Gender of God

Many religions believe in a God or gods. These religions have a range of views regarding gender as it applies to divine persons.

God and gender in the world's major religions

Monotheism

Monotheists believe there is only one God.

• In Judaism, Islam and Sikhism, God has traditionally been referred to by using masculine pronouns. However, in Sikhism this is due to grammatical conventions, rather than implying actual gender.
• In Christianity, God is understood to be a Trinity, consisting of three persons in one God. The three persons of the Trinity are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The names Father and Son clearly imply masculinity, and God the Son is believed literally to have become incarnate as a human male – the man, Jesus of Nazareth. The Gospel of John implies the masculinity of the Spirit, by applying a masculine demonstrative pronoun to the grammatically neuter antecedent (see below).

Polytheism

Polytheistic and henotheistic religions, including pagan religions and various ethnic religions, believe the spiritual world is encompassed by multiple gods, though they may be one spirit or be born from one parent god.

Hinduism

Main article: Hindu views on God and gender

In Hinduism there are diverse approaches to the understanding of God — Brahman — which is reflected in the gender by which God is addressed or described.

There are prominent Hindu traditions, such as Shakta and Tantra, that consider God to be essentially female, and ultimately the source of any male manifestations of deity.

Judaism

The first words of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) are B'reshit bara Elohim — "In the beginning God created." The verb bara (he created) implies a masculine subject. The most common phrases in the Tanakh are vayomer Elohim and vayomer Y<small=2>HWH — "and God said" (hundreds of occurrences). Again, the verb vayomer (he said) is masculine; it is never vatomer, the feminine of the same verb form. The personal name of God, Y<small=2>HWH, is presented in Exodus 3 as if the Y (Hebrew yod) is the masculine subjective prefix to the verb to be (see Main article: I am that I am).

In Genesis 1:26, God creates the gender distinction in mankind.

• "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. So God created man in His image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them."

More detail regarding the creation of man and woman is given in Genesis 2, where God says that it is not good for the man to be alone, and makes a woman to help him, creating her from his rib.

In Isaiah 62:5, God is compared to the bridegroom, and his people to the bride.

• "For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee."

Most Orthodox Jews and many Conservative Jews hold that it is wrong to use English female pronouns for God. However, feminine characterisation of God is found in a feminist siddur (Jewish prayerbook). Reform Jewish Rabbi Rebecca Alpert (Reform Judaism, Winter 1991) comments:

The experience of praying with Siddur Nashim ... transformed my relationship with God. For the first time, I understood what it meant to be made in God's image. To think of God as a woman like myself, to see Her as both powerful and nurturing, to see Her imaged with a woman's body, with womb, with breasts - this was an experience of ultimate significance. Was this the relationship that men have had with God for all these millennia? How wonderful to gain access to those feelings and perceptions.

Within Judaism, this statement is controversial. Many traditional rabbinic commentators, such as Maimonides, view any such beliefs as avodah zarah - idolatry.

Secondary male sexual characteristics are attributed to God in some piyuttim (religious poems). These include a description of the beard of God Shir Hakavod, "The Hymn of Glory", and similar poetic imagery in the midrash Song of the Seas Rabbah. Traditional meforshim (rabbinic commentators) hold that these descriptions are metaphorical.

Christianity

The Creation of Man, Sistine Chapel ceiling, Michelangelo.

In Christianity, the New Testament is the primary source of beliefs about God. Perhaps the two most significant debates in Christian history sought to understand what the New Testament implied regarding:

• Jesus as divine as well as human (see Christology), and
• God as three persons in unity — the Trinity — Father, Son and Spirit.

The masculinity of the Father and Son is clear from their names, as given in the New Testament. In the case of the Son, his masculinity is reinforced by his incarnation as the man, Jesus of Nazareth. The New Testament also refers to the Holy Spirit as masculine (in the Gospel of John 14-16). John reports Jesus refering to the Holy Spirit as Comforter (masculine in Greek), and uses grammatically necessary masculine forms of the Greek pronoun autos. Grammatical gender, on its own, says nothing about natural gender. However, when John reports Jesus speaking of the Holy Spirit as Spirit, grammatically neuter in Greek, he uses the masculine form of the demonstrative pronoun ekeinos ("that male one"). This breaking of the grammatical agreement, expected by native language readers, is a clear indication of the authorial intention to unambiguously convey the personhood of the Holy Spirit, and also his masculinity. These texts were particularly significant when Christians were debating whether the New Testament teaches that the Holy Spirit is a full divine person, or just a "force". All major English Bible translations have retained the masculine pronoun for the Spirit.

