When People Have Gods: Sensory Mimicry and Divine Agency in the Book of Job

In the book of Job, God and his attendants frequently see, hear, touch, and eat. This article explores how the sensory activities of such superhuman agents reflect deepseated biblical conceptions about the ways that humans engage in destructive, constructive, emotive, intellectual, and judgmental acts. I argue that, in the book of Job, concrete senses are better suited for describing visceral life experiences, while abstract senses are more appropriate for describing intellectual experience.