In the

Abrahamic religions The term Abrahamic religions is used to group together monotheistic religions revering the Biblical figure Abraham, namely Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The religions share doctrinal, historical, and geographic overlap that contrasts them wit ...

, the voice of God is a communication from

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

to human beings through sound with no known physical source. In

Rabbinic Judaism Rabbinic Judaism (), also called Rabbinism, Rabbinicism, Rabbanite Judaism, or Talmudic Judaism, is rooted in the many forms of Judaism that coexisted and together formed Second Temple Judaism in the land of Israel, giving birth to classical rabb ...

, such a voice is known as a ''bat kol'' ( ''baṯ qōl'', literally "daughter of voice"), a "heavenly or divine voice which proclaims God's will or judgment".The

Jewish Encyclopedia ''The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day'' is an English-language encyclopedia containing over 15,000 articles on the ...

:
BAT ḲOL
': It differed from

prophecy In religion, mythology, and fiction, a prophecy is a message that has been communicated to a person (typically called a ''prophet'') by a supernatural entity. Prophecies are a feature of many cultures and belief systems and usually contain di ...

in that God had a close relationship with the prophet, while the ''bat kol'' could be heard by any individual or group regardless of their level of connection to God.

Hebrew Bible

Schnorr von Carolsfeld Bibel in Bildern 1860 087

In the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' mass revelation at Sinai, as recorded in Deuteronomy 4:12 and referenced in Psalm 50:6, was given in that way: "Ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice". In the Deuteronomic narrative, the manifestation of God to the

Israelites Israelites were a Hebrew language, Hebrew-speaking ethnoreligious group, consisting of tribes that lived in Canaan during the Iron Age. Modern scholarship describes the Israelites as emerging from indigenous Canaanites, Canaanite populations ...

occurs exclusively through auditory means rather than visual. Even the prophet

Ezekiel Ezekiel, also spelled Ezechiel (; ; ), was an Israelite priest. The Book of Ezekiel, relating his visions and acts, is named after him. The Abrahamic religions acknowledge Ezekiel as a prophet. According to the narrative, Ezekiel prophesied ...

, who is recorded as the recipient of many visions, "heard a voice of one that spoke". Similarly,

Elijah Elijah ( ) or Elias was a prophet and miracle worker who lived in the northern kingdom of Israel during the reign of King Ahab (9th century BC), according to the Books of Kings in the Hebrew Bible. In 1 Kings 18, Elijah defended the worsh ...

recognized God by a "still, small voice", and a voice addressed him. God's voice is recorded as coming from the heavens, from

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

, and

Zion Zion (; ) is a placename in the Tanakh, often used as a synonym for Jerusalem as well as for the Land of Israel as a whole. The name is found in 2 Samuel (), one of the books of the Tanakh dated to approximately the mid-6th century BCE. It o ...

, with God's voice heard in thunder and the roar of the sea, as well.

In later Jewish sources

The phrase ''bat kol'' appears in many

Talmudic The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the centerpiece of Jewi ...

stories to represent a heavenly or divine voice to human beings. It proclaims God's will or judgment, deeds, and commandments to individuals or to a number of persons, rulers, communities, and even to whole nations.

Origin of the name

The phrase ''bat kol'' literally means "daughter of voice"—that is, a "small" voice—to distinguish it from an ordinary voice (, 'voice'). The phrase also appears the

midrash ''Midrash'' (;"midrash"
. ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; or ''midrashot' ...

'' Shir HaShirim Rabbah'': "As oil has no ''bat kol'' hat is, gives no sound so Israel is not heard of in this world..." In contrast, ''

Exodus Rabbah Exodus Rabbah () is the midrash to Exodus. Contents Exodus Rabbah is almost purely aggadic in character. It contains 52 sections. It consists of two sections with different styles, dubbed "Exodus Rabbah I" (sections 1–14, covering Exodus cha ...

