Re: Masculine or Feminine?
 

Pretty much....

However, I'm having a hard time understanding how God would have made this so complicated when he knew how all of this would play out, meaning that people thousands of years later would be reading the word and the word is all they would have. I have been told to read it for myself, but how can I if it's that complicated? Should the average person not read the bible because you have to be a scholar to understand it? That sounds like catholic's to me....I thought we were apostolic. So much contradiction...I told my husband it's going to have to come down to not going to this church anymore. I LOVE it there, but if I'm always going to hell in my pastors eyes and I can't step foot on the platform because of it, I can't stay there.

Re: Masculine or Feminine?
 

Yeah, sometimes it's tough because there is so much in the Bible and it was written so long ago and to people in different cultures and who spoke different languages than us. The culture thing, imo, cuts the heart of your issues w/the hair thing. Even so, the Bible is very relevant to us today and truth can be apprehended from it. It just takes a little work sometimes as we dig out the truth and principles that apply to us. Sometimes it's plain, but in other places it's a little obscure and requires due diligence on our part. Fortunately, we do have the Spirit to guide us and illumine truth to us; even if that truth sometimes makes us uncomfortable and leads to difficult decisions on our part. I'd suggest you find a basic book on hermeneutics and begin to study it. It will help you with the rules and procedures of interpreting scripture and help you begin to study the Bible on your own, independent of outsides influences. I'd suggest "Unlocking the Scriptures" by Hans Finzel as a start, it's only about 150 pages. A more advanced one is "Introduction to Biblical Interpretation" by William Klein, et al. But I'd start w/the Finzel book and go from there. It'll require some effort, but it'll be worth it for you, imo.

Re: Masculine or Feminine?
 

Strongs has a tendency to lump all three genders under one heading/definition. Though I am still not sure what the point was....you said what and your pastor said what?

Re: Masculine or Feminine?
 

Also study passages of scriptures in their contexts that helps.
Consider the historical context of a passage.In other words look at the scripture in their original setting.
Also consider the remote context of a scripture ,in other words compare a passage with other scriptures.
Also look at the immediate context of scripture,in other words what does a verse seem to say when read immediately.

Re: Masculine or Feminine?
 

Maybe this helps.
http://bible.cc

Re: Masculine or Feminine?
 

Since The Bible was written for us, but not directly to us one must consider how the original audience that passges of scripture were written to understood them.
Audience relevance is important when rightly dividing the word.

Re: Masculine or Feminine?
 

I feel your pain brother

Re: Masculine or Feminine?
 

I do not know about the Greek but I know in the Spanish you have masculine and feminine forms but the word is still the same meaning. If you are talking about a lady you use the feminine form if a man the masculine. If you are talking about a group you default to the masculine.
I can not see Greek being much different than that.
Actually I just found something about Geek nouns. The address to it is http://www.ntgreek.org/learn_nt_greek/nouns1.htm
Hope you might find something there to help you.
Guess it is a lot different in Greek but still do not see the words taking on a different meaning.

Re: Masculine or Feminine?
 

It's NOT much different....did you read what I posted? I gave an example. Hen, Heis and Mia....are all the number ONE....however the Neuter Hen can most often mean one in unity as well as in number

Re: Masculine or Feminine?
 

With this being the case why would it matter if the words used was one of the three forms? If the meaning of the words are the same why would it be important to know the difference in the noun. In Greek it doesn't seem to apply Masculine nouns just because the person or thing is male and same for feminine. If the word has all three forms, masculine, feminine, and neuter but all three words end up meaning the same thing what difference would knowing it be in the bible? What I am seeing is that if you have a masculine noun and a feminine or neuter noun then you look at the adjective and if the adjective is masculine it refers back to the masculine noun if it is nueter then it refers to the nueter noun, etc...