of God as the object of their adoration. (34) Nevertheless, the Bible
clearly implies that God has a form, and that Moses when he heard God
speaking was permitted to behold it, or at least its hinder parts.

(35) Doubtless some mystery lurks in this question which we will discuss
more fully below. (36) For the present I will call attention to the passages
in Scripture indicating the means by which God has revealed His laws to man.

(37) Revelation may be through figures only, as in I Chron:xxii., where God
displays his anger to David by means of an angel bearing a sword, and also
in the story of Balaam.

(38) Maimonides and others do indeed maintain that these and every other
instance of angelic apparitions (e.g. to Manoah and to Abraham offering up
Isaac) occurred during sleep, for that no one with his eyes open ever could
see an angel, but this is mere nonsense. (39) The sole object of such
commentators seems to be to extort from Scripture confirmations of
Aristotelian quibbles and their own inventions, a proceeding which I regard
as the acme of absurdity.

(40) In figures, not real but existing only in the prophet's imagination,
God revealed to Joseph his future lordship, and in words and figures He
revealed to Joshua that He would fight for the Hebrews, causing to appear an
angel, as it were the Captain of the Lord's host, bearing a sword, and by
this means communicating verbally. (41) The forsaking of Israel by
Providence was portrayed to Isaiah by a vision of the Lord, the thrice Holy,
sitting on a very lofty throne, and the Hebrews, stained with the mire of
their sins, sunk as it were in uncleanness, and thus as far as possible
distant from God. (42) The wretchedness of the people at the time was thus
revealed, while future calamities were foretold in words. I could cite from