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well, I don't think the TNIV Bible changes the gender of God, does it?

So is God purely masculine, or is 'he' both masculine and feminine?

Don't trip yourself up with those terms. Since "God is a spirit" (John 4:24), He is beyond those fleshly divisions. But, if mankind wishes to assign a full gender to God for convenience, we can look to the fact that according to Genesis, God created Adam first, and then created Eve in order to alleviate Adam's lonliness. Almost like God was "done" after creating Adam, but thought, "Alas, the man is not happy being alone. So I'd better create someone else."

This is thinking in linear, human terms, of course, for God is atemporal (out of time), knowing everything in advance of when He does it. The Bible often speaks in such anthropomorphic terms regarding God so that we can have something for our minds to grasp hold of. For, if God were described as He really is, the description would make no sense to us.

Nevertheless, the Bible also frequently speaks of God in non-human, non-earthly terms, as in Jesus' self-declaration in Jn 8:58: "Before Abraham was, I AM." That is a deliberately atemporal designation.

And indeed, also super-human is God's original declaration in Exodus 3:14, "I AM THAT I AM". One could derive from this statement that the one single fact about the universe is: "God exists." Everything else in the universe is mere details.

Last edited by Ragtime on 27 Nov 2007, 1:57 pm, edited 2 times in total.

I had heard it had, looking for myself it doesn't appear they've changed Genesis 1-2 any bit much, but that's not to say they haven't in other parts.

I'm going to agree with what Ragtime said and give some extra info from my theology textbook:

well, I could say that God being a male figure in the ancient judaism was a convenience in a patriarch society.

And when you say mankind, do you mean just men or women are also included? That is where the TNIV comes in actually, to fix those things, for what I've read about it.


Politically incorrect, I just wanted to say that

well, that explains the patriarch system at the time that was written.

I meant linguistic convenience, and for clarity of understanding. Most people have a difficult time picture a non-he, non-she person.



Oh, gee, what could I mean?

That is the point of the TNIV translation, they change things like 'mankind' to 'humankind', to give a more accurate and fairness I suppose to gender related terms.

Well, technically, Eve was created from Adam's rib, so his body is women's origin. Very intimate. Hardly "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus". Rather, "Women are from Men".

hmmm, following the belief I could say that "Men are from Women, except Eve". I guess that sounds better.