BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

Misogyny in the Bible

Biblical Scholar April DeConick Explains How the Mother God and the Female Holy Spirit Got Spayed

Is God gendered as a male in the Bible? How could Scripture, the Word of God to so many Christians, be the product of patriarchy and its over-sexed values that are grounded in the perpetuation of male domination and the degradation of the female? How could Jesus be portrayed as someone who valued God as a male spiritual being? With these challenging questions, April DeConick begins her Biblical Views column in the September/October 2012 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, exploring the possibility of misogyny in the Bible.


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To begin with, humans—whether ancient or modern—think within gender categories. In much of the ancient world, the female body was considered subhuman, imperfect. According to April DeConick, the Bible came into being within a cultural matrix where the female body was, by definition, substandard and dehumanized. Although ancient Israelites worshiped a Mother God and some early Christians believed in a female Holy Spirit, the dehumanization of the female body affected virtually every storyline of the Bible and affected the way in which the ancient people created their theologies and engaged in worship. Once the Church defined the doctrine of the trinity as consubstantial, there couldn’t be a female Holy Spirit as substantial s a male Father and Son.

To read more from April DeConick about the female Holy Spirit and possible instances of misogyny in the Bible, see her Biblical Views column, “How the Mother God Got Spayed,” in the September/October 2012 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.


Biblical studies professor April DeConick believes that some scholars may be too quick to apologize for misogyny in the Bible because of a religious belief in the sacred nature of the Bible. In fact, the Israelites worshiped a Mother God as well as a Father God, and some early Christians believed in a female Holy Spirit. But because the female body was considered imperfect in the ancient world, April DeConick says, it affected the theologies, worship and sacred texts that came out of that world.


Read more in Bible History Daily:

Women in the Bible

Women of the Ancient Near East: Beturia Paulina

 

Read more in the BAS Library:

Women in the Bible

 

This article first appeared in Bible History Daily on August 31, 2012.

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46 Responses

  1. David Madison says:

    “Biblical studies professor April DeConick believes that some scholars may be too quick to apologize for misogyny in the Bible because of a religious belief in the sacred nature of the Bible.”

    The only evidence for “misogyny” that is presented in this post is that the Bible portrays God as male. Is that in itself supposed to be misogynistic? April DeConick points out that the Bible emerged in a particular cultural matrix – one that supposedly denigrated the female body. DeConick’s own views have also emerged in a particular cultural matrix. What makes her think that her own culture is superior? Perhaps there are good reasons for thinking of God as male. God is Absolute Authority. If we are going to use a metaphor to represent the Absolute Authority then it makes sense to speak of God as “He”.

    Be that as it may, we know that Jesus taught his disciples to pray to “Our Father”. This settles the matter for Christians. Those who cannot accept this have no right to regard themselves as Christians.

    1. Debbie Vaughn says:

      If the ancients regarded the female body as inferior, they definitely have a misogynistic issue. Especially since every damn one of them was born of woman. I have no problem with the Trinity being male. God is whom He says He is.

    2. Susan says:

      If men are gods and women are shit under Christianity I no longer call myself a Christian. Don’t you have a wife to beat for not obeying you her owner???

  2. Park Linscomb says:

    The God revealed in the Bible always refers to Himself in male terms — male figures (Father) and pronouns — never genderless. To say that Jesus referred to God as Father because He had no human father is a false assumption of huge proportions; nowhere is this said or even implied in the New Testament. Nor is it true that women were ever dehumanized; Genesis tells us clearly that God made both male and female in His image — both fully human. While women may have been considered inferior in strength for waging war, they were continuously glorified for motherhood and maidenhood (as in the virgin daughter of Jerusalem referencing the whole of the people of Jerusalem). And while some Jews did worship Asherah and the Queen of Heaven, these things are forbidden by the Bible. Argue all you want that there may have been some Christian or Jewish men who thought little of women, but don’t accuse the Bible of misogyny. And will you really argue with God about what pronouns He has chosen? This article is nothing more than propaganda dressed up in academic robes to falsely provide it some legitimacy.

  3. Cyril Harry says:

    Clare,
    Is there a consistently good person? The expression – a specific individual “is a good person” is a statistical over-generalization, since none of us can ever know all there is to know about any individual. So it is preposterous to formulate any moral code on the views of the ‘good people of this world’.
    Furthermore, it is saddening that the academic is now infallible – whatever crap academics say in the name of knowledge and research is taken as factually true. So the academic has taken the place of the Pope, what an irony.

  4. Clare says:

    Mother Earth. Where does that name come from? It is important to remember that Judaism & Christianity are from the Middle East & then adopted by Europeans & a few other continents but by no means all. To look down upon others beliefs is wrong. I respect the beliefs of religious people & atheists. They are beliefs – any body who says they ARE the truth is arrogant & distrespectful. You may BELIEVE they are the truth, but others believe different things to be true that are just as important to them. Most religions teach tolerance – it may shock some that Islam does in the Koran. I chose to keep an open mind to all religions & beliefs. There are wisdoms we can benefit from in some religions & also things no longer appropriate or that we can see are morally wrong in them too. I once asked a religious person whether belief in God waa more important to them than whether somebody was a good person or not & he struggled to answer. I know what I believe a good person is. I think most if us agree on our country’s laws, though these should evolve because we all agree to change them for the common good.

    1. Robert Klahn says:

      Whether or not he believes in God may well determine if he goes to heaven. Whether or not he is a good person may well determine if he kills you.

      So, how important is your life to you? That determines whether or not you get to continue doing God’s work.

      I happen to belong to the One True Church… or do I? Funny, I never got the notice from God on that. Maybe, if you take care of those who need help, that is all you need to prove you are of God, even if you don’t believe.

  5. Clare says:

    I am a fundamentalist agnostic. The bible seems yo me like an account of different humans trying to work out how to have a functioning society. My theory is that scribes wrote it in order to control society so that it did not destroy itself. That it was not a factual document but tgey needed people to think it was so that they would obey its rules. There are many contradictions within it & many things praised by ‘God’ that in modern world are illegal eg: offering your daughters to be raped by men/incest etc. Before the Torah/Old Testament was written icons of a female deity were found. Then with her husband & then only her husband.

  6. Rebecca says:

    Why are you people even freaking out? I agree some sources should be cited, but you’re being very close minded. God chose to have Mary conceive a son, probably because the people were close-minded. They wouldn’t except the idea of a female representation of god. Much like how the ten commandments were created because the people weren’t ready for more at that time (like what Jesus said in Mathew 6-7 about stuff like looking at a woman in lust is the same thing as committing adultery.) I’m the bible there is nothing saying that a man and woman are not equal. It assigns gender roles, but submission (which in Genesis it says women should submit to their husbands) doesn’t mean they’re not equals. Gender is decided by our body parts for reproduction. The God of the Jews doesn’t have to reproduce so why would he have a male organ?
    By our definition of a man, I don’t think we can call God a man and get mad when someone says otherwise. Has anyone thought that we might say “Our father” because traditionally father’s are the ones who work long days, bring home the bread and are thought higher of? Certain words get lost, or even changed in translation.
    Oh and Ingrid, like many others I feel as though you should look into things a bit more before you trash others. Jesus was black. Black is a skin color, he was dark skinned. Think of where he was born, how hot it always was and also that he was often in the sun. Historically it’s ridiculous to say he’s white with blue eyes or something, but if it helps people relate to him better. Does skin color really matter much? And also pagans aren’t the only ones who portray God as a woman. Even so you don’t need to insult a woman’s work like this. Just look into it yourself for 15 minutes before you go off, maybe she has a point.

  7. ingridl4 says:

    well i guess we all need to go back to the beginning when god took a rib out of adam to make a wo-man! only the pagan world knows of goddesses! and quite frankly, woman’s liberation and feminism have very little root in scripture! and stop making god a sexual gender specific object over wanting to be a female pastor!! same thing with blacks claiming jesus was black! no he was from the house of israel, decendent from the house of david! when you bend the truth you go astray!

  8. Damaris says:

    Reading all of these comments, all that come labeled with the ‘but this isn’t misogyny!” is hilarious. Of course it is. You’re just comfortable with it.

  9. Loy Ocampo says:

    God is called “Father” because that is his name. It is not a title. Father means “originator” in Hebrew. Jesus came from the bossom of the originator. It is only us humans that associate Father to males and giving birth seems to us exclusive to females. I agree there is no gender in heaven because all humans are siblings. It is just the translation to English, in which, unfortunately, there is no neutral word so it is either brother or sister for a sibling. In other languages like Filipino, there is a neutral word “kapatid”.

    1. Robert Klahn says:

      I doubt if God’s name is Father. I doubt that Father means anything in Hebrew. English is German with English words added onto French grammar. Or was it French words on German grammar? It’s been so long.

      IOW, it’s a hodge podge. What it isn’t is 3,000 years old.

      Please stop the word games, unless you are doing it for fun, then I’ll gladly join in.

  10. Loy Ocampo says:

    God is called “Father” because that is his name and not a title. Father means “originator” in Hebrew. Jesus came from the bossom of the originator. It is only us humans that associate Father to males and giving birth seems to us exclusive to females. I agree there is no gender in heaven because all humans are siblings. It is just the translation to English, in which, unfortunately, there is no neutral word so it is either brother or sister for a sibling. In other languages like Filipino, there is a neutral word “kapatid”.

  11. Loy Ocampo says:

    God is called “Father” because that is his name and not a title. Father means “originator” in Hebrew. Jesus came from the bossom of the originator. It is only us humans that associate Father to males and giving birth seems to us exclusive to females. We had to invent the word “mother” for the female originator. I agree there is no gender in heaven because all humans are siblings. It is just the translation to English, in which, unfortunately, there is no neutral word so it is either brother or sister for a sibling. In other languages like Filipino, there is a neutral word “kapatid”.

  12. rev. mary r. dodgson says:

    oh my goodness! i thought we had made some progress in the Church. It sounds as though many readers have returned to, or never left middle-ages mythology. Literalism is dangerous.

  13. Joseph Wilson says:

    God made MAN in his own image and made woman from a man’s rib.

    1. Robert Klahn says:

      The real question is, “how many hundreds of thousands of years did it take to do that,” using evolution as God’s tool?

    2. Susan says:

      So men are superior in your female hating opinion. Go to hell.

  14. Doug says:

    April DeConick’s article is the most intellectually dishonest approach to a emotionally charged subject that I have ever read. She engages in point proofing at a level that Biblical Archaeology ought not allow in a scholarly publication.

    To deliberately take Jeremiah 44:15-19 out of context and purport to say “The ancient Israelites used to worship the Queen of Heaven even in the Temple in Jerusalem because she kept famine away” is intellectually dishonest. Clearly Jeremiah records that Israel and Judah were being judged by Yahweh for doing exactly what DeConick claims was working, namely idol worship. Jeremiah 44:2-6 (NLT) “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: You saw the calamity I brought on Jerusalem and all the towns of Judah. They now lie deserted and in ruins. They provoked my anger with all their wickedness. They burned incense and worshiped other gods—gods that neither they nor you nor any of your ancestors had ever even known. “Again and again I sent my servants, the prophets, to plead with them, ‘Don’t do these horrible things that I hate so much.’ But my people would not listen or turn back from their wicked ways. They kept on burning incense to these gods. And so my fury boiled over and fell like fire on the towns of Judah and into the streets of Jerusalem, and they are still a desolate ruin today.” Shame on BA for giving this DeConick’s tripe a forum to be heard.

    Further she ignores the examples of women in scripture that occupied places of leadership and importance in society such as Miriam, Deborah, Esther, and others. Even Eve is given fair treatment in scripture and not denigrated as DeConick purposes. In New Testament one reads of the daughters of Philip being prophetess’, Lydia, and even Peter recounting Joel’s prophecy that the Spirit would be poured out upon ‘sons and daughters’.

    DeConick apparently has steeped a little too long in the feminist tea of misogyny and brings a distinct personal bias to what should be viewed based on the evidence presented. No where in Scripture do I find any hint of a bias against women. Everywhere I read I find a record of Yahweh equally dealing with both men and women according to His love and mercy. Shame of Ms. DeConick for twisting the cultural record to suggest otherwise.

  15. Lyn says:

    Oh I hope this article is not a sign of what will pass for “scholarship” in editions to come. Otherwise I shall promptly cancel my subscription and demand my money back. I realize that BAR is finding funds a little difficult to come by these days but this is not the way to go about it.

  16. JOE says:

    GENISIS CHAP1-LET “US” CREATE
    THEM IN “OUR” IMAGE BOTH MALE & FEMALE.

  17. Jay says:

    In the church I attended as a child back in 1958, the Revised Standard Version had been recently published. I don’t recall its publication date and I think it was much earlier than the 1950s. The minister was much older than I was, maybe born close to 1900 and I suppose the RSV was very new to him. He commented that an elderly woman was angry with the RSV and insisted that the “original language” must be used in the bible, i.e. the King James Version. The minister commented to us kids that the language spoken at the time of Jesus was not King James English.

  18. brian says:

    Thanks Sarah

  19. Dr. David Tee says:

    The problem is that unbelievers like Ms DeConick do not understand nor grasp the idea of false worship, false gods, false teachings and others like rebellion, disobedience and out right rejection of God’s word.
    John 14 ans 16 tells us that unbelievers do not have the truth and Ms. DeCOnick proves that true.

  20. Bradford Rosenquist says:

    As with time passing, we are bound to run into stuff that is used to gain an increase in subscriptions…this idea that God is a female is total crap. No where in the Bible does God appear as a female. That is just some female wanting to get her time in the media. That is lowest of the low…very far from true research and genuine professionalism

    1. Susan says:

      Agreed, women are not even considered human in the Bible written by me,

  21. Joris says:

    “Male and female (he) created them, in (his) image and likeness” – To emphasize God as Father is to accept the environment Jesus was in, but I believe–and perhaps it is an old mystic’s habit–that God IS, and God is more “you” than either mail or female. I am not particularly conscious of the sex of someone i am addressing as a rule, it is not important. What is important is the “you”-ness. I believe it is time to acknowledge that, and admit the misogyny in the Bible as culturally created and move on. Women should be ordained in the Catholic “priest”hood or priests should be circumcised–to use the logic used by the hierarchy–one of the other!

  22. almagore says:

    I beg to differ. When Jesus gave us the Lord’s Prayer He did not say, Our Father and Mother who art in Heaven.; He said we should pray, “Our Father in Heaven, hallowed by thy Name.”

    Over and over in both the Old Testament and the New Testament God is always talked about in the Masculine. God sent His Son Jesus, to save us from our sins.

    Feminists who don’t like the traditional male and female gender roles do so by denying there own feminine nature. This causes untold misery for women on both a psychological and a social basis.

    What I have just said is not misogyny. Women are just as valuable to God as men are. God loves women just as much as He loves men. However, God created mean and women for complimentary and harmonious gender roles, not the same Gender role.

    You remember the old Margarine commercial where the personification of “mother Nature tasted the margarine and said “butter”, a voice said the brand of the margarine, and Mother nature said “It is not good to fool Mother Nature”. That is what Feminists are doing by saying they have the same gender role as men. Also, If it is not wise to fool Mother Nature, how very dangerous it is to try to fool people about God’s love letter and life instructions to us, The Holy Bible by denying it is the Truth and misrepresenting what it says.

    What I have written, I have written in Brotherly love to my sisters in Christ and Daughters of Adam.

    1. Susan says:

      Really so God created the superior male as the owners of the lowly sandwich makers who have to live on the knees to feed your male ego???

  23. Anna says:

    Sarah your awesome! Thank you! I’m just a simpleton, but I thought you put it quite succinctly !

  24. Bob Wardrop says:

    Ref Matteo’s comment:
    Really, we know for a fact that Jesus never called God his mother? God is an entity-neither male or female.
    Bob W.

  25. Charles German says:

    Anyone who doesn’t understand God’s gender can’t really be Christian. If GOD is female why did Jesus tell us to pray to ‘Our Father who is in heaven’?
    And is there really gender recognition with GOD? God is a Spirit and those who worship him must worship in Spirit. . .

    1. Susan says:

      So women are lesser beings?? Got it. Don’t you have a wife to beat for the crime of being female?

  26. Priscilla Bledsaw says:

    I look forward to reading this article. I have always felt that those who are uncertain of the validity of their claims are the ones who scream “Dont MAKE me look!!” at differing view points. Jesus was male. In the society into which he was born, being born female would have complicated an already difficult path. If the society into which he was born had been matriarchal with the males being the subservient property, its possible he might have been born female, but speculation on that is pretty pointless since that’s not the way it happened. I hope BAR will continue to publish articles exploring all viewpoints since only by knowing what other viewpoints are out there can we show their errors. Where would Grant have been if he had refused to sully his eyes with Lee’s battle plans?

  27. Christopher says:

    Moses spoke to Him face to face and He passed before his face. I take his word on it that ‘He’ and not ‘She’ was the appropriate descriptor.

  28. Hazel says:

    You seem to be locked into feminist notions. The LORD God is far above such manmade concepts. If He cares to portray Himself as masculine it is not for us to argue with Him or His son the Lord Jesus Christ.

  29. Jay says:

    To April:

    “In the beginning was the Word…”. This is the first phrase in the book that many believe to be first book of the NT. Look at
    http://www.thechristianrabbi.org/mosesmemra.htm

    The name, “Memra” is used commonly in the Targums, of which I have the complete collection in modern English available from the Liturgical Press.

    In the French version of the first chapter of the gospel of John, “the Word” is “la parole”.

    The definite article, “la” indicates
    feminine. Also, according to Klein’s Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language”, Memra is feminine.

  30. Bummer says:

    BAR has been a trustworthy resource but now I have to keep my guard up on the articles coming in. I’m not a scholar but I know when bad resources and weak arguments are made. Interesting she writes about misogyny (hatred or dislike of women) and calls it the serpent in the Garden when she uses the method to hate and dislike scholars like Ben Witherington. I like how she rocked the boat a little! Good job Ape!

  31. JAT Publications | Father of Lights and Mother of Breath — Again says:

    […] and sometimes I don’t read them.  But this one caught my eye, and I clicked on the link (http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/bible-interpretation/misogyny-in-the-bible/).  There I found a wonderful article by Biblical Studies professor April DeConick.  The full […]

  32. Matteo Lanata says:

    The Word of God does NOT espress mysoginy at any place.
    God blessed and enjoyed His creation at each and every step, so including man AND woman.
    In His image are both, not just one.
    So, there can be no claim by women, as of themselves, towards any “godly award”, same as there is none from male side. What would be the aim at, anyway? Aren’t we, or aren’t women, satisfied with the dignity that God set for us???

    It’s a fact that Jesus calls God Father (and not mother), but what are exactly the qualifying attributes of a Father in the Jewish culture and in the NT view?
    Stick to that and you’ll see that the quest towards a female (or a male) issue will disappear immediately, as it has no substance.

    To the Sadducees, cahllenging Him on a typical “male” (and female!) issue, Jesus answered there is no gender in Heaven (“like angels”!!), see Matthew 22:25-33.
    So, why even consider the gender issue about God??

    P.S.
    Or, you can turn to the Catholic church, where they worship an icon of Mary, as essential “stakeholder” of Redemption, if you need a “higher place” for women

  33. Brent says:

    I’ve never commented on an article at BAR, but I fear what BAR is publishing now. I’m at least glad to see a consensus here that this is sensationalist at best. I agree with Patrick and add further that this is precisely the reason Israel adopted a masculine linguistic – to remain separated from neighboring religions.. Especially those involving goddess worship, fertility rites, shrine prostitutes, etc. It seems a little absurd to have to point this out.

  34. Sarah says:

    @Stan I understand English is your second language, but perhaps a Spelling and Grammar Check program would be helpful? Also, you wrote, “We Jews, in antiquity.” How old are you anyway?

  35. Sarah says:

    I’m very disappointed in the scholarship of this article. Where are your citations? Your ignorance of Biblical history and of Greek and Hebrew is stunning. What you’re describing is the pagan worship that was tolerated in Israel until God’s people were finally broken of this sin through captivity, as well as some later Gnostic influences that did teach that woman were inferior, as in the faux-Gospel of Thomas. The Old Testament is resplendent with celebrated images of heroines of the faith: Sarah, Rebekah, Leah, Deborah, Esther, Jael, etc. Maybe we should stick to real academics.

  36. brian says:

    Always capitalize God stan

  37. Stan says:

    No question ancient Israelites worshiped female daity. There were thousands statues found around Jerusalem. I am enjoying the idiots above who take concept of god seriously. Once they insists that the make belive daity is gender based, it’s not a god but magician with few tricks up its sleeve. We Jews, in antiquity, never consider god a male or real lbut more of the concept to argue about. Even the name Israel is based on story of Jacob fighting with god.

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46 Responses

  1. David Madison says:

    “Biblical studies professor April DeConick believes that some scholars may be too quick to apologize for misogyny in the Bible because of a religious belief in the sacred nature of the Bible.”

    The only evidence for “misogyny” that is presented in this post is that the Bible portrays God as male. Is that in itself supposed to be misogynistic? April DeConick points out that the Bible emerged in a particular cultural matrix – one that supposedly denigrated the female body. DeConick’s own views have also emerged in a particular cultural matrix. What makes her think that her own culture is superior? Perhaps there are good reasons for thinking of God as male. God is Absolute Authority. If we are going to use a metaphor to represent the Absolute Authority then it makes sense to speak of God as “He”.

    Be that as it may, we know that Jesus taught his disciples to pray to “Our Father”. This settles the matter for Christians. Those who cannot accept this have no right to regard themselves as Christians.

    1. Debbie Vaughn says:

      If the ancients regarded the female body as inferior, they definitely have a misogynistic issue. Especially since every damn one of them was born of woman. I have no problem with the Trinity being male. God is whom He says He is.

    2. Susan says:

      If men are gods and women are shit under Christianity I no longer call myself a Christian. Don’t you have a wife to beat for not obeying you her owner???

  2. Park Linscomb says:

    The God revealed in the Bible always refers to Himself in male terms — male figures (Father) and pronouns — never genderless. To say that Jesus referred to God as Father because He had no human father is a false assumption of huge proportions; nowhere is this said or even implied in the New Testament. Nor is it true that women were ever dehumanized; Genesis tells us clearly that God made both male and female in His image — both fully human. While women may have been considered inferior in strength for waging war, they were continuously glorified for motherhood and maidenhood (as in the virgin daughter of Jerusalem referencing the whole of the people of Jerusalem). And while some Jews did worship Asherah and the Queen of Heaven, these things are forbidden by the Bible. Argue all you want that there may have been some Christian or Jewish men who thought little of women, but don’t accuse the Bible of misogyny. And will you really argue with God about what pronouns He has chosen? This article is nothing more than propaganda dressed up in academic robes to falsely provide it some legitimacy.

  3. Cyril Harry says:

    Clare,
    Is there a consistently good person? The expression – a specific individual “is a good person” is a statistical over-generalization, since none of us can ever know all there is to know about any individual. So it is preposterous to formulate any moral code on the views of the ‘good people of this world’.
    Furthermore, it is saddening that the academic is now infallible – whatever crap academics say in the name of knowledge and research is taken as factually true. So the academic has taken the place of the Pope, what an irony.

  4. Clare says:

    Mother Earth. Where does that name come from? It is important to remember that Judaism & Christianity are from the Middle East & then adopted by Europeans & a few other continents but by no means all. To look down upon others beliefs is wrong. I respect the beliefs of religious people & atheists. They are beliefs – any body who says they ARE the truth is arrogant & distrespectful. You may BELIEVE they are the truth, but others believe different things to be true that are just as important to them. Most religions teach tolerance – it may shock some that Islam does in the Koran. I chose to keep an open mind to all religions & beliefs. There are wisdoms we can benefit from in some religions & also things no longer appropriate or that we can see are morally wrong in them too. I once asked a religious person whether belief in God waa more important to them than whether somebody was a good person or not & he struggled to answer. I know what I believe a good person is. I think most if us agree on our country’s laws, though these should evolve because we all agree to change them for the common good.

    1. Robert Klahn says:

      Whether or not he believes in God may well determine if he goes to heaven. Whether or not he is a good person may well determine if he kills you.

      So, how important is your life to you? That determines whether or not you get to continue doing God’s work.

      I happen to belong to the One True Church… or do I? Funny, I never got the notice from God on that. Maybe, if you take care of those who need help, that is all you need to prove you are of God, even if you don’t believe.

  5. Clare says:

    I am a fundamentalist agnostic. The bible seems yo me like an account of different humans trying to work out how to have a functioning society. My theory is that scribes wrote it in order to control society so that it did not destroy itself. That it was not a factual document but tgey needed people to think it was so that they would obey its rules. There are many contradictions within it & many things praised by ‘God’ that in modern world are illegal eg: offering your daughters to be raped by men/incest etc. Before the Torah/Old Testament was written icons of a female deity were found. Then with her husband & then only her husband.

  6. Rebecca says:

    Why are you people even freaking out? I agree some sources should be cited, but you’re being very close minded. God chose to have Mary conceive a son, probably because the people were close-minded. They wouldn’t except the idea of a female representation of god. Much like how the ten commandments were created because the people weren’t ready for more at that time (like what Jesus said in Mathew 6-7 about stuff like looking at a woman in lust is the same thing as committing adultery.) I’m the bible there is nothing saying that a man and woman are not equal. It assigns gender roles, but submission (which in Genesis it says women should submit to their husbands) doesn’t mean they’re not equals. Gender is decided by our body parts for reproduction. The God of the Jews doesn’t have to reproduce so why would he have a male organ?
    By our definition of a man, I don’t think we can call God a man and get mad when someone says otherwise. Has anyone thought that we might say “Our father” because traditionally father’s are the ones who work long days, bring home the bread and are thought higher of? Certain words get lost, or even changed in translation.
    Oh and Ingrid, like many others I feel as though you should look into things a bit more before you trash others. Jesus was black. Black is a skin color, he was dark skinned. Think of where he was born, how hot it always was and also that he was often in the sun. Historically it’s ridiculous to say he’s white with blue eyes or something, but if it helps people relate to him better. Does skin color really matter much? And also pagans aren’t the only ones who portray God as a woman. Even so you don’t need to insult a woman’s work like this. Just look into it yourself for 15 minutes before you go off, maybe she has a point.

  7. ingridl4 says:

    well i guess we all need to go back to the beginning when god took a rib out of adam to make a wo-man! only the pagan world knows of goddesses! and quite frankly, woman’s liberation and feminism have very little root in scripture! and stop making god a sexual gender specific object over wanting to be a female pastor!! same thing with blacks claiming jesus was black! no he was from the house of israel, decendent from the house of david! when you bend the truth you go astray!

  8. Damaris says:

    Reading all of these comments, all that come labeled with the ‘but this isn’t misogyny!” is hilarious. Of course it is. You’re just comfortable with it.

  9. Loy Ocampo says:

    God is called “Father” because that is his name. It is not a title. Father means “originator” in Hebrew. Jesus came from the bossom of the originator. It is only us humans that associate Father to males and giving birth seems to us exclusive to females. I agree there is no gender in heaven because all humans are siblings. It is just the translation to English, in which, unfortunately, there is no neutral word so it is either brother or sister for a sibling. In other languages like Filipino, there is a neutral word “kapatid”.

    1. Robert Klahn says:

      I doubt if God’s name is Father. I doubt that Father means anything in Hebrew. English is German with English words added onto French grammar. Or was it French words on German grammar? It’s been so long.

      IOW, it’s a hodge podge. What it isn’t is 3,000 years old.

      Please stop the word games, unless you are doing it for fun, then I’ll gladly join in.

  10. Loy Ocampo says:

    God is called “Father” because that is his name and not a title. Father means “originator” in Hebrew. Jesus came from the bossom of the originator. It is only us humans that associate Father to males and giving birth seems to us exclusive to females. I agree there is no gender in heaven because all humans are siblings. It is just the translation to English, in which, unfortunately, there is no neutral word so it is either brother or sister for a sibling. In other languages like Filipino, there is a neutral word “kapatid”.

  11. Loy Ocampo says:

    God is called “Father” because that is his name and not a title. Father means “originator” in Hebrew. Jesus came from the bossom of the originator. It is only us humans that associate Father to males and giving birth seems to us exclusive to females. We had to invent the word “mother” for the female originator. I agree there is no gender in heaven because all humans are siblings. It is just the translation to English, in which, unfortunately, there is no neutral word so it is either brother or sister for a sibling. In other languages like Filipino, there is a neutral word “kapatid”.

  12. rev. mary r. dodgson says:

    oh my goodness! i thought we had made some progress in the Church. It sounds as though many readers have returned to, or never left middle-ages mythology. Literalism is dangerous.

  13. Joseph Wilson says:

    God made MAN in his own image and made woman from a man’s rib.

    1. Robert Klahn says:

      The real question is, “how many hundreds of thousands of years did it take to do that,” using evolution as God’s tool?

    2. Susan says:

      So men are superior in your female hating opinion. Go to hell.

  14. Doug says:

    April DeConick’s article is the most intellectually dishonest approach to a emotionally charged subject that I have ever read. She engages in point proofing at a level that Biblical Archaeology ought not allow in a scholarly publication.

    To deliberately take Jeremiah 44:15-19 out of context and purport to say “The ancient Israelites used to worship the Queen of Heaven even in the Temple in Jerusalem because she kept famine away” is intellectually dishonest. Clearly Jeremiah records that Israel and Judah were being judged by Yahweh for doing exactly what DeConick claims was working, namely idol worship. Jeremiah 44:2-6 (NLT) “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: You saw the calamity I brought on Jerusalem and all the towns of Judah. They now lie deserted and in ruins. They provoked my anger with all their wickedness. They burned incense and worshiped other gods—gods that neither they nor you nor any of your ancestors had ever even known. “Again and again I sent my servants, the prophets, to plead with them, ‘Don’t do these horrible things that I hate so much.’ But my people would not listen or turn back from their wicked ways. They kept on burning incense to these gods. And so my fury boiled over and fell like fire on the towns of Judah and into the streets of Jerusalem, and they are still a desolate ruin today.” Shame on BA for giving this DeConick’s tripe a forum to be heard.

    Further she ignores the examples of women in scripture that occupied places of leadership and importance in society such as Miriam, Deborah, Esther, and others. Even Eve is given fair treatment in scripture and not denigrated as DeConick purposes. In New Testament one reads of the daughters of Philip being prophetess’, Lydia, and even Peter recounting Joel’s prophecy that the Spirit would be poured out upon ‘sons and daughters’.

    DeConick apparently has steeped a little too long in the feminist tea of misogyny and brings a distinct personal bias to what should be viewed based on the evidence presented. No where in Scripture do I find any hint of a bias against women. Everywhere I read I find a record of Yahweh equally dealing with both men and women according to His love and mercy. Shame of Ms. DeConick for twisting the cultural record to suggest otherwise.

  15. Lyn says:

    Oh I hope this article is not a sign of what will pass for “scholarship” in editions to come. Otherwise I shall promptly cancel my subscription and demand my money back. I realize that BAR is finding funds a little difficult to come by these days but this is not the way to go about it.

  16. JOE says:

    GENISIS CHAP1-LET “US” CREATE
    THEM IN “OUR” IMAGE BOTH MALE & FEMALE.

  17. Jay says:

    In the church I attended as a child back in 1958, the Revised Standard Version had been recently published. I don’t recall its publication date and I think it was much earlier than the 1950s. The minister was much older than I was, maybe born close to 1900 and I suppose the RSV was very new to him. He commented that an elderly woman was angry with the RSV and insisted that the “original language” must be used in the bible, i.e. the King James Version. The minister commented to us kids that the language spoken at the time of Jesus was not King James English.

  18. brian says:

    Thanks Sarah

  19. Dr. David Tee says:

    The problem is that unbelievers like Ms DeConick do not understand nor grasp the idea of false worship, false gods, false teachings and others like rebellion, disobedience and out right rejection of God’s word.
    John 14 ans 16 tells us that unbelievers do not have the truth and Ms. DeCOnick proves that true.

  20. Bradford Rosenquist says:

    As with time passing, we are bound to run into stuff that is used to gain an increase in subscriptions…this idea that God is a female is total crap. No where in the Bible does God appear as a female. That is just some female wanting to get her time in the media. That is lowest of the low…very far from true research and genuine professionalism

    1. Susan says:

      Agreed, women are not even considered human in the Bible written by me,

  21. Joris says:

    “Male and female (he) created them, in (his) image and likeness” – To emphasize God as Father is to accept the environment Jesus was in, but I believe–and perhaps it is an old mystic’s habit–that God IS, and God is more “you” than either mail or female. I am not particularly conscious of the sex of someone i am addressing as a rule, it is not important. What is important is the “you”-ness. I believe it is time to acknowledge that, and admit the misogyny in the Bible as culturally created and move on. Women should be ordained in the Catholic “priest”hood or priests should be circumcised–to use the logic used by the hierarchy–one of the other!

  22. almagore says:

    I beg to differ. When Jesus gave us the Lord’s Prayer He did not say, Our Father and Mother who art in Heaven.; He said we should pray, “Our Father in Heaven, hallowed by thy Name.”

    Over and over in both the Old Testament and the New Testament God is always talked about in the Masculine. God sent His Son Jesus, to save us from our sins.

    Feminists who don’t like the traditional male and female gender roles do so by denying there own feminine nature. This causes untold misery for women on both a psychological and a social basis.

    What I have just said is not misogyny. Women are just as valuable to God as men are. God loves women just as much as He loves men. However, God created mean and women for complimentary and harmonious gender roles, not the same Gender role.

    You remember the old Margarine commercial where the personification of “mother Nature tasted the margarine and said “butter”, a voice said the brand of the margarine, and Mother nature said “It is not good to fool Mother Nature”. That is what Feminists are doing by saying they have the same gender role as men. Also, If it is not wise to fool Mother Nature, how very dangerous it is to try to fool people about God’s love letter and life instructions to us, The Holy Bible by denying it is the Truth and misrepresenting what it says.

    What I have written, I have written in Brotherly love to my sisters in Christ and Daughters of Adam.

    1. Susan says:

      Really so God created the superior male as the owners of the lowly sandwich makers who have to live on the knees to feed your male ego???

  23. Anna says:

    Sarah your awesome! Thank you! I’m just a simpleton, but I thought you put it quite succinctly !

  24. Bob Wardrop says:

    Ref Matteo’s comment:
    Really, we know for a fact that Jesus never called God his mother? God is an entity-neither male or female.
    Bob W.

