The malak YHWH (angel of Jehovah) features prominently in Judges 13. Was this "angel" a spirit or human person? Even within the account, it seems that Manoah treats the being as a human while his wife appears to recognize the appearance as a theophany or possibly, an angelophany. Susan Niditch offers these remarks (Judges, OTL, page 145):
[6–14] The insight of Manoah’s wife emerges in her interaction with her husband and in the divine messenger’s preference to deal with her (see Exum 1983: 39; Amit 1984/85: 388–89). The woman recognizes immediately that the messenger is no mere mortal (v. 6), whereas the husband treats him as a holy human being (vv. 8, 17). The woman’s repetition of the instructions (v. 7) emphasizes the importance of Samson’s “separated” status. Note that Manoah’s prayer to God to receive additional confirmation results in the messenger’s appearing again not to him but to the woman (v. 9). Manoah then follows after his wife to
greet the stranger (v. 11), reversing the expected order of status in a patriarchal culture. In response to Manoah’s inquiries (v. 12), the messenger alludes to his conversation with the woman—to what only she and he know—and omits reference to the important detail concerning the hair and the term Nazir. While this third version of the instructions, like the other two, emphasizes Samson’s special status from the womb, it also serves to portray Manoah as outside the loop.
18 comments:
https://www.openbible.info/labs/cross-references/search?q=Judges+13%3A22
Seeing and dying or seeing and not dying?
NABRE Note for Judges 6:22: "Ancient Israel thought that seeing God face to face meant mortal danger, as Ex 33:20 indicates and as Gideon’s reaction here shows. Compare the reaction of Samson’s parents (13:22–23) when they realize they have been conversing with the Lord."
Who actually died from seeing?
https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section4/tr4051.htm
100-108He alone is the prince of heaven, the dragon of the earth. The lofty god of the Anuna himself determines the fates. No god can look upon him. His great minister and commander (1 ms. has instead: chief barber) Nuska learns his commands and his intentions from him, consults with him and then executes his far-reaching instructions on his behalf. He prays to him with holy prayers (?) and divine powers (?).
131-138Enlil, your ingenuity takes one's breath away! By its nature it is like entangled threads which cannot be unraveled, crossed threads which the eye cannot follow. Your divinity can be relied on. You are your own counsellor and adviser, you are a lord on your own. Who can comprehend your actions? No divine powers are as resplendent as yours. No god can look you in the face.
Those statements as quoted are not exactly the same as Exod 33:20. The quote from NABRE says the Israelites believed death came to one who beheld the deity, and this was based on Exod 33:20. The verse in Exodus specifies that one seeing God's "face" would die. So Moses behled the glory of Jehovah (his "back" or afterglow) but not his face. Based on the Tanakh, Merold Westphal argues that humans are too ontologically inadequate to see God's face. Of course," face" is anthropomorphic terminology in this context. I think Maimonides writes that the essence of God cannot be seen.
Wind cannot be seen.
1 Kings 19:11-13
No disagreement about wind. One difference though is that the Bible used wind to illustrate things about God and creatures, but God created wind and his spirit is compared to wind. However, in the case of Jehovah, we're talking about a person whose face cannot be seen. Yet angels behold God's face.
I believe the account in Kings, a theophany, says YHWH was not in the wind.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nippur
"It was the special seat of the worship of the Sumerian god Enlil, the "Lord Wind", ruler of the cosmos, >>>subject to An alone.<<<"
https://biblehub.com/text/acts/3-13.htm
https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781400882762-045/pdf
Note "face" on sample page.
https://wordandsilence.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/ancient-near-eastern-texts-relating-to-the-old-testament-i.pdf
I like the text edited by Pritchard: lot of important readings in that work.
The sample at the Degruyter websit spoke about the city's "face." It's instructive but the face of YHWH is undoubtedly unique and differs in important ways from the face of a city.
I am focused on the similarities rather than the differences. Whatever the "face" may be, it is the next line that is just as interesting although the translation "no god" is misleading, "no mighty" would be better. This way of speaking and its meaning clearly has some background and history too it.
Also the city Nippur is specifically protected by the mighty wind.
There are similarities, but I tend to emphasize the differences because so many scholars want to conflate variant religious traditions
https://oi.uchicago.edu/research/projects/nippur-sacred-city-enlil-0
"As a culture, ancient Mesopotamia must be recognized as a tremendously resilient and strong tradition. In a harsh and demanding environment, Mesopotamians created the world's first civilization and sustained it for more than three thousand years. That culture was, in fact, so elaborate, changing, and elastic an adaptation that it could be maintained even when major states collapsed. Nippur, its spiritual center, was probably more intimately involved in that continuation of tradition than most other sites. The city is, then, an extraordinarily important focus for sustained research and deserves continued excavation well into the future, even though there has already been a century of archaeological research on the site."
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