'' 29, another midrashic work, implies that God's revelatory voice is actually not a ''bat kol'': Divine communication was also noted as vocal in

Daniel 4 Daniel 4, the fourth chapter of the Bible's Book of Daniel, is presented in the form of a letter from king Nebuchadnezzar II in which he learns a lesson of God's sovereignty, "who is able to bring low those who walk in pride". Nebuchadnezzar drea ...

:28 ("There fell a voice from heaven..."). Occasionally in the Talmud, God's voice is given simply as ''kol'' (voice). In the Aramaic versions of the Hebrew Bible and some midrashic and Talmudic sources, heavenly revelation is introduced variably with a formula: "A voice fell from heaven", "came from heaven", "was heard", or "proceeded from heaven".

Its nature

The ''bat kol'' was considered to be divine in origin. In the narrative in Berachot 3a, the equivalent of "God" is used instead of "''bat kol''"; not infrequently, God, when using the ''bat kol'', is represented as speaking in the first person. Sometimes ''bat kol'' is identified with the

Holy Spirit The Holy Spirit, otherwise known as the Holy Ghost, is a concept within the Abrahamic religions. In Judaism, the Holy Spirit is understood as the divine quality or force of God manifesting in the world, particularly in acts of prophecy, creati ...

. Despite being identified with the Holy Spirit or God directly, the ''bat kol'' differed essentially from

. The Holy Spirit was said to rest upon the prophets, and the conversations between them were personal and intimate. Those who heard the ''bat kol'' had no relation whatever to the Holy Spirit. The prophets possessed the Holy Spirit; in contrast, the ''bat kol'' could not be possessed: God spoke through it as he did through the prophets. For this reason, the ''bat kol'' addressed not only righteous individuals but also sinners, common people, or multitudes, both in the

Land of Israel The Land of Israel () is the traditional Jewish name for an area of the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine. The definition ...

and the

diaspora A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of birth, place of origin. The word is used in reference to people who identify with a specific geographic location, but currently resi ...

. Prophecy was a gift of which the prophet and his generation had to be worthy to receive. From this point of view, the ''bat kol'' was explained as a lesser gift to Israel than prophecy, but not, as some said, as a lower degree of prophecy.

Content and examples

The ''bat kol'' revealed the divine will in commonly accessible language, usually in the form of a passage from the Hebrew Bible. According to rabbinical tradition, the ''bat kol'' coexisted with prophecy (that is, when the Holy Spirit rested upon Israel and Babylonia). The ''bat kol'' spoke to

Abraham Abraham (originally Abram) is the common Hebrews, Hebrew Patriarchs (Bible), patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father who began the Covenant (biblical), covenanta ...

Esau Esau is the elder son of Isaac in the Hebrew Bible. He is mentioned in the Book of Genesis and by the minor prophet, prophets Obadiah and Malachi. The story of Jacob and Esau reflects the historical relationship between Israel and Edom, aiming ...

, the Israelites at the

Sea of Reeds In the Exodus narrative, the Yam Suph (), sometimes translated as Red Sea, is the body of water where the Crossing of the Red Sea happened in the story of the Exodus. This phrase appears in over twenty other places in the Hebrew Bible. This has tr ...

Moses In Abrahamic religions, Moses was the Hebrews, Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of slavery in the The Exodus, Exodus from ancient Egypt, Egypt. He is considered the most important Prophets in Judaism, prophet in Judaism and Samaritani ...

and

Aaron According to the Old Testament of the Bible, Aaron ( or ) was an Israelite prophet, a high priest, and the elder brother of Moses. Information about Aaron comes exclusively from religious texts, such as the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament ...

Saul Saul (; , ; , ; ) was a monarch of ancient Israel and Judah and, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament, the first king of the United Monarchy, a polity of uncertain historicity. His reign, traditionally placed in the late eleventh c ...

David David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...

Solomon Solomon (), also called Jedidiah, was the fourth monarch of the Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy), Kingdom of Israel and Judah, according to the Hebrew Bible. The successor of his father David, he is described as having been the penultimate ...

