. . . . Since God is neither male nor female as a spirit is genderless, sexless, and he created both man and woman in his image or likeness, This indicates that certain aspects of the masculine personality as well as the feminine personality are, of course, a reflection of Jehovah God. . . .
It is unfair to judge ancient practices and customs by modern standards. What is thought to be demeaning to women today wasn't thought of in that way even 200 years ago in democratic society, let alone in ancient Bible times. . . .
First, though this may seem like quibbling, "Jehovah" is a Protestant corruption of YHW (or V)H (or, in the Hebrew alphabet,
yodh - he - vau - he), which was probably vocalized as "Yahweh"). By the time rabbinical scholars were compiling the Masoretic Text (MT) the personal name of God was considered too sacred to be spoken. However, since the scriptures were to be recited aloud, the Masorettes put the vowel points for the word
adonai or "lord" under the consonants YHVH, indicating that, when the verse was recited, the word "Lord" was to be substituted for YHVH. Some Protestant translators, using the MT rather than the Septuagint (LXX), thought the vowel points of
adonai applied to the consonants YHVH and that the personal name of God was YaHoVaiH or Jehovah, though, to their credit, the translators for the most part translated YHWH as LORD (i.e. all in caps).
As to the argument that we shouldn't judge an ancient society by modern standards, the problem I have with that is that the Bible is supposed to espouse universal, unchanging morals and ethics. It seems odd, therefore, that God would absolutely forbid idolatry, yet would condone slavery, for example. In fact, the Bible would seem much more like the word of God had the Hebrew scriptures (and the Christian scriptures as well) said, "You will not hold any man, woman or child as a slave. You shall not by and sell human beings. It is an abomination." Likewise, the whole nonsense about women being unclean during their menstrual periods is hard to accept as divinely inspired or even divinely tolerated.
