The “Voice”

Azzan Yadin argues in an article in the JBL (122/4: 601-26) that in several passages of the OT, the Hebrew word QOL refers to a hypostatic, mediating reality. That is, when the text says “I heard the voice speaking,” it is not saying merely that someone is using his voice to speak but that the voice IS the speaker. He interprets Numbers 7:89, Ezekiel 1:24-26, 9:1, and the “voice” at Sinai in these terms. The “voice,” in Christian terms, is a preincarnate revelation of the Son. Note too connections with John, who identifies himself as “the voice of one crying in the wilderness.”