Is God Male?

[JIME]

I voted that He is neither. I know that I and the bible refer to God as "He and Him," so I probably am wrong. He is referred to by Jesus as Father which is male. I don't have a problem with it, if this is the case. I want God to be what God wants to be.

[Guest yod]

Yeshua is the visible image of the invisible God

you are the visible image of the invisible you. Is your spirit male or female?

[firehill]

'God is translated as a "He" in English is because in Hebrew nouns have only two genders: masculine and feminine. Now it is a mistake to associate masculine nouns as necessarily meaning "male" and feminine nouns as necessarily meaning "female." These two genders are only two groupings of words; most male items tend to fall into one grouping and most female items tend to fall into the other grouping. For example, in Hebrew, body parts that come in pairs (hands, eyes, etc) are typically feminine, whereas those body parts that come as single (nose, back, etc) are masculine. They have nothing at all to do with sex. "Elohiym," for example, is a masculine (note: NOT "male") noun. Thus, because the nouns associated with God are masculine does not necessarily imply that God is male anymore than the breast of a woman is male (the Hebrew word for breast, shad, is a masculine noun).'

http://www.ldolphin.org/Image.html

God is as much male as a female breast (singular)!

People are funny with thier ideals and all. We just can't assign femine or masculine charcteristics based on grammatical gender since the grammatical gender of a noun most of the time has little or no relation whatsoever to do with the natural or physical gender to which it's refering.

[hupo]

'God is translated as a "He" in English is because in Hebrew nouns have only two genders: masculine and feminine. Now it is a mistake to associate masculine nouns as necessarily meaning "male" and feminine nouns as necessarily meaning "female." These two genders are only two groupings of words; most male items tend to fall into one grouping and most female items tend to fall into the other grouping. For example, in Hebrew, body parts that come in pairs (hands, eyes, etc) are typically feminine, whereas those body parts that come as single (nose, back, etc) are masculine. They have nothing at all to do with sex. "Elohiym," for example, is a masculine (note: NOT "male") noun. Thus, because the nouns associated with God are masculine does not necessarily imply that God is male anymore than the breast of a woman is male (the Hebrew word for breast, shad, is a masculine noun).'

http://www.ldolphin.org/Image.html

God is as much male as a female breast (singular)!

People are funny with thier ideals and all. We just can't assign femine or masculine charcteristics based on grammatical gender since the grammatical gender of a noun most of the time has little or no relation whatsoever to do with the natural or physical gender to which it's refering.

You know Firehill, I think you are really on to something here

I never saw this , and my basic language is Hebrew

[firehill]

I don't know if my previous question was answered.

Was it intentional that God incarnated Himself as a man? Is it significant? Would it have been different if He were incarnated as a woman?

Okay, that's questions...

yes

yes

yes

Do the answers prove anything?

no

Do the answers prove anything in relation to your poll?

no

[Kabowd]

I don't know if my previous question was answered.

Was it intentional that God incarnated Himself as a man? Is it significant? Would it have been different if He were incarnated as a woman?

Okay, that's questions...

yes

yes

yes

Do the answers prove anything?

no

Yes, Yes, Yes and Yes. While God cannot be assigned a gender, it is highly important to recognize (and respect) the fact that He is predominantly referred to in the masculine form, He became flesh in the form of a Male (Jesus) and through Christ we are always taught to view God as the "Father". You are being disingenuous if you answer "yes" to the first three and then deny that this proves anything. It proves that God intends for us to relate to Him via our concept of the term "Father".

[MrLuke]

I don't know if my previous question was answered.

Was it intentional that God incarnated Himself as a man? Is it significant? Would it have been different if He were incarnated as a woman?

Okay, that's questions...

In the first century world women weren't listened to. They had no say or place in things and weren't even considered good enough to be a valid witness to events (in court etc) - so if the Word came as a woman in the first century, God would have to have been very silly and short-sighted to not know how the culture works because then the Messianic role would have fell flat on it's face!

[Ovedya]

I don't know if my previous question was answered.

Was it intentional that God incarnated Himself as a man? Is it significant? Would it have been different if He were incarnated as a woman?

Okay, that's questions...

In the first century world women weren't listened to. They had no say or place in things and weren't even considered good enough to be a valid witness to events (in court etc) - so if the Word came as a woman in the first century, God would have to have been very silly and short-sighted to not know how the culture works because then the Messianic role would have fell flat on it's face!

However....why should God ever have to conform to human culture?

[Kabowd]

I don't know if my previous question was answered.

Was it intentional that God incarnated Himself as a man? Is it significant? Would it have been different if He were incarnated as a woman?

Okay, that's questions...

In the first century world women weren't listened to. They had no say or place in things and weren't even considered good enough to be a valid witness to events (in court etc) - so if the Word came as a woman in the first century, God would have to have been very silly and short-sighted to not know how the culture works because then the Messianic role would have fell flat on it's face!

I'd say coming as an infant child, born to a virgin girl engaged to a Carpenter was not exactly welcomed and received well in the culture.

I don't think we can assume that God came as a male because He wasn't silly enough to come as a woman in that culture.

[firehill]

I don't know if my previous question was answered.

Was it intentional that God incarnated Himself as a man? Is it significant? Would it have been different if He were incarnated as a woman?

Okay, that's questions...

yes

yes

yes

Do the answers prove anything?

no

Yes, Yes, Yes and Yes. While God cannot be assigned a gender, it is highly important to recognize (and respect) the fact that He is predominantly referred to in the masculine form, He became flesh in the form of a Male (Jesus) and through Christ we are always taught to view God as the "Father". You are being disingenuous if you answer "yes" to the first three and then deny that this proves anything. It proves that God intends for us to relate to Him via our concept of the term "Father".

I didn't mean 'anything', literaly. I meant in relation to the poll ofcourse and the discussion of whether or not God is male. Again, I assume too much having thought that this was apparent.

Really? How would you universally define your concept of 'father'? I ask because for example christians are born of the Spirit (God who is ONE) not the Father, divisionaly speaking. Fathers as we understand them are only fathers by having offspring and we know that God was not Christ's father in this sense because He was fully God. It appears to me thus far that he meant it in relation to his humanity. Afterall, which takes the seat of rule for the follower between the body, emotion, heart, mind or spirit? The spirit! (Humans have a spirit, soul, emotional base (heart) and a physical body) I don't believe that the Son was 'the Son' in eternity past for at least because He was the word in the beginning, the Bible says (and not the Son) with God, who was God. If I did believe that he was the Son in eternity past then I would be 'guilty' of indoctrination.

I just want to add that when I say that God is our Father I say this because we are born of the Holy Spirit. What's born of the Spirit? Our spirit OFCOURSE which interacts with our present humanity. Now, the Holy Spirit overcame Mary through which Christ came. Therefore, God is Christ's Father, humanly speaking and for believers and worshipers of God, and those in Christ, God is Father.

God is Father but is he male or masculine? If gender is but a disposition (which I believe it is) then God WHO IS SPIRIT (whom has His OWN, SINGULAR yet differing relational dispositon SINCE HE IS GOD) is not male or female. Therefore when we are born again we are born of the Spirit which has it's own disposition since it is divine.

I tried to expalin my ineloquent self. Hope I made sense and especialy for those in search of the Truth.

What I would really like to stress is that many believers have it backwards by their attemopt in trying to compare God to us when in fact He made us in His divine image. That is, many have it backwards.