God? A ''HE''?

Question

99.9% of the time, God is referred to as a He. Even in the bible. Not that I wish or expected Him to be referred to as a ''she'' but why He?
your opinions of why?

Answer 1

Equality of gender is a very new concept. God is a very old concept. In the time and place that the bible stories were taking place, only men had any authority. A feminine god would not have been accepted, even by women.

Answer 2

Because the collection of Hebrew records and myths we call the Old Testament were written down after the urban revolution, when the older system -- under which "God" was a female as often as a male -- was supplanted by the patriarchal system. The reasons why...well, they are still being bitterly debated, but the fact is clear from history. Under the hunter-gatherer system in which men hunted and women tended the home -- which would seem to put stress on brute strength and skill with weapons -- men and women seem to have been more or less equal. Under the urban system, which would seem to put stress on planning and cooperation -- skills at which women have always been quite as good as men, and sometimes more so -- women lost status. And of course the "top" God was a he, with the goddess or goddesses having status only as his wives or concubines. It just doesn't make sense, and yet that's what happened.

In the New Testament, of course, the believers were old-fashioned Jews who took patriarchy for granted, so there was no change to be made. There were some early Christians who felt that women and slaves deserved better, but after they were stgigmatized as heretics and rubbed out that feeling went away.

Or it seemed to. Over the next twenty centuries every now and then somebody would bring up the notion, and finally it got to be accepted -- slowly and grudgingly, and without yielding on the point of female ability to be ministers or priests until pressure built up to the point of revolution -- and now there are some Christian sects that are trying to introduce neutral pronouns or letting worshippers use "he" or "she" as seems right. Even in Islam there are faint stirrings, though VERY faint. Maybe, in another tweenty centuries...

Answer 3

you must remembe that the Bible is the inspired word of God. It was written by the holy ghost working through people. So from this you can conclude that since that holy spirit from God meant for it to be written that God is a "He" then "HE" is. :-) also there is not a single place in the Bible that says anything other than that unless you go to bokks amillion and buy a crazy liberal feminist verion og the Bible. Read the kjv

Answer 4

Well, the Bible says that God is a Spirit and that He created man first and then took a woman from the rib of Adam. So who knows? Maybe it's just the way He chose to reveal Himself to us so that we could get a better mental handle on an infinite God who obviously doesn't have a physical body.

Answer 5

bodhisattva is correct, but also the fact remains that when you are speaking of a singular being where the sex is unknown, you're not supposed to say "they". In the time of the Bible it was the men that ruled the world and re-translating the next so it becomes "He or She " is just silly.
Unless or a feminist or extremely fearful of upsetting females, most writers will call an unknown person or animal where its gender is of no important a he. It's just proper English considering "It" is a rather rude term to call a higher being and English is so dependent on pronouns that we had to choose something to use.

Answer 6

Jesus told His disciples they erred in not knowing the Scriptures when they thought people in Heaven were men and women. Apparently in Heaven there is no need for gender because they do not reproduce sexually.

Some languages must assign gender to every noun.

In olden times, as someone said above, males were the authority figures. Representing God as a she or an it would never have been acceptable.

Answer 7

He just is. He's our Father in Heaven. He's the Father of the son, Jesus, our brother, our saviour and friend. I personaly believe the bible to be the ONE and ONLY true book and yes, GOD is referred to as a HE! The Holy Bible says so.

Answer 8

God is neither he or she. God is spirit. I think when God is referred to as he, it is just using the word "he" in the generic sense. "He" sounds better than "it".
It's kind of like when you call a group of people "guys". You're not necessarily referring to their sex.
As Immi said, "God needs no gender".
When the Bible says that God made man in his image, I don't think it is a physical / appearance image. Anybody actually think that God looks like Adam?

Answer 9

Possibly because back in the days when the bible was written men were thought superior to women, and so it always just stuck that God is a He.

Answer 10

Because the bible was written a long time ago when men were thought to be more important than women and since it say's in the Bible "He" everyone just adopted it.