The Gender of God, How We Can Know For Sure
Posted: Monday, October 25, 2010
by Joel Hendon
http://hebronics.org/index.html
In the majority of human minds, Jehovah God is a male, although that has been questioned by a few and in the past few decades, more have questioned it. In most of the biblical references God is referred to as He'. But, is that adequate proof? Not really, and we will learn why as we delve into it.
Most will say simply that we should let the Bible settle it. But we encounter some difficulties there. Some of the original terminology is from words that are gender neutral and some are even feminine!
This, since not part of the biblical canon of inspired writings, would not supercede those times the Holy Spirit is referred to as "He/Him" in the New Testament. There are numerous places where we find the masculine term used in reference to either the Father, Son or the Holy Spirit. And another example which shows preference to the masculine title is found in Genesis 1:26 of the Holy Bible, pay attention to this: "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."
After saying this, He created a human male. It is true that He shortly made a female also. Beside this, the physical man He created was not the image He had in mind when He spoke those words. The image referred to was concerning the immortal spirit which was instilled in him. It is here that we encounter the solution to the male-female question.
Let us look a couple of biblical passages to shed a little light on this subject.
God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. (John 4:24:)
Regardless of how God has manifested Himself to man, it was in some manner other than just looking upon a spirit. A spirit is not physical in any manner. It is a spirit being.
Another passage which is somewhat difficult, God speaking to Moses is found in Exodus 33:18-23: And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory. And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy. And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live. And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.
It is not apparent just how this vision was manifested. A spirit, which has no physical properties cannot reflect light to be seen by the human eye. There is the possible explanation that God displayed Himself in physical form, or some other physical form. The other possibility is that He Miraculously caused Moses eyes to view His glory while in the Spirit. But notice the statement... for there shall no man see me and live. Herein is not a threat that anyone would die after seeing Him but rather that one must be dead and in the spirit realm, in order to mentally view Him.
To further investigate our perceived idea of the spirit being, let's check a passage in the New Testament. The Jews, trying to confuse Jesus of the meanings of the scriptures, asked Him who would be the husband of a woman in the resurrection, since she had been married to seven different men on earth. The answer is found in three of the Gospel accounts, Matthew, Mark and Luke. Here is the account given in Mark 12:24-25. And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God? 25 For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven.
In other words, they rise from the dead, as spirit being, with no physical characteristics whatsoever.
With all of that said, we can rest assured that there is no gender in the spirit realm. There are no physical characteristics, so therefore, no male no female. God is neither male or female. The vast amount of terminology used through the Bible referring to God, the Holy Spirit, and even the Son (Jesus, before he came to the earth and after his ascension) Him or He, is only for the better understanding of humans due to our inability to grasp life as a spirit being. The reason the masculine terms are used, no doubt comes from the fact that God created man first and woman as his wife, plus he placed the responsibility of care and management of the family on the man's shoulders and the maintenance of the home to the woman. He also chose to speak directly to the male head of the house in the beginning. In His own periods of manifesting Himself before man, He did so in the form of a male.
This, in no way makes a male more important than a female, nor does it mean they are more intelligent. As the saying goes, some one had to do it. God's choices were wise I think. Men, for the most part are stronger and able to do heavy difficult work in earning a living and with out a doubt, women are far superior and more adept in the care of domestic work and of children. Times have now changed where there are plentiful careers for women to earn good livings. But it is a rarity to find a man who can fold clothes and other washables as neatly as that which comes natural to most women. And most of all, we are not nearly as pretty.
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Top-level comments on this article: (7 total)Your conclusion is very amusing! But I enjoyed your article, I found it refreshing, thanks!
Thanks Jennifer...I think. I appreciate your reading and commenting on my article. No one will ever know I guess, just why God chose to make a man first, talk to men to give them His instructions, etc. and have His writers refer to Him as Him.
I read one joke explaining why God decided to make a woman. He supposedly made Adam and stepped back and looked at him then said: "I can beat that", so he made a woman. Makes sense to me.
Doesn't El Shaddai mean the breasted one signifying mothering characteristics? Mind you, I am not saying God is female.....
Hi Marijo. No, I found no indication that this had any such meaning. Go to the home page of mine... hebronics(dot)org(slash)index(dot)html. page down the left side to the "Answers" search window and type in El Shaddai. They have a whole page on the word and I found no indication of any gender.
However, even if it did, all the "Hims" "Hes" and so forth still do not close the fact that he was male, nor would the description you gave mean anything anyway. The fact is that those terms are used to keep from confusing the reader by refering to him as "it". Spirits can have no gender, simply because male and female are what they are, because of physical atributes, sexual organs and other things such as different hormones which give you smoother more feminine skin than a man, and which gives him, normally, bigger and stronger muscles, etc.
If the feminists will just live a righteous life, they can be precisely like men, if that is what they want. They will be whether or not that is what they want.
Thanks for reading and commenting as usual.
Hi Joel. I think I am with Jennifer on this. I did not expect a little humor at the end of such a profound and thought-provoking lesson :-) I've missed you. TeresaHi Teresa, it's great to hear from you again, and thanks for the comment. I tried the best I could to impress that I was in no way, a male chauvenist. Plus, it is the way I feel. Are you devoting all of your time to your other site? You must be because it is doing quite well. BlessingsHi Joel, For quite awhile I couldn't do either, but since I started teaching bible study, it seems more time has come my way, so I started concentrating on world wide, but now I am able to spend some more time on SW again. I have missed my community :-) PS your input on the John study would be appreciated. This class is geared toward new believers and new students to the Bible. God is doing some great things with it, but I would love added perspectives from seasoned Bible students as well. BLessings!I'll take a look at it but you flatter me. I'm sure you are as adept at teaching as I am, probably moreso. Good to have you back.
Uh...where do I find it? Senility you know. I went to your Bibbe Study site and didn't find it. ??There isn't a lesson on the first page right now, so go to the "hall of fame" section. Click on my name and then you can see the list it is the book of John summary style study and summary questions. I am working on the chapter 2 discussion questions based on subjects that come up in class.
Hello Joej, i can only agree, God is no male nor female but the gender of love.
Thank you Hyun Soung, I appreciate your comments.
God cannot but be androgenous; as He is Spiritus Sanctus and has no use for sexual organs to reproduce, the question is moot.
Hi Paul, glad to hear out of you again. You said the same thing I said only you did it better. Thanks Buddy.
And God was walking through the cool of the garden of Eden and Adam said,"Lord, God , may I ask of You, two questions?"
And God acquiesced;"Why did you make woman so very beautiful, and why did You make woman so very stupid?"
And God said,"I made woman beautiful so that you, man, could love her!"
"But, why, God, did you make her so stupid?"
And God answered," I made her stupid, so that she, woman, could love YOU!"
Man was made first, and THEN woman was made, because every artist makes a rough copy, first, before he makes a polished, finished copy..................
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