Bits and ends in the beginning

I

1. Is God masculine?
2. No, but the language that we use ascribes masculine gender to the active, the pursuer rather than pursued. S. Lewis, in That Hideous Strength.
3. Dennis Prager in his Genesis commentary – the language convention is that masculine is used for a group that consists of both males and females. In this way, on the contrary, we avoid ascribing gender to God.
4. If we conceive God as the Father, the rule-maker, we tame the males in our society. It is convention to impress males with the authority of the rule-giver.
5. Presupposes a hierarchical world – simply works with the world as it was when the Bible was given.

II

1. Near Eastern Parallels
2. Compare code of Hamumurabi and Exodis
3. Some similarities, but crucial differences. Bible echoes the same or similar legal questions by deliberately transforms the legal principles in them to negate Hammurabian goal of preserving societal structure and to underscore that it works from the assumptions of justice and mercy. Barry Eichler in the Orthodox Forum Series -Modern approaches to the study of Torah.

III. Eye for an eye

1. The use of the word Tachat measn “instead”, rather than “for”. This arises from how Targum Onkelos translates this word here (as chalaf) rather than in other places (as tchos). (Y. Kassovsky, Otzar Lashon Onkelos, Introduction).

IV. Not only in the legal portions but also in the Creation story. Echoes of Near Eastern myths are invoked to show how the Bible completely transforms the narrative.

1. See from Adam to Noah, by Cassuto p. 8-9, 37-38

Comments

[Micha Berger]

Qabbalah's idea of gender is more initiator vs developer than pursuer vs pursued. Hashem created the world, left it for us to complete, so masculine gender fits for G-d more often than not.

There is another reason I think masculine fits. For nearly all of human history, including most homes even since feminism, dad leaves the house to provide while mom always stays near the kids. Thus, calling Hashem "our Father" better captures the tension between Divine Immanence and Transcendence than "our Mother" would.