Gender of God
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God or gods are a central feature of many religions. These religions have a range of views regarding the gender of their divinities.
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[edit] Hinduism
The oldest of the Hindu scriptures is the Rigveda (2nd millennium BC). The first word of the Rigveda is the name Agni, the god of fire, to whom many of the vedic hymns are addressed, along with Indra the warrior. Agni and Indra are both male divinities.
The Rigveda refers to a creator (Hiranyagarbha or Prajapati), distinct from Agni and Indra. This creator is identified with Brahma, first of the gods, in later scriptures. Hiranyagarbha and Prajapati are male divinities, as is Brahma (who has a female consort, Saraswati).
There are many other gods in the Rigveda.[1] They are "not simple forces of nature" and possess "complex character and their own mythology".[1] They include goddesses of water (Āpaḥ) and dawn (Uṣas), and the complementary pairing of Father Heaven and Mother Earth.[1] However, they are all "subservient to the abstract, but active positive 'force of truth'" (Rta), "which pervades the universe and all actions of the gods and humans."[1] This force is sometimes mediated or represented by moral gods (Āditya such as Varuṇa) or even Indra.[1] The Āditya are male and Rta is personified as masculine in later scriptures (see also Dharma).
There are some Hindu sects, such as Shakta and Tantra, that have a well-developed philosophy of a mother goddess, and literature that harmonizes this to greater or lesser extents with vedic and other traditions. In these traditions, Shiva is often conceived of as the consort of Shakti, rather than vice versa.
In some Hindu philosophical traditions, Brahma is depersonalized (and demasculinized) as Brahman, the fundamental life force of the universe.
[edit] Judaism
The first words of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh or Old Testament) are B'reshit bara Elohim — "In the beginning God created."[2] The verb bara (he created) suggests a masculine subject. Elohim is also masculine in form. The most common phrases in the Tanakh are vayomer Elohim and vayomer YHWH — "and God said" (hundreds of occurrences). Again, the verb vayomer (he said) is masculine; it is never vatomer, the feminine of the same verb form. The personal name of God, YHWH, is presented in Exodus 3 as if the Y (Hebrew yod) is the masculine subjective prefix to the verb to be
In Isaiah 62:5, God is compared to the bridegroom, and his people to the bride.
- "For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee."
Most Orthodox Jews and many Conservative Jews hold that it is wrong to use English female pronouns for God. However, feminine characterisation of God is found in a feminist siddur (Jewish prayerbook). Reconstructionist Jewish Rabbi Rebecca Alpert (Reform Judaism, Winter 1991) comments:
| “ | The experience of praying with Siddur Nashim ... transformed my relationship with God. For the first time, I understood what it meant to be made in God's image. To think of God as a woman like myself, to see Her as both powerful and nurturing, to see Her imaged with a woman's body, with womb, with breasts - this was an experience of ultimate significance. Was this the relationship that men have had with God for all these millennia? How wonderful to gain access to those feelings and perceptions. | ” |
Within Judaism, this statement is controversial. Many traditional rabbinic commentators, such as Maimonides, view any such beliefs as avodah zarah - idolatry. Secondary male sexual characteristics are attributed to God in some piyuttim (religious poems). These include a description of the beard of God Shir Hakavod, "The Hymn of Glory", and similar poetic imagery in the midrash Song of the Seas Rabbah. Traditional meforshim (rabbinic commentators) hold that these descriptions are metaphorical.
[edit] Christianity
In Christianity, the New Testament is the primary source of beliefs about God. Perhaps the two most significant debates in Christian history sought to understand what the New Testament implied regarding:
- Jesus as divine as well as human (see Christology), and
- God as three persons in unity — the Trinity.
The three persons of the Trinity are God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The masculinity of the Father and the Son is clear from their names, which are derived from the New Testament. In the case of the Son, masculinity is reinforced by the belief in his incarnation as the man, Jesus of Nazareth. The New Testament also refers to the Holy Spirit as masculine in number of places, most clearly in the Gospel of John 14-16.[3] John reports Jesus referring to the Holy Spirit as Comforter (masculine in Greek), and uses grammatically necessary masculine forms of the Greek pronoun autos.[4] Grammatical gender, on its own, says nothing about natural gender. However, when John reports Jesus speaking of the Holy Spirit as Spirit, grammatically neuter in Greek,[5] he uses the masculine form of the demonstrative pronoun ekeinos ("that male one").[6] This breaking of the grammatical agreement, expected by native language readers, is an indication of the authorial intention to convey the personhood of the Holy Spirit, and also the Spirit's masculinity.[7]
These texts were particularly significant when Christians were debating whether the New Testament teaches that the Holy Spirit is a full divine person, or just a "force". All major English Bible translations have retained the masculine pronoun for the Spirit.
| Young's Literal Translation (a literal translation) |
And when He may come — the Spirit of truth — He will guide you to all the truth, for He will not speak from Himself, but as many things as He will hear He will speak, |
| King James Version (an early translation) |
Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: |
| New American Standard Bible (a recent translation) |
But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; |
| New Revised Standard Version (a gender neutral translation) |
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, |
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: "God transcends the human distinction between the sexes. He is neither man nor woman: he is God."[8] This makes it clear that God has masculine gender role, rather than male biological sex; as indicated by the pronoun He in the official English translation of Ille in the Latin original.[9][10] God is also referred to as masculine in Catholic teaching and practice.
