BIBLICAL ANTHROPOMORPHISM. — It is the depiction of God in the sacred books, especially of the Old Testament, in “human form,” or with bodily organs or phenomena of sensitive life (properly called anthropomorphism), or with activities, states, and effects of human intelligence and will (more properly called anthropopathy).
The reasons why divine appearances or human sentiments are attributed to God stem from the very nature of knowledge, which derives from the concrete sensible, and from the necessarily analogical and figurative language of man when he must express the spiritual and the transcendent. The particular genius of the sacred writers, moreover, leads them to express themselves with vivid concreteness that sometimes borders on crudeness; to this popular character is owed the preponderance of anthropomorphisms in the Pentateuch, which nonetheless inculcates the prohibition against representing God in material form. The theophanies, frequent in the prophetic books, and the poetic style (Psalms) determine the ample use of anthropomorphic style. These anthropomorphisms, as is clear from the general “biblical context,” must be understood as metaphors or allegories, and not in a literal material sense, as was advocated in the 4th century by the Anthropomorphites or Audiani.
A principle of Catholic hermeneutics is that Scripture does not indiscriminately attribute to God the elements of human nature and its activities. Never, in accordance with the mythological tendency that appears in the religious documents of the other peoples of the ancient East, is a vicious action or evil passion attributed to God. Mixed sentiments of perfection and imperfection are attributed to Him only in their positive aspect and according to the most formal and excellent concept: “God is envious without envy, angry without agitation, merciful without suffering, repents without regret for any evil, is patient without enduring” (St. Augustine, *De patientia*, 1, 1; PL 40, 611). “The wings of God, therefore, signify His protection; His hands signify His operations, His feet His presence, His eyes the care He has for us, His face the knowledge He offers of Himself; and all that Scripture recalls of the like must be understood spiritually” (id., *Epist. ad Fortunatianum*, 148; PL 33, 628). Dante well expresses the causes and nature of this literary procedure (cf. *Paradiso*, 4, 40-45).
BIBL.:
s. Agostino, *De patientia*, 1, 1; *Epist. ad Fortunatianum*, 148; PL 40, 611; 33, 628.