This article appeared in the February 2001 issue of Bible Code Digest.  It is reprinted with permission of the author and the staff of Bible Code Digest.

***Feminine Gender in the Bible Code***
by Nathan Jacobi, Ph.D.

On January 14, 2001 an interesting article entitled, “Who Is My Anointed? A Long Yeshua Code in the Torah,” was posted by researcher Keith York on his web site www.thebiblecodes.com. Because of its messianic nature, this code has generated a very lively debate that may continue for some time to come. 

In response to the question in the article’s title Keith York has found the following apparent response in a second ELS: Sheen-mem-vav Yod-sheen-vav-ayeen, Hey-kaf-yod-resh-yod Kaf-kaf, meaning: “His name is Yeshua, recognize thus.” Interestingly, the verb command mode used here is in the feminine, even though the masculine Heh-kaf-resh is shorter by two letters. This has caused a secondary debate between critics and supporters of this 14-letter ELS. Critics have argued that since all significant codes should, obviously, be in masculine, this sequence could not possibly be a meaningful code. Supporters have apologized, stating that this is a rare exception, in which the use of feminine may be forgiven.

In this brief article, I refer only to the use of the feminine gender in Biblical Hebrew, and do not refer at all to the content of the code. My point is that using the feminine gender in this type of code is perfectly natural and common, which makes the debate on the Hebrew amusingly irrelevant. The code quoted can be addressed to an individual or to a collective, such as the people of Israel. In the former case the code would be addressed to the reader’s soul or spirit, for which the Hebrew words Noon-peh-sheen, Noon-sheen-mem-heh and Resh-vav-khet are all feminine.

If the message of the code is directed to the Israeli nation, it is also appropriately addressed in feminine. One similar usage may be seen in the highly romantic-erotic Song of Songs, which a number of Jewish commentators have claimed to be a metaphor of the special relation between God and his beloved people of Israel. Another example is one of God’s attributes as Sheen-kaf-yod-noon-heh in the feminine, used when compassion and mercy are the most important issue. In the Hebrew text, God is neither male nor female, and His manifestations can include both or switch from one to the other.

A Hebrew-speaking person is acutely aware of the use of genders while in English verb conjugation the second person is the same for both genders. From that perspective viewing God as male can be rather amusing, for forcing God to be male is equivalent to creating God in our own image.