by the circumstance that in Carthaginian inscriptions the god- dess Tanit very frequently receives the honorific title ‘Face of Baal’ (pené Ba'al), te. personal (as it were, incarnate) repre- sentation of the Deity in general. S
* A very thorough examination of the history of this notion will be found in yon Gall’s Die Herrlichkett Gottes: eine biblisch-theologische Untersuchung wusgedehnt tiber das Alte Testament, die Targume, Apokryphen, Apokalypsen und das Neue Testament, Giessen, 1900.
640 RELIGION OF ISRAEL
ees EE eee
the other hand, in Is 6° (and so also in Nu 1421t. | Hab 2", and often in the Psalms, XO rpLoe a 219) kabéd appears to stand in a much wider sense for the manifestations of the Divine majesty and omnipotence which are displayed in all parts of the earth.
Quite a different sense attaches to the kabéd of Jahweh in Ezekiel as well as in Is 40-66 and in the so-called Priests’ Code. Here it is plainly the form itself in which Jahweh becomes visible, and not simply the temporarily assumed veiling of His real being. This Labéd shines like hashmad * (Ezk 1°); it rises from its place with a noise like that of a great earthquake (32), leaves the cherubim- chariot, and approaches the threshold of the temple, so that the temple is filled with the cloud [which veils the ka@éd], and the fore-court with the brightness of the kabéd of Jahweh (9° 104). Then, once more mounting the chariot (101, cf, also 3% 84), it leaves the city and fixes its abode on the Mount of Olives during’ the period of judgment and desecration (1122), Thence, when the day of deliverance dawns, it returns by the east door to the temple, and the latter as well as the whole land shines anew in its reflexion.
The same conception of the kabéd as a figure shooting out rays afar is found, although in a somewhat different form, in the Messianic glimpses of Is 40-66. According to 40° it is to show itself as soon as the preparations for the return of the exiles are undertaken ; here, in all probability, it is thought of as the guide at the head of the re- turning band. On the other hand, in 601 the kabéd of Jahweh streams over them (thus appar- ently in heaven) ; in 59 (|| the ‘name of J ahweh,’ see below), again, and in 6618 kabéd may stand, as in Is 6° etc., for the glorifying of the majesty and omnipotence of Jahweh, which is visible to the whole world.
The conception of the kabéd of Jahweh present in Ezk 1-11 and in ch. 43 recurs quite clearly in the Priests’ Code, naturally without the connected notion of the cherubim-chariot. It is enthroned upon Sinai, enveloped in the cloud; but to the eyes of Israel it presents itself ag devouring fire (Ex 24166; cf. also Ly 92%, Nu 1420 16!9 206. 8)" In Bx 40% and Nu 177[16#] the cloud appears, as it were, as the herald and signal of the habéd of Jabweh which appears immediately after it, and fills the Tent of Meeting. Cf. also the discussion of the ‘Glory of Jahweh’ in vol. ii. p. 184 ff.
All the theologumena we have Just described are |
attempts to bridge the gulf between the real being of Jahweh, which eludes human sight and com- prehension, and the realm of the visible, which is alone accessible and intelligible to man. One perceives the inadequacy of all comparisons, and yet these cannot be dispensed with so long as the human mind cannot conceive of personal action and influence proceeding except from a bodily form (this bodily form, moreover, being always primarily human). Hence it marks a consider- able advance on the old notion of the mavakh Jahweh when in the theologumena of the panim and the kabéd of Jahweh the thought of a human form is kept as much as possible in the back- ground. Even if Ezekiel ( 1°) still ventures—in a supplementary sort of fashion—on a comparison of the kabéd of Jahweh with the human form (‘a likeness as the appearance of a man,’ v.25; «from that which appeared as his loins,’ v.27), in Deutero- Isaiah and the Priests’ Code there is no allusion whatever to the form of aman. The only images that are considered worthy to represent the supra- mundane and mysterious being of God are fire (which is, as it were, the least material element) * According to the LXX and the Vulgate, this, word (Spyin) stands for edectyon, that is, an amalgam of gold and silver, ~
RELIGION OF ISRAEL
and the more than earthly brightness which pro- ceeds from it, and which is rendered tolerable to the human eye only by an enveloping cloud, _
(d) We have still, however, in this connexion, to speak of a theologumenon, which likewise aims at distinguishing between the immanent Jahweh and His manifestations and acts, avoiding at the same time all introduction of a bodily form. We refer to the remarkable expressions regarding the ‘name of Jahweh.’* The modern mind finds it hard to realize the profound meaning which a person’s name possessed in the eyes of men, includ- ing the Israelites, in ancient times. Giesebrecht (4c. p. 94) rightly defines a name as meaning, according to the ancient conception, ‘a something parallel to the man, relatively independent of its bearer, but of great importance for his weal or his woe, a something which at once describes and influences its bearer.’ He supports this defini- tion (db. p. 68 ff.) by very numerous and striking testimonies, derived from the conceptions of other peoples and religions. But what is true of a human name is true also, mutatis mutandis, of the Divine name. To know it is of vital importance, for this is the condition of being able to use it in invocation ; and invocation has, according to primi- tive notions, a real efficacy, giving to the invok- ing party a kind of power over the name invoked, so that he can compel its aid. This explains why, in heathen cults, the name of a particular god was studiously kept secret, lest it might be abused through being invoked by an improper party.