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In the bible how many people witnessed G-d, who were they and where is it mentioned?
I am not clear what you mean exactly by “witnessing G-d.” To actually view G-d is something that no human being is capable of doing. Even the angels cannot do so. Any view of G-d that we have, is the ability to get an appreciation of how G-d presents himself through His actions in the spiritual and physical worlds.
Prophets are able to have a better glimpse of how G-d presents Himself than are other people. Among the prophets Moses had the clearest view. We have written prophecies from 48 prophets and 7 prophetesses.
Additionally, there are times when G-d has made aspects of his presence visible to large numbers of people. This occured in places like the Splitting of the Sea and the Giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai.
“Additionally, there are times when G-d has made aspects of his presence visible to large numbers of people.”
Could you please elaborate on this? Who/what is it that revealed himself to Moses on mount Sinai and gave Moses the Torah? Was it Ha-Shem or an angel of Ha-Shem? It says an “Angel of the LORD?? appeared to Moses and he said, “I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham…?? I am also puzzled by Ex. 23:20, who is this? Also some passages in the Bible God says he spoke to Moses face to face, yet no man can look on God and live? I don’t understand…
I really enjoyed reading your question. Although I am not sure I can answer it fully, I will do my best to at least offer some perspective of understanding.
Human beings, and for that matter anything in creation, lack the ability to comprehend the essence of God. In the act of creation God created countless filters, as it were, to offer the Universe the ability to have some comprehension of who He is, but we are unable to see Him and experience Him directly. Think of it as sunglasses filtering out the sunlight, which is already filtered because of the earth’s atmosphere and the 93 million miles between the sun and the earth. Even so, you can still not look directly. Sometimes, such as in a solar eclipse, we can get a view of the sun’s light that we cannot see at other times. Of course, it can be even more dangerous then and lead to blindness.
So too it is with the presence of Hashem. Most days His presence in this world is so filtered and hidden, it can be very hard to find Him. At places like Mt. Sinai and the Splitting of the Red Sea He removed more of the filters and gave us a greater clarity as to who He is. So it was when Hashem revealed Himself to us at Mt Sinai. But it wasn’t the essence of Him, just a greater aspect of Himself than we usually see.
When it comes to the “face to face” statement, you are certainly correct. No man can see God and live. But at the same time, God is not physical so He has no face. So what does the verse mean? Any anthromorphisims in the Bible are not meant literally. They are just attributing to God physical attributes so that we can gain a better understanding for ourselves. So too, in this case, the intent is that Moshe had a more intimate view of God than that which was shown to other prophets.
Comment by ATR — July 19, 2007 @ 8:52 am