God gave mankind our various different languages at Babel, when previously all the people of the world had shared one common language. (On the recently demolished Georgia Guidestones, globalist goal number 3 was to: “Unite humanity with a living new language.”) So, God was the originator and the divider of all of our various current languages. Whereas the globalists indicated a desire for a new man-originated language, subject to frequent changes.
Something we should notice is that in the biblical languages of Hebrew and Greek and also in English, the word “god” is an exclusively masculine title. Our masculine English word “god”, also has its own separate feminine form which is “goddess”. God, Himself, first made it that way.
Psalm 82:6(AMP) I said, “You are gods; Indeed, all of you are sons of the Most High. 7 Nevertheless you will die like men and fall like any one of the princes.”
John 10:34(KJV) Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?
When Jesus is charged with blasphemy by the Jews (in John 10) “because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.” Jesus rightly reminds the Jews that God Himself had called men “gods”.
There is quite a lot to be noticed in this Old Testament passage which was first given by inspiration to the Psalmist in Hebrew, and then was quoted again by Jesus Christ in the Greek New Testament. Firstly I’d like to say that I studied those verses in both Hebrew and Greek and the gendered terminology is entirely masculine in both languages. (you/ye, gods, sons, men, princes, and Etc.) And God, who is omniscient, would not have made a gender error in His inspired word. So clearly God meant what was originally written, and Jesus used the passage again to say that men are gods, and that God’s true word cannot be wrong.
Now it is also very important to notice what omniscient God did not say. God did not say “Ye are gods and goddesses”. No, God only told us that men are gods. Not that men and women are all gods and goddesses. God was free to write whatever He wanted, to make His image clear to us, and He specifically chose to write, “Ye are gods”, while intentionally not saying “gods and goddesses”.
I like the unequivocal usage of the correct pronouns. Pronouns are such a problem these days elsewhere
Isn’t Holy Spirit (or just Spirit?) feminine in Hebrew? I seem to remember that.
But that does not alter what you wrote about the noun God.
In this life, you are correct 1 Cor. 11:7 “A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man.” Interesting that woman is not described as the image of man, however.
But in the spiritual world, we are all as female to God. It is true that we will be gods, but in the feminine “brides of Christ” model. Women will not be excluded from participation in the divine; rather, God is so masculine that by comparison we men might as well be female.
That might help with the confusion regarding the Spirit of Christ possibly being described as female. Which I’ve also been told, but don’t have the language skills to verify.
Speaking of the Guidestones, there has still not been an arrest or named suspect. The investigation has also been left to the State of Georgia.
My read is that somebody was sending a message, probably with a military weapon, and the recipient both understands the message and doesn’t want the case solved. That would also explain the speed of the Guidestones’ demolition. Most likely, internecine Cabal politics.
But there’s just not enough to work with.
Wikipedia says: “The grammatical gender of the word for “spirit” is feminine in Hebrew (רוּחַ, rūaḥ), neuter in Greek (πνεῦμα, pneûma) and masculine in Latin (spiritus). The neuter Greek πνεῦμα is used in the Septuagint to translate the Hebrew רוּחַ. The pronouns used to address the Holy Spirit, however, are masculine.”
My understanding is that certain words are gendered only one way and may not have a counterpart of the opposite gender, but that with those words you then look to the context, to the gendering of the associated words which do have both a male and female counterpart, especially like many pronouns do.
“Wisdom” is also a feminine gendered word and wisdom is even personified as a woman in the Bible. Which can make you ponder at the use of certain literary devices like that. Perhaps it is indicative that all true wisdom serves God.
Proverbs 21:30 There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the Lord.
The Holy Spirit, which impregnated Mary, was historically considered by the church to clearly be a masculine spirit even though the word “Spirit” was feminine in Hebrew, due to all the associated words and pronouns which clearly indicated the masculinity of that Spirit.
“Interesting that woman is not described as the image of man, however.”
Yes, I find that telling. I’d say the daughter is in the image of her mother, just as we are told in Genesis 5 that Seth was born in the image of Adam and after his likeness. But when it talks of Adam’s sons and daughters together, it doesn’t mention them being Adam’s image or likeness.
We individually are not the “Bride of Christ”. Yes, Christian Bridal-Mysticism does seem a bit queer at times, but, if you were to literarily speak of a marriage between God and some portion of humankind it would only be fitting that God, being the superior and head, would be figured as the husband, and we who were created to serve Him would be pictured as the wife.
I would be careful not to imply that we men are sexually feminine to God, but that we all are inferior and subservient to God, which relationship naturally lends itself to a feminine gendered description.
When you get into dissecting the very gendered Hebrew and Greek text of the Bible it becomes more apparent that much of it was written as if to men. In the following verse, the word “whom” is masculine and plural:
Romans 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Unfortunately, in English translators have often left masculine gendered pronouns as neuter or undefined and thus more inclusive, but in some spots that just leads to more possible confusion, as people may then assume that women are being spoken to as part of the “whom” and are then masculinized into brethren.
To clarify, the Spirit is not “described as female”, but the word “Spirit” is feminine gendered in Hebrew. The descriptors of the Holy Spirit are masculine wherever there is a linguistic choice.
Hopefully, Gunner Q, as a True-Crime reporter, will keep us informed of any further developments in the curious case of the globalist Georgia Guidestones.
Linguist here.
The gender of the word is in no way definitive in being the gender of the thing the word describes.
house (English) is maison (French) which is feminine
house (English) is huis (Dutch) which is neuter
house (English) is дом (Russian) which is masculine
Houses are not sexual creatures, nor are they asexual creatures. The word that describes a house is assigned gender based on the language’s grammar rules. A lesson for a different time and place.
How ‘Spirit’ is translated makes 0 difference. It seeks to ascribe a value to the word, which misses the mark, the mark being what the thing- in question- is.
Yahweh = God = both male and female
Yah = feminine
weh = masculine
You are trying very hard to ascribe solely masculine qualities to a God that is not solely masculine
Art S,
It took me a while to even locate any supporting references for your assertion, but I think I have found the source of the substance of your comment. I had never heard anything of that sort in all my prior study. For what it is worth, the source I linked to is complete Feminist bunk, and deceptive. They grossly mischaracterize the beliefs of church leaders like Augustine and others. Their argument for a hermaphrodite deity is mostly two feminine metaphors used by God in the Bible and a few cherry-picked bits supposedly written by some church fathers that are suspiciously uncharacteristic of their actual beliefs. Probably translated by a Women’s-Studies major. I’ve read quite a bit of writing by Clement and Augustine, and I can assure you they believed in a masculine God.
The article states: “In fact, the personal name of God, Yahweh, which is revealed to Moses in Exodus 3, is a remarkable combination of both female and male grammatical endings. The first part of God’s name in Hebrew, “Yah,” is feminine, and the last part, “weh,” is masculine.”
If “Yah” is only a feminine grammatical ending, then at the beginning of the word it is not. If the word actually ends with a masculine grammatical ending, then that makes it masculine. Which is in keeping with all the rest of the world which holds “YHWH” to be a masculine name in Hebrew, and they make no mention of the first syllable adding any purported feminine aspect to the gender of God’s name.
I am reminded of a comment by IKR:
“Making God ‘the dual embodiment of masculine and feminine’ is New Age deer-scat.”