Substituting Anthropomorphisms?

What is it about?

The Greek translator of the Hebrew Bible is presumed to have, at times, avoided anthropomorphic body-parts of God, and substituted them with other, less material elements. One example is God's mouth, which might have been "too human" for the translator. The Greek translation of Numbers, refers to God's voice, word or law, instead of God's mouth: is this translation an anti-anthropomorphism, aiming to avoid the ascription of a humanlike mouth to God? I address Num 20:24, where God's mouth is rendered in yet another way: it seems that the translator avoided the divine mouth by creating an anthropopathism! Instead of God's humanlike mouth, the Greek verse now refers to God's humanlike irritation. Examining the verse more in detail, I argue that the translator did not intend to avoid God's mouth, but simply had another Hebrew text at hand, than the Hebrew text which is preserved today.

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