Thursday, February 10, 2022

Peter R. Carrell on the logic of God taking Human Form in light of Genesis 1:26

Commenting on Ezekiel's throne theophany, Peter R. Carrell wrote that


 

Ezekiel has ‘seen’ a manifestation of God. But it can scarcely be the case that Ezekiel has seen God in the fullness of his transcendent being. Procksch, for example, points out that Ezekiel has not seen ‘the prototype of the divine Glory but rather the εικων του θεου’ (Procksch, ‘Berufungsvision’, 144).

 

That the manifestation of the LORD should be perceived in human form is hardly surprising for two reasons. First, there are other occasions in the OT when the LORD appears to human beings in human form. Abraham saw the LORD in the form of a man (Gen. 18.1-2), Isaiah saw the LORD ‘sitting on a throne, high and lofty’ (Isa. 6.1)—a description indicative of an anthropomorphic figure. Second, if humanity is made in the image of God (Gen. 1:26) then there is a certain logic to the manifestation of God taking human form. (Peter R. Carrell, Jesus and the Angels: Angelology and the Christology of the Apocalypse of John [Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series 95; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997], 30, emphasis in bold added)