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Exodus 24 describes God’s feet and hints at his superhuman size, a detail that follows ancient Near Eastern traditions of deities with giant bodies. Zechariah similarly describes God’s feet on the Mount of Olives, large enough to split it in half.
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Exodus 24:10
Hebrew Bible
9 Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up, 10 and they saw the God of Israel. Under his feet there was something like a pavement made of blue sapphire, clear like the sky itself. 11 But he did not lay a hand on the leaders of the Israelites, so they saw God, and they ate and they drank. 12 The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and remain there, and I will give you the stone tablets with the law and the commandments that I have written, so that you may teach them.”
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
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Zechariah 14:4
Hebrew Bible
2 For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to wage war; the city will be taken, its houses plundered, and the women raped. Then half of the city will go into exile, but the remainder of the people will not be taken away. 3 Then the Lord will go to battle and fight against those nations, just as he fought battles in ancient days. 4 On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives that lies to the east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in half from east to west, leaving a great valley. Half the mountain will move northward and the other half southward. 5 Then you will escape through my mountain valley, for the valley of the mountains will extend to Azal. Indeed, you will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come with all his holy ones with him.
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Exodus 24:10 offers a unique glimpse of God’s body: “Under his feet there was something like a pavement of sapphire stone [lapis lazuli], like the very heaven for clearness.” The feet are God’s feet, and they are perceived by the human figures through what looks “like a pavement of sapphire stone” (see also the divine throne of “sapphire” in Ezekiel 1:26; 10:1). Judging from descriptions elsewhere of the heavenly temple located on the mountain, Brevard S. Childs surmised that Moses and the other leaders are looking up through the flooring of the temple. The men may be viewing the deity (or at least the divine feet) in his throne room, but without being able to enter it. In short, the superhuman-sized God is enthroned in the palace on the mountain, with the divine feet perhaps resting on a divine footstool, as surmised by Friedhelm Hartenstein. The giant footprints of the deity carved into the sanctuary floor at ‘Ain Dara might suggest a similar size for the divine feet in Exodus 24:10 (compare 2 Samuel 22:10; Psalm 18:9; Nahum 1:3; Zechariah 14:4). By implication, the rest of the divine body that goes unmentioned in Exodus 24:10 would also be superhuman in scale ..."
Smith, Mark S.
Where the Gods Are: Spatial Dimensions of Anthropomorphism in the Biblical World
(p. 19) Yale University Press, 2016
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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