LAS HADAS DE LAS FLORES

To these examples I would surely add the text of Deut. 4. It too fights a battle on a domestic front. However, like Deut. 12, it begins on the foreign front by reminding the Israelites of the incident with the Baal of Peor.107 In verses 3-4 we read:

3 הוהי ודימשה רועפ לעב ירחא ךלה רשא שיאה לכ יכ רועפ לעבב הוהי השע רשא תא תארה םכיניע

ךברקמ ךיהלא 4 םויה םכיהלא הוהיב םיקבדה םתאו

“3 You have seen for yourselves what the LORD did with regard to the Baal of Peor—how the LORD your God destroyed from among you everyone who followed the Baal of Peor, 4 while those of you who held fast to the LORD your God are all alive today.”

The point is made that those who follow alien deities are destroyed.

The battle on the foreign front continues in verses 27-28 where Moses

derisively describes the gods of the nations which Israel will serve if they fail to keep the covenant:

27 המש םכתא הוהי גהני רשא םיוגב רפסמ יתמ םתראשנו םימעב םכתא הוהי ץיפהו

28 ןחירי אלו ןולכאי אלו ןועמשי אלו ןוארי אל רשא ןבאו ץע םדא ידי השעמ םיהלא םש םתדבעו

“27 The LORD willscatter you among the peoples; only a few of you will be left among the nations where the LORD will lead you. 28 There you will serve other gods made by human hands, objects of wood and stone that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.”

These references fight a battle against idols on the foreign front.

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However, verses 9-20 address the domestic front. The context describes Israel’s encounter with YHWH at Horeb. In verses 12 and 15-16 we read these words: 02 ...לוק יתלוז םיאר םכניא הנומתו םיעמש םתא םירבד לוק שאה ךותמ םכילא הוהי רבדיו 05 שאה ךותמ ברחב םכילא הוהי רבד םויב הנומת לכ םתיאר אל יכ םכיתשפנל דאמ םתרמשנו 06 לספ םכל םתישעו ןותחשת ןפ

“12 Then the LORD spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice…15 Since you saw no form when the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire, take care and watch yourselves closely, 16 so that you do not act corruptly by making an idol for yourselves.”

As mentioned in section 3.3, the logic of the text seems to be that, because Israel saw no form (הנומת) when YHWH spoke, they are not to make an idol in the form (הנומת) of anything they have seen.108 Concerning these verses Barton writes, “This seems to imply that Yahweh cannot be pictured in any physical representation.”109

Similarly, Schmidt argues that the text has to do with “symbolizing YHWH, not other gods.110 While the line of reasoning drawn from Israel’s encounter with

YHWH at Horeb is secondarily relevant in terms of the divine images of alien deities, it appears to hold the most argumentative weight against representations of

YHWH.111 Israel did not see a form when YHWH spoke and therefore they are not to make a representation of him.112

Against the objection that the various forms which an idol may take suggests that representations of alien deities are implied,113 I have already argued that the

108 _{Deut. 4:16-18. Cf. Exod. 20:19-22. Tigay 48.} 109 _{Barton, “‘The Work of Human Hands’,” 66.} 110 _{Schmidt, “The Aniconic Tradition,” 84-85.} 111

Referring to Deut. 5 on the one hand and Deut. 4 on the other, Kutsko notes, “For the Deuteronomist, it seems quite clear that idolatry included both the fashioning of an idol as an object with which to worship Yahweh and the worship of other gods (and their images).” Kutsko, Between

Heaven and Earth, 44-45.

112 _{Similar logic appears in Exod. 20:19-22.} 113 _{See section 3.1.}

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point of mentioning the forms is to make the case that YHWH is not to be worshiped in the ways that the nations worship their gods.114 Therefore, while I would fully agree that alien deities are typically represented in these forms, I would nevertheless argue that, like Deut. 12, the text is explaining why Israel is not to worship YHWH in the same way. As Holter puts it, “Deut 4’s interpretation of the Second

commandment intends to prevent Yahweh from being understood like the other gods, who are known through their images.”115

For these reasons, I would argue that verses 9-20 are fighting a battle on a domestic front.

