Quote:
Originally Posted by Basilissa
Good stuff...
Of interest in this passage is the switching between plural and singular.
God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him
Male singular. We can argue that "man" includes both male and female, but what follows is the singular male pronoun. We can safely assume that God created only the male version of human in His own image, especially when we look at the rest of the verse:
male and female created he them.
Only now we see a plural pronoun, and it's in the sentence which only references the act of creation and not the fact of being an image of God.
We might wait for Dr. White to weigh in with his linguistic knowledge about the Hebrew original (Paging Dr. White... Paging Dr. White!) (I always wanted to say this), but in the meantime, it's safe to assume that only males are God's image. Which is kinda logical given that God is male, not female. Duh.
---more Good Stuff...
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Sister Basilissa, sorry for the delayed reply but I was
praying. However,
Jesus caused a slight irritation that I felt on my knees that informed me that I was needed to guide a sinner to the
Light that is
Jesus (John 1:4).
OK, let us discuss
Genesis 1:27, from the
Leningrad Codex:
וַיִּבְרָ֨א אֱלֹהִ֤ים ׀ אֶת־הָֽאָדָם֙ בְּצַלְמֹ֔ו בְּצֶ֥לֶם אֱלֹהִ֖ים בָּרָ֣א
אֹתֹ֑ו זָכָ֥ר וּנְקֵבָ֖ה בָּרָ֥א
אֹתָֽם׃
You can see in
red and
blue bold typeface the words in question.
1. ’ō-ṯōw; or
אֹתֹ֑ו as the Masoretics wrote it. It contains the
את stem that is the preposition or particle for accusative (object). Unlike English but similar to some other obscure languages, such as Welsh*), the Hebrew particles can
conjugate. In addition to conjugating for
person (1. person plural, 2. person singular,
etc.), they also conjugate for
sex (masculine/feminine) in the second and third persons. This helps us to distinguish if
God meant men or women in the verse above.
2.
אֹתֹ֑ו is singular (definitely) and
אֹתָֽם (’ō-ṯām) is definitely plural. Now, for the convenience of our ignorant guest, let us look at the
whole conjugation (I don't include the vocalizations as the consonants differ enough for you to see that the different genders indeed have different endings) of this preposition:
me אותי
you אותך
you אותך
him
אותו
her אותה
us אותנו
you אתכם
you אתכן
them אותם
them
אותם
Indeed, we can see that
the first occurrence is masculine. The image -
him, not her.
This is just another example of
cognitive dissonance. Our new friend is probably in
denial, reacts to seeing the powerful Words of
God that tell us about the
Way (John 14:6) how things should be by simple disregard, and desperately seeks to maintain her
status quo by referring
only to verses she likes. Let us look at a beautiful verse as follows:
1 Corinthians 11:9
Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.
Clear cross-referencing to
Genesis 2 and by that way to
Genesis 1 (as
Genesis 2 supplements
Genesis 1). Now it is time Ms. Helper assessed this verse. Do the verses that in her opinion indirectly oppose this verse
refute it completely? If they do,
how does she choose the verses she obeys? The passages she quoted are obscure when taken out of context, but the verse above is clear.
Women were Created for men. It establishes a
hierarchy. If we didn't have the
Bible, we would have
no choice but to accept women as electricians and airline captains if and when they had the talent and capability to work in those professions. We would be obliged to distribute tasks based on
qualifications, education and performance, and it would seem the right thing to do. But as we do have the Bible,
we know better. Let us not let the apparent
brilliance of a female scholar deceive us. God does not want them performing such tasks. They
demean women, whose purpose is to generate new soldiers for
Christ!
1 Timothy 2:15
Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.
This is a question of
Salvation. Childbearing is the women's key to the
Gates of Heaven. Why would our new friend want to take that away from the more feeble sex?
Yours in Christ,
Elmer
* Similarly, the Welsh preposition conjugates, for example, the proposition "at" (which, inexplicably, means"to" or "toward" in American)
ataf i
atat ti
ato e / ati hi (Yes, genders conjugate, even the Welsh know it!)
aton ni
atoch chi
atyn nhw