What is Androgyny?
Our definition
I have recently been told that some people have a very negative connotation of the word androgyny. The word, in some peoples’ minds, is connected with child trafficking and grooming children for sexual abuse. It seems that the recent promotion of transgenerism in public schools was to blur the lines between the genders and, therefore, empower sexual abusers.
I cannot say if this theory is correct or not. What I can say is that when this website uses the word androgyny, it has NOTHING to do with the abuse of children. In fact, the true nature of the word androgyny has nothing to do with gender and everything to do with energy.
We contend that God is androgynous, a blend of both masculine and feminine energy. We also feel that the goal of people is to be no longer separated from God but to return to God. This means that people’s energy will eventually change and become androgynous, just as God’s energy is androgynous.
I realize that claiming that God is androgynous can be jarring for many people. The Bible is the cornerstone of Western civilization since the Judeo-Christian traditions prevail. The God of the Old Testament is always referred to with male pronouns, which allows us to believe that God is male. Furthermore, in thousands of Bible illustrations, God is again always male. However, after reading the Bible carefully, one discovers the assumption is incorrect. The first chapter of Genesis reveals the true nature of God.
After God finished creating the universe and everything on Earth, he focused on creating a human being. Genesis 1:26 reads:
26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness….
God decided that humans should look like him. Yet the wording of this verse raises a question: why does it contain the plural pronouns us and our? Who is this referring to? The Bible teaches there is only one God. So, is God talking to some angels, or is there another reason? These questions remain without a definite answer.
We continue reading. Genesis 1:27 reads:
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
God created man “in his own image,” which is “male and female.” This verse suggests that God is not male but is androgynous. The Oxford Universal Dictionary defines androgynous as:
Uniting the (physical) characters of both sexes.[1]
I have studied 252 different translations of the Old Testament. I have observed that translators have made some rather unique and curious word choices to translate Hebrew words, which is the original language of the Old Testament. So, I was curious how the phrase male and female was translated. Here are my findings:
| GENESIS CHAPTER 1 VERSE 27 |
| זָכָר /zakar (male) נְקֵבָה /nĕqebah (female) | |||
| Bible | Date | Phrase | # of Bibles |
| EWYC | 1384 | male and female | 231 |
| ARATN | 1987 | male and his partner | 1 |
| ETHJ | 1862 | male and his yoke-fellow | 1 |
| LIV | 1971 | man and maid | 1 |
| KNOX | 1944 | man and woman | 2 |
| CEV | 1995 | men and women | 2 |
| POLA | 2003 | omee and palone | 1 |
| RAY | 1799 | one man and his wife | 1 |
| SAWY | 1861 | Not Translated | 12 |
| 8 Variations[2] | |||
In this chart, we discover that 231 (of 252) Bible translators rendered זָכָר /zakar as male and נְקֵבָה /nĕqebah as female. The words maid, wife, partner, and yoke-fellow all suggest inequality with the male. The phrase yoke-fellow highlights this inequality, indicating the woman is absolutely subservient, similar to an ox pulling a plow rather than an equal partner to the male.
While the concept of an androgynous God may feel strange to most people, there are several sources in Judaism, the Midrash, “rabbinical homiletical interpretations,”[3] and Zohar, a book of “mystical interpretations”[4] of Torah, which support this theory.
In her book, The Book of Lilith, Dr. Barbara Koltuv, a clinical psychologist,[5] makes the following comment after quoting Genesis 1:27 and 2:7:
Here, both Adam or man, and God are androgynous.[6]
She then quotes a Hungarian historian[7], Raphael Patai’s book, Gates to the Old City: A Book of Jewish Legends. Patai quotes Genesis Rabbah, a Midrash of the Bible’s first book. Patai writes:
Adam the Androgyne
Thou hast formed me from the back and the front (Ps. 139:5).[8]
Yirm’ya ben El’azar said: “In the hour in which the Holy One, blessed be He, created Adam the first man, He created him as an androgyne. This is meant by what is written, Male and female created He them, and called their name Adam (Gen. 5:2).” (Genesis Rabbah 8:1)[9]
Dr. Arthur Frederick Ide, assistant professor of European studies at the University of San Diego,[10] agrees:
In the earliest records, Yahweh was both androgynous and hermaphroditic.[11]
The Zohar (1 34b) says that … Adam actually comprised both male and female. The female was attached to the side of the male until after Adam named all the animals.[14]
According to Genesis 2:18, when God saw that Adam was lonely, God decided to detach the female side from Adam, thus creating two separate human beings. If people accepted this concept of God splitting the female side away from the male, this would indicate that men and women were equal, thus denying men any justification for controlling women!
