Does God have a gendered body?

Does God have a body? And if so, is it a male body? A female body? Neither? Both? This video starts from Genesis1:27, which states that both male and female human beings were created ‘in the image of God’, and goes on to explore the ways that God and God’s body are portrayed throughout the Hebrew Bible. While many Western artistic portrayals – most famously, Michaengelo’s Sistine Chapel – portray God as a man with a beard, attributions of gendered bodily features are notably absent from biblical descriptions of God. The video considers how these descriptions of God may have implications for the dignity of all human beings, regardless of how their bodily is shaped sexually.

Visit the Cambridge in your Classroom website for student & teacher resources https://www.divinity.cam.ac.uk/study-...

Cambridge in Your Classroom is a joint project by the Faculty of Divinity and the Faculty of Education PGCE Religious Studies course at the University of Cambridge.

More information about the Cambridge artefacts that feature in this film can be found here:

17th century beadwork panel of the Temptation, Cain killing Abel and the Sacrifice of Abraham, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/ob...

Moses receiving the law, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/im...