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-	[[Image:God.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Detail of [[Sistine Chapel]] fresco ''Creation of the Sun and Moon'' by [[Michelangelo]] (completed [[1512]]).]]	+	#REDIRECT [[Kabbalah]]
-	{{Template}}	+
-	The '''divine countenance''' is the '''[[face]] of [[God]]'''.	+
-	==Religion==	+
-	===Pagan===	+
-	In [[pagan religion]]s, the face of God might be viewed in a literal sense - the face of an [[cult image|idol]] in a [[temple]]. In [[prayer]]s and [[blessing]]s, the concept was more [[metaphor|metaphorical]], indicating the favourable [[attention]] of the deity. For example, in the [[Babylon|Babylonian]] blessing:	+
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-	<poem>"May [[Enki|Ea]] rejoice over thee!	+
-	May [[Damgalnuna|Damkina]], the queen of the deep, lighten thee with her countenance!	+
-	May [[Marduk]], the great overseer of the [[Igigi]], lift up thy head!"</poem>	+
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-	===Jewish and Christian===	+
-	[[File:Andrea Mantegna 010.jpg|thumb|left|[[Andrea Mantegna]], ''[[Sacrifice of Isaac]]'' The [[Hand of God (art)|Hand of God]] was the only part of God shown in art for many centuries.]]	+
-	In the [[Book of Exodus]] 33:20 God says "Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see Me and live", echoed in the Christian [[New Testament]] in the [[Gospel of John]] 1:18: "No man hath seen God at any time".	+
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-	In [[Judeo-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. In [[Jewish mysticism]], it is traditionally believed that even the angels who attend him cannot endure seeing the divine countenance directly. Where there are references to visionary encounters, these are thought to be either products of the human [[imagination]], as in [[dream]]s or, alternatively, a sight of the [[glory (religion)|divine glory]] which surrounds God, not the [[godhead (Judaism)|godhead]] itself.	+
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-	An important early use of the concept in the [[Old Testament]] is the [[Priestly Blessing|	+
-	blessing]] passed by [[Moses]] to the [[Israelites|children of Israel]] in [[s:Bible_(King_James)/Numbers#6:24|Numbers 6:24&ndash;26]]	+
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-	<poem>"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."	+
-	</poem>	+
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-	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 [[s:Bible_(King_James)/Genesis#32:24|Genesis]]. His opponent seemed divine and so Jacob claimed to have looked upon the face of God.	+
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-	===Islam===	+
-	[[Islam]] considers ''[[Allah]]'' to be beyond ordinary vision as the ''[[Qu'ran]]'' states that "Sights cannot attain him; he can attain sights", but other verses indicate that he would be visible in the hereafter. The ''Qu'ran'' makes many references to the face of God but its use of the Arabic word for a physical face &mdash; ''wajh'' &mdash; is symbolic and is used in the tradition of Judeo-Christianity to refer to God's presence which, in Islam, is everywhere: "wherever you turn, there is the face of God".	+
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-	==In the arts==	+
-	God was represented by the [[Hand of God (art)|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. 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. 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#The_Trinity_in_art|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.	+
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-	The description of the Ancient of Days, identified with God by most commentators, in the [[Book of Daniel]] is the nearest approach to a physical description of God in the Hebrew Bible:	+
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-	<blockquote>. ...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. ([[Book of Daniel|Daniel]] 7:9) </blockquote>	+
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-	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]]''. Blake thought highly of [[John Milton|Milton's]] work saying, "I have the happiness of seeing the Divine countenance in ... Milton more distinctly than in any prince or hero."	+
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-	==See also==	+
-	* [[Hand of God (art)|Hand of God]]	+
-	* [[Names of God]]	+
-	* [[Omnipresence]]	+
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-	{{GFDL}}	+

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Revision as of 13:35, 27 July 2010

1. REDIRECT Kabbalah