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 Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2011 6:39 pm
Forgive me if there is a similar thread somewhere, but I did not find one.
So why is the Christian god always a male?
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Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2011 6:44 pm
My friend read all the christian books when trying to become a preacher for a local church, including the 5 books of Jesus's tomb and such.
Although I would like to ignore most the fallacies he pointed out, the Christian books usually state knowing God is a man for some reason. It isn't definite, but it makes the book sound rewritten or written by an average human because of how pro-male the entire collection seems.
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Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2011 7:06 pm
I've heard of a book (anthropology, not religion) that is said to explain why certain cultures, which would include the ones Christianity thrives in, will always be hierarchal and male-dominated. I haven't actually read it though so I can't vouch for it.
My personal opinion at this point is, even if the Christian God is female or genderless, because of the time period the Bible would have been written in, declaring him as anything but male may have been highly inappropriate.
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Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2011 10:46 pm
According to the Jews and their Kabbalah, God is both genders and neither of them. He is ALL things, and is therefore male, female, and neutral at once. Since the Christian religion is based on the religion of the Jews, their God is all genders.
However, we mortals are imbeciles and like to personify things. We can't comprehend true existence or reality so we have to use things that are proximal or representative. Like language, for example. Therefore, since God has been like a father to us, he is considered Male. Apparently they forgot about the whole "Giving birth" part. God is all things. We're just too simple to say so.
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Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2011 11:23 pm
Aakosir Forgive me if there is a similar thread somewhere, but I did not find one.
So why is the Christian god always a male? If I'm not mistaken YHWH, was based on an earlier (I want to say Sumerian) God, who was male. In ether case there is apparently lore that indicates that YHWH had/has a wife/consort, so it makes sense that he is portrayed as a male God. This article is sort of interesting, though I'm not entirely sure how accurate/valid it is (definitely out of my realm of expertise), however it does offer a ton of citations (which is always an encouraging sign).
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Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 12:21 am
ncsweet Aakosir Forgive me if there is a similar thread somewhere, but I did not find one.
So why is the Christian god always a male? If I'm not mistaken YHWH, was based on an earlier (I want to say Sumerian) God, who was male. In ether case there is apparently lore that indicates that YHWH had/has a wife/consort, so it makes sense that he is portrayed as a male God. This article is sort of interesting, though I'm not entirely sure how accurate/valid it is (definitely out of my realm of expertise), however it does offer a ton of citations (which is always an encouraging sign). Sounds about right. There's also the issue that Hebrew doesn't have Gender neutral pronouns and nouns so when the paradigm shift of how they viewed YHVH occurred the language doesn't properly reflect this change in view from tribal war god to overarching super deity. In the case of Christianity there's a tradition of referring to God as a male due to earlier Hebrew religions referring to YHVH as a male and various verses from the NT equating looking a Jesus (a male) is looking at God. Though referred to as male, it's mostly because of tradition since divinesereph is correct about how God is viewed within Judaism, Christianity, and possibly Islam (Apple might be able to clarify on this).
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Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 11:22 am
Yeah... Judaism began 5,000 years ago, and try getting anyone to follow a female deity back then. Or a female anything, for that matter.
Like they were saying, Hebrew is one of those languages where everything, even onbjects, are considered masculine and feminine, so YHVH became maculine and strong.
The Kaballah does mention the Schechinah, the feminine aspect of YHVH, however.
Though modern Reform Judaism views G-d as a male or a female, most of the prayers and all of the scripture were written with G-d as a male.
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Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 1:23 pm
I did take in to account when the passages and all were written. There weren't any females of importance back then...
I do realize that people try to personify beings and usually end up going with the societies view on everything.
But, I would like to say that in ancient times, in Egypt specifically, there were many females who were just as important as the males. Nefertiti and Cleopatra VII were rather powerful and reveried women. Then the ancient Greek and Roman gods also had a fair share of females. Athena was the goddess of hunting, pretty important back then. Also, there are female Norse goddesses and even female Indian goddesses. So I don't really believe the "no one would follow a female" in those times. I think it just branched from some religion and they decreed that females are lesser beings...
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