It seems clear that God uses male imagery to represent himself and that the Bible uses male language to refer to God. Disagreement exists as to whether or not we can refer to God as Mother or using female pronouns such as “She.” I refer to God as “Father” and “He” and will continue to do so in my day-to-day. Still, I believe that referring to God as “She,” “Mother,” or using feminine imagery to describe our Lord is entirely within the bounds of orthodoxy and can be justified biblically.
I affirm this, first of all, because I see feminine imagery used in reference to God in the Bible. The imagery of birthing and nursing infants that is explicitly feminine and motherly describes God’s relation to her people. Second, in Hebrew, the Spirit of God is grammatically feminine, meaning that feminine pronouns and feminine constructions of verbs in reference to God’s Spirit (who is fully God) are appropriate. Third, God is neither male nor female; but both the male and female forms are made in the image of God; both forms represent God on earth. Fourth, referring to God as Mother can be healing for some people.
Feminine imagery
Male imagery is used to describe God, such as God our Father and Jesus Christ being the son of God. But did you know that feminine imagery is also used to describe God? It may occur less frequently, but its mere occurrence is enough to justify using feminine language to describe God.
For example, Moses used feminine imagery to describe the burden of caring for the people of Israel.
“Moses heard the people of every family wailing at the entrance to their tents. The Lord became exceedingly angry, and Moses was troubled. He asked the Lord, ‘Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me? Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth? Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse carries an infant, to the land you promised on oath to their ancestors? Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me. If this is how you are going to treat me, please go ahead and kill me—if I have found favor in your eyes—and do not let me face my own ruin.’”
(Num 11:10-15, NIV)
We can infer from what Moses said that the burden was too heavy for a man to carry and that only God could bear it (pun intended). This feminine imagery can therefore be used to describe God who conceived, birthed, and nursed his people.
If you are not convinced that this feminine imagery used in this passage applies to God, it is used elsewhere more clearly:
You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you; you forgot the God who gave you birth.
(Deuteronomy 32:18 NRSV)
Our God is the God who bore us and gave birth to us; only women can bear and birth children. God is here described as a mother who gives birth. This is alongside male imagery to describe God:
“Is he not your Father, your Creator, who made you and formed you?”
(Deuteronomy 32:6, NIV)
God feels comfortable describing himself as a mother as well as a father. Jesus did talk about God as his Father, but we also see God acting as a mother and father in the Scriptures.
“As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.”
(Isaiah 66:13 NRSV)
Therefore, God can be both viewed as a mother and father simultaneously, and we can refer to him as such, in conformity with the scriptures.
Here are more examples of feminine imagery used to describe God:
“As the eyes of servants
look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maid
to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the Lord our God,
until he has mercy upon us.”
(Psalms 123:2, NRSV)
For a long time I have held my peace,
I have kept still and restrained myself;
now I will cry out like a woman in labor,
I will gasp and pant.
(Isaiah 42:14, NRSV)
Can a woman forget her nursing child,
or show no compassion for the child of her womb?
Even these may forget,
yet I will not forget you.
(Isaiah 49:15, NRSV)
“As a mother comforts her child,
so I will comfort you;
you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.”
(Isaiah 66:13, NRSV)
I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs,
and will tear open the covering of their heart;
there I will devour them like a lion,
as a wild animal would mangle them.
(Hosea 13:8, NRSV)
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!
(Mathew 23:37, NRSV, see also Luke 13:34)
“Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
(Luke 15:8-10, NRSV)
Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
(1 Peter 2:2-3, NRSV)
The feminine grammar used of God in the original languages of the Bible
Reading the book “Womanist Midrash” by Wilda C. Gafney, I encountered something I had never heard before: God’s Holy Spirit is a feminine word in ancient Hebrew. That means that feminine pronouns and feminine forms of verbs describing the Holy Spirit could be or are used in the Bible. Think of Genesis 1:2: “the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” “Hovering” is grammatically feminine, and the “Spirit” (of God) is feminine and can be replaced with the pronoun “She.” Doesn’t it sound different if we were to say in English:
“The Spirit of God, She was hovering over the waters.”
