God's Ass

[Jenny A]

We aren't talking about what the Garden of Eden story is about.  That is a rather different discussion. We are talking about how god is depicted in the Bible--specifically whether he is a human looking creature or an ethereal spirit, or what. Those verses and many others in Genesis suggest a two legged man with superpowers.  Specifically one with feet, a desire to walk in the cool of the evening, who gets in wrestling matches with his creations.  Other verses, particularly the Prophets suggest a more unknowable being.   Exodus is rather transitional.

Like I said before you need to pay attention to what you read. When God had physical encounters with man it was Christ, not the Father. The reason God is described as having physical parts like hand, arm, feet and ect. because to this day man can't explain what Spirit is. I've asked that here several times and have yet to receive an answer. 

GC

I suppose it's an answer of sorts.  But I don't believe for a minute that those writing Genesis thought they were writing about Jesus instead of Yahweh when he had physical encounters with people.  What you have going there is a Christian rewrite of the OT.

Physical encounters with god in the OT are rather different than encounters with Jesus in the NT:

 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”
But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
27 The man asked him, “What is your name?”
“Jacob,” he answered.
28 Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”
29 Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”
But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.
30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”
31 The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. 32 Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched near the tendon.

Genesis 32: 22-31


Doesn't sound remotely like Jesus to me. Sounds like old "I am who I am."  I doesn't sound like metaphorical wrestling either.  Wrenching your hip is not what happens in a mental struggle.

Nor do god's footsteps sound like an inability to describe god in the garden of Eden.  God doesn't just walk, he has foot falls and cares about the time of day for comfort reasons.  It's all very anthropomorphic.