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From: watson@spock (Steve Watson)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism,talk.religion.misc
Subject: Feminine Biblical Images
Summary: 'hidden' feminine images
Message-ID: <4915@watson>
Date: 17 Oct 90 13:55:15 GMT
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I'm cross-posting to the religion group since the thread seems to be heading
that way.

A lot of people in my own church (United Church of Canada) would
say that Christianity is not, at base, inherently sexist (yes, I know
it's hard to separate the True Faith from the beliefs people actualy
hold), but that our view of God (as expressed for e.g. in the Bible)
is filtered through a patriarchal culture.  They say that many feminine
references are hidden by translation done under patriarchal assumptions,
or simply missed by lack of a good equivalent in the target language.
( I can't vouch for this myyself; I'm no language scholar.)

But an example I heard in a sermon a few weeks ago:

There is a Hebrew word which occurs throughout the Old Testament which
is variously translated as God's `compassion', 'lovingkindness', or 'mercy'.
The root of this word is the word for 'womb'.  So a (highly literal)
translation of this might be "God's womb-love for us".
It would be hard to imagine a more beautifully or intimately female image
of God than that.

I agree that there are definite problems, both in the way religious
institutions treat women, and in the source texts of western religions,
but I think the situation is not quite as black as some people think,
and there is hope for us yet.

==================================================================
"God of hovering wings, Womb and Birth of Time..."
-- 
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"Blame me, not the Company I keep..." - Steve Watson
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