Now, we will examine how the Bible describes the creation of Eve, the first woman. The story begins in Genesis 2:21, which reads:
And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;[15]
We will focus on the crucial word rib, which is צֵלָע/tsela‘ in Hebrew. 92% of Bibles translate צֵלָע/tsela ‘as rib. However, צֵלָע/tsela‘ can correctly be translated using several other English words. They are: [the number to the right of each word indicates the number of times it appears in the English KJV (both the Old and New Testaments)].
side 19, chamber 11, boards 2, corners 2, rib 2, another 1, beams 1, halting 1, leaves 1,
planks 1; 41 [times in total][16]
Please note the KJV Bible translates צֵלָע /tsela’ as rib ONLY Twice, and both occur in this chapter [Genesis 2:21 and 2:22]!
GENESIS CHAPTER 2 VERSE 21
| צֵלָע /tsela | |||
| Bible | Date | Phrase | # of Bibles |
| EWYC | 1384 | ribs | 221 |
| BELL | 1818 | side | 3 |
| OGD | 1950 | bones | 2 |
| HLYNB | 1963 | womb | 1 |
| HIRS | 1989 | sides | 8 |
| CLEAR | 2000 | rib | 1 |
| WOTS | 2003 | ribectomy | 1 |
| LTOG | 2006 | sidenesses | 1 |
| INCP | 2007 | divided the earth creature in two, | 1 |
| TTS | 2008 | tzalelot (side chambers) | 2 |
| SWHI | 2012 | ribs [sides] | 1 |
| SAWY | 1861 | Not Translated | 10 |
| 11 Variations[17] | |||
It is interesting that it was not until 1818 (207 years after the KJV) that a Bible translator first used the word side. Then, it was an additional 132 years until the next translator came up with a new word bones to translate צֵלָע/tsela ‘.
The ambiguity of the word צֵלָע/tsela’, meaning both rib and side, exists in other languages besides Hebrew.
The earliest rendering of [t]séla ‘as “rib” is by the Greek translators of the Pentateuch in the mid—third century BCE. They used [πλευρά] pleura, a word commonly indicating “rib,” but also “side” as in the side of a person…. The “rib” understanding entered the European tradition through Jerome’s use of Latin costa, meaning “rib” or “side,” in the Vulgate—the Latin version of the Bible used by the Roman Catholic Church—and became fixed there by interpretive translations from Latin into other languages using unambiguous “rib” words in the target languages.[18]
This would explain why John Wycliffe used the word rib in his translation (EWYC, the very first English translation of the Bible) and how that became the pervasive word in English Bibles.
The Implications of צֵלָע /tsela’ Translated as Side instead of Rib
The Hebrew word צֵלָע/tsela ‘can be correctly translated as rib or side in English, and this is also true in the parallel word πλευρά/pleura in Greek and costa in Latin. Yet, words have specific meanings, and the choice of words matters. Choosing the word rib or side in this verse carries tremendously different connotations and messages.
Thus, the term [צֵלָע] sela gave rise to two traditions concerning woman’s origins: (1) that she was fashioned out of a “rib” and (2) that she was taken/separated from the “side” of the ‘adam.[19]
The messages derived from the word rib vs side are extreme opposites. For if rib is correct, it implies that women were a secondary thought and thus inferior to men. If side is correct, then women are equal to men.
If we understand [צֵלָע] sela’ as rib, then it could be argued that woman was created after man, from man. While some assume that this makes woman’s creation derivative and secondary…. If we understand [צֵלָע] sela’ as side or if we see in this verse sexual differentiation (the creation of man and woman from a single androgynous being), then we might conclude that this verse describes a simultaneous rather than sequential creation. Since neither the man’s creation nor the woman’s creation would then precede the other, neither man nor woman could argue for superiority based on the order of creation.[20]
Phyllis Trible explains in her book God: And the Rhetoric of Sexuality that
God does not give [הָֽאָדָם] hā’ādām power over the woman.[21]
Using Genesis 2:21 as Justification for Men to Suppress Women
Theologians and religious leaders have used the Bible story of God using Adam’s rib to create Eve as justification for men controlling and subjugating women, which prevented women from being equal to men. It is no coincidence that Jerome was credited with being the first to use the word rib in the Bible’s story of the creation of Eve.
