Fun With Anthropomorphisms
This week's Torah portion has a lot of expressions for Yahweh that seems to make Him more like one of the guys, than a supposed "resides outside of time and space" kind of God, which, admittedly, is a concept foreign to the writers of the Torah.
There is an overused expression that responds to such things: "The Torah was written in the language of man", meaning, "It doesn't mean that literally!"
Of course, the Targum Onkelos, the Aramaic interpretation of the text is also written in the language of men, but it worked hard to remove as many anthropomorphisms as possible. And it was by comparing that text to the Torah, I was able to see what bothered the Targumist, and thus, create this list.
It's not so much that "The Torah was written in the language of men" as much as "The primitive people of ages long past imagined a God with a form, and expressed this in their stories and songs. The fact that we have become more sophisticated in our choice of Gods doesn't change the text."
Many of the verses cited below are often badly translated, depending on the translation that you are using. So I have translated them for you.
So let's get started!
This statement is from the rebels, telling Moses that he's no more holy than anyone else, and just as Moses gets to hang out with Yahweh in His tent, the people get to hang out with Him as well. The Targum changes this to "The shechinah (dwelling presence) of Yahweh" to soften this a bit.
16:5 - "...[Yahweh] will bring [the man] close to Him. He will bring near to Himself whom He has chosen."
This sentence is part of the challenge to see whom Yahweh will choose to be His priest. The Targumist was uncomfortable with this narrative and changed it to "He will bring him before Him" which was seen as less of a problem than "bring him to Him".
16:11 - "Because of this, you and your entire group have gathered near Yahweh."
The Hebrew word על means near, beside, at, by, etc. It indicates the proximity between two objects. Some incorrectly translate it as "against". It would be more of an "upon".
16:19 - "...Then the Glory of Yahweh appeared to the entire assembly."
The word כבוד is being translated as "Glory". It is quite possible that, in this context, it is "Glory-Yahweh" just as you have "Lord-Yahweh", meaning, that the first word is a title being applied to Yahweh. In any case, He appears. The Targum uses "revealed" rather than "appeared".
16:22 - "El, Elohim of the ruach of all flesh..."
Technically, this isn't an anthropomorphism, but is something else that I wanted to put here in case I never got to it in the future. In this case, "El" really is an expression of Yahweh (see verse 27:16 for the mirror image). Ruach is often translated as "breath", but it is really a supernatural agent that keeps humans alive, among other things. I contend that it should be read as "El-Elohim" and not "El, Elohim", which would would be an expression of great fear ("El", when referring to Yahweh, means "power" and "strength").
17:7 - "...the Glory of Yahweh appeared."
See 16:19 above
17:19 - "Lay [the rods] in the Tend of Meeting before the Testimony where I will meet with you."
The Targum had a problem with Yahweh meeting someone in a tent, and reworded it so that Yahweh's "memra" (a supernatural manifestation that isn't God, but represents God) who would meet with Moses.
17:20 - "...I will stop the murmurings that are against me from the Israelites..."
The word מעלי has a prefix "from", so I apply it to the Israelites, and עלי means "upon/against" (see 16:11 above) with "me" attached. Again, it refers to the proximity of objects.
17:25 - "...their murmurings against/at me will stop, and they will not die!"
See 17:20 above
18:6 - "[these men] are a gift to you, given by Yahweh..."
The Targumist changes it to "a gift from before Yahweh." He was uncomfortable with Yahweh's gift-giving narrative.
18:9 - "...every asham offering [of the priests] they pass unto Me, shall be most holy..."
Remember, Yahweh is in the tent and resides either in, over, or upon the golden box that they have inside. These offerings are brought before the opening of that tent. Giving Yahweh a location makes some people uncomfortable, so the Targum says, "before Me" instead of "unto Me".
18:15 - "Every first offspring of all flesh (every being), which they offer to Yahweh, man or beast, shall be yours."
Again, this expression of Yahweh's place of residence makes some people uncomfortable. See 18:9 above.
18:17 - "...Burn their fat as an offering [upon the fire] that will be a pleasing aroma to Yahweh."
This is part of the list of offerings to bring to Yahweh. In this case, it's to provide Him with a pleasing smell, which is so anthropomorphic, that the Targumist changed it to"...to be accepted with favor before Yahweh."
18:19 - "All of the terumah [offerings] of the holy [things] which the children of Israel have offered to Yahweh, I have given to you, and to your sons, and your daughters who are with you, as something due to you forever,, it is an eternal covenant of salt to Yahweh."
Again, the Targumist is uncomfortable with this use of "to", and replaces them with "before" to make God less positional.
18:20 - " ...I [Yahweh] am your portion and your inheritance."
The Targumist changes this to "The gift that I gave you will be your portion", and does this again in Deuteronomy 10:9 and 18:2. After all, who can inherit God?
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