similitude

In Jewish tradition

In the Torah, the "similitude of the LORD" that Moses sees means a clearer view of God than other prophets have. In the Temple, the sea basin had the likeness of oxen under it. Hosea says God spoke to the prophets in visions and used similitudes, meaning pictures and parables.

Interpretation. Tradition says Moses saw God more directly than any other prophet, who saw only in dreams and riddles, which is why Moses was special. It reads the prophets' similitudes as images that teach God's message in a way people can grasp.

Meaning

A similitude is a likeness or form, an old word for something that resembles another thing. tree →

Examples

• with him do I speak mouth to mouth, even manifestly, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD doth he behold; wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against My servant, against Moses?' (Torah NUM.12.8, JPS 1917) tree →
• The Twenty-fourth Path is the Imaginative Intelligence, and it is so called because it gives a likeness to all the similitudes, which are created in like manner similar to its harmonious elegancies. (Sefer Yetzirah, Westcott 1887) tree →
• The Twenty-fourth Path is the Imaginative Intelli- gence, and it is so called because it gives a likeness to all the similitudes which are created in like manner similar to its harmonious elegancies. (Sefer Yetzirah, Westcott 1893) tree →
• And under it was the similitude of oxen, which did compass it round about, for ten cubits, compassing the sea round about. (Writings 2CH.4.3, JPS 1917) tree →
• I have also spoken unto the prophets, and I have multiplied visions; and by the ministry of the prophets have I used similitudes. (Prophets HOS.12.11, JPS 1917) tree →

Note

A record of the Judaism dictionary, written from the corpus.