The description of the woman made from the man’s “rib” has led to the mistaken conclusion that women are inferior to men because they originate from one small part of the male anatomy. Yet the Hebrew word צלע (tsela) does not mean “rib,” but rather “side. “… when God takes one tsela from the man to make the woman, Eve comes from an entire side of Adam’s body, not a single rib.[25]
Charles John. Ellicott agrees with this theory in his book Elliot’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: A Verse by Verse Explanation:
One of his ribs—The word is never translated rib except in this place, but always side, flank. This is the true meaning also of the Latin word by which it is rendered in the Vulgate, costa…. Both the Greek and Syriac also translate by words which primarily signify the side, but derivatively the rib. Woman was not formed out of one of man’s many ribs, of which he would not feel the loss. She is one side of man; and though he may have several sides to his nature and character, yet without woman one integral portion of him is wanting.[26]
God intended that women were to be equal to men.
The primordial couple in Genesis represents God’s vision of equality and complementarity between the genders.[27]
The Austrian National Library houses a manuscript of the Bible hand-written by scribes and beautifully illustrated.
The illustrations in this manuscript are magnificent.
The illustration of God creating the world and Eve, are fascinating and somewhat unique. God is depicted with two heads! Is this the illustrator’s way of saying that God was of a dual nature, both male and female?
Furthermore, it is crystal clear in this manuscript’s illustration that God birthed Eve from Adam’s side, not using his rib at all. This clearly demonstrates the illustrator’s knowledge of the pervasive translation of the Hebrew word צֵלָע/tsela’ as side, NOT rib!
Footnotes
[1] Murray, James A. H.; Little, William; Onions, C. T. The Oxford Universal Dictionary: on Historical Principles. 3d ed. Rev., with addenda. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1955. p. 65.
[2] EWYC –– Forshall, Josia, Rev., F. R. S. Etc and Madden, Sir Frederic K.H.Y. F.R.S. The Holy Bible. Oxford: University Press, 1850. [Reprint of originals 1384].
ARATN –– McNamara, Martin. The Aramaic Bible: Targum Neofiti 1, Genesis: Translated, with Apparatus and Notes. Vol. 1A. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 1992.
ETHJ –– Etheridge, John Wesley. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziël on the Pentateuch; with the fragments of the Jerusalem Targum, from the Chaldee. Genesis and Exodus. Vol. 1. London Longman, Green & Roberts, 1862.
LIV –– The Living Bible: Paraphrased. Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, 1971.
KNOX –– Knox, Ronald. The Holy Bible. New York: Sheed & Ward, Inc., 1944.
CEV –– Newman, Barclay. Bible: Contemporary English Version. New York: American Bible Society, 1995.
POLA –– Greening-Jackson, Tim. Polari Bible. 2003. https://www.polaribible.org/bible/genesis.html
RAY –– Ray, John Mead. A Revised Translation and Interpretation of the Sacred Scriptures. London: G. Robinson and Co., 1799.
SAWY –– Sawyer Leicester Ambrose. The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments. Boston, MA: Walker, Wise, and Co., 1861.
[3] “Genesis Rabbah.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 04 April 2025. <https://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Genesis_Rabbah>.
[4] “Zohar.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 04 April 2025. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Zohar>.
[5] “Barbara Black Koltuv.” Amazon.con, n.d. Web. 03 April 2025. <https://www.amazon.com/stores/ author/B001KJ23CS/about?ccs_id=4a83047d-4040-46e7-820a-e7ede6780485>.
[6] Koltuv, Barbara Black. The Book of Lilith. York Beach, ME: Nicolas-Hays Inc., 1986. p. 10.
[7] “Raphael Patai.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 03 April 2025. <https://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Raphael_Patai>.
[8] This is the Midrashic interpretation of the verse.
[9] Patai, Raphael. Gates to the Old City: A Book of Jewish Legends. Northvale, New Jersey: Jason Aronson Inc., 1988. pp. 282-283.
[10] “Arthur Frederick Ide.” prabook.com., n.d. Web. 03 April 2025. <https://prabook.com/web/arthur_ frederick.ide/223016>.
[11] Ide, Arthur Frederick. Yahweh’s Wife: Sex in the Evolution of Monotheism: a Study of Yahweh, Asherah, Ritual Sodomy, and Temple Prostitution. Las Colinas, TX: Monument Press, 1991. p. 8.
[12] Yisraeli, Oded. Temple Portals: Studies in Aggadah and Midrash in the Zohar. Berlin; Boston: Walter de Gruyter GmbH; Jerusalem: Hebrew University Magnes Press, 2016. n.p.