On the other hand, use of "feminine" imagery (like the personification of divine wisdom in Proverbs) has been expanded upon by some Christian writers. In Syriac Christianity, the grammatically feminine ruah (Spirit), and the occasionally associated "hovering" and "dove" imagery of the Bible, led some 4th century theologians, such as Aphrahat and Ephraim, to use explicitly maternal language for the Spirit.[11] The 2nd century Syriac Odes of Solomon use imagery for the Spirit, that some consider to be feminine. Similar imagery is used for the Father. Eastern Orthodox theologian Susan Ashbrook Harvey considers grammatical gender itself to be significant in early Syrian Christianity: "It seems clear that for the Syrians, the cue from grammar — ruah as a feminine noun — was not entirely gratuitous. There was real meaning in calling the Spirit 'She.'"[12]
A few recent theologians, while retaining masculine reference to Father and Son, have explored feminine alternatives for the Holy Spirit. Some have related this to perceived maternal functions in Scripture or Christian tradition. These include: Clark H. Pinnock,[13] Thomas N. Finger,[14] Jürgen Moltmann,[15] Yves M.J. Congar,[16] John J. O'Donnell,[17] and Donald L. Gelpi.[18]
[edit] Islam
The oneness of God is of primary importance in the Qur'an and Islam. In AL-Qur'an, Allah is most often referred to with the pronouns Hu or Huwa, and although these are commonly translated as him they can also be translated gender-neutrally, as it. This is also true of the feminine equivalent, Hiya. Allah is neither male nor female, and is said to transcend gender. It is considered blasphemy for Allah to be placed in a human or animal sexual gender category. "...Hu births not nor is Hu born, there is none like unto Hu" Surah 112 AL-Qur'an. Other references include the first person pronoun, and the relative pronoun ma (that which), as in the phrase "the heavens and that which created them" (surah Shams (91), verse 5).
[edit] Sikhism
In Sikhism, God has traditionally been referred to by using masculine pronouns. However, in Sikhism this is due to grammatical conventions, rather than implying actual gender. Sikhism is based on the teaching of the Sikh Scriptures. These were originally composed in many different languages. Overall, they are ambivalent regarding God's gender. The Guru Granth Sahib refers to God as Mother and Father:
- "You are my Father, and You are my Mother... You are my Protector everywhere; why should I feel any fear or anxiety? ||1||" Page 103
- "You are our mother and father; we are Your children." Page 268.
In some places, God is referred to as Mother, Father or Husband:
- "O my wandering mind, you are like a camel - how will you meet the Lord, your Mother?" page 234
- "O Father, I do not know - How can I know Your Way?" page 51
- "You are the Husband Lord, and I am the soul-bride. ||3||" page 484.
[edit] Mormonism
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormon, teaches that both God the Father and Jesus have distinct, perfect, immortal male bodies. Mormons consider the empty tomb proof that God the Son has a body, transformed by the resurrection to power, glory and immortality. They teach that the Son, though glorified, was able to show his body to humans, eat with them, drink with them, and allow them to touch him as a witness that he had taken his body up, a body with which he later ascended to heaven, a body that he has never again laid aside. The Holy Spirit has a spirit body, not a physical body, and is also considered to be male. There is evidence that Mormons believe there to be more divine beings than just those of the Trinity. In particular, at least one Mormon hymn refers to a Heavenly Mother, partnered to the Father.[19] The official doctrine of the Church is that prayers should be directed to the Father in the name of the Son by the power of the Spirit. The Heavenly Mother is not worshipped.
- See also Mormonism and Christianity.
[edit] Branch Davidians, some Messianics, and other variations
While being small in number (and not "feminist" in the modern sense), there are some Messianic and Christian groups whose thinking in regards to the gender of the Holy Spirit is, in part, based on the understanding that the Hebrew word for Spirit, ruach, is feminine, and that is then based upon skepticism toward Greek primacy for the New Testament. They are skeptical of the neuter Greek word for "spirit" (Greek pneuma), and the masculine Latin word, because the logos ("oracles" or "words") of God were are said to be given unto the Jews (Rom. 3:1, 2).
Foremost among these groups, and the most vocal on the subject are the Branch Davidian, Seventh-day Adventists. In 1977, one of their leaders, Lois Roden, began to formally teach that a feminine Holy Spirit is the heavenly pattern of women. In her many studies and talks she cited numerous scholars and researchers from Jewish, Christian, and other sources.
They see in the creation of Adam and Eve a literal image and likeness of the invisible Godhead, male and female, who is "clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made" (Rom. 1:20). They take the Oneness of God to mean the "familial" unity which exists between them, which unity is not seen in any other depiction of the Godhead by the various non-Hebrew peoples.
