Gudsuppenbarelser i judendomen

Abstract

According to Jewish tradition God reveals himself and communicates with his people through the Torah that was given at Sinai (Exod 19–24) and by means of Israel’s constant interpretation of God’s word God continues to speak to them throughout the ages. However, it is only with the emergence of Rabbinic Judaism that the Torah becomes God’s only way of making himself known to humans. During the first centuries of the common era, Jews seem to have believed that God could manifest himself in many different ways, and his Word (Logos) and Wisdom were by some perceived as semi-independent divine manifestations. The focus on Torah and the rejection of other manifestations of the divine is a characteristic of Rabbinic Judaism, and by some scholars considered to be one way in which the rabbis distinguished themselves from other contemporary Jewish groups such as the followers of Jesus. It thus happened that the Logos theology became a distinctly Christian notion as a consequence of its rejection by Rabbinic Judaism. However, in contrast to what is often claimed by both Jews and Christians there is nothing intrinsically “unjewish” about the idea of incarnation. The idea that God wants to diminish the distance between humans and the divine and take part in the life of humans is thoroughly biblical and Jewish.