Is Jehovah Male Or Female, Manly of Womanly

by frankiespeakin 26 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • frankiespeakin
    frankiespeakin

    Why is Jehovah in the bible a male? why not female since he is a God that is not earthly but from another realm where they don't have sex differences, does he have a penis? Why would he need one? Does he have to pee and relieve himself? Why pick the male gender if he doesn't need or have reproductive organs?

    File:Michelangelo - Creation of Adam.jpg

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Creation_of_Adam

    Composition [edit]

    God is depicted as an elderly white-bearded man wrapped in a swirling cloak while Adam, on the lower left, is completely nude. God's right arm is outstretched to impart the spark of life from his own finger into that of Adam, whose left arm is extended in a pose mirroring God's, a reminder that man is created in the image and likeness of God ( Gen 1:26 ). Another point is that Adam's finger and God's finger are not touching. It gives the impression that God, the giver of life, is reaching out to Adam who receives it; they are not on "the same level" as would be two humans shaking hands, for instance.

    Many hypotheses have been formulated regarding the identity and meaning of the figures around God. The person protected by God's left arm might be Eve due to the figure's feminine appearance and gaze towards Adam, but was also suggested to be Virgin Mary, Sophia, the personified human soul, or an angel of feminine build. [ 1 ]

    The Creation of Adam is generally thought to depict the excerpt "God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him" ( Gen 1:27 ). The inspiration for Michelangelo's treatment of the subject may come from a medievalhymn called Veni Creator Spiritus, which asks the 'finger of the paternal right hand' (digitus paternae dexterae) to give the faithful speech. [ 2 ]

    Anatomical theories [edit]

    Several hypotheses have been put forward about the meaning of The Creation of Adam's highly original composition, many of them taking Michelangelo's well-documented expertise in human anatomy as their starting point. In 1990, an Anderson, Indianaphysician named Frank Lynn Meshberger, M.D. noted in the medical publication the Journal of the American Medical Association that the background figures and shapes portrayed behind the figure of God appeared to be an anatomically accurate picture of the human brain. [ 3 ] Dr. Meshberger's interpretation has been discussed by Dr. Mark Lee Appler. [ 4 ] On close examination, borders in the painting correlate with major sulci of the cerebrum in the inner and outer surface of the brain, the brain stem, the frontal lobe, the basilar artery, the pituitary gland and the optic chiasm. [ 5 ] Meshberger also argues that there appears to be communication present despite the gap between the depicted Adam and God, just as neurons transmit biochemical information across synaptic clefts. Further, below the right arm of God, the painting shows a sad angel in an area of the brain that is sometimes activated on PET scans when someone experiences a sad thought. God is superimposed over the limbic system, the emotional center of the brain and possibly the anatomical counterpart of the human soul. God's right arm extends to the prefrontal cortex, the most creative and most uniquely human region of the brain. [ 6 ]

    Alternatively, it has been observed that the red cloth around God has the shape of a human uterus (one art historian has called it a "uterine mantle" [ 7 ] ), and that the scarf hanging out, coloured green, could be a newly cut umbilical cord. [ 8 ] "This is an interesting hypothesis that presents the Creation scene as an idealised representation of the physical birth of man. It explains the navel that appears on Adam, which is at first perplexing because he was created, not born of a woman." [ 9 ]

  • Oubliette
    Oubliette

    You're trying to make sense out of nonsense. Stop it immediately!

    Seriously, don't you know? The Bible was conceived of and written in a male-dominated society with the deliberate intention of maintaining the status quo.

    It's a book all about control.

  • Simon
    Simon

    Because he's a product of a male oriented society and reflects his creators.

  • Band on the Run
    Band on the Run

    Well, if you are going to get sophisticated about it, God cannot be male or female. He.She.It.Harry cannot be asexual. In fact, Paul wrote beautiful language about how we are neither male nor female in Christ. Jesus may have been male and had a penis. Christ does not.

  • Tiktaalik
    Tiktaalik

    >> Jesus may have been male and had a penis. Christ does not.

    How does he go baño then?

  • Seraphim23
    Seraphim23

    Is this another instance of atheist’s criticising the concept of God through the Christian fundamentalist perspective?

  • *lost*
    *lost*

    I guess one would have t ask Michaelangelo what it symbolises, seeing as he painted it - oh wait he's dead.

    Did he leave any notes ?

  • frankiespeakin
    frankiespeakin

    So when the bible says "God created man in his image" it is in reference to "man" being "male" to the exclusion of female 1/2 of the species? I think so.

    The statement is not true, in fact the exact opposite is true, the statement would be correct if it said this about the biblical Deity: "Man created God in his image" both in maleness and anatomically similar, as well as in feelings and emotional responses Jehovah is imagined to be similar, and thus created by the imaginations of man and is a projection of the inner workings of the male human psyche on to an imaginary deity both good and bad, jealous, kind, murderous, helpful etc.....

  • blondie
    blondie

    *** w72 7/15 p.445 Woman’s Regard for Headship—How Demonstrated?***

    Woman, too, was created with these qualities. However, her position is different from that of the man. The Bible tells us: "[Man] is God’s image and glory; but the woman is man’s glory." (1 Cor. 11:7) But why does not this text say that the woman also is God’s "image"?

    It should be remembered that man was created first and for some time was alone, being in God’s image by himself. The woman was made from the man and was to be subject to the man. The woman’s position thus is one that cannot reflect God’s position ofheadship toward his creatures, and it is this matter of headship that is discussed in 1 Corinthians chapter 11. Jehovah God is not subject to anyone.Unlike the woman, the man does not have an earthly head over him when it comes to matters relating to his wife and children. Hence in this respect he alone is "God’s image." In other respects, of course, the woman shares with the man in reflecting the admirable and lovable qualities of God.

    ------------------

    I do believe that the Insight book has this same concept.

    There is a WT that says that God has both feminine and masculine qualities. Since he is a spirit and does not have a flesh body, any references to body parts in the bible must not be actual.

    Blondie (reporting not supporting)

  • Heaven
    Heaven

    Pre-Christian faiths were polytheistic, worshipping Gods and Goddesses. Many women held influential and powerful positions in the community (some examples: healers and counselors). I think it's a combination of the early Christian founders wanting power women held as well as justifying beliefs and dogma they were creating. Some of these early founders also had their own issues with women and sex. There is an interesting timeline about the Witch Hunts at the Religious Tolerance website.

    http://www.religioustolerance.org/wic_burn2.htm

    1450: The first major witch hunts began in many western European countries. The Roman Catholic Church created an imaginary evil religion, using stereotypes that had circulated since pre-Christian times. They said that Pagans who worshiped Diana and other Gods and Goddesses were evil Witches who kidnapped babies, killed and ate their victims, sold their soul to Satan, were in league with demons, flew through the air, met in the middle of the night, caused male impotence and infertility, caused male genitals to disappear, etc. Historians have speculated that this religiously inspired genocide was motivated by a desire by the Church to attain a complete religious monopoly, or was "a tool of repression, a form of reining-in deviant behavior, a backlash against women, or a tool of the common people to name scapegoats for spoiled crops, dead livestock or the death of babies and children." Walter Stephens, a professor of Italian studies at Johns Hopkins University, proposes a new theory: "I think Witches were a scapegoat for God." 3 Religious leaders felt that they had to retain the concepts of both an omnipotent and an all-loving deity. Thus, they had to invent Witches and demons in order to explain the existence of evil in the world. This debate, about how an all-good and all-powerful God can coexist in the world with evil is now called Theodicy. Debate continues to the present day.

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