The Nonbinary God

In the Hebrew Scriptures, God is portrayed most often as a male. This, of course, makes sense in the context of a very paternalistic and primitive society. Indeed, the entire Law (Torah, including the Ten Commandments) are most often addressed to MEN! Nevertheless, even in those ancient writings, we can discern the fact that Almighty God transcends our notions about gender.

Moreover, this suggestion of someone/something which transcends gender is found in the very first chapter of the book of beginnings, Genesis! We read there: "Then God said, 'Let us make man[h] in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.' So, God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." [h=The Hebrew word for man (adam) is the generic term for mankind and becomes the proper name Adam] (Genesis 1:26-27, ESV, emphasis mine) We see here that both God and man contained the elements of BOTH male AND female!

Many years ago, I posted on this blog an article titled Does God have a penis? It pointed out the absurdity of assigning an actual gender to God. After all, the passage that we just read made very clear that both genders (male and female) reflected Almighty God!

Before leaving the Hebrew Scriptures, we should also note that the paternalism evident in most of those writings is more of a reflection of the culture of both the land of Abraham's birth, and the land which had been promised to him and his descendants. In other words, it does NOT follow that this paternalism necessarily reflects God or "his" will for us. For example, while the law portrays a menstruating woman or new mother as being ceremonially unclean, it is self-evident that there is NOTHING inherently unclean about a woman in either one of these circumstances (After all, God designed a woman's body to work that way, and we are told that EVERYTHING that "he" had made was very GOOD! (Genesis 1:31) Likewise, although the Israelites were commanded NOT to covet your neighbor's wife, his servants, his livestock, or any other thing that belongs to him (Exodus 20:17, ESV, emphasis mine), I don't know of anyone who has proposed that the prohibition against coveting only applies to men!

In the New Testament Synoptic Gospels, there is a story about Jesus being asked about the resurrection. We are informed that he answered in part by telling his audience that people who experience the resurrection will not marry thereafter, and that they will be like the angels in this respect (Matthew 22:30, Mark 12:25, Luke 20:35). Apparently, those of us who will have the privilege of being a part of God's Kingdom will no longer have any need of that institution for a relationship or reproductive capacity.

In a similar vein, the Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians about a Christian's proper relationship with the Law (Torah). Indeed, he equated the status of not being under the law with being freed from supervision. He wrote: "But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise." (Galatians 3:25-29, ESV, emphasis mine) In other words, having believed and accepted what Christ has done for them, things like ethnicity, social status, and gender no longer matter! In Christ, there is no longer any need for one person lording it over another person (Matthew 20:25-28, ESV).

Unfortunately, there have been many folks within the ekklesia down through the centuries (male and female) who have tried to make this paternalism into a universal spiritual truth. It is clear, however, both historically and scripturally, that paternalism is a human invention - and a feature of human societies/cultures! Thus, many people have sought to make Paul's reference to not allowing women to speak in the gathering of the saints together (I Corinthians 14:34-35, I Timothy 2:11-12) into a feature of the Divine will. Of course, we know that such a notion would contradict Paul's own experience in the faith with Priscilla and Aquila (Acts 18, Romans 16:3)! Moreover, we know that Paul attributed Timothy's knowledge of Christianity to his mother and grandmother (II Timothy 1:5). So, I ask again: Was Paul reflecting (in these passages) an eternal spiritual principle applicable to all people everywhere in all times? OR Was Paul reflecting the paternalistic values of the society which produced him?

God and Jesus employed the guise of Father and Son, because they knew that the human cultures whom they were addressing would understand that language and imagery. In other words, their use of that imagery/symbolism did NOT mean that they were endorsing human notions of a paternalistic society! God is God. God is NOT bound by the roles and necessities which frame our existence! God is beyond gender. God does not need sexual reproduction. God doesn't have to urinate. Yes, God is a father and a son, but God is also a mother and a daughter. There is no such thing as primogeniture in God's realm. A person's gender has no bearing on his/her ability to inherit what his/her parent has prepared for him/her!

In short, our God is a nonbinary God. My search engine defines the "nonbinary" adjective in this way: "denoting, having, or relating to a gender identity that does not conform to traditional binary beliefs about gender, which indicate that all individuals are exclusively either male or female." Almighty God is NOT bound by our experiences of male and female! Our God cannot be contained!