Young's Literal Translation (a literal translation)	And when He may come — the Spirit of truth — He will guide you to all the truth, for He will not speak from Himself, but as many things as He will hear He will speak, and the coming things He will tell you.
King James Version (an early translation)	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.
New American Standard Version (a recent translation)	But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.
New Revised Standard Version (a gender neutral translation)	When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will disclose to you the things that are to come.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: "God transcends the human distinction between the sexes. He is neither man nor woman: he is God." This makes it clear that God has masculine gender, rather than male sex; as indicated by the pronoun He in the official English translation of Ille in the Latin original.

Use of "feminine" imagery (like the personification in Proverbs) is not restricted to the Bible alone, but has been expanded upon by some Christian writers. In Syriac Christianity, the grammatically feminine ruah (Spirit), and the occasionally associated "hovering" and "dove" imagery, led some fourth-century theologians, such as Aphrahat and Ephraim, to use explicitly maternal language for the Spirit. The second-century Syriac Odes of Solomon likewise use a great deal of feminine imagery for the Spirit, in addition to a few uses of such imagery for the Father. Eastern Orthodox theologian Susan Ashbrook Harvey offers this observation regarding the significance of grammatical gender in early Syrian Christianity: "It seems clear that for the Syrians, the cue from grammar — ruah as a feminine noun — was not entirely gratuitous. There was real meaning in calling the Spirit 'She,'..."

A few recent theologians, while retaining masculine reference to Father and Son, have explored feminine alternatives for the Holy Spirit. Some have related this to perceived maternal functions in Scripture or Christian tradition. These include: Clark H. Pinnock, Thomas N. Finger, Jürgen Moltmann, Yves M.J. Congar, John J. O'Donnell, and Donald L. Gelpi.

Islam

Main article: God in Islam

The one-ness of God is of primary importance in the Qur'an and Islam. Arabic has only two genders — masculine and feminine.

In the Qur'an, God is most often referred to with the masculine pronoun Hu, which is usually translated as He. Other references include the first person pronoun, and the relative pronoun ma (that which), as in the phrase "the heavens and that which created them" (surah Shams (91), verse 5).

Sikhism

Main article: God in Sikhism

Sikhism is based on the teaching of the Sikh Scriptures. These were originally composed in many different languages. Overall, they are ambivalent regarding God's gender.

The Guru Granth Sahib refers to God as Mother and Father:

• "You are my Father, and You are my Mother... You are my Protector everywhere; why should I feel any fear or anxiety? ||1||" Page 103
• "You are our mother and father; we are Your children." Page 268.

In some places, God is referred to as Mother, Father or Husband:

• "O my wandering mind, you are like a camel - how will you meet the Lord, your Mother?" page 234
• "O Father, I do not know - How can I know Your Way?" page 51
• "You are the Husband Lord, and I am the soul-bride. ||3||" page 484.

Mormonism

Main article: Godhead (Latter Day Saints)

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormon, teaches that both God the Father and Jesus have distinct, perfect, immortal male bodies. Mormons consider the empty tomb proof that God the Son has a body, transformed by the resurrection to power, glory and immortality. They teach that the Son, though glorified, was able to show his body to humans, eat with them, drink with them, and allow them to touch him as a witness that he had taken his body up, a body with which he later ascended to heaven, a body that he has never again laid aside. The Holy Spirit has a spirit body, not a physical body, and is also considered to be male.

There is evidence that Mormons believe there to be more divine beings than just those of the Trinity. In particular, at least one Mormon hymn refers to a Heavenly Mother, partnered to the Father. The official doctrine of the Church is that prayers should be directed to the Father in the name of the Son by the power of the Spirit. The Heavenly Mother is not worshipped.