Manasseh of Judah Manasseh (; Hebrew: ''Mənaššé'', "Forgetter"; ''Menasî'' 'me-na-si-i'' ''Manasses''; ) was the fourteenth king of the Kingdom of Judah. He was the oldest of the sons of Hezekiah and Hephzibah (). He became king at the age of 12 and re ...

Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar II, also Nebuchadrezzar II, meaning "Nabu, watch over my heir", was the second king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, ruling from the death of his father Nabopolassar in 605 BC to his own death in 562 BC. Often titled Nebuchadnezzar ...

, the inhabitants of

Sheol Sheol ( ; ''Šəʾōl'', Tiberian: ''Šŏʾōl'') in the Hebrew Bible is the underworld place of stillness and darkness which is death. Within the Hebrew Bible, there are few—often brief and nondescript—mentions of Sheol, seemingly descri ...

, the Rechabites,

Haman Haman ( ; also known as Haman the Agagite) is the main antagonist in the Book of Esther, who according to the Hebrew Bible was an official in the court of the Achaemenid Empire, Persian empire under King Ahasuerus#Book of Esther, Ahasuerus, comm ...

, and those feasting with

Ahasuerus Ahasuerus ( ; , commonly ''Achashverosh''; , in the Septuagint; in the Vulgate) is a name applied in the Hebrew Bible to three rulers of Ancient Persia and to a Babylonian official (or Median king) first appearing in the Tanakh in the Book of ...

. The ''bat kol'' is frequently connected with Moses's death. Rabbinic sources state that "after the death of the last three prophets—

Haggai Haggai or Aggeus (; – ''Ḥaggay''; ; Koine Greek: Ἀγγαῖος; ) was a Hebrew prophet active during the building of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, one of the twelve minor prophets in the Hebrew Bible, and the author or subject of the ...

, Zechariah, and

Malachi Malachi or Malachias (; ) is the name used by the author of the Book of Malachi, the last book of the Nevi'im (Prophets) section of the Hebrew Bible, Tanakh. It is possible that ''Malachi'' is not a proper name, because it means "messenger"; ...

—the Holy Spirit departed from Israel; but the ''bat kol'' was still heard". Many stories of its later appearance appear in

rabbinic literature Rabbinic literature, in its broadest sense, is the entire corpus of works authored by rabbis throughout Jewish history. The term typically refers to literature from the Talmudic era (70–640 CE), as opposed to medieval and modern rabbinic ...

. A ''bat kol'' decided between the

Houses of Hillel and Shammai The House of Hillel (Beit Hillel) and House of Shammai (Beit Shammai) were, among Jewish scholars, two schools of thought during the period of tannaim, named after the sages Hillel and Shammai (of the last century BCE and the early 1st centur ...

in favor of the House of Hillel, according to a Talmudic ''

sugya A sugya is a self-contained passage of the Talmud that typically discusses a mishnah or other rabbinic statement, or offers an aggada, aggadic narrative.; see for overview. While the sugya is a literary unit in the Jerusalem Talmud, the term is m ...

'' in

Eruvin An eruv is a religious-legal enclosure which permits carrying in certain areas on Shabbat. Eruv may also refer to: * '' Eruvin (Talmud)'', a tractate in ''Moed'' * Eruv tavshilin ("mixing of cooked dishes"), which permits cooking on a Friday H ...

13b in which the ''bat kol'' said, " ''Elu ve-elu'' ('these and those are the words of the living God')".

