or maybe just master.Technically, gender is an artifact of linguistics. Sex is an attribute of biology. Thus a boat may have feminine gender in English and masculine gender in French; or book is masculine in French but feminine in Russian. Boats and books do not have sex. Animals may be sexually differentiated. A lot of people use the word gender when they should say sex - some because they forget sex may be a noun and not just a verb. Or they are just embarrassed to use the word sex.
I respect your position on this, but I think it’s wrong to say that men are stronger than women. They are physically stronger than women, but not necessarily objectively stronger in other senses. Women have a strength of their own that is proper to their sex. An angel with the strengths of a woman would be properly depicted as feminine. An angel with the strengths of a man would be properly depicted as masculine. Besides, as other posters have pointed out, angels have been depicted as feminine in the Bible, and Mary is considered “Queen of Heaven.” I think that makes her stronger than you.
No doubt, women have strength, and greater strength than men in areas proper to their sex… but that is exactly my point if you recall. Since we were talking about the differences between the genders and the representation of angels as either female or male based upon the characteristics thereof, I assumed that all would understand my use of the term “stronger” to be in reference to physical strength. As you recognized in your post, this physical strength is more proper to men than to women.I respect your position on this, but I think it’s wrong to say that men are stronger than women. They are physically stronger than women, but not necessarily objectively stronger in other senses. Women have a strength of their own that is proper to their sex. An angel with the strengths of a woman would be properly depicted as feminine. An angel with the strengths of a man would be properly depicted as masculine. Besides, as other posters have pointed out, angels have been depicted as feminine in the Bible, and Mary is considered “Queen of Heaven.” I think that makes her stronger than you.
Being they consist of pure spirit, do angels really have gender?
The Angels are both created, &, are spirits: as we are creatures of God with them, this tells us something about them. ##
Heh. I think I understand your point. I just don’t view all angels as having masculine roles. Like I said earlier, it seems valid to believe that some are not necessarily warriors, and even that some have distinctly feminine roles.No doubt, women have strength, and greater strength than men in areas proper to their sex… but that is exactly my point if you recall. Since we were talking about the differences between the genders and the representation of angels as either female or male based upon the characteristics thereof, I assumed that all would understand my use of the term “stronger” to be in reference to physical strength. As you recognized in your post, this physical strength is more proper to men than to women.
No doubt that Mary is a more powerful mediator than I, but if she were here, and she didn’t have any Divine aid, I bet I could beat her in an arm wrestling match.
God bless,
Agricola
I agree. My intention is not to rule out the possibility of there being angels with feminine roles. I merely observe that the limited knowledge we have of angels points to typically masculin roles for those angels which have been revealed to us.
Since angels could take whatever physical form that was appropriate for the task which they were assigned, there is a possibility that angels could or have appeared as female. As Daniel Marsh said, the passage in Zacharias could be interpreted so that the women with wings are angels as well as the angel the author speaks to (Zacharias is a very interesting book by the way. For someone who has some time to spend on study and prayer-driven contemplation, it is a fruitful one to read.
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