The Image of God
The Ancients
History Hit
4.7 • 4.5K Ratings
🗓️ 19 June 2022
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Often pictured with a flowing white beard, looking down from Heaven - why is God always seen as an old man? In today's episode, Professor Francesca Stavrakopoulou, whose latest book 'God: an Anatomy' has been shortlisted for the Wolfson prize, is here to debunk those images. Using archaeological material and resources, she answers the question - did God always have a body? With depictions that change across the millenia; from a scandalous view of his backside, to an unfaithful wife, and a body that likes to take evening strolls - just what did God look like?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's the entrance on History Hit. I'm Tristan Hughes your host and in today's |
| 0:10.2 | podcast where we've covered big topics in the past. We're going to continue to |
| 0:13.6 | cover big topics going forwards and today's no exception because as you'd have |
| 0:18.3 | guessed from the title of this episode we're talking all about the body of God |
| 0:22.8 | of Yahweh, of God from the Hebrew Bible because my guest today is Dr. Francesca |
| 0:28.8 | Stavrocapouli. Francesca she's a brilliant academic and also she's a lovely |
| 0:32.4 | person to chat to. She has recently written a new book called God and Anatomy and |
| 0:36.9 | that book is now in contention for the Wolfson history prize. So we've got Francesca |
| 0:42.5 | on the podcast today to explain all about her new book and she explains how the |
| 0:46.8 | ancient worshipers of Yahweh of God from the Hebrew Bible believed that God had |
| 0:52.8 | a human body. He had this superhuman body, he had hands, he had legs, he had |
| 0:57.5 | feet, he had footprints, he had a torso, he had hair, he had a face and he also had |
| 1:03.6 | to genitalia. Francesca explains all in this podcast episode and I really do |
| 1:07.5 | hope you enjoy it. It was wonderful to get her on the pod and without further |
| 1:10.6 | ado to talk all about the body of God. Here's Francesca. |
| 1:20.4 | Francesca it is great to have you on the podcast today. Thank you so much for having me. |
| 1:25.6 | Now this is a very big topic. I mean God's body is just the title of my notes. |
| 1:31.4 | I've got my sheet in front of me but I mean it seems we've got evidence in the |
| 1:34.0 | ancient texts in the Bible itself that ancient worshipers were they viewed God |
| 1:38.0 | as having a human body, a deity with a body and is it fair to say a very, |
| 1:42.0 | very virile one at that. Yeah we have this tendency to assume that the God of the |
| 1:47.6 | Bible was always understood to be immaterial, incorporeal, body free. |
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