Shimon bar Yochai Shimon bar Yochai ( Zoharic Aramaic: , ''Šimʿon bar Yoḥay'') or Shimon ben Yochai (Mishnaic Hebrew: ), also known by the acronym Rashbi, was a 2nd-century tanna or sage of the period of Roman Judaea and early Syria Palaestina. He was one ...

emerged from his stay in a cave only after receiving permission from a ''bat kol''. In the the Oven of Akhnai story, a ''bat kol'' declared that the

halakha ''Halakha'' ( ; , ), also Romanization of Hebrew, transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Judaism, Jewish religious laws that are derived from the Torah, Written and Oral Torah. ''Halakha'' is ...

was in accordance with Rabbi Eliezer. Yet, the other rabbis rejected this declaration on the grounds that the "Torah is not in Heaven". It was said that whenever there is no law (''Halakha''), no high priesthood, and no

Sanhedrin The Sanhedrin (Hebrew and Middle Aramaic , a loanword from , 'assembly,' 'sitting together,' hence ' assembly' or 'council') was a Jewish legislative and judicial assembly of either 23 or 70 elders, existing at both a local and central level i ...

, a ''bat kol'' cries: "Strengthen ye the weak hands". Notably, the rabbinical conception of ''bat kol'' sprang up in the period of the decline of Jewish prophecy and flourished in the period of extreme traditionalism. Where the gift of prophecy was believed to be lacking—perhaps even because of said lack—there grew an inordinate desire for special divine manifestations. Often, a voice from Heaven was looked for to clear up matters of doubt and even to decide between conflicting interpretations of the law. So strong had this tendency become that

Rabbi Joshua Joshua ben Hananiah ( ''Yəhōšūaʿ ben Ḥănanyā''; d. 131 CE), also known as Rabbi Yehoshua, was a leading tanna of the first half-century following the destruction of the Second Temple. He is the eighth-most-frequently mentioned sage in th ...

( CE) felt it necessary to oppose it and insist upon the supremacy and sufficiency of the

written law The Torah ( , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () o ...

Josephus Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing '' The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of pr ...

relates that

John Hyrcanus John Hyrcanus (; ; ) was a Hasmonean (Maccabee, Maccabean) leader and Jewish High Priest of Israel of the 2nd century BCE (born 164 BCE, reigned from 134 BCE until he died in 104 BCE). In rabbinic literature he is often referred to as ''Yoḥana ...

(135–104 BCE) heard a voice while offering a burnt sacrifice in the

Temple in Jerusalem The Temple in Jerusalem, or alternatively the Holy Temple (; , ), refers to the two religious structures that served as the central places of worship for Israelites and Jews on the modern-day Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. Accord ...

, which Josephus expressly interprets as the voice of God.

In Christianity

In the

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

mention of “a voice from

heaven Heaven, or the Heavens, is a common Religious cosmology, religious cosmological or supernatural place where beings such as deity, deities, angels, souls, saints, or Veneration of the dead, venerated ancestors are said to originate, be throne, ...

” occurs in the following passages: ; ; (at the

baptism of Jesus The baptism of Jesus, the ritual purification of Jesus with water by John the Baptist, was a major event described in the three synoptic Gospels of the New Testament ( Matthew, Mark and Luke). It is considered to have taken place at Al-Maghta ...

); ; ; (at the transfiguration); (shortly before the Passion); ; ; ( conversion of Paul), and , (instruction of Peter concerning the clean and unclean). These passages show a conception of the nature and means of divine revelation that is distinctly different from the Old Testament descriptions, for even in the Old Testament passages where mention is made of the voice from heaven, all that is really essential to the revelation is already present, at least in principle, without the audible voice. Christian scholars interpreted Bath Kol as the Jews' replacement for the great prophets when, "after the death of Malachi, the spirit of prophecy wholly ceased in Israel" (taking the name to refer to its being "the daughter" of the main prophetic "voice").

Other media

The generic term "voice of God" is commonly used in theatrical productions and staging, and refers to any anonymous, disembodied voice used to deliver general messages to the audience. Examples may include speaker introductions, audience directions and performer substitutions. The origin of the "Voice of God" narration style was most probably in

Time Inc Time Inc. (also referred to as Time & Life, Inc. later on, after their two onetime flagship magazine publications) was an American worldwide mass media corporation founded on November 28, 1922, by Henry Luce and Briton Hadden and based in New Yo ...