One further point should be added in support of this conclusion. As others have persuasively argued, the tie that holds the chapter together is the theme of divine presence.116 Particularly, the chapter deals with the issues of divine

immanence and transcendence. These issues are most prominent in verses 32-40. In verse 36 we are told that at Horeb YHWH let the people hear his voice from heaven and yet they also heard his words out of the fire (on top of the mountain). Then, in verse 39 Moses declares to the people of Israel, “So acknowledge today and take to heart that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.” Wilson is probably correct when he argues that these verses suggest that, although YHWH dwells in heaven, he is also actually present on earth.117 However, this raises the question of how this could be so.118 The text affirms that YHWH will not be present with his people on earth via divine images like the gods of the

114

See section 3.5.

115 _{Holter, Deuteronomy 4, 112. Cf. Sommer, The Bodies of God, 9.}

116 _{For argumentation along these lines, see MacDonald, “The Literary Criticism and} Rhetorical Logic of Deuteronomy i-iv,” 214-218; MacDonald, “One God or one Lord?,” 240-241, 249-260; Tigay, Deuteronomy, 48-49; McConville, Deuteronomy, 115; McConville and Millar, Time

and Place in Deuteronomy, 132-138; Wilson, Out of the Midst of the Fire, 71; Sommer, The Bodies of God, 141; McConville, God and Earthly Power, 134-136.

117

See Wilson, Out of the Midst of the Fire, 71.

118 _{On the tension between the transcendence and immanence of God and how this relates to} the question of God’s body or bodies, see Sommer, The Bodies of God, 141.

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nations.119 The rejection of divine images as a mode of YHWH’s presence on earth leaves room for YHWH to manifest himself when and how he would choose. Deut. 4 particularly emphasizes that YHWH would be present with his people through his word120 and this contrast (between divine image and YHWH’s words) seems to be supported in the texts which juxtapose the golden calf and the tablets.121 However, I would agree with Curtis who points out that the rejection of divine images as a mode of YHWH’s presence also preserves YHWH’s freedom to manifest himself in other ways such as theophanies, dreams, the pillar of cloud and fire, the ark of the

covenant, visions, and numerous historical acts such as the exodus, conquest, etc.122 In this way YHWH both differs from and is superior to alien deities. As MacDonald writes,

YHWH is superior to the other gods because he is not a god who can be made ‘present’ by images or by celestial objects…making an image of YHWH, then, is to make YHWH ‘present’ in an inappropriate manner. To do so is to contradict what YHWH is, or rather, what he has shown himself to be in the revelation at Horeb: the God in heaven above and on the earth below.123

Therefore, the text contrasts the way in which the gods of the nations are present with those who worship them and the way in which YHWH will be present with Israel in the midst of their worship. The text rejects the worship of YHWH via divine images because they are judged to be an illegitimate mode of his presence.

119 _{Tigay, Deuteronomy, 48-49.}

120 _{Note the parallelism of Deut. 4:7-8; 30:11-14. On this see Miller, Deuteronomy, 56. On} the analogy between YHWH’s words in Deuteronomy and the image in Babylonia, see Toorn, “The Iconic Book: Analogies between the Babylonian Cult of Images and the Veneration of the Torah,” in

The Image and the Book, (Leuven: Peeters, 1997), 229; MacDonald, “One God or one Lord?,” 222.

As Albertz wrote, “Only in connection with his commandments is Yhwh also present for Israel in the cult.” Albertz, A History of Israelite Religion in the Old Testament Period: From the Beginnings to

the End of the Monarchy (trans. Bowden; Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1994), 226-227.

121 _{Deut. 9-10; Exod. 32-34.}

122 _{Curtis, “The Theological Basis for the Prohibition of Images,” 284.} 123

MacDonald, “One God or one Lord?,” 240. For similar argumentation in regard to the calf of Aaron in Exod. 32-34 see Curtis, “The Theological Basis for the Prohibition of Images,” 284- 286.

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For this reason, and because the rationale drawn from Israel’s encounter with YHWH at Horeb suggests it, I would argue that, along with Deut. 12 and Judg. 17- 18, Deut. 4 also fights a battle against idols on a domestic front against the worship of YHWH via divine images.