2. A human regardless of sex or age; a person
Preface: When I refer to God, (and to the first man, Adam), I will use parenthesis around the pronoun, or use the word "it." This is because, as I will discuss more later, I believe pronouns can bias or limit our vision of who God is.
Who is God? How do we imagine (him) or it? Who have we been taught to envision God is? Or should I say, WHAT sex/gender do we imagine God to be? The English language version of the Bible uses male pronouns for Adam and Jesus, and God is called "father." Classical art paints God as a muscular bearded old man, and Jesus as a male in the flesh.
We are told
to imagine God in male-gendered metaphors: as father, king, and as husband (the
church is his Bride). Our perspective of who God is has been limited by the
English language and pronouns, by artistic imagery and by our own finite imaginations.
There is a reason for the second commandment (You shall not make any graven
or man-made images of God). It is because we couldn’t
possibly create an image that comes close to encompassing all
that God is, and by trying to do so, we limit our idea of God. God wanted our
idea of (him) to remain limitless. At one time, God used to show (it)self to
man, and walk and talk with male and female alike, but the Bible does not describe
what God looked or sounded like in any gendered way…so it remains a mystery.
Also, there are verses which state that there is no marriage in heaven, and thus no gender in heaven. (Luke 20:35-36)
If we look at Genesis, the first account of God, God is described without gender or sex. The associations we have of God as male are associated with the consistent pronoun "he," but our language is limited. When we want to describe something that is personified, our pronouns are "he" or "she", and the only pronoun without regard to a sex is "it," but has become used more for animal or lesser beings. But maybe "it" is the better word because "it" is "an animate being whose sex is unspecified, unknown, or irrelevant."(Webster)
In Genesis 1:27, "God created MAN in his own image, in the image of God, he created him; male and female he created them."(NIV) "Man" in this verse, is in fact, used to describe the human race, both male and female. The word "man," which our language has come to use more often in replacement of the word "male," was used in Genesis as the word to speak of both male and female humans at times and more specifically of males at times.
Elyse Goldstein, in her book "Revisions: Seeing the Torah through a Feminist Lens," talks about two separate accounts of the creation of male and female in Genesis. In the first account, in Genesis 1, male and female are created equally in his image, and therefore God is both male and female, because Genesis 1:27 says God made "the being" in (his) image… But in Genesis 2, a different perspective of creation is given where woman is created FROM man.
Adam was of no gender before, but after woman was separated from his flesh, they were distinctly male and female. The institution of marriage introduced after this second account restores the male/female balance once so organic, when man and woman were literally one flesh. Thus, man and woman must rejoin through marriage to be joined as they were in the beginning of creation. (Goldstein, p 50)
First, God created "man," which was named "Adam" and "adam" is Hebrew for "man," but remember, man/adam had no sex or gender until Eve was created. Adam is a genderless being which it seems was the original complete human who had all the adequate skills and which maybe we can assume could reproduce by itself. We can judge this because Eve was separated from (his) side. (some translations will say "rib.") Eve was originally part of Adam; half of him. "Eve" in Hebrew sounds like the Hebrew for "man" and also means "mother of the living."
In Genesis 2:23, immediately after saying "so she shall be called a woman, for she was taken out of man," God says in verse 24, "For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and they will become one flesh"(again). Marriage is the reuniting of the one unit man, the original genderless combination of a male/female human. Since male and female alike were created in God’s image, this unit is a likeness of a God who is not male OR female, not one sex or the other, not male, but truly unspecified. God gave men and women separate strengths that are masculine and feminine, which balance each other out.
God knows our minds are finite and we will always try and imagine (him) to be like those we see around us. If (he) told us we are made in (his) image, than (it) must be like a male or a female (since we don’t see hermaphrodites day to day). God has always decided to use stories to explain things to our limited minds; analogies which at times, personify God as male (i.e. father, husband). The pronouns "he/him" used repeatedly will condition our minds to think of God as strictly male.
I believe we should stick to God’s commandment NOT to solidify (his) form in narrow-minded, limited, humanized, or engendered image. We need to blind ourselves to the painted, carved, sculpted and other forms of "graven images" and iconographies which have become so visually powerful in art and religious history and let it remain a mystery. If we do not do so, we will blaspheme God’s greatness, a God who is so much more awesome and limitless than man can fathom. Let the imaginations God gave us never rest on an image, or even a sex for God, because we know so little.
When we consistently view God as MALE, females are excluded from feeling any idea of holiness or great worth. If God is only man, and only males are created in his image, holiness is than made only for man. When a culture/religion thinks of God as only male, no wonder men believe they are greater than women. This idea of male being greater than female is unfortunately something our culture has created in our minds, and patriarchy has reinforced. On the contrary, God created male and female are equal in (its) image and view men and women equally great in his kingdom.
Women must be able to rest assure that we are made in the image of (modeled after) God also, and know we have just as much of the giftings and talents that God created man with, and as much claim to the kingdom. We must see past the many male examples, the male lineage lists, and the pronouns, and know that God is HALF female, and sexless. We must know our great value in knowing God created us in (his/her/its) image.
