What gender is God?

The gender of God:

Who is God?

God is a deity who is perceived as the power and supernatural creator of the universe in monotheistic religions such as Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Zoroastrianism. The earliest written form of the Germanic word god comes from the 6th century Christian Codex Argenteus. God has various names in books such as The New Testament (Christian Bible), the Qur'an (Muslim holy book) and the Torah (Hebrew Bible).

Christianity:

The New Testament provides the primary source of information and beliefs about God. All major English Bible translations retain the masculine pronoun for God. King James's (17th century) version of the Bible quotes, "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

Judaism:

God or Yahweh, is referred to in the Hebrew Bible with grammatical forms and masculine imagery. Judaism does not actually attribute a sex or gender to God, however Jewish mysticism and literature does treat it so. Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan says," Every name and every description that we may give to God can only apply to his relationship to his creation".

Islam:

In the Qur'an God is referred to as Allah and with the pronoun Hu or Huw, commonly translated as him, but can also be gender-neutral. It is considered blasphemy for Allah to be place in human or animal gender categories.

Your thoughts

Here's how some Student Life message board users felt about the gender of God:

• newparadox posted:
  "Because the early peoples who formulated the religion were often patriarch-led societies, so it would seem natural to them to have a male in charge of things"

• DoJo/o~rama posted:
  "Not everyone assumes that God is male. That's just the main religions, which were started thousands of years ago when it was assumed that anyone with that amount of authority would have to be male."

• LoneWolf~{Howlo}
  "I don't even think God is male, or in human form, or even if there's just one. I believe he/she/they could be a creature of some sort, or maybe a human form." If you want to find out more about religions and their beliefs http://www.religiouswebsites.co.uk/ Is God genderless? Do you believe God has a gender, or is it beyond human comprehension?"

Is there a female God?

Jewish feminism sometimes refers to God using feminine symbolism and language. In Sikhism there is at least one reference to God as mother, "O my wandering mind, you are like a camel - how will you meet the Lord, your Mother?", taken from the main scripture of Sikhism, the Guru Granth. In Catholicism, such as Syrian Christianity, the holy spirit of God is referred to using grammatically feminine words. Some religions tend to use grammatical gender to imply the natural gender of God, whereas others try to remain neutral on the matter.

Click here if you want to find out more about these religions and their beliefs

Is God genderless?

Do you believe God has a gender, or is it beyond human comprehension?