• See also Mormonism and Christianity.

Branch Davidians, Some Messianics, and other Variations

While being small in number (and not "feminist" in the modern sense), there are some Messianic and Christian groups whose thinking in regards to the gender of the Holy Spirit is, in part, based on the understanding that the Hebrew word for Spirit, ruach, is feminine, and that is then based upon their generally held skepticism of Greek primacy for the New Testament. They are skeptical of the neuter Greek word for "spirit" (Greek pneuma), and the masculine Latin word, because the logos ("oracles" or "words") of God were are said to be given unto the Jews (Rom. 3:1, 2).

Foremost among these groups, and the most vocal on the subject are the Branch Davidian, Seventh-day Adventists. In 1977, one of their leaders, Lois Roden, began to formally teach that a feminine Holy Spirit is the heavenly pattern of women. In her many studies and talks she cited numerous scholars and researchers from Jewish, Christian, and other sources.

They see in the creation of Adam and Eve a literal image and likeness of the invisible Godhead, male and female, who is "clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made" (Rom. 1:20). They take the Oneness of God to mean the "familial" unity which exists between them, which unity is not seen in any other depiction of the Godhead by the various non-Hebrew peoples.

Thus, having a Father and Mother in heaven, they see that the Bible shows that those Parents had a Son born unto them before the creation of the world, by Whom all things were created.[2][3][4][5].

These concepts are also taught among other groups, to one degree or another.

The B'nai Yashua Synagogues Worldwide headed by Rabbi Moshe Koniuchowsky, holds to the feminine view of the Holy Spirit. [6][7]

There are also some other independent Messianic groups with similar teachings. Some examples include Joy In the World[8]; The Torah and Testimony Revealed [9]; and The Union of Nazarene Jewish Congregations/Synagogues [10], who also count as canonical the Gospel of the Hebrews which has the unique feature of referring to the Holy Spirit as Jesus' Mother [11].

There are also some scholars associated with more "mainstream" denominations, who while not necessarily indicative of the denominations themselves, have written works explaining a feminine understanding of the third member of the Godhead. For example, R.P. Nettlehorst, professor at the Quartz Hill School of Theology (associated with the Southern Baptist Convention) has written on the subject.[12][13][14] Evan Randolph, associated with the Episcopal Church, has likewise written on the subject.[15][16]

Wicca

In Wicca, God is genderless in the physical sense, but possess male and female polarities in the spiritual sense. These polarities are also believed to be found through out nature and spirit. Many Wiccans worship the Creator/God through either the male horned god and female white moon goddess, or an entire pantheon of gods and goddesses.

Bible translation

Colorado Springs

Twentieth century debate on gender and Bible translation culminated in a meeting in Colorado Springs on 9 September 1997. Representatives of major interest groups and academic institutions considered the contentious issues and came to a unanimous verdict, that has since been ratified by a wide range of Christian organizations, including denominations, translators and publishers. Individuals who have endorsed the Colorado Springs guidelines include: Charles Colson, Jerry Falwell, J. I. Packer and John Wimber.

Colorado Springs Guidelines For Translation Of Gender-Related Language In Scripture

• A. Gender-related renderings of Biblical language which we affirm:

1. The generic use of "he, him, his, himself" should be employed to translate generic 3rd person masculine singular pronouns in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. However, substantival participles such as ho pisteuon can often be rendered in inclusive ways, such as "the one who believes" rather than "he who believes."
2. Person and number should be retained in translation so that singulars are not changed to plurals and third person statements are not changed to second or first person statements, with only rare exceptions required in unusual cases.
3. "Man" should ordinarily be used to designate the human race, for example in Genesis 1:26-27; 5:2; Ezekiel 29:11; and John 2:25.
4. Hebrew 'ish should ordinarily be translated "man" and "men," and Greek aner should almost always be so translated.
5. In many cases, anthropoi refers to people in general, and can be translated "people" rather than "men." The singular anthropos should ordinarily be translated "man" when it refers to a male human being.
6. Indefinite pronouns such as tis can be translated "anyone" rather than "any man."
7. In many cases, pronouns such as oudeis can be translated "no one" rather than "no man."
8. When pas is used as a substantive it can be translated with terms such as "all people" or "everyone."
9. The phrase "son of man" should ordinarily be preserved to retain intracanonical connections.
10. Masculine references to God should be retained.

