The divine countenance is the face of God. The concept has special significance in the Abrahamic religions.
The divine countenance is the face of God. The concept has special significance in the Abrahamic religions.
Islam considers God to be beyond ordinary vision as the Quran states that "Sights cannot attain him; he can attain sights", [1] but other verses indicate that he would be visible in the hereafter. [2] The Quran makes many references to the face of God but its use of the Arabic word for a physical face —wajh— is symbolic and is used to refer to God's presence which, in Islam, is everywhere: "wherever you turn, there is the face of God". [3]
Now have come to you, from your Lord, proofs (to open your eyes): if any will see, it will be for (the good of) his own soul; if any will be blind, it will be to his own (harm): I am not (here) to watch over your doings.
— The Cattle: 006.104
In Judaism and Christianity, the concept is the manifestation of God rather than a remote immanence or delegation of an angel, even though a mortal would not be able to gaze directly upon him. [4] In Jewish mysticism, it is traditionally believed that even the angels who attend him cannot endure seeing the divine countenance directly. [5] Where there are references to visionary encounters, these are thought to be either products of the human imagination, as in dreams or, alternatively, a sight of the divine glory which surrounds God, not the Godhead itself. [6]
An important early use of the concept in the Old Testament is the blessing passed by Moses to the children of Israel in Numbers 6:24. [7]
The LORD bless thee, and keep thee:
The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:
The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace." [8]
While Moses didn't have the possibility to see the face of God the Father (Exodus 33,19), saint Paul in 1 Corinthians 13,11–12 states that the beatific vision of the face of God will be perfect solely in the afterdeath life.
The name of the city of Peniel literally means the "face of God" in Hebrew. The place was named by Jacob after his wrestling match there which is recounted in Genesis. His opponent seemed divine and so Jacob claimed to have looked upon the face of God. [9]
In Mandaeism, the face or countenance of Hayyi Rabbi is referred to as the "Great Countenance of Glory" (Classical Mandaic : ࡐࡀࡓࡑࡅࡐࡀ ࡓࡁࡀ ࡖࡏࡒࡀࡓࡀ, romanized: parṣupa rba ḏ-ʿqara; pronounced parṣufa in Modern Mandaic, also cognate with Syriac ܦܪܨܘܦܐ (attested in the Peshitta, including in Matthew 17:2 [10] ) in the Ginza Rabba (in Right Ginza books 1 and 2.1). [11] This Aramaic term is a borrowing from the Greek word prosopon . [12]
In pagan religions, the face of God might be viewed in a literal sense - the face of an idol in a temple. [13] In prayers and blessings, the concept was more metaphorical, indicating the favourable attention of the deity. For example, in the Babylonian blessing: [14]
God was represented by the Hand of God, in fact including the forearm but no more of the body, at several places in the 3rd-century Dura-Europos synagogue, presumably reflecting the usual practice in ancient Jewish art, almost all of which is now lost. The Hand convention was continued in Christian art, which also used full body depictions of the God the Son with the appearance of Jesus for Old Testament scenes, in particular the story of Adam and Eve, where God needed to be represented. [15] The biblical statements from Exodus and John quoted above were taken to apply not only to God the Father in person, but to all attempts at the depiction of his face. [16] The development of full images of God the Father in Western art was much later, and the aged white-haired appearance of the Ancient of Days gradually became the conventional representation, after a period of experimentation, especially in images the Trinity, where all three persons might be shown with the appearance of Jesus. In Eastern Orthodoxy the depiction of God the Father remains unusual, and has been forbidden at various church councils; many early Protestants did the same, and in the Counter Reformation the Catholic Church discouraged the earlier variety of depictions but explicitly supported the Ancient of Days.
The description of the Ancient of Days, identified with God by most commentators, [17] in the Book of Daniel is the nearest approach to a physical description of God in the Hebrew Bible: [18]
. ...the Ancient of Days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. (Daniel 7:9)
The "countenance divine" appears in the lines of the famous poem, And did those feet in ancient time , by William Blake which first appeared in the preface to his epic Milton: A Poem in Two Books . Blake thought highly of Milton's work saying, "I have the happiness of seeing the Divine countenance in ... Milton more distinctly than in any prince or hero." [19]
The Hebrew term Abaddon, and its Greek equivalent Apollyon appear in the Bible as both a place of destruction and an angel of the abyss. In the Hebrew Bible, abaddon is used with reference to a bottomless pit, often appearing alongside the place Sheol, meaning the resting place of dead peoples.
Ancient of Days is a name for God in the Book of Daniel.
Shekhinah is the English transliteration of a Hebrew word meaning "dwelling" or "settling" and denotes the presence of God, as it were, in a place. This concept is found in Judaism.
