The Hand of God, or Manus Dei in Latin, also known as Dextera domini/dei (the "right hand of God"), is a motif in Jewish and Christian art, especially of the Late Antique and Early Medieval periods, when depiction of Yahweh or God the Father as a full human figure was considered unacceptable. The hand, sometimes including a portion of an arm, or ending about the wrist, is used to indicate the intervention in or approval of affairs on Earth by God, and sometimes as a subject in itself. It is an artistic metaphor that is generally not intended to indicate that a hand was physically present or seen at any subject depicted. The Hand is seen appearing from above in a fairly restricted number of narrative contexts, often in a blessing gesture (in Christian examples), but sometimes performing an action. In later Christian works it tends to be replaced by a fully realized figure of God the Father, whose depiction had become acceptable in Western Christianity, although not in Eastern Orthodox or Jewish art. Though the hand of God has traditionally been understood as a symbol for God's intervention or approval of human affairs, it is also possible that the hand of God reflects the anthropomorphic conceptions of the deity that may have persisted in late antiquity.
The largest group of Jewish imagery from the ancient world, the 3rd century synagogue at Dura-Europos, has the hand of God in five different scenes, including the Sacrifice of Isaac, and no doubt this was one of the many iconographic features taken over by Christian art from what seems to have been a vigorous tradition of Jewish narrative art. Here and elsewhere it often represents the bath Kol (literally "daughter of a voice") or voice of God, a use also taken over into Christian art.
The hand may also relate to older traditions in various other religions in the Ancient Near East. In the art of the Amarna period in Egypt under Akhenaten, the rays of the Aten sun-disk end in small hands to suggest the bounty of the supreme deity. Like the hamsa amulet, the hand is sometimes shown alone on buildings, although it does not seem to have existed as a portable amulet-type object in Christian use. It is found from the 4th century on in the Catacombs of Rome, including paintings of Moses receiving the Law and the Sacrifice of Isaac.
There are numerous references to the hand, or arm, of God in the Hebrew Bible, most clearly metaphorical in the way that remains current in modern English, but some capable of a literal interpretation. They are usually distinguished from references to a placement at the right hand of God. Later rabbinic literature also contains a number of references. There are three occasions in the gospels when the voice of God is heard, and the hand often represents this in visual art. Gertrud Schiller distinguishes three functions of the hand in Christian art: as symbol of either God's presence or the voice of God, or signifying God's acceptance of a sacrifice.
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In sacred texts and commentary
Hebrew Bible
The hand of God, which encompasses God's arm and fingers as well, is one of the most frequently employed anthropomorphisms of the Hebrew Bible. References to the hand of God occur numerous times in the Pentateuch alone, particularly in regards to the unfolding narrative of the Israelites' exodus from Egypt (cf. Exodus 3:19–20, Exodus 14: 3, 8, 31).
New Testament
There are no references to the hand of God as an active agent or witness in the New Testament, though there are several to Jesus standing or sitting by the right hand of God in God's heavenly court, a conventional term for the place of honour beside a host or senior family member. For example, when Stephen is filled with the "holy spirit" he looks to heaven and sees Jesus standing by the right hand of God (Acts 7:55). There are three occasions in the Gospels when the voice of God is heard, and the hand of God often represents this in visual art.
Rabbinic literature
Anthropomorphic aggadot regarding the hand of God appear frequently in the corpus of rabbinic literature and expand upon anthropomorphic biblical narratives.
Christian art
In Christian art, the hand of God has traditionally been understood as an artistic metaphor that is not intended to indicate that the deity was physically present or seen in any subject depicted. In the late antique and early medieval periods, the representation of the full-bodied figure of God the Father would have been considered a grave violation of the Second Commandment. According to conventional art historical interpretation, the representation of the hand of God in early Christian art thus developed as a necessary and symbolic compromise to the highly anti-anthropomorphic tenor of the Second Commandment, though anthropomorphic interpretations are certainly plausible.
In early Christian and Byzantine art, the hand of God is seen appearing from above in a fairly restricted number of narrative contexts, often in a blessing gesture, but sometimes performing an action. Gertrud Schiller distinguishes three functions of the hand in Christian art: as symbol of either God's presence or the voice of God, or signifying God's acceptance of a sacrifice. In later Christian works it tends to be replaced by a fully realized figure of God the Father, whose depiction had become acceptable in Western Christianity, although not in Eastern Orthodox or Jewish art.
