God and gender - God in the Hebrew Bible

This entry discusses how the Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam deal with God and gender. It includes both traditional religious views, and modern views of these faiths, especially as to how modern feminism has influenced the theology of these religions. For the discussion of the topic in Hinduism, see Hindu views on God and gender. Monotheists hold a belief in one God as a fundamental religious principle. In Judaism and Islam, God is believed to be sexless, but has been traditionally referr ...

Including:

• God and gender - God in the Hebrew Bible
• God and gender - Jewish views of God and gender
• God and gender - Christian views of God and gender
• God and gender - Mormon views
• God and gender - Translating the names of God into English
• God and gender - Third person pronouns: He She or It?
• God and gender - Mankind and Humankind
• God and gender - New translation solutions
• God and gender - Criticism of feminine reconstructions of theology
• God and gender - Bibliography

Read more here: » God and gender: Encyclopedia - God and gender

In the first book of the Hebrew Bible, Genesis 1:26, God states "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness....And God created man in His image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." Exactly what Genesis means by the word "image" is not clear, but there is an analogy being made between God and humans. In some ways this passage is anthropomorphic; it is attributing human characteristics to God. However, less recognized is that the viewpoint of the Israelite biblical writers was the ...

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God and gender, God and gender - God in the Hebrew Bible, God and gender - Jewish views of God and gender, God and gender - Christian views of God and gender, God and gender - Mormon views, God and gender - Translating the names of God into English, God and gender - Third person pronouns: He She or It?, God and gender - Mankind and Humankind, God and gender - New translation solutions, God and gender - Criticism of feminine reconstructions of theology, God and gender - Bibliography

Read more here: » God and gender: Encyclopedia II - God and gender - God in the Hebrew Bible

There are a number of ways that one can translate the names of God into English from Hebrew. The Tetragrammaton is composed of the Hebrew letters Yod-Heh-Waw-Heh. (If your web-browser supports a Hebrew font it is written thus: יהוה.) In English the tetragrammaton is usually written as YHWH or YHVH. The original meaning of this form is connected with the "I AM" of Exodus 3:14 (and it probably contains a Hebrew masculine verb prefix). This word is usually rendered into English by translating Hebrew Adonai (instead of attempti ...

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God and gender, God and gender - God in the Hebrew Bible, God and gender - Jewish views of God and gender, God and gender - Christian views of God and gender, God and gender - Mormon views, God and gender - Translating the names of God into English, God and gender - Third person pronouns: He She or It?, God and gender - Mankind and Humankind, God and gender - New translation solutions, God and gender - Criticism of feminine reconstructions of theology, God and gender - Bibliography

Read more here: » God and gender: Encyclopedia II - God and gender - Translating the names of God into English

Grammatically, most of the Hebrew names for God are masculine; a few are grammatically feminine; the grammatical form of words has no biological or literal significance. Many modern readers of the Bible, especially those influenced by 20th century feminism, often misread English translations of the Bible as literal translations of the Hebrew text; this leads to errors of understanding, as for grammatical reasons literal translations are not always possible. English does not have grammatical gender in nouns, but it does have gr ...

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God and gender, God and gender - God in the Hebrew Bible, God and gender - Jewish views of God and gender, God and gender - Christian views of God and gender, God and gender - Mormon views, God and gender - Translating the names of God into English, God and gender - Third person pronouns: He She or It?, God and gender - Mankind and Humankind, God and gender - New translation solutions, God and gender - Criticism of feminine reconstructions of theology, God and gender - Bibliography

Read more here: » God and gender: Encyclopedia II - God and gender - Criticism of feminine reconstructions of theology

In Christianity, one Person of the Trinity, the Son, is believed to have become incarnate as a human male. Most Christians believe that the other Two Persons in the Trinity, the Father and the Holy Spirit, have never been incarnated. Female terms for the Holy Spirit were used in some early Christian communities, specifically within the hymn book, entitled "Odes of Solomon". The Biblical Hebrew word for spirit is ruah, meaning wind, breath, inspiration; the noun is grammatically feminine. In the "Odes of Solomon"; the oldest sur ...

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God and gender, God and gender - God in the Hebrew Bible, God and gender - Jewish views of God and gender, God and gender - Christian views of God and gender, God and gender - Mormon views, God and gender - Translating the names of God into English, God and gender - Third person pronouns: He She or It?, God and gender - Mankind and Humankind, God and gender - New translation solutions, God and gender - Criticism of feminine reconstructions of theology, God and gender - Bibliography

Read more here: » God and gender: Encyclopedia II - God and gender - Christian views of God and gender

In regard to translating Hebrew names of God into English, most Orthodox Jews and many Conservative Jews hold that it is wrong to use English female pronouns for God; their reason is not because God is of the male gender, but because doing so among English speakers tends to draw attention to God as having gender. Another reason is that the Hebrew Bible usually uses names of God that are grammatically masculine. Among many Reconstructionist Jews and Reform Jews there has been an increasing tendency to stress feminine characteristics of ...

See also:

God and gender, God and gender - God in the Hebrew Bible, God and gender - Jewish views of God and gender, God and gender - Christian views of God and gender, God and gender - Mormon views, God and gender - Translating the names of God into English, God and gender - Third person pronouns: He She or It?, God and gender - Mankind and Humankind, God and gender - New translation solutions, God and gender - Criticism of feminine reconstructions of theology, God and gender - Bibliography

Read more here: » God and gender: Encyclopedia II - God and gender - Jewish views of God and gender