Abstract

AbstractDivine hiddenness in the Hebrew Bible is widely construed as the conceptual equivalent to divine absence. This article challenges this influential account in light of Psalm 88—where the hidden God is hostilely present, not absent—and reevaluates divine hiddenness. Divine hiddenness is not conterminous with divine absence. Rather, with its roots in the ancient Near Eastern idea of the royal and cultic audience, the meaning of “hide the face” (סתר + פנים) may be construed as a refusal of an audience with the divine king YHWH. Building on this insight, I argue that divine hiddenness possesses a petitionary logic and develop a distinction between the experiential and petitionary inaccessibility of salvific divine presence. Divine absence and hostile divine presence denote the former, while divine hiddenness the latter. I probe the relationships between divine hiddenness, divine absence, and hostile divine presence, concluding that the absent or hostilely present God is not ipso facto hidden.

Highlights

  • What does it mean for God to hide his face in the Hebrew Bible?1 In modern scholarly interpretations, the haunting expression “hide the face,” the collocation of the verb ‫ סתר‬(hide) and the noun ‫ פנים‬(face), is widely thought to give voice to the experience of divine absence.[2]

  • I probe the relationships between divine hiddenness, divine absence, and hostile divine presence, concluding that the absent or hostilely present God is not ipso facto hidden

  • It has been my central argument that the conventional view of divine hiddenness as being equivalent to divine absence cannot be maintained

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Summary

■ Introduction

What does it mean for God to hide his face in the Hebrew Bible?1 In modern scholarly interpretations, the haunting expression “hide the face,” the collocation of the verb ‫ סתר‬(hide) and the noun ‫ פנים‬(face), is widely thought to give voice to the experience of divine absence.[2]. Balentine insists starkly in this vein, “In the Psalms, and to a lesser extent in the prophets as well, the hiddenness of God was felt to be a real absence.”[19] Likewise Burnett, disagreeing explicitly with the conception of divine presence as a constant in creation, claims that a variety of biblical texts “attest to the experience of unmitigated divine absence.”[20] Friedman’s study, for its part, characterizes divine absence vividly as nothing short of the disappearance of God.[21] On this assessment, the hidden God emerges fundamentally as a God who is not present, whether partially or fully.[22].

Hostile Divine Presence
Hostile Divine Presence in Psalm 88
Hostile Divine Presence or Divine Absence?
Petitionary Inaccessibility of Salvific Divine Presence
Divine Hiddenness with Hostile Divine Presence
Divine Hiddenness with Divine Absence
■ Conclusion
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