Anthropomorphisms

Concept

Anthropomorphisms (from Greek anthropos, human, + morphe, form) are descriptions of God using human physical or emotional characteristics — giving him hands, eyes, ears, a face, a mouth, nostrils, arms, and the emotions of pleasure, grief, anger, and regret. Examples pervade the OT: God "walked in the garden" (Gen. 3:8), "the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma" (Gen. 8:21), "the eyes of the LORD" roam throughout the earth (2 Chr. 16:9), and God "repented" of making Saul king (1 Sam. 15:35).

These are not meant as literal physical descriptions of an incorporeal God ("God is spirit," John 4:24; "no one has ever seen God," John 1:18) but as condescension — God communicating his reality in categories accessible to human understanding. The theological term for this is accommodation. The Psalms and Prophets use anthropomorphism extensively and deliberately: it conveys God's personal engagement with creation and human affairs, his genuine emotional responses (not mere metaphor) to human obedience and rebellion, and his relational character as a God who sees, hears, and acts.