of Divine mani- festation belongs, further, the ‘ glory (tap kabéd) of Jahweh.’* It is true that no perfectly certain evidence can be adduced of the currency of this theologumenon as early as the pre-Prophetie period. For in the very ancient passage, 1 S 44, habdd appears to be a designation of Jahweh who dwells in the sacred Ark, and hence belongs to quite a different category from the kabéd in all other pre- exilic passages. In the latter the kabéd is the manifestation-form in which Jahweh on solemn occasions shows Himself to Israel ; it stands, above all, for the brightness which streams from the cloud surrounding Him. It may be that here, too, there was originally a connexion with the thought of the storm-God who appears in dark lightning- flashing clouds (so, probably, still in Ex 33" and Dt 52), but the kabéd may exhibit itself apart from storms (so especially in 1 K g® || 2 Ch 7, where the kabéd of Jahweh in the form of a [bright] cloud fills the newly built temple). On