[13] Patai, Raphael. The Hebrew Goddess. 3rd Enlarged Edition. Detroit, MI. Wayne State Univ. Press, 1990. p.231.
[14] Koltuv, Barbara Black. The Book of Lilith. York Beach, ME: Nicolas-Hays Inc., 1986. p. 8.
[15] Genesis 2:21 [KJV].
[16] Online Bible Version 4.0.3 CD. Cross Country Software, 2009.
[17] EWYC –– Forshall, Josia, Rev., F. R. S. Etc and Madden, Sir Frederic K.H.Y. F.R.S. The Holy Bible. Oxford: University Press, 1850. [Reprint of originals 1384].
HIRS –– Hirsch, Samson Raphael. The Pentateuch: Translated and Explained by Samson Raphael Hirsch; Rendered into English by Isaac Levy. Vol. 1 Genesis, Gateshead: Judaica Press, 1989.
BELL –– Bellamy, John. The Holy Bible, Newly Translated from the Original Hebrew, with Notes Critical and Explanatory. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1818.
OGD –– Ogden, C. K. The Basic Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments in Basic English. NY: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1950.
TTS –– Shen, Janet. Torah Transliteration Scripture. https://www.messianic-torah-truth-seeker.org/Scriptures/ Tenakh/Beresheet/Beresheet02.htm
HLYNB –– Traina, A. B., Rev. The Holy Name Bible, Containing the Holy Name Version of the Old and New Testaments, Critically Compared with Ancient Authorities, and Various Manuscripts. Irvington, NJ: Scripture Research Association, 1963.
CLEAR –– Blanco, Jack. The Clear Word: an Expanded Paraphrase of the Bible to Nurture Faith and Growth. Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald Pub. Association, 2000.
WOTS –– Lacey, Rob. Word on the Street. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 2003.
LTOG –– H., Charles. Literal Translation of the Original Greek. 2006. https://sites.google.com/site/literaltranslationof thebible/home
INCP ––The Inclusive Bible: The First Egalitarian Translation. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2007.
SWHI –– Zimmerman, Stephen. Scriptures for the Whole House of Israel. Columbia, South Carolina: N. D. www.torahforthewholehouseofisrael.20m.com
SAWY –– Sawyer Leicester Ambrose. The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments. Boston, MA: Walker, Wise, and Co., 1861.
[18] Zevit, Ziony. What Really Happened in the Garden of Eden? New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2013. p. 142.
[19] Kvam, Kristen E; Schearing, Linda S; Zieglerm Valarie H. Eve and Adam: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim readings on Genesis and Gender. Bloomington Indiana University Press, 1999. p. 29.
[20] Kvam, Kristen E; Schearing, Linda S; Zieglerm Valarie H. Eve and Adam: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim readings on Genesis and Gender. Bloomington Indiana University Press, 1999. p. 29.
[21] Trible, Phyllis. God: And the Rhetoric of Sexuality. Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1980. p. 97.
[22] “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:” Genesis 2:16 [KJV].
[23] “And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.” Genesis 2:19 [KJV].
[24] Trible, Phyllis. God: And the Rhetoric of Sexuality. Philadelphia, P : Fortress Press, 1980. p. 97.
[25] Dr. Nicholas J. Schaser, and Dr. Eli Lizorkin-Eyzenberg, Dr. Yeshaya GruberProf. Pinchas ShirDr. Faydra Shapiro, Dr. Ashley E. Lyon. “Did Eve Come from Adam’s rib”?” Israel Bible Weekly. 11 May 2021. Web. 02 Oct. 2021. <https://weekly.israelbiblecenter.com/eve-come-adams-rib/?via=e85ee3a&>.
[26] Ellicott, Charles John. Elliot’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: A Verse by Verse Explanation. Vol.1. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing Company, 1981. p. 22.
[27] Dr. Nicholas J. Schaser, and Dr. Eli Lizorkin-Eyzenberg, Dr. Yeshaya GruberProf. Pinchas ShirDr. Faydra Shapiro, Dr. Ashley E. Lyon. “Did Eve Come from Adam’s rib”?” Israel Bible Weekly. 11 May 2021. Web. 02 Oct. 2021. <https://weekly.israelbiblecenter.com/eve-come-adams-rib/?via=e85ee3a&g>.
[28] Irblich, Eva; Bise, Gabriel. The Illuminated Naples Bible: 14th-Century Manuscript. New York: Crescent Books, 1979. pp. 7, 13.