God is not a man

  • Thread starter Thread starter simpleas
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
I have heard that people inthe Middle Ages claimed to hav that relic.
 
Even the 9 year old children I catechised knew intuitively that the Father is not an old beared man but like one full of wisdom, the Holy Spirit not a white dove or a tongue of fire but an energising personal force of love.

Not sure what is so hard to understand here.

I believe the made in image and likeness bit is not about the clay but the spirit.
That is both God and man have non material aspects in common.
i.e. personhood, intelligence, the ability to choose and love.

Nothing too difficult.

Also we can of course say that God is Man by the principle of concomitance I think it is called.
That is because the person of Jesus is both God and Man we can rightly say that in Him God is Man. Just as we can say Mary is not only the mother of a man but also of God - because Jesus is also God and we give birth to persons not just human nature.

But we cannot say Jesus is a human person. He is a divine person.
 
Last edited:
steve-b said:
Just curious, Who taught you that ?
Click to expand...
Probably taught it by the sisters in school or I read it somewhere over the years (I read a lot) or both. I’m going by memory and hope I’m not wrong.
 
These words of the Catechism teach me not to get anthropomorphic about God .

“God transcends all creatures. We must therefore continually purify our language of everything in it that is limited, image-bound or imperfect, if we are not to confuse our image of God–“the inexpressible, the incomprehensible, the invisible, the ungraspable”–with our human representations. Our human words always fall short of the mystery of God…”
 
simpleas said:
Glad it amused you 😃

Yes, but I was not comparing God to anything!

I was questioning/pondering why we have depicted God as a human…

Ok, I’ll give up pondering about God :+1:t2:
Click to expand...
Didn’t mean my post as critical. It is just that God is so unknowable to the human mind, that our using our very limited mentality vis-vis the omnipotence of G-d, I just find any discussion of it, amusing, in the way I would find a kindergarten class trying to solve differential calculus equations. We can only believe … and love.
Shalom
 
I’m sure the scripture writers found it all too amusing as well, good job they stopped laughing and started writing.
 
Seems some of us need to depict God as a human man in order to relate to God. I think the early paintings had the ‘hand’ of God shown (still human) then onto the human, God father.

Thanks all for your comments. 😃
 
Some history…from wiki FWIW.

“For about a thousand years, in obedience to interpretations of specific Bible passages, pictorial depictions of God in Western Christianity had been avoided by Christian artists. At first only the Hand of God, often emerging from a cloud, was portrayed. Gradually, portrayals of the head and later the whole figure were depicted, and by the time of the Renaissance artistic representations of God the Father were freely used in the Western Church.”

en.wikipedia.org

God the Father in Western art - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
The Bible refers to God as “He”/“Him.” Jesus refers to God as “Father.” Therefore, I refer to Him in the masculine.
 
So do you think of God the father as a man? Or just using the noun as a familiar language but not necessarily how you would explain a pure spirit?
 
phil19034 said:
40.png
simpleas:
So why are there paintings and pictures that depicted God as a male human. E.G - the Trinity paintings with Jesus as son/male human, the spirit as a dove, and God as a human man?
Click to expand...
Because Jesus is a man and because Jesus taught us about God the Father. He didn’t say “God the Mother.”

Jesus taught that we have a Triune God in Father, Son & Holy Spirit.

It’s just that simple. I pray this is helpful.

God bless
Click to expand...
I think this explanation is good enough. We know God as how Jesus speaks of Him. Other than that God is beyond our human grasp and understanding. It is futile to figure out God which has not been revealed.
 
No, I don’t think of God the Father as a man. God the Father is Spirit. Technically, Spirit has no gender, male or female, as we understand it. But because Jesus refers to Him in the masculine and so does the Bible (John 4:24), I’m not going to worry about the how or why but will continue to refer to God as I always have as “He,” “Him,” and most of all, as “Father.”

Jesus, of course, is a Divine Person, with two natures, both God and human. His human nature was male.
 
Because if we’re approaching it from a theological perspective, every time that God has revealed himself in scripture he has always used male attributes. Therefore, when Catholic artists try and depict the Trinity, they typically follow such a pattern.
 
Matthew1618 said:
Because if we’re approaching it from a theological perspective, every time that God has revealed himself in scripture he has always used male attributes. Therefore, when Catholic artists try and depict the Trinity, they typically follow such a pattern.
Click to expand...
But what of proverbs 8 and 9 ?

I have heard wisdom described as the mind of Christ,but wisdom in proverbs is described in the feminine as She.
 
“Wisdom” is not a member of the Holy Trinity. “Wisdom” is but an attribute of God, created by him as one of the greatest attributes one can pursuit. To personify it is to speak allegorically, not literally. You asked about why the persons of the Trinity are presented as Male, and the reason why is because every time God is revealed or speaks, He is presented with male pronouns and attributes.
 
“Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am” This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”

The burning bush might have been a form God appeared in, but the Lord himself is addressed by male pronouns, which he accepts.
 
Matthew1618 said:
“Wisdom” is not a member of the Holy Trinity. “Wisdom” is but an attribute of God, created by him as one of the greatest attributes one can pursuit. To personify it is to speak allegorically, not literally. You asked about why the persons of the Trinity are presented as Male, and the reason why is because every time God is revealed or speaks, He is presented with male pronouns and attributes.
Click to expand...
Allegorically speaking God as he, not literally a he, because God is pure spirit. So depicted God as a human man is only for our benefit. And this takes away any thought of God in the feminine.
Wisdom, Sophia seems to describe apart of God that we should seek.
 
Proverbs 8 describes Sophia (Wisdom) as a creation of God and just a mere attribute that is worthy of pursuing. When Sophia is “speaking” it is simply that, allegorical. However, God clearly prefers male titles and pronouns, even though he is spirit and transcends sex and gender. Sophia might be a metaphorical incarnation of divine wisdom, but again, you asked about why the Godhead is always depicted as male, and the reason being is because God identifies himself in scripture with male pronouns (John 3:16), titles (Isaiah 64:8; Matthew 28:19), and through the incarnation of his Son, Christ. We know from scripture that God is all of his attributes, yet Proverbs 8-9 is clearly personifying Wisdom in a metaphorical sense, seeing as the character of “Sophia” tells the reader several times that “she” is separate from the Lord. However, God has identified himself as male for the purposes of revealing himself to us, and that’s why we depict him as such.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top