James L. Kugel, a former professor of Hebrew Literature at Harvard University and current professor of the Bible at Bar Ilan University in Tel Aviv, spoke at the U yesterday about perceptions about God across religious bounds Thursday afternoon.
While at Harvard, Kugel's course, "The Bible and Its Interpreters," frequently attracted more than 900 students.
"His research on various interpretations of the Bible, including Jewish and Christian, has expanded centuries-old views and understandings of the Bible," said U professor of Hebrew Harris Lenowitz.
During Kugel's stay on campus-a part of his first visit to Utah-he provided those in attendance with an expert explanation regarding how the ancient Israelites saw God.
The lecture was a summary of Kugel's book, The God of Old: Inside the Lost World of the Bible, which was published last year.
Kugel's main topic of focus revolved around the biblical passage that reads, "A person cannot see me and go on living."
"That's why, when he does come down to Mount Sinai or elsewhere, he's surrounded by a protective cloud...to protect us from dying," Kugel said. "Very often he'll send angels or messengers."
Kugel centered the remainder of the lecture on divine messengers.
In the Hebrew Bible, it says that angels look just like human beings, or, in Kugel's words, "Angels are not recognized as such, at least not at first."
He discussed numerous early biblical accounts of visits from angels and asserted that they had a couple commonalities.
Among these factors were a moment, or process, of confusion and a messenger who declined to offer a name until latter biblical days with the arrival of Gabriel and others.
Kugel attributes this moment of confusion to the fact that God was not considered omnipresent.
"God is behind a curtain of the sensory world...but he enters, or an angel enters, and then reality changes," Kugel said. "Something clicks."
He expanded on the idea of omnipresence and addressed omniscience in the process.
There were two different ways of conceiving of God in biblical times, according to Kugel.
The first is the way of the earlier texts, which describe God as a mobile, discrete, physical entity who is neither omnipresent nor omniscient.
The second description comes in later texts, which came after the sixth century. They conversely explain that God is everywhere at once and, as a result, he knows all.
Kugel's lecture was sponsored by the Tanner Humanities Center, the Religious Interest Group, IMPACT/Jewish Studies, Eta Beta Rho, Kibbuts Si'ah, the United Jewish Federation of Utah and the Religious Studies Interest Group.
sgehrke@chronicle.utah.edu
