When I read that scripture, it leaves me with no other conclusion, but that God does indeed have a 'body' that is shaped/formed like a human being.
here's a bit of a psalm we read in class the other day
quote:
The sea saw [it], and fled: Jordan was driven back.
The mountains skipped like rams, [and] the little hills like lambs.
What [ailed] thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? thou Jordan, [that] thou wast driven back?
Ye mountains, [that] ye skipped like rams; [and] ye little hills, like lambs?
tell me, do mountains look like rams? does the sea have legs on which to flee?
now, this is a bit of an extreme example, yes. but this is blatant personification. and i agree with you that authors of some of the books of the bible (genesis and exodus in particular) probably thought that god had a physical body. but is that the ONLY way to read it? no. there are symbolic and metaphoric ways to read it as well. i explained one of them above, one of the ones you used as a primary example, to pink sasquatch.
the ones i used as examples have other readings too.
To my understanding of that particular scripture, is that the flame, was the Holy Ghost, and the voice was of God.
quote:
Exd 3:2 And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush [was] not consumed.
this was a strawman on the part of pink sasquatch, but i was waiting for you call it. it is not the yhwh who appears as fire in a bush to moses -- it is yhwh's messenger. your point is somewhat correct in that it is not god appearing, only speaking, and only after moses is scared by the angel.
god's angels are routinely portrayed as fiery, btw. seraph, as in seraphim, means fiery.