• B. Gender-related renderings which we will generally avoid, though there may be unusual exceptions in certain contexts:

1. "Brother" (adelphos) should not be changed to "brother or sister"; however, the plural adelphoi can be translated "brothers and sisters" where the context makes clear that the author is referring to both men and women.
2. "Son" (huios, ben) should not be changed to "child," or "sons" (huioi) to "children" or "sons and daughters." (However, Hebrew banim often means "children.")
3. "Father" (pater, 'ab) should not be changed to "parent," or "fathers" to "parents" or "ancestors."

• C. We understand these guidelines to be representative and not exhaustive, and that some details may need further refinement.

Name of God

Conservative Christians, Muslims, Mormons and others consider the Greek New Testament to be authoritative on matters regarding God. They also share this same conviction with Jews with regard to the authority of the Hebrew Bible. Accurate translation of the Greek, Hebrew (and Aramaic) is a concern for all the groups above, except Hindus and Sikhs. Some of the discussion below would be relevant to the Sanskrit of the Hindu scriptures, and the several languages of the Sikh scriptures, however the examples and sources here are related to the Abrahamaic religions.

There are a number of ways to translate the names of God into English from Hebrew. Hebrew uses only four consonants for the name — Yod-Heh-Waw-Heh (יהוה, YHWH) — hence it is called the Tetragrammaton. Some modern English bibles render this as LORD — L capital, and ord in small capital font face. Others use Yahweh, and the old King James Version used Jehovah. In English, outside Bible translations, the tetragrammaton is often written as YHWH or YHVH.

The original meaning of this form is connected with the "I AM" of Exodus 3:14 (and it probably contains a Hebrew masculine verb prefix — the Y or yod). Sometimes this word is rendered into English by using Hebrew Adonai, instead of attempting to directly translate YHWH, following an ancient Jewish custom of respect. The modern Jewish form of this custom is to refer to the divine person as HaShem — The Name.

The Hebrew word Adonai literally means my lords (with pseudo-plural), and is usually translated as Lord. The Hebrew names Elohim, El, Shaddai, and Yah are usually translated as God — with Elohim being the most common. Elyon translates as Most High.

There are a number of compound names for God. YHVH Tzevaot is translated as Lord of Hosts. YHVH Elohe tzevaot would be Lord God of Hosts. Among non-Orthodox Jews, there is a growing tendency to avoid the gender-in-English-language debate, and to simultaneously reclaim the vocabulary of Hebrew itself, by not translating these names in English prayers.

An example of a traditional translation is:

• "The earth belongs to the Lord, and all it contains; the world and its inhabitants." (Psalm 24)

An alternative translation is:

• "The earth belongs to Adonai, and all it contains; the world and its inhabitants."

Shekhinah is Hebrew for the imminent presence of God; this name of God appears in some traditional Jewish prayers. Within Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism) the Shekhinah represents the feminine aspect of God's essence; other terms represent the male aspect of God.

See also Names of God

Third person pronouns

Many prayers use one or more of the names for God many times within the same paragraph. The first time it appears a proper name is used, while further instances use a third person pronoun (he, she or it). English speakers usually use masculine or feminine third person pronouns to refer to people, and the third person pronoun - "it" - to refer to non-people. Traditionally, in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim writing, the third-person pronoun "He" has been used to refer to God in English translations. In non-religious contexts, English speakers have generally used the word "he" as a substitute for a gender-neutral third person pronoun.

In English, it is improper to speak of a person with the neuter pronoun "it". All Christians that believe in the Trinity by definition believe in the three persons that are one god. For many, referring to God as “It” is heretical.

The idea of God being an "It" rather than a "he" or "she" does have some support in Jewish, Christian and Islamic medieval thought, much of which was based on Neo-Aristotelian philosophy. Some medieval philosophers of all three of these religions took great pains to make clear that God was in no way like a person, and that all apparently physical descriptions of God were only poetic metaphors.