Jah or Yah is a short form of יהוה (YHWH), the four letters that form the tetragrammaton, the personal name of God: Yahweh, which the ancient Israelites used. The conventional Christian English pronunciation of Jah is, even though the letter J here transliterates the palatal approximant. The spelling Yah is designed to make the pronunciation explicit in an English-language context, especially for Christians who may not use Hebrew regularly during prayer and study.
Jacob's Ladder is a ladder leading to heaven that was featured in a dream the biblical Patriarch Jacob had during his flight from his brother Esau in the Book of Genesis.
Merkabah or Merkavahmysticism is a school of early Jewish mysticism, c. 100 BCE – 1000 CE, centered on visions such as those found in the Book of Ezekiel chapter 1, or in the hekhalot literature, concerning stories of ascents to the heavenly palaces and the Throne of God. The main corpus of the merkabah literature was composed in the period 200–700 CE, although later references to the Chariot tradition can also be found in the literature of the Chassidei Ashkenaz in the Middle Ages. A major text in this tradition is the Maaseh Merkabah.
In Christian theology, the beatific vision is the ultimate direct self-communication of God to the individual person. A person possessing the beatific vision reaches, as a member of redeemed humanity in the communion of saints, perfect salvation in its entirety, i.e., heaven. The notion of vision stresses the intellectual component of salvation, though it encompasses the whole of human experience of joy, happiness coming from seeing God finally face to face and not imperfectly through faith..
Jacob wrestling with the angel is described in the Book of Genesis. The "angel" in question is referred to as "man" and "God" in Genesis, while Hosea references an "angel". The account includes the renaming of Jacob as Israel.
A Christophany is an appearance or non-physical manifestation of Christ. Traditionally the term refers to visions of Christ after his ascension, such as the bright light of the conversion of Paul the Apostle.
El Shaddai or just Shaddai is one of the names of the God of Israel. El Shaddai is conventionally translated into English as God Almighty.
Prosopon is a theological term used in Christian theology as designation for the concept of a divine person. The term has a particular significance in Christian Triadology, and also in Christology.
Particular judgment, according to Christian eschatology, is the divine judgment that a departed (dead) person undergoes immediately after death, in contradistinction to the general judgment of all people at the end of the world.
In Christianity, God is believed to be the eternal, supreme being who created and preserves all things. Christians believe in a monotheistic conception of God, which is both transcendent and immanent. Christian teachings on the transcendence, immanence, and involvement of God in the world and his love for humanity exclude the belief that God is of the same substance as the created universe but accept that God the Son assumed hypostatically united human nature, thus becoming man in a unique event known as "the Incarnation".
For about a thousand years, in obedience to interpretations of specific Bible passages, pictorial depictions of God in Western Christianity had been avoided by Christian artists. At first only the Hand of God, often emerging from a cloud, was portrayed. Gradually, portrayals of the head and later the whole figure were depicted, and by the time of the Renaissance artistic representations of God the Father were freely used in the Western Church.
John's vision of the Son of Man is a vision described in the Book of Revelation in which the author, identified as John, sees a person he describes as one "like the Son of Man". The Son of Man is portrayed in this vision as having a robe with a golden sash, white hair, eyes like blazing fire, feet like bronze and a voice like rushing waters. He holds seven stars in his right hand and has a double-edged sword coming out of his mouth. The vision is interpreted by Christians as the only identifiable physical description of Jesus in any form in the Christian biblical canon.
In Mandaeism, the World of Light or Lightworld is the primeval, transcendental world from which Tibil and the World of Darkness emerged.
Mandaean cosmology is the Gnostic conception of the universe in the religion of Mandaeism.
In Mandaeism, Manda d-Hayyi or Manda ḏ-Hiia is an uthra sent by the Great Life as a messenger to John the Baptist. Manda d-Hayyi is considered to be the most important uthra, since he is the one bringing manda to Earth (Tibil).
In Mandaeism, Hayyi Rabbi, 'The Great Living God', is the supreme God from which all things emanate. He is also known as 'The First Life', since during the creation of the material world, Yushamin emanated from Hayyi Rabbi as the 'Second Life'. According to Qais Al-Saadi, "the principles of the Mandaean doctrine: the belief of the only one great God, Hayyi Rabbi, to whom all absolute properties belong; He created all the worlds, formed the soul through his power, and placed it by means of angels into the human body. So He created Adam and Eve, the first man and woman." Mandaeans recognize God to be the eternal, creator of all, the one and only in domination who has no partner. "God is worshiped alone and praised as the Supreme Force of the universe. He presides over all the worlds and all of creation." In Mandaeism, sahdutha is the belief in One God.
In Mandaean cosmology, a maṭarta is a "station" or "toll house" that is located between the World of Light from Tibil (Earth). It has variously been translated as "watch-station", "toll-station", "way-station", or "purgatory". Maṭartas are guarded by various uthras and demons. Ruha, the queen of the underworld, is the ruler or guardian of one of the maṭartas.
The ontological significance of the face of God is a theme that may be traced through every genre of the Hebrew Bible.
The panim (the face) of God
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