"The issue of how to represent God is a concern both ancient and contemporary. In this wide-ranging and authoritative study, renowned biblical scholar Mark Smith investigates the symbols, meanings, and narratives in the Hebrew Bible, Ugaritic texts, and ancient iconography, which attempt to describe deities in relation to humans. Smith uses a novel approach to show how the Bible depicts God in human and animal forms--and sometimes both together in human places and spaces. Mediating between the ancients' theories and the work of modern thinkers, Smiths boldly original work uncovers the foundational understandings of deities and space."--Dust jacket.