My personal interpretation is that God created a sentient, moral and spiritual being or beings.  That is the important part.  As God is not corporeal, any details of our bodies are not in the Image.  This contradicts the view many people have that God is a white man.  There are many physical forms, surely they are all valid?

I entirely agree with that

If you look at Hindu gods some are male and female together.

catheyrains has a great view "Supergender"

Male, Female, Neither....It's like Creator, Teacher....

I have not looked up the references but I have had way more KJV, NKJV, NIV ....tossed my way than I care to say but one thing was I do know how to find the Greek, Hebrew words and were they are so I think I'll go on a little word hunt I have to find my very large dusty tomes ...if I find some of them I'll put them up.

Quote from: Shana-chan on July 06, 2015, 06:19:01 PM
Ok, I am just throwing this out there, that article is claiming in the bible (Which one, King James, other?) that God is referred to as a woman at least 13 times. Yet, doesn't bother to list the places in said bible where it says this? It is true neutral (we, they etc.) are used but still, it doesn't list it in the article which is very odd.

Most of the words used for God (El, Elohim, Adon, Adonai, Theos, Kurios, etc...) were masculine. The exception is Spirit which is feminine in Hebrew (Ruach) and neuter in Greek (Pneumatos). I wouldn't place too much value into a noun being feminine or neuter as the gendering of words sometimes makes no sense. For example, Mastos (breast) is masculine in Greek.

On the other hand, Wisdom is spoken of a lot in the Old Testament, especially in the apocryphal books and is distinctly feminine.  I don't remember the Hebrew word  but in Greek it is Sophia and is prominently personified female in all the varieties of ancient gnostic texts. 

However, it is also important to remember that these were not believed to be fact but rather mythologies that communicated spiritual realities to matter bound humans. 

The Good God who is the origin of all light (metaphorically) is all encompassing.  Male and Female, Mother and Father, without gender but encompassing all genders, pure Spirit.

Also, so as not to confuse the issue, the Good God spoken of in these mythologies is not El, Elohim, El Shaddai [sp], YHWY etc., but is something much greater.


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According to the book of John, God is a spirit. So it would be a little naive of us to try to fit Him in a societal gender role. x

Well, there's this: Jesus himself weighs in.  Maybe "Jesus himself" is overselling it a little.  Oh well.  It sounds more fun that way.

Quote from: sparrow on October 25, 2015, 11:46:05 AM
Well, there's this: Jesus himself weighs in.  Maybe "Jesus himself" is overselling it a little.  Oh well.  It sounds more fun that way.

makes sense

Quote from: clarabrown on October 23, 2015, 09:59:59 AM
According to the book of John, God is a spirit. So it would be a little naive of us to try to fit Him in a societal gender role. x

Did you mean to say her?

There are lots of scriptures in which he refers to himself as the Lord, and many others where Jesus refers to him as Father.  I don't know if God should be addressed in a neuter gender fashion or as the pronouns that are used in most of bibles. I am not learned in greek, hebrew or latin enough to tell if this is a translation thing or in the original books God was given male pronouns as well.

Maybe we should ask God which pronouns should we use? haha. x

Jesus referred to God as "Abba" which means father in the specific male sense.


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Quote from: clarabrown on October 25, 2015, 02:32:03 PM
There are lots of scriptures in which he refers to himself as the Lord, and many others where Jesus refers to him as Father.  I don't know if God should be addressed in a neuter gender fashion or as the pronouns that are used in most of bibles. I am not learned in greek, hebrew or latin enough to tell if this is a translation thing or in the original books God was given male pronouns as well.

Maybe we should ask God which pronouns should we use? haha. x

We use male pronouns because men wrote the bible.  God isn't male.  Now it is tradition to default to the masculine, but we don't have to.  God is whatever gender we want to call her.

Quote from: Deborah on October 25, 2015, 02:39:00 PM
Jesus referred to God as "Abba" which means father in the specific male sense.


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That was simply to get though to a very misogynistic culture.  God is also mother. 

Quote from: Oliviah on October 25, 2015, 03:09:41 PM
That was simply to get though to a very misogynistic culture.  God is also mother.

Yes, I know the argument but that is just supposition.

Anyway, to me its just academic.  My christian faith was destroyed and I have moved on to something I can believe in.  And that includes the concept of a feminine divine amongst other things.that were suppressed as heresy by the Church many times in the past two millenia.


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Interesting read.

I had a thought last night.  Jesus is transgender.  He was born of a virgin with no human father involved.  There can therefore be no Y chromosome.  He was born XX. 

So which is it conservative evangelicals?  Was Jesus XX or did Joseph supply a Y chromosome?


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