One of the criticisms many people make against the Bible is that it depicts God in male terms.

The most obvious example is God is referred to as He.

Why did the Bible do this?

Well, here's the answer.

Because the Bible is preoccupied with making a kinder, less violent, more just world.

If you share these goals and I suspect you do, then you'll have to agree the Bible made

the right decision.

Before I explain, however, I need to add an obvious caveat.

The God of the Bible is neither male nor female.

God transcends gender.

What I'm talking about here is why God is depicted in male terms in the Bible.

Gender wise, the Bible had three choices.

Masculine, he, feminine, she, or neuter it.

We can readily rule out neuter for one thing, neuter nouns don't exist in Hebrew.

The language of the Old Testament, which after all, first introduced this God to us.

For another, the biblical God is a personal God, to whom we can and must relate.

And we cannot relate to let alone obey or love an it.

Aside from the language issue with the Bible, the picks God and masculine terms because

one, the Hebrew Bible's primary concern is making a good world.

Two, a good world can only be achieved by making good people.

And three, the people who commit nearly all the world's violence are males.

Therefore it is in both men's and women's interests to depict God in the masculine.

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