Is God a man or a woman or neither?

Question

In the Bible God is always refered to as Father. Jesus is refered to as Son. By these two statements it would seem that both God and Jesus are male.

And, as a footnote, since everything that is evil is the opposite of good, wouldn't that make the Devil a woman?

OK. Don't kill the messenger on this one. I would just like to hear what everyone thinks. Including the agnostics, athiest, and spiritual but not religious people.

Answer 1

The answer to the question about why God is referred to with masculine terms in the Bible really has only one answer: This is the way God has chosen to reveal Himself to us. God is never described with sexual characteristics in the Scriptures, but He does consistently describe Himself in the masculine gender. While He contains all the qualities of both male and female genders, He has chosen to present Himself with an emphasis on masculine qualities of fatherhood, protection, direction, strength, etc. Metaphors used to describe Him in the Bible include: King, Father, Judge, Husband, Master, and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

There are those who would like to blur this emphasis in some of the newer Bible translations, but it is very dangerous to tamper with the way God has chosen to reveal Himself. He most certainly does not intend to minimize women, since men and women are revealed as made in His image and of equal value to Him. But it remains that He is Father, not Mother, and even in the Incarnation chose to come to us as a man, Jesus Christ. One famous Christian scholar, C. S. Lewis, has suggested that gender is far deeper than our human distinctions reveal. He suggests that God is so masculine that we all are feminine in relation to Him. If this is true, it might explain why the church is referred to as the bride of Christ, though it is composed of both men and women.

Answer 2

Most people on this panel are correct by saying that God is a Spirit, for even Jesus the Son said so himself in the Holy Scriptures. However, God has no gender, as we know it, for He is referred to as the Father, meaning and entity with male authoritative power. This also holds true when God stated that man is the head of the family unit quoted in the Holy Scriptures.

Don't forget that the world is in fact an ant farm compared to God's Devine and Majestic nature. Most people on the earth seem to conveniently forget this fact because of their own inflated egos.

Answer 3

You raise some very good points. My ex wife is the devil.

It makes no sense for "god" or any supreme Deity to be a he or she unless there were other deities to mate with since the purpose of gender is sexual reproduction. Which would raise the issue, did another god create god if god is a he capable of mating with another "god"?

Whatever answer from whatever holy book of choice comes up in response to your question they will be contrived since the question is truly unanswerable since no one has come up with a true communique from a supreme being.

One more question is if God is indeed the father of Jesus, then Joseph's lineage is irrelevant hence Jesus is not born of the house of David unless Mary was a descendant of David. The true purpose behind the personification of the supreme being as being a "he" is keeping women in their place after all god is a "he". Many of these religions use this to justify suppression of women. Our own country took 100 years just to give women the right to vote for instance. Ah the Christian principles in which our country was founded included women as second class citizens and slavery (which is also condoned in the bible).

Answer 4

God is neither a man or woman. Both sexes possess the attributes of God.
We are all sons and daughters of God including Jesus but Aposlte Paul evangelically proclaimed Jesus Sonship to Godhead. No. the woman is not a Devil but the weaker link between God and man, therefore, susceptable to errors, temptations and mistakes.

Answer 5

God is neither a man or a woman, but an all powerful, all knowing spiritual being. I think the Bible most often refers to him in the masculine sense because that is what people in the day and age understood the best.

God told Moses, "I am." Not "I am a guy" or anything...He was pretty unspecific about Himself. Jesus referred to God as His Father because it made it easier for everyone to understand and easier for us to grasp.

Answer 6

Gender is a function of a being living in/as a body in a three dimensional reality.

God is a spirit that does not exists as a part of any physical reality so God does not need or have a gender.

The references to the paternalistic view the bible gives are more a product of the fears of the men who wrote the bible. They wanted to control women and have them as property so they pretended that God was a man.

love and blessings Don

Answer 7

God is a Spirit. In Genesis, the Bible says God made Man in His image, male and female. God, likely has no gender, but has the attributes of both (emotionally, etc). I, personally, have no problems which show God appearing to people as a man one time, a woman another and various ethnics (Oh God, Dogma). I believe can be whatever He wants to be (including a burning bush) to communicate with us effectively. The devil is just pure evil, like my ex-wife, so may he is a she. :-)

Answer 8

WOW, here goes, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit suppose to be as all in one. since God sent his son to earth to redeem us, I would say he is a male, but I believe you see them as you want to weather male or female. I also believe that you see them as in your own eyes to be black, white or purple, and as for the devil a woman,so funny,could be, we all have a little devil in us at times weather you be male or female or both, but if you want a real answer try out the religious people there's nothing wrong with them

Answer 9

I am sure you have heard or seen the saying that man has created God in his own image. Every religion in the world gives human and physical characteristics to whatever god they worship. Call it a human weakness but by doing so allows people to associate with something that has qualities like unto themselves.
When it is stated that God created man in his own image we should understand that God is not a physical or material being as we are. As Jesus stated that my father or God is a spirit and must be worshipped in spirit and truth. God is a spiritual being and I believe our true or real selves are of the same nature. God created us as spiritual beings in his own image. This means God is niether male or female.
Because of the fall of mankind we have been placed in this material world in physical bodies to work our way back to our original spiritual state and nature with God.

For more messages related to this subject and others visit,
http://meta.euleesway.com

Answer 10

Although God has used the word "Father" as a designation for his peculiar relationship to his people, we must not understand this in terms of masculine sexuality or that God is somehow male. Feminine imagery is also used to describe God's attitude, action, inclination and behavior towards his people. For example, God compares himself to a mother eagle who hovers over her young and bears them on her wings - it is a vivid picture of his vigilant care and concern (Ex. 19: 4; Deut. 32:11). An even more striking imagery is found in Isaiah: "Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb?" (Is. 49:15). Here God expresses his intense "womb-love" for his people. God even pleads like a mother to an obdurate child: "Listen to Me, O house of Jacob... who have been upheld by Me from birth, who have been carried from the womb" (Is. 46: 3) and agnizes over wayward children (Hos. 11: 3) ad can begave like an enraged she-bear robbed of her cubs (Hos. 13:8).
Gender does not apply to God... gender is a quality and attribute of the creature. God is Spirit. God is Light. God is love.
See? No gender involved.