Thus, having a Father and Mother in heaven, they see that the Bible shows that those Parents had a Son born unto them before the creation of the world, by Whom all things were created.[20][21][22][23].
These concepts are also taught among other groups, to one degree or another.
The B'nai Yashua Synagogues Worldwide[24] headed by Rabbi Moshe Koniuchowsky, holds to the feminine view of the Holy Spirit.[25][26]
There are also some scholars associated with more "mainstream" denominations, who while not necessarily indicative of the denominations themselves, have written works explaining a feminine understanding of the third member of the Godhead. For example, R.P. Nettlehorst, professor at the Quartz Hill School of Theology (associated with the Southern Baptist Convention) has written on the subject.[27][28][29] Evan Randolph, associated with the Episcopal Church, has likewise written on the subject.[30][31]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Berke, Matthew. 'God and Gender in Judaism'. In First Things, 1996.
- Eller, Vernard. The Language of Canaan and the Grammar of Feminism. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1982.
- Dorff, Elliot N. Male and Female God Created Them: Equality with Distinction. University Papers. Los Angeles: University of Judaism, 1984, pp. 13-23.
- Harlow, Jules. 'Feminist Linguistics and Jewish Liturgy'. Conservative Judaism 49 (1997): 3-25.
- Johnson, Elizabeth. 'The Incomprehensibility of God and the Image of God Male and Female'. Theological Studies 45 (1984): 441-465.
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b c d e Michael Witzel, 'Autochthonous Aryans? The Evidence from Old Indian and Iranian Texts', Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies 7 (2001): 1–118.
- ^ Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1990), p. 1.
- ^ Nestle and others, Novum Testamentum Graece, 27th ed., (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgeselschaft, 1993).
- ^ William D Mounce, The Morphology of Biblical Greek, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), p. 241.
- ^ John 14:26; 15:26; 16:13-14.
- ^ ibid., p. 242.
- ^ Grudem, Wayne [1995]. Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 232. ISBN 0310286700.
- ^ 'Pater per Filium revelatus'. Catechismus Catholicae Ecclesiae. (Citta del Vaticano: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1993): 1-2-1-1-2 ¶ 239. (link is to official English translation)
- ^ "Deum humanam sexuum transcendere distinctionem. Ille nec vir est nec femina, Ille est Deus." Ibid.
- ^ Regarding the masculine sense of ille in Latin, the following classic reference can be consulted. Aureliano Buendía, 'The Original Language of Winnie-the-Pooh', Speculative Grammarian 148 (1998).
- ^ Susan Ashbrook Harvey, "Feminine Imagery for the Divine: The Holy Spirit, the Odes of Solomon, and Early Syriac Tradition," St. Vladimir's Theological Quarterly 37, nos. 2-3 (1993): 111-120.
- ^ Harvey, "Feminine Imagery," 136.
- ^ Clark H. Pinnock, "The Role of the Spirit in Creation," Asbury Theological Journal 52 (Spring 1997), 47-54.
- ^ Thomas N. Finger, Christian Theology:An Eschatological Approach vol. 2 (Scottdale, Penn.:Herald, 1987), 483-490.
- ^ Jurgen Moltmann, The Spirit of Life: A Universal Affirmation (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1992), 157-158.
- ^ Yves M.J. Congar, I Believe in the Holy Spirit, vol. 3 (New York: Seabury, 1983), 155-164.
- ^ John J. O'Donnell, The Mystery of the Triune God (London:Sheed & Ward, 1988), 97-99.
- ^ Donald L. Gelpi, The Divine Mother: A Trinitarian Theology of the Holy Spirit (New York:University Press of America, 1984).
- ^ Eliza R Snow, 'O My Father', Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints #292, 1985.
- ^ http://www.the-branch.org/Spirit_Feminine_Mother_Hebrew_Greek_Jesus_Born_Doug_Mitchell
- ^ http://www.the-branch.org/Holy_Ghost_Daughter_Holy_Spirit_Mother_Eloah_Doug_Mitchell
- ^ http://www.the-branch.org/She_A_Tree_of_Life_Proverbs_3-18_New_Moons_Doug_Mitchell
- ^ http://www.the-branch.org/Shelter_From_Storm_HolyGhost_She_Bob_Dylan_Doug_Mitchell
- ^ http://yourarmstoisrael.org/BYSW/directory/
- ^ http://yourarmstoisrael.org/Articles_new/notes/index.php?page=what_is
- ^ http://yourarmstoisrael.org/Articles_new/notes/index.php?page=Who_RuachHaKadosh2
- ^ http://www.theology.edu/journal/volume3/spirit.htm
- ^ http://www.theology.edu/pneumato.htm
- ^ http://www.theology.edu/theology/appen03.htm
- ^ http://www.geocities.com/kibotos2002/cfhsquotes.html
- ^ http://www.geocities.com/athens/agora/6776/Findings.htm
[edit] External links
