“There is no God”: Possible Atheism and the Image of God in Psalms 9/10; 14; 53

Abstract

The statement אֵין אֱלֹהִים “There is no God”, which is introduced in Ps 9/10; 14; 53 as an adversary quotation, is usually understood as so-called “practical atheism”, i.e. only concerning the experience of God’s doing and not entailing a denial of God’s existence. Analogous syntactical constructions, however, suggest that אֵין here expresses an actual denial of his existence. It can also be made plausible from the point of view of religious history. This represents a massive question to the image of God, which is answered emphatically by the three Psalms.