>*God’s Presence in Stone*: Biblical texts indicate that divine embodiment was possible not only in wood but also in stone. One case is found in a set of biblical texts that purport to describe the patriarchal period: Genesis 28.16–19, 31.13, and 35.14, all of which stem from JE. In the first of these, Jacob woke up after seeing a vision of a stairway reaching from heaven to earth. Then, Genesis 28.18–19 inform us, “he took the stone he had set beneath his head, and set it up as a *massebah*. He poured oil on it, and he called the place a *betyl*.” Similarly, in Genesis 35.14–15 Jacob set up a stele, poured wine and oil on it, and called the place a betyl. The ritual use of oil is significant in these two verses. In Israelite religion, to pour oil on an object or person is to change its status; for example, one becomes king or high priest when one is anointed with oil. Is it possible that, in these passages, anointing transforms the stele and thus functions in a manner comparable to the [mis pi ritual](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%AEs-p%C3%AE) [="opening of the mouth" ritual through which a deity comes to inhabit a statue whose "mouth has been opened" as one of its bodies] in Mesopotamia? If so, what had been a mere stone becomes a *massebah* or *betyl*, a place of divine dwelling; or, if we may borrow the language of Philo of Byblos cited in the previous chapter, once Jacob anointed the stone, it was endowed with life. [...] > >The possibility that Jacob rendered an inert rock into an animate betyl is strengthened by Genesis 31.13.73 There God appeared to Jacob and said, אָנֹכִ֤י הָאֵל֙ בֵּֽית־אֵ֔ל אֲשֶׁ֨ר מָשַׁ֤חְתָּ שָּׁם֙ מַצֵּבָ֔ה. > We might translate this verse, “I am the God in the betyl that you anointed into a stele there.” In this case, the presence of God in the betyl is made explicit, and the verb משח [anointed] takes a double accusative to indicate its transformative nature. Alternatively, we might render it, “I am the God Bethel whom you anointed there in the stele.” The God who became incarnate in the betyl takes the divine name Bethel because He is identical with the cult stele known by that name. Here again, the presence of God in the object is stressed. (Sommer, *Bodies*, pgs. 49-50)