In the Chinese language, translators of the Christian Bible have created a new Chinese character to act as a divine pronoun: 祂 (Pinyin: tā). Tā, in essence, is the universal third person pronoun for all objects and persons. However, personhood (as well as gender) can be distinguished in writing. The normal pronoun for he, 他, is also used in generic cases. The radical 亻(rén) marks personhood (distinct from non-human referents), not simply gender alone. The radical in 祂, 礻(shì), marks the "elevated personhood" of divinity, without implying anything about the gender of the divinity referred to.

Mankind and humankind

Translations of the Bible and prayerbooks traditionally have used words such as: man, men, his, mankind, brotherhood, etc. In their historical usage these words in most places have always meant human, human beings, his and hers, humankind, peoplehood, etc. Feminists contend that no such neutrality was implied.

The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Christian Bible tries to correct this by changing words like "man" to "person", and "brothers" to "brothers and sisters", in all cases where the text is not referring to specific individuals but to people in general, or to a group of people that is most likely composed of both men and women. In keeping with this approach, the NRSV does not change the traditional male pronouns that refer to God.

A recent translation known as Today's New International Version (TNIV - sometimes referred to derisively as "The Neutered International Version") attempts to avoid sexist language by using "they" as the pronoun for a single person of unknown gender, a practice that has been common in spoken English for over six hundred years but is often avoided in formal writing. Critics of this translation dislike the usage of "singular they" both because conservative prescriptive grammarians sometimes consider it improper grammar, and because it sometimes may obscure the meaning of verses where it is significant that the pronoun is singular.

However, the continued usage of words such as Father, men, mankind, brotherhood, etc., has been increasingly called into question by some readers who believe these words destroy the Bible's original prose style. Conversely, traditionalists believe the use of gender-neutral terms itself is an aberration from the original books. Moreover, in such works as the Letters of St. Paul, when masculine terms are used, they might very well have been originally intended to refer to males exclusively, as it was common to segregate houses of worship sexually; this practice continues among Orthodox Jews to this day, and it is perfectly conceivable that the Apostle was addressing the males in these communities.

New translations

Most modern-day readers of English Bible translations are not familiar with Hebrew; they read the translations literally, through the view of modern feminist thought, and thus sometimes read the text as if it were describing a male God. Many readers feel removed from the text, as they either do not want to worship a male God, or they also want to worship a female God as well as a male God.

While this problem does not exist if one prays in the original Hebrew (or Arabic, Aramaic, etc.), many prayer-book editors in the non-Orthodox denominations of Judaism, and in liberal denominations of Christianity, have become sensitive to this issue. Several solutions have been proposed:

• Keeping the standard translation, which uses the term "He", and using commentary to explain the issue more fully. This is the approach used by Orthodox Judaism and most branches of Christianity.

• Translating God as "It". For theological reasons, this has been rejected by all branches of Judaism and of Christianity. But, see above for a discussion of why it could be considered legitimate.

• Translating God as both "He" and "She". A few experimental prayerbooks by Reconstructionist Jewish feminists have tried alternating "he" and "she" within the same prayerbook, and sometimes even within the same prayer. This approach has failed to win widespread approval; critics object to it for many reasons, one of which is that this gives the appearance of dualism or goddess worship. Some liberal Protestant Christian denominations use this approach on occasion.

• Rewriting all prayers in the second person, only using the term "You". A few experimental prayerbooks by Reconstructionist Jewish feminists have tried this, but this approach has failed to win widespread approval. Interestingly, Contemporary Christian Music often addresses God in this manner, although probably for different theological reasons (that is, to emphasize a personal relationship with the Divine).

• Gender-neutral translation involves rewriting prayers to remove all third-person pronouns. Sometimes this involves changing sentence and paragraph structure. This approach has been adopted by the editors of all new Reform and Reconstructionist Jewish prayerbooks. Some liberal Protestant Christians also have rewritten prayerbooks in this way. Conservative Judaism has rejected this approach because there are many cases where no such changes are possible without totally rewriting the sentence, thereby moving the English far from the Hebrew structure.

  Gender-neutral translation can also be accomplished by replacing third-person singular pronouns with third-person plural pronouns, repeating "God" each time to avoid "he". Some Christian translations of Scripture, including the New Jerusalem Bible, use this technique when referring to humans, but naturally this technique is not used in the case of God.)

