Hand of God
The hand of God is a very old and widely used religious symbol for the power of God , which is used in particular in the Holy Scriptures .
Already in ancient Egypt, gods were granted blessing and protective functions through gestural representations, as well as the power to punish, as shown by the symbol for Ka
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you can see.
In the Hindu-Buddhist field, the hand of God in the mudra gesture has a special meaning.
Bible
In the Bible , referring to the religious ideas of the Old Orient, in both the Old and New Testaments, the hand of God is an expression of power, judgment or even God's help . Particularly the right hand of God is assigned special strength ( Ex 15.6 EU ); the side on the right hand is considered the honorable place, ( Ps 110,3 EU ), ( Acts 2,33 EU ), which found its way into the formulation of the Apostolicum : “ He sits at the right hand of God ”.
Old testament
The Old Testament uses the expression hand of God as an attribute of power over 200 times. The hand of God founds the earth and stretches the heavens ( Is 45.11f. EU ), ( Is 48.13 EU ). Israel experiences its fate as being caused by God's hand. When Israel leaves Egypt, God leads the people with outstretched hand from bondage to freedom ( Ex 13.3 EU ) etc. Israel praises the deeds that God's hand has performed ( Ps 89.11f. EU ). Even as an individual Machterweis is God's hand into play when the prophet Elijah equips with special forces run ( 2 Kings 3,15 EU ) or the Prophets to their office as it "confiscated" ( Ez 1,3 EU ).
New Testament
The New Testament uses the expression hand of God as a quote or allusion to the Old Testament usage: God's hand in creation ( Acts 7.50 EU ), intervening in history ( Lk 1.66 EU ), helping, punishing ( Acts 13.11 EU ) or warning ( Heb 10,31 EU ).
Representations
Since the divinization of Emperor Constantine , it can be seen on the coin. Until the Middle Ages , out of fear of a pictorial representation of God or an anthropomorphic representation of God the Father, a hand stretched out of the clouds was often depicted as a representative. Examples can be found in book illuminations and early ivory carvings.
Examples
Stained glass window, Canterbury Cathedral : God's hand comes out of heaven
Michelangelo , God created Adam with his hand
Early Christian sarcophagus , Noah under God's hand
Andrea Mantegna : Sacrifice of Isaac with God 's protecting hand
Stained glass, Gotland: Jesus in Gethsemane under the hands of God
Dürer : Salvator Mundi , the right hand of Christ as a blessing hand, the left hand holds the globe
literature
- Hanna Jursch and Ilse Jursch: hands as symbols and shapes . Stuttgart, 1957.
- René Kieffer and Jan Bergman (eds.): La main de Dieu / Die Hand Gottes , Tübingen: Mohr, 1997, (Scientific studies on the New Testament 94), ISBN 3161467159 ; Online in Google Book Search
supporting documents
- ^ Fritz Graf (Ed.): Introduction to Latin Philology , Stuttgart, Leipzig, Teubner: 1997, p. 689, ISBN 3-519-07434-6 . Online by google books
