Anthropomorphism

Describing something non-human in human terms. There are lots of examples in the Bible of God being given human characteristics. This includes walking in the garden of Eden (Genesis 3.8), having an arm, an ear and even having nostrils (Isaiah 59.1; Psalm 18.15)! Most Christians, however, understand these references to be metaphorical. They believe that God is a spiritual being, based on other statements in the Bible, such as John 4.24. (As an aside, Mormons, however, do believe that God has a physical body.)

The Bible also contains anthropopathisms, where God is described as having human emotions, such as anger, jealousy, love, compassion etc. (Nahum 1.2; Malachi 1:2-3; Romans 3.5). There has been a long debate within Christianity about how literally these biblical statements were originally meant because on the one hand, the divine Jesus was understood to have suffered death, while on the other, there are texts that seem to say that God does not have mood swings - Philippians 2.6-8; James 1.17.