Zeichman

It also seems that people are forgetting that Hebrew didn't have a gender-neutral pronoun. God HAD to either be male or female.

Chris Weimer

Zeichman, once again, tradition.

John A. Broussard

But other religions have gods with both male and female characteristics. Certainly, Hebrew must have a word for hermaphrodites. It just seems that a perfect god should have all human characteristics--assuming of course that human beings were created in her/his image.

Chili

His image and she provides the material to do this with. She the fertile womb of man and is therefore called woman. There is also a difference between gods and God wherein the lesser gods are the playground for God: ". . . playing on the surface of the earth; and I found delight in the sons of men (Prov.9:31).

Evoken

Yes! And fits well with Panentheism too

Chris Weimer

Genesis 1:27 - The first creation story has God creating man and woman in his image, thus the both male/female qualities of him, but they still used masculine pronoun. And although my knowledge of Hebrew is limited, I don't believe I've ever come across a word for "hermaphrodite." Maybe spin can help us out there.

andrewcriddle

There is a word in Rabbinic Hebrew tumtum for someone of mixed sexual characteristics but IIUC it is not found in the OT.

Andrew Criddle

offa

"As more and more Christians seem to regard god as being genderless,
why couldn't god have sent his only begotten daughter, with or without
his only begotten son, to save mankind? Why the favoritism?",

John A. Broussard

I just read this chapter yesterday and it stunned me regarding
sexuality. This was written almost two thousand years ago (as opposed
to this century) The Clementine Homilies are wordy and boring, but you can find a few gems. Book III is about gender.

offa

sMacK

I'm not sure I understand the question fully. Do you ask why did god show favoritism? Or do you ask if man showed favoritism in the way the myth was concieved?

John A. Broussard

You've got a good point. Let's split it into three questions.

Why did god choose to send a son rather than a daughter?

Why was the myth conceived in such a fashion as to have a male be a divine figure, rather than a female, as in other religions?

Why does such a thoroughly sexist myth continue to have so many adherents?