I must specify, however, that the grammatical gender of a noun does not make that object, thing, or person feminine. That God’s Spirit is a feminine word in Hebrew does not mean that God’s Spirit is feminine. Nor does referring to God as our Father make God masculine. What it does mean, however, is that using grammatically feminine or masculine constructions to talk about God is biblical. Therefore, we can refer to God’s Spirit as “She” because the feminine form is used in the original language to speak of God’s Spirit. And if we can refer to God’s Spirit as “She,” being Herself fully God, could we not then refer to God as “She”? I don’t see why not.
When we call God “He,” we are not saying God is male. In the same way, if we refer to God or God’s Spirit as “She,” it does not mean that God is female. God is neither male nor female. We shouldn’t limit who God is by only referring to him in male terms because God has chosen, on occasion, to reveal himself in feminine ways: as when God describes Herself as a mother who comforts her children (Is 66:13).
God is neither male nor female
Nowhere in the Bible, to my knowledge, is God said to be male. God is described as Father in both the old and new testament, and we refer to the Son of God as one of the three persons of the trinity, but these are images used to describe certain aspects of who God is. It does not mean that God is like a human father in every respect or that it refers to his maleness. God is the Father who begot us, and we are sons and daughters of God in Christ, his heirs. This is all valuable language to describe who God is, but it does not encompass all that God is. To leave out what could be considered as the feminine aspect of God is to reject a part of God as he has revealed himself to us.
For God said:
“Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.”
(Genesis 1:26-27, NIV)
Male and female are created in the image of God; both reflect who God is; both male and female bodies are God-like. Why could we not use feminine imagery or language to describe God if God himself created the female form in his image?
Using language that is healing for us
We can continue to use male imagery and pronouns to describe God, but no one should say that we cannot use female language to describe God, for it appears in the Holy Word of God. If it feels good to you to refer to God as your Mother, do so. God speaks of himself as a mother to us.
If referring to God as Father or Mother is painful because of some bad experiences in your life, refer to God in others ways, asking God for healing in this area and seeking counsel as needed.
Referring to God as Father or Mother can be helpful and healing, but other times may obscure who God is for you. There should be freedom in this area, as there is a variety of language used to described God for different circumstances.
Conclusion
We shouldn’t limit God by only speaking of him in male terms. We should talk about God in the various ways he has chosen to reveal himself. Imagery is useful but limited at the same time. God is described as a rock, but the image of a rock doesn’t contain all that God is.
They remembered that God was their Rock,
that God Most High was their Redeemer.
(Psalms 78:35, NIV)
If we can call God our Rock, why could we not call God our Mother? Is a mother so beneath a rock that it is an insult to God?
The imagery of God as our Father or Mother does not contain all that God is, but they both represent aspects of who God is and are both useful to describe Her. Using feminine language to speak about God can reveal aspects of who She is to us that we never noticed before. But we must remember that God is neither male nor female. To imagine God as male or as female is akin to idolatry; it should remain at the level of imagery and metaphors used to describe aspects of who God is.
“Since you saw no form when the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire, take care and watch yourselves closely, so that you do not act corruptly by making an idol for yourselves, in the form of any figure—the likeness of male or female […]”
(Deuteronomy 4:15-16, NRSV)
References
Boulais-Duong, Lindsey. “The Power of a Pronoun: How What We Call God Affects Everything.” From CBE International. October 08, 2019. https://www.cbeinternational.org/resource/article/mutuality-blog-magazine/power-pronoun-how-what-we-call-god-affects-everything
Briggs, Richard S. “Gender and God-Talk: Can We Call God ‘Mother’?” Themelios Volume 29, Issue 2. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/themelios/article/gender-and-god-talk-can-we-call-god-mother/
Dolan, Abigail. “Imagining a Feminine God: Gendered Imagery in the Bible.” Priscilla Papers Summer 2018 Volume 32, Number 3 July 30, 2018. https://www.cbeinternational.org/resource/article/priscilla-papers-academic-journal/imagining-feminine-god- gendered-imagery-bible
Schaupp, Joan P. “The Feminine Imagery of God in the Hebrew Bible.” Pricilla Papers. fall 2000, Volume 14, number 1. p.18 https://www.cbeinternational.org/issue/priscilla-papers-academic-journal/womens-roles-society-vs-church
