The last two weeks as I was reading Genesis I was struck by the fact that God, or at least people’s experience of God, shifts through the book. I realize that this is in part almost certainly due to the various sources that were redacted to form the final text. But also seems to me that it is part about humanity’s changing relationship with God.

At the beginning of Genesis God appears as the creator (1:1-26). God speaks but God does not speak to humans. Then God creates humanity and addresses human beings directly. In Garden of Eden God is depicted as "moving about in the garden" (3:8) and having conversations with Adam and Eve.

After God drives humanity out of the Garden God continues to speak directly to humanity. It is unclear to me whether or not God appears physically to figures like Cain and Abel but God is described as having "walked with" Noah (6:9). Near the same passage the presence of "divine beings" is also noted as taking wives from the "daughters of men" (6:2).

After the death of Noah God appears again to Abram. At first God only speaks to Abram (12:1). Later God appears to Abram in a vision (15:1) and still later God appears to Abram (17:1). Before God’s appearance to Abram God speaks to Hagar and an "angel of the Lord" appears before Hagar (16:7-14). Hagar even gives God a name–"El-roi"–when she speaks to God.

Throughout subsequent passages in Genesis Abram (now Abraham) continues to have a very direct relationship with God. In Genesis 18 God appears with two companions before Abraham and tells Abraham that God intends to destroy the city of Sodom. Abraham actually challenges God about God’s divine justice here and gets God to promise to destroy Sodom only if God cannot find ten innocent people in the city (18:22-18:33).

I think that the Genesis 18 is the last time God appears to directly Abraham in Genesis. In the Akedah it is an angel of God and not God God’s self that appears to Abraham. I think that God appears to Isaac twice (26:2 and 26:23) but neither of the encounters are particularly substantive.

As for Jacob, God communicates with him through dreams (28:10-22), direct speech (35:1) and at least one appearance, at Bethel (35:9-13). They might have a physical encounter in 32:23-33 but what is meant by "a divine being" is unclear. After Bethel God is only present in dreams and visions. God never again appears directly to Jacob and Joseph only dreams of God.

The gradual shift in the presence of God suggests to me that God has something of a changing relationship with the characters in Genesis. Maybe God’s relationship with Joseph is through dreams because Joseph was a cosmopolitan person. Maybe God was more distant from humanity during the time of Joseph. Maybe the forms of God’s communication don’t mean anything in particular. This is certainly a subject that I would interested in returning to again. As I read the rest of the Hebrew Bible I intend to keep careful track about how God communicates with other figures in text. Does God appear to them physically, in dreams, or does God make God’s will known through speech? What is the significance of the form of God’s communication? Is it meant to emphasis the import of the figure that God is communicating with? The events that are unfolding? It will be interesting to see what I learn.