Glory of the Lord
"And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food" (Gen 2:9) It is worth noting that the aesthetic dimension (pleasant to the sight) is mentioned here before the material usefulness (good for food) of the trees of paradise. This is the first verse to attest the aesthetic character of the Bible, alongside the reiterated phrase "God saw that it was good". God creates beauty and is pleased by it. This is the very first thing to know about the Creator. There are many words for the beautiful in the Old Testament Hebrew: tiph'ara "beauty", hadar "majesty", 'oz "brightness" etc. However, the most prominent word for the aesthetic in the Bible is "glory" (Hebrew kabod , Greek doxa ) that is discussed below. Suffice it to say here that arguably the greatest account on theological aesthetics in the 20th century is Hans Urs von Balthasar's encyclopedic Herrlichkeit