• Gender-sensitive translation. This approach is a modified form of the above. In this approach, one rewrites most sentences to remove third-person pronouns, but occasionally the pronoun "he" is allowed in order to preserve readability and the original sentence structure. This is the approach taken by Conservative Judaism in three editions of Siddur Sim Shalom. Most inclusive-language Christian translations take this approach.

• Some Christian groups have created a new pronoun: God (subject or object), God's (possessive), Godself (reflexive). While the Catholic Church officially frowns on this, a significant number of American Catholic parishes alter the Mass responses by repeating "God" each time to avoid the third-person singular male pronoun. The use of the reflexive Godself is more rare.

• At least one bible translation from the Hebrew and Aramaic, the Hebraic Roots Version Scriptures(HRV) postulates that the Holy Spirit (the Ruach HaQodesh) is referred to in feminine terms unlike the masculine terms applied to the Father and the Son.

(It should be noted that some critics object to this terminology. Particularly for those who believe feminist interpretation is misogynist (see above), terms such as “gender-neutral” and “gender-sensitive” can be offensive. Critics charge that these terms imply traditional interpretations are not sensitive to women. Nevertheless, in the lack of acceptable alternatives these phrases are used in this article.)

Over the last twenty years many Jewish prayerbooks have been rewritten to be gender-neutral (Reform, Reconstructionist Judaism) or gender-sensitive (Conservative). Examples are shown in the following translations of Psalm 24. The following is a traditional translation excerpted from Siddur Sim Shalom, a Conservative siddur. (Ed. Jules Harlow)

A Psalm of David.

The earth belongs to the Lord, and all it contains; the world and its inhabitants.

He founded it upon the seas, and set it firm upon flowing waters.

Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may rise in His sanctuary?

One who has a clean hand and a pure heart, who has not used God's name in false oaths, who has not sworn deceitfully.

he shall receive a blessing from the God of his deliverance.

A modern translation of Psalm 24 now appears in the revised editions of Siddur Sim Shalom.

A Psalm of David.

The earth and its grandeur belong to Adonai; the world and its inhabitants.

God founded it upon the seas, and set it firm upon flowing waters.

Who may ascend the mountain of Adonai? Who may rise in God's sanctuary?

One who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not used God's name in false oaths, who has not sworn deceitfully.

shall receive a blessing from Adonai, a just reward from the God of deliverance.

See also

• Feminism
• God
• God (male deity)
• Goddess
• The Hebrew Goddess
• Goddess movement
• Sky father

External links

• God as Mother (A Christian view)
• Feminine images for God
• The Spirit and the Bride
• God and Gender in Judaism
• The Gender-Neutral Bible Controversy
• Mandarin Pronoun Lesson with audio files, pinyin and characters.

Bibliography

• Berke, Matthew. 'God and Gender in Judaism'. In First Things, 1996.
• Eller, Vernard. The Language of Canaan and the Grammar of Feminism. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1982.
• Dorff, Elliot N. Male and Female God Created Them: Equality with Distinction. University Papers. Los Angeles: University of Judaism, 1984, pp. 13-23.
• Harlow, Jules. 'Feminist Linguistics and Jewish Liturgy'. Conservative Judaism 49 (1997): 3-25.
• Johnson, Elizabeth. 'The Incomprehensibility of God and the Image of God Male and Female'. Theological Studies 45 (1984): 441-465.
• Kimbrough, ST Jr.. 'Bible Translation and the Gender of God'. Theology Today 46 (1989): 195-202.
• Piper, John and Wayne A Grudem (eds). Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: A Response to Evangelical Feminism. Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 1991.
• Poythress, Vern Sheriden and Wayne A Grudem. The Gender-Neutral Bible Controversy: Muting the Masculinity of God's Words. Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000.
• Poythress, Vern Sheriden. 'Gender in Bible Translation: Exploring a Connection with Male Representatives'. Westminster Theological Journal 60 (1998): 225-53.
• Reimers, Paula. 'Feminism, Judaism, and God the Mother'. Conservative Judaism 46 (1993).