Readers of the Hebrew Bible have puzzled over the biblical pictures of God walking and eating with Abraham in the book of Genesis and over God’s bodily manifestation seen by prophets. What are these divine bodies? The differences in the presentation of God’s body in the biblical evidence suggests three different types of bodies. This presentation examines these three different types of divine bodies, the operating models informing them, and what they mean.
About the Speaker: Mark S. Smith is the Skirball Professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at New York University. After taking Masters degrees from the Catholic University of America, Harvard Divinity School and Yale University, he completed his Ph.D. at Yale in 1985. Known for his many books about God and other deities in the Bible, including The Early History of God, Mark Smith is the author of 15 books and over 100 articles. He has served as visiting professor at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome and at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and he is a two-time winner of New York University’s Golden Dozen Award for excellence in undergraduate teaching.
Mark S. Smith (NYU)
Moderator: William M. Schniedewind
Sponsored By:
UCLA Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies
Funding Provided by the
NEH Endowment in Jewish Civilization
Cosponsored By:
UCLA Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures