34. FEMININE IMAGES FOR
GOD IN THE BIBLE
Bonni Belle-Pickard
Introduction:
The women who worked along side men on the
construction site today all over India received less wages than the men
though they did the same work.
Other women who stayed at home to work did jobs that
were unseen, unpaid, and often unappreciated.
The new hymn sung at church on Sunday had 12
references to God as "He." No other word was used more frequently
than "he" in that hymn.
It is explained that men need more money because
they have a family to support, and that it's appropriate to address God
as "he" because "that's what Scripture says."
These are small examples of what is heard
everyday. These are also examples of ignorance--both of the worth
of women and of what scripture actually says.
As the modern secular world begins to widen its
understandings of gender equality, it hears from the Church messages
which link Christianity with it's so called "masculine" god of
patriarchal repression. It is becoming increasingly apparent that
the longer we Christians cling to a "male" God, the further we will be
from understanding both God and women. As such, we find ourselves
with very little to offer to the women and men who no longer find a
relationship with a "male" God attainable.
It is time to look again at scripture to dig out the
hidden, almost forgotten feminine images of God. It is time to
supplement our traditional understanding of God as "Almighty," "King,"
"Father," "Ruler," "Mighty in Battle," "One to be Feared" with
scriptural understandings of God as "Mother," "Loving Spirit,"
“Life Giver” and "Sustainer". We may even find that
"leaning on the everlasting arms" may refer to female arms!
Indeed, though we ultimately understand that God,
being God, is beyond gender, understanding that femaleness is a part of
"the image of God" can expand both our understanding of God and our
appreciation of females.
In the Image of God:
What is God's image? Scripture describes God
as "rock," "lily of the valley," "rose of Sharon," "fortress," "honey,"
and a wide variety of other images. Each image helps us
understand a bit more about God, though none of these is totally God.
For us as humans, the searching for images takes a
different turn as we are told early on in Genesis that we are "created
in the image of God." As we begin looking for the human images of
God in scripture, we find "eyes" and "ears," "feet" and "fingers,"
"hearts," and "minds" and "mouths." These images help us to
understand that "seeing" and "hearing," "walking," "feeling,"
"thinking," and "speaking" are functions that women as well as men
share with the Divine. One begins to wonder why some of these
have become assigned only to males; a woman, "created in the image of
God" cannot think or speak out, only hear and feel?
Interestingly enough, scripture also refers to God
in images which relate exclusively to the female body. Our first
exploration will be in the scriptural references to God's "womb" and
"breasts."
God's Womb:
God's creative womb is mentioned in Jeremiah 31:20,
and Job 38:29, though translators have often shed away from translating
the words as such! Deut. 32:18 refers to "the God who gave you
birth," while in Is. 46:3-4, God says, "[you] have been borne by me
from your birth, carried from the womb... I have made and I will bear,
I will carry and I will save" (NRSV).
The womb is a place of creation. Indeed, the
first Creation story in Gen. 1:1-2 describes a most womb-like setting,
complete with darkness and waters. There God's spirit is first
found brooding over the waters. The Hebrew word for this brooding
"spirit" is "ruah", a feminine noun in a language that has few feminine
nouns!
The Hebrew lexicon definitions for the "ruah"
include: breath, spirit, wind, sign and symbol of life, animation,
vivacity, vigor, courage, patience, prophetic spirit, spirit of God,
divine wisdom [Brown] These are strong feminine words for
life-giving, life-sustaining Spirit/Breath of God. And this is
how God is first encountered in the scriptures: a creative Spirit,
animating life, courage, patience and wisdom.
The Hebrew word for "womb" is from the same root as
the spirit/breath word: "ruah" becomes "rechem" (womb). In the
plural form, the word means "compassion," "love," and "mercy," while
the adjective "rachum" means "merciful." [Smith] Yes, we've heard
these attributes of God before, but have we recognized them as
feminine? Does God become any less powerful in our eyes when we
recognize these feminine characteristics?
God's Breasts:
The image of God having breasts has been all but
obliterated in our present scriptures, but a hint of it is there in the
often repeated Old Testament name for God, “El-Shaddai.” Though most
modern English translations give this name as "God Almighty," several
scholars point out that the Hebrew root was probably "Shadu", meaning
breast. "Images" imply "imagination," perhaps one of the most
basic of our creative powers. It doesn't take too much
imagination to see how the "breast" image was changed to mean
"mountain," which eventually evolved into "God Almighty." [Biale]
But if we look at the way El-Shaddai is used in the
Old Testament, the breast image often makes more sense. In
Genesis, the term, El-Shaddai, is used six times, and five of these
refer to fertility!
Gen 17:1 God speaks to Abraham (at age 99) and
promises fertility.
Gen 28:3 Isaac speaks to Jacob, again promising
fertility.
Gen 35:11 God speaks to Jacob - promises fertility.
Gen 43:14 Jacob speaks to his sons, asking them to
bring back Joseph from Egypt.
Gen 48:3 Jacob speaks to Joseph - fertility
promised.
Gen 49:25 Jacob says to Joseph, "El Shaddai will
bless you with blessings of heaven above...
blessings of the breasts and of the womb."
What are those blessings of the breasts and the
womb"? Already we have seen the creative, life-giving Spirit
connection with the womb. In Is. 66:12-13, we get a further
vision of the "blessings of the breasts" as God is described to Israel:
".... you shall nurse and be carried on her arm and dandled on her
knees, as a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you."
Deut. 32:10 tells of God who "shielded, cared for ... fed..."
Israel. The comforting, nourishing, life-sustaining love of God
is a feminine image we must not abandon! How much more we should
appreciate these attributes in those around us made in God's image!
God as Mother:
In addition to the physical feminine attributes,
scripture also portrays God as Mother. Consider the poetic voice
of God in Hosea 11, "When Israel was a child, I loved him... I was to
them like those who lift infants to their cheeks, I bent down to them
and fed them... How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand
you over, O Israel? .... my compassion grows warm and tender..."
The Psalmist, in Ps. 131:2, says, "But I have calmed and quieted my
soul, like a weaned child with its mother.....” The image of God
as Mother enlarges the parent/creator image so often restricted by our
cultural understandings implicit in the Father God terminology.
God as Provider:
Scripture goes on to expand the "feminine role" of
God past motherhood. God is also portrayed in the traditionally
feminine roles of provider of food, drink, and clothing. In the
Exodus, God provided manna and "water from the rock". The
Psalmist of Ps. 36:8 reminds God that "all people... feast on the
abundance of your house and you give them drink..." In Genesis 3,
God makes clothes for the naked man and woman thereby showing a spirit
of caring and sustaining. . Job recognizes that God "clothed me...
granted me life and steadfast love.. cared for me" (Job 10:11).
Nehemiah reminds God that "[you] gave manna and water.. you sustained
them... their clothes did not wear out." And Jesus tells his
disciples to look at the birds and the lilies of the field to find the
One who will care for them. "Solomon in all his glory was not
clothed like one of these..... will God not also clothe and feed you?"
(Mt. 6:28-29).
God as Housekeeper and Midwife:
Luke 15:8-10 goes further to depict God as
Housekeeper, in the image of a woman who sweeps and cleans her whole
house to find a lost coin. From this we learn that God is
concerned both about making a home livable and about seeking and
finding the least and lost of us.
God, imaged in the female role of Midwife, is found
in several texts: Psalm 22:9-10, "You took me from the womb... on you I
was cast from my birth." Psalm 71:6, "it was you who took me from
my mother's womb." Is. 66:9. "‘... shall I open the womb
and not deliver?’ says the Lord, ‘shall I the one who delivers
shut the womb?’ says your God." This image expands our notion of
God, combining God's creative, life-giving spirit with a caring spirit
that seeks to assist in giving birth to life.
God in other Female Roles:
Lest we think of feminine images of God only in
relation to human femaleness, we find several images of God as female
animals. Duet. 32:11-12 describes God's caring as a mother eagle:
"[God] sustained him...shielded him, cared for him.... as an eagle
stirs up its nest, and hovers over its young, as it spreads its wings,
takes them up and bears them aloft on its pinions." In Hosea, God
is even described as a mother bear protecting the cubs she has just
fed: "I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs" (Hos
13:5-8). These fierce, protecting images of God strengthen both
our concepts of God and of the caring parent.
Jesus' Feminine Role:
In Luke 13:34, Jesus speaks of himself in the
feminine role of a mother hen: "How often have I desired to gather your
children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings!" (Lk
13:34) Indeed, God in the person of Jesus Christ gives us many
glimpses of the feminine image of God. Jesus welcomes children,
speaks to women shunned by the men, washes feet with a towel and basin,
serves breakfast after his resurrection, and even weeps. If there
was any doubt before that God affirms all these parts of the divine
image in us, certainly the Person of Jesus shows us graphically that
the feminine is "very good"!
Life:
Indeed God's proclamation of "very good" comes only
at the end of the creation story, when Woman had at last been created
"in the image of God" (Gen 1:27, Gen 5:1-2). Until then, God had
pronounced all that had been created as "good," but finally the
creation of the female warranted "very good."
The word, "Eve," actually comes from the Hebrew word
meaning "life." Perhaps that is one of the strongest messages we
get from studying the feminine images of God. "Life" is "very
good." As we consider the feminine images of God we have
explored: Breath, Spirit, Provider, Sustainer, Keeper of the Home,
Creator, Life-giver, Deliverer, we find all these images point back to
the divine spark of Life.
As we affirm the "very good" in Life and in the
feminine, we find ourselves no longer willing to think of God
exclusively in terms of the violent "conqueror" male images of
scripture. Perhaps these masculine images had more importance in
days when physical strength was necessary for daily survival.
These male images have much less use for us today when the major
"giants" that threaten us have to do with relationships and providing
sustainable life for all, even the least and the lost.
Conclusion:
It is time to widen our vision to see the "very
good" in the femininity of God, and the "very good" in those created in
the feminine image of God.
It is time to appreciate the importance of female
roles in giving birth, caring, sustaining, nourishing, protecting, and
time to value female "service" occupations such as nursing and teaching
as highly as male "service" occupations such as military or
governmental "service."
Perhaps recognizing the feminine in the Divine will
even come to mean that sustaining life is a more important "protection"
than that of war and killing.
And perhaps recognizing the Divine in the feminine
will mean that females, too, are free to use all those human faculties
attributed to being "created in the image of God." Women will be
expected to hear and see and know and think.
And men will be freed as well to create, sustain,
care, weep, nourish, and be fully alive.
Questions for Discussion:
1. Why do we rarely hear of feminine images of God?
2. What feminine images for God help expand your
understanding of God?
3. How do feminine images of God expand your
appreciation of women?
4. How do feminine images of God expand your ideas
about roles for men?
5. Why is it important to have both feminine and male
images of God?
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Biale, David, "The God with Breasts: El Shaddai in the
Bible," in History of Religions 21/3 (Feb 1982).
Brown, Driver, Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon of the
Old Testament. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1951.
Hiebert, Frances F, "Imagery for God in the Old Testament,"
Priscilla Papers. Vol. 6, Nos. 2-3, Spring-Summer
1992, St. Paul, MN.
Smith, Paul R., Is It Okay to Call God "Mother",
Considering the Feminine Face of God. Henrickson,
Mass: Peabody, 1993.