's " March of Time" news-radio and news-film series, for which Orson Welles was an occasional voice-over actor, and was subsequently duplicated in Welles' "

Citizen Kane ''Citizen Kane'' is a 1941 American Drama (film and television), drama film directed by, produced by and starring Orson Welles and co-written by Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz. It was Welles's List of directorial debuts, first feature film. ...

" ''News On The March'' sequence (the first reel of the film), much to the delight of Henry R. Luce, Time's president. Psychiatrist

Thomas Szasz Thomas Stephen Szasz ( ; ; 15 April 1920 – 8 September 2012) was a Hungarian-American academic and psychiatrist. He served for most of his career as professor of psychiatry at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University. A dis ...

wrote in ''The Second Sin'' (1973): "If you talk to God, you are praying; if God talks to you, you have schizophrenia. If the dead talk to you, you are a spiritualist; if God talks to you, you are a schizophrenic."

Nicknames

Bob Sheppard Robert Leo Sheppard (October 20, 1910 – July 11, 2010) was the long-time public address announcer for numerous New York area college and professional sports teams, in particular the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball (1951–2007), a ...

, public-address announcer for New York Yankees baseball games from 1951 to 2007 and for

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The ...

football games from 1956 to 2005 *

Don LaFontaine Donald LeRoy LaFontaine (August 26, 1940 – September 1, 2008) was an American voice actor who recorded more than 5,000 film trailers and hundreds of thousands of television advertisements, network promotions, and video game trailers over fou ...

, narrator of many film trailers * John Facenda, Philadelphia newscaster who narrated several

NFL Films NFL Productions, LLC, doing business as NFL Films, is the film and television production company of the National Football League. It produces advertisement film, commercials, television programs, feature films, and documentary film, documentaries ...

Productions from 1966 to 1984 *

Morgan Freeman Morgan Freeman (born June 1, 1937) is an American actor, producer, and narrator. In a career spanning six decades, he has received numerous accolades, including an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award, as well as a nomination for a Tony ...

, actor, narrator of films and a portrayer of God in ''

Bruce Almighty ''Bruce Almighty'' is a 2003 American fantasy comedy film directed by Tom Shadyac and written by Steve Koren, Mark O'Keefe and Steve Oedekerk. The film stars Jim Carrey as Bruce Nolan, a down-on-his-luck television reporter who complains to Go ...

'' and ''

Evan Almighty ''Evan Almighty'' is a 2007 American fantasy comedy film that is a spin-off and sequel of '' Bruce Almighty'' (2003). The film was directed by Tom Shadyac, written by Steve Oedekerk, based on the characters created by Steve Koren and Mark ...

'' *

Don Pardo Dominick George "Don" Pardo Jr. (February 22, 1918 – August 18, 2014) was an American radio and television announcer whose career spanned more than seven decades. A member of the Television Hall of Fame, Pardo was noted for his 70-year tenur ...

, television personality and former announcer on ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL'') is an American Late night television in the United States, late-night live television, live sketch comedy variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Michaels and Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC. The ...

References

Sources

*''This page draws text fro
'The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction', Vol. 10, Issue 273, September 15, 1827
a text now in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...

.'' *

Humphrey Prideaux Humphrey Prideaux (3 May 1648 – 1 November 1724) was a Cornish churchman and orientalist, Dean of Norwich from 1702. His sympathies inclined to Low Churchism in religion and to Whiggism in politics. Life The third son of Edmond Prideaux, he ...

''The Old and New Testament connected in the history of the Jews''
1851. *

Thomas de Quincey Thomas Penson De Quincey (; Thomas Penson Quincey; 15 August 17858 December 1859) was an English writer, essayist, and literary critic, best known for his ''Confessions of an English Opium-Eater'' (1821).Eaton, Horace Ainsworth, ''Thomas De Q ...

Narrative And Miscellaneous Papers, Vol. II.
* Free Prophecy
The Voice of God
* {{ISBE, article=Bath Kol Revelation Jewish mysticism Jewish theology