What is an anthropopathism?
An anthropopathism (from Greek anthropos, "man," and pathos, "feeling/suffering") is a figure of speech in which human emotions or feelings are attributed to God — such as grief, anger, jealousy, or repentance. It is the emotional counterpart to an anthropomorphism, which ascribes human form or physical traits to God (e.g., "the hand of God," "the eyes of the Lord"). An anthropopathism, by contrast, ascribes human passions — as when Scripture says God "repented" that He had made man, or that He was "grieved" at the wickedness of the earth.
The specific word does not appear in the writings, but the concept is treated extensively — especially in connection with God being said to "repent."
Morrish's Bible Dictionary gives a careful definition under "Repentance":
The idea conveyed in this term is of great importance from the fact of its application not only to man but to God, showing how God, in His government of the earth, is pleased to express His own sense of events taking place upon it. This does not clash with His omniscience. There are two senses in which repentance on the part of God is spoken of.
1. As to His own creation or appointment of objects that fail to answer to His glory. He repented that He had made man on the earth, and that He had set up Saul as king of Israel. Gen. 6:6-7; 1 Sam. 15:11, 35
2. As to punishment which He has threatened, or blessing He has promised. When Israel turned from their evil ways and sought God, He often repented of the punishment He had meditated. 2 Sam. 24:16, etc.
But the unconditional promises of God, as made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, are not subject to repentance. "The gifts and calling of God are without repentance." Rom. 11:29. "God is not a man that he should lie; neither the son of man that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it?" Num. 23:19; 1 Sam. 15:29; Malachi 3:6.
A footnote in the Bible Treasury (1888) states the principle behind such language most clearly:
We must remember, that the Spirit of God condescends to express Himself after the human way of speaking, on account of our infirmities.
G.C. Willis explains this with great clarity in his commentary on Jonah:
G.C. WillisWhat then does Jonah mean when he says "Thou … repentest Thee of the evil"? It does not mean a change of mind on God's part, but a change of action caused by a change of mind on man's part. God sends warnings to man, in order that man may change his mind, may repent, so that God may change His action from judgment to mercy. God has not changed His mind. God's mind has ever been toward mercy.
F.W. Grant embraces this kind of language rather than explaining it away, commenting on Psalm 53 where God is said to "search" among men:
F.W. GrantAll the time while they regard not God, He is regarding them. Patiently He searches among them so as to know if there be one that understands or seeks after Him. This anthropomorphism as to God is beautiful. Put it how you will, you must not believe that the living God is careless of His creatures. He will not judge hastily, or in a lump, but with careful discrimination.
J.N. Darby, meanwhile, was careful to reject a crude anthropomorphism that would reduce God's image to bodily form — while noting that the sceptic Baring-Gould had conflated two very different things:
J.N. Darby'The attribution to the Deity of wisdom and goodness is every whit as much anthropomorphosis as the attribution of limbs and passions.' But why so? He does not tell us.
Darby's point is sharp: attributing moral character to God (wisdom, goodness) is not at all the same as attributing bodily parts or human passions to Him — the sceptic who lumps them together has confused categories entirely.
W. Kelly similarly distinguished the Bible's reverent use of human language from the gross anthropomorphism of pagan myth:
W. KellyNothing is more opposed to the Bible than the anthropomorphism of Greek and Roman mythology, which degraded their deities to fallen males and females with like passions and lusts, and gave the sanction of religion to the basest immorality.
So an anthropopathism is Scripture's way of making God's real but infinite responses intelligible to finite human minds. When the Bible says God was "grieved" or "repented," it is not teaching that God undergoes mood swings or is subject to emotional fluctuations as we are. It is expressing — in the only language we can receive — the reality that God is not indifferent to what happens on earth: He truly responds to sin with displeasure, and to repentance with mercy. The language is accommodated to our weakness, but the reality behind it is no less true for being expressed in human terms.