If women and men are made in the image of God, then God must be both masculine and feminine. Speaking of God in feminine terms has gained some popularity in the last few years, so allow me to go through some mandatory clauses before I get into the origins of womanhood in the heart of God. God’s being revealed primarily as male is theologically essential to our understanding and worship of God. I believe this emphasis is necessary and intentional. If God wanted to reveal Himself primarily, or even partly as feminine, it certainly would not have been unusual to either Old or New Testament cultures that often fell away to worshiping female deities. (See Judges 10:6, 1 Samuel 12:10, and Acts 19:24-28)
The feminine revelations of God are similar to descriptions of other men in the Bible. Paul described himself with feminine tenderness in 1 Thessalonians 2:7 saying “But we proved to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children.” Frustrated Moses complains to God in Numbers 11:12: “Was it I who conceived all this people? Was it I who brought them forth, that You should say to me, 'Carry them in your bosom as a nurse carries a nursing infant, to the land which You swore to their fathers'?” Certainly no one would question these saints’ masculinity based on feminine literary devices. Some scholars have said that God could also be called ‘goddess’, but God’s revealed names are theologically significant and we do not have the right to redefine that revelation.
God is predominantly masculine in Scripture: He is king, judge, lord, shepherd, father, and husband. God is called ‘father’ because he is “the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:3), and was titled ‘father’ even before the incarnation because that relationship existed between before creation. The masculine images and names communicate something real about God and a switch to feminine imagery would dilute the strong emphasis on covenant authority that is central to the doctrine of God.
1 comment:
In the bible, they have been useing masculine and feminine terms for G-d. It is to say G-d is not women, man, nor anything. G-d can take the shape of all these things and more, but it is wrong for Jews and Christians alike to say G-d is anything but G-d
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