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Old 09-09-2006, 09:48 AM   #1
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Default God as "She?"

Do Christian's ever/normally refer to their god as "She?"

Bizarre question, I know, but I was discussing, ghosts, gods, and the supernatural with a Catholic friend of mine yesterday. I offhandedly mentioned that if God did exist, it would probably be genderless. He said that by the same logic that ships and other things are referred to as females, so is God (despite "her" being the Holy Father). He backed this notion up with various in-depth conservations on the matter that he's had with priests and relatives of his that are very religious and/or are also priests.
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Old 09-09-2006, 10:22 AM   #2
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Do Christian's ever/normally refer to their god as "She?"
"normally"? No.

"ever"? Given your Catholic friend's statement, yes.
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Old 09-09-2006, 12:02 PM   #3
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Do Christian's ever/normally refer to their god as "She?"

Bizarre question, I know, but I was discussing, ghosts, gods, and the supernatural with a Catholic friend of mine yesterday. I offhandedly mentioned that if God did exist, it would probably be genderless. He said that by the same logic that ships and other things are referred to as females, so is God (despite "her" being the Holy Father). He backed this notion up with various in-depth conservations on the matter that he's had with priests and relatives of his that are very religious and/or are also priests.

I think the closest you will get is this part from Genesis:
1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.


(someone more knowledgable may come along bit I believe this passage speaks of gods and created they them not created he them in the original)
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Old 09-09-2006, 12:05 PM   #4
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Hmmm you know its been a while since I've read about this issue, but if my memory serves correctly there are 6 different words for God in the Old Testament.... YHWH, Elohim, all that jazz... and some of them are actually more female than male. It was the translators that chose He... let's face it, they were men. :P The Jewish God is officially "gender neutral" and Holy Father is a descriptive term for the type of role God is to play and not a statement that God is a man.......... something like that.....
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Old 09-09-2006, 02:56 PM   #5
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Gender wasn't always conflated with sex. Back in the day the word wif, from which we get our modern word wife, was neuter. The word wifmann, from which we get the word woman, was masculine. The word god was masculine.
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Old 09-09-2006, 05:55 PM   #6
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Read the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia's book of Common Prayer. Lots of native imagery and lots of feminine imagery.
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Old 09-10-2006, 12:56 PM   #7
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Okay. How about this: Aren't there a great many Bible verses referring to God (not Jesus) as being male, and none about God being female?
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Old 09-11-2006, 03:29 PM   #8
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Okay. How about this: Aren't there a great many Bible verses referring to God (not Jesus) as being male, and none about God being female?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_and...God_and_gender
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Old 09-12-2006, 10:14 AM   #9
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Okay. How about this: Aren't there a great many Bible verses referring to God (not Jesus) as being male, and none about God being female?
IN ENGLISH. So that would be a.... No.
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