  25. Charles German says:

    Anyone who doesn’t understand God’s gender can’t really be Christian. If GOD is female why did Jesus tell us to pray to ‘Our Father who is in heaven’?
    And is there really gender recognition with GOD? God is a Spirit and those who worship him must worship in Spirit. . .

    1. Susan says:

      So women are lesser beings?? Got it. Don’t you have a wife to beat for the crime of being female?

  26. Priscilla Bledsaw says:

    I look forward to reading this article. I have always felt that those who are uncertain of the validity of their claims are the ones who scream “Dont MAKE me look!!” at differing view points. Jesus was male. In the society into which he was born, being born female would have complicated an already difficult path. If the society into which he was born had been matriarchal with the males being the subservient property, its possible he might have been born female, but speculation on that is pretty pointless since that’s not the way it happened. I hope BAR will continue to publish articles exploring all viewpoints since only by knowing what other viewpoints are out there can we show their errors. Where would Grant have been if he had refused to sully his eyes with Lee’s battle plans?

  27. Christopher says:

    Moses spoke to Him face to face and He passed before his face. I take his word on it that ‘He’ and not ‘She’ was the appropriate descriptor.

  28. Hazel says:

    You seem to be locked into feminist notions. The LORD God is far above such manmade concepts. If He cares to portray Himself as masculine it is not for us to argue with Him or His son the Lord Jesus Christ.

  29. Jay says:

    To April:

    “In the beginning was the Word…”. This is the first phrase in the book that many believe to be first book of the NT. Look at
    http://www.thechristianrabbi.org/mosesmemra.htm

    The name, “Memra” is used commonly in the Targums, of which I have the complete collection in modern English available from the Liturgical Press.

    In the French version of the first chapter of the gospel of John, “the Word” is “la parole”.

    The definite article, “la” indicates
    feminine. Also, according to Klein’s Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language”, Memra is feminine.

  30. Bummer says:

    BAR has been a trustworthy resource but now I have to keep my guard up on the articles coming in. I’m not a scholar but I know when bad resources and weak arguments are made. Interesting she writes about misogyny (hatred or dislike of women) and calls it the serpent in the Garden when she uses the method to hate and dislike scholars like Ben Witherington. I like how she rocked the boat a little! Good job Ape!

  31. JAT Publications | Father of Lights and Mother of Breath — Again says:

    […] and sometimes I don’t read them.  But this one caught my eye, and I clicked on the link (http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/bible-interpretation/misogyny-in-the-bible/).  There I found a wonderful article by Biblical Studies professor April DeConick.  The full […]

  32. Matteo Lanata says:

    The Word of God does NOT espress mysoginy at any place.
    God blessed and enjoyed His creation at each and every step, so including man AND woman.
    In His image are both, not just one.
    So, there can be no claim by women, as of themselves, towards any “godly award”, same as there is none from male side. What would be the aim at, anyway? Aren’t we, or aren’t women, satisfied with the dignity that God set for us???

    It’s a fact that Jesus calls God Father (and not mother), but what are exactly the qualifying attributes of a Father in the Jewish culture and in the NT view?
    Stick to that and you’ll see that the quest towards a female (or a male) issue will disappear immediately, as it has no substance.

    To the Sadducees, cahllenging Him on a typical “male” (and female!) issue, Jesus answered there is no gender in Heaven (“like angels”!!), see Matthew 22:25-33.
    So, why even consider the gender issue about God??

    P.S.
    Or, you can turn to the Catholic church, where they worship an icon of Mary, as essential “stakeholder” of Redemption, if you need a “higher place” for women

  33. Brent says:

    I’ve never commented on an article at BAR, but I fear what BAR is publishing now. I’m at least glad to see a consensus here that this is sensationalist at best. I agree with Patrick and add further that this is precisely the reason Israel adopted a masculine linguistic – to remain separated from neighboring religions.. Especially those involving goddess worship, fertility rites, shrine prostitutes, etc. It seems a little absurd to have to point this out.

  34. Sarah says:

    @Stan I understand English is your second language, but perhaps a Spelling and Grammar Check program would be helpful? Also, you wrote, “We Jews, in antiquity.” How old are you anyway?

  35. Sarah says:

    I’m very disappointed in the scholarship of this article. Where are your citations? Your ignorance of Biblical history and of Greek and Hebrew is stunning. What you’re describing is the pagan worship that was tolerated in Israel until God’s people were finally broken of this sin through captivity, as well as some later Gnostic influences that did teach that woman were inferior, as in the faux-Gospel of Thomas. The Old Testament is resplendent with celebrated images of heroines of the faith: Sarah, Rebekah, Leah, Deborah, Esther, Jael, etc. Maybe we should stick to real academics.

  36. brian says:

    Always capitalize God stan

  37. Stan says:

    No question ancient Israelites worshiped female daity. There were thousands statues found around Jerusalem. I am enjoying the idiots above who take concept of god seriously. Once they insists that the make belive daity is gender based, it’s not a god but magician with few tricks up its sleeve. We Jews, in antiquity, never consider god a male or real lbut more of the concept to argue about. Even the name Israel is based on story of Jacob fighting with god.

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