Iconography
The motif of the hand, with no body attached, provides a problem for the artist in how to terminate it. In Christian narrative images the hand most often emerges from a small cloud, at or near the top of the image, but in iconic contexts it may appear cut off in the picture space, or spring from a border, or a victor's wreath (left). A cloud is mentioned as the source of the voice of God in the gospel accounts of the Transfiguration of Jesus (see below). Several of the examples in the Dura Europos synagogue (see below) show a good part of the forearm as well as the hand, which is not found in surviving Christian examples, and most show an open palm, sometimes with the fingers spread out. Later examples in Jewish art are closer in form to Christian styles.
In Christian art, the hand of God usually occupies the form of a blessing gesture, if they are not performing an action, though some just show an open hand. The normal blessing gesture is to point with the index and next finger, with the other fingers curled back and thumb relaxed. There is also a more complicated Byzantine gesture that attempts to represent the Greek letter chi, Christ's initial, which looks like a Latin letter "X". This is formed by crossing the thumb and little finger inside the palm, with only the forefinger and next one extended, or a variant of this.
Especially in Roman mosaics, but also in some German imperial commissions, for example on the Lothair Cross, the hand is clenched around a wreath that goes upwards, and behind which the arm then disappears, forming a tidy circular motif. Especially in these examples, the hand may show the sleeve of a garment, sometimes of two layers, as at San Clemente, Rome. In blessing forms the hand often has a halo, which also may provide a convenient termination point. This may or may not be a cruciform halo, indicating the divinity, and specifically the Logos, or Pre-existing Christ (see below).
The hand is regularly seen in depictions of certain scenes, though it may occur on occasion in a much wider range. In many scenes one or more angels, acting as the messengers of God, may appear instead of the hand. A virtually unique mosaic depiction of the Ark of the Covenant (806) at Germigny-des-Prés, also features the hand of God.
In Christian art the hand will often actually represent the hand of God the Son, or the Logos; this is demonstrated when later depictions start to substitute for the Hand a small half-length portrait of Christ as Logos in a similar circular frame. It is nearly always Christ in the East, but in the West God the Father will sometimes be shown in this way. However, in many contexts the person of the Trinity intended cannot be confirmed from the image alone, except in those images, like the Baptism of Christ, where Jesus the Incarnate Christ is also present, where the hand is clearly that of God the Father. Later Eastern Orthodox images often identify Hands as the Logos with the usual monogram used in icons.
Examples in late antique and medieval Jewish art
The hand of God appears in several examples from the small surviving body of figurative Jewish religious art. It is especially prominent in the wall paintings of the third-century Dura Europos synagogue, and also seen in the nave mosaic of the sixth century Beth Alpha synagogue, and on a sixth-seventh century bimah screen found at the fourth-fifth century Susiya synagogue.
Dura Europos synagogue
In the Dura Europos synagogue, the hand of God appears ten times, in five out of the twenty-nine biblically themed wall paintings including the Binding of Isaac, Moses and the Burning Bush, Exodus and Crossing of the Red Sea, Elijah Reviving the Child of the Widow of Zarepheth, and Ezekiel in the Valley of Dry Bones. In several examples the hand includes the forearm as well.
Beth Alpha synagogue
In the Beth Alpha synagogue, the hand of God appears on the Binding of Isaac panel on the northern entryway of the synagogue's nave mosaic floor. The hand of God appearing in the Beth Alpha Binding of Isaac mosaic panel is depicted as a disembodied hand emerging from a fiery ball of smoke, "directing the drama and its outcome" according to Meyer Schapiro. The hand of God is positioned strategically in the upper center of the composition, directly above the ram that the angel of God instructs Abraham to sacrifice in place of Isaac.
Susiya synagogue
In the Susiya synagogue, the hand of God appears on the defaced remains of a marble bimah screen that perhaps once illustrated a biblical scene such as Moses Receiving the Law or the Binding of Isaac. Though the hand was subjected to intense iconoclastic hacking, the iconoclasts left some vestiges of the thumb and the receding fingers intact. A thumbnail has been carved into the thumb. Foerster asserts that the hand of God originally held a Torah scroll, identifying the small piece of raised marble located between the thumb and fingers as a Torah scroll.
Birds' Head Haggadah
The hand of God appears in the early 14th-century Haggadah, the Birds' Head Haggadah, produced in Germany. Two hands of God appear underneath the text of the Dayenu song, dispensing the manna from heaven. The Birds' Head Haggadah is a particularly important visual source from the medieval period, as it is the earliest surviving example of a medieval illuminated Hebrew Haggadah.