«Raconter Dieu» dans le Pentateuque

Abstract

What can theology learn from the way the stories of the Hebrew bible speak about God? The article addresses this question by closely examining three of the main representations of the divine in the Pentateuch. The representation of divine speech is approached through the differentiation of direct and indirect styles, inducing both a specific relationship between the reader and the character. God's actions are examined through their progressive decrease in the book of Genesis, and through the ensuing shift in point of view. As for the divine perceptions and emotions, they can be either expressed by a discourse or integrated into the story, each modality implying a more external or internal representation. Together, these syntactic and narrative features delineate some characteristics of the Pentateuch's "theology" - of its language about God.