God's gender

Well, I suppose God must be male because:1) He defeated or otherwise overcame his female consort, Ashtarah; or in the possibility that God originally exhibited dual sexuality ...2) By the time of the Exodus, He came to find homosexuality so totally abhorant that He felt compelled to surpress his femine side maybe to set an example to us guys not to even dress in women's clothing.Anyway, it seems the evolved God of current Judeo-Christo-Islamism is firmly in the macho category shared by Zeus and other Hellenistic male warrior deities.This message has been edited by Abshalom, 01-05-2005 15:32 AM

God of the Hebrew Bible is masculine because the priests who defined and dictated the authorized version of the dogma had defeated the priests and priestesses who included the Canaanite goddess Asherah (Ishtar), consort of El Shaddai, broken down the Asherah poles, pulverized the goddess's altars, and otherwise banished the pagan, dual-diety sectarians. (See Hezekiah and Josiah stories.)

Arachnophilia: You said, "I'm interested in information on ishtar's relationship to el. i've heard of later thoughts of god having a female partner, and some relation to shekinah, but i'm rather unfamiliar in this area."Try this, only for starters:Encyclopedia Mythica