Hi!
I'm curious how religion would have developed if ancient Hebrew happened to have a neuter gender. I've been told that many of the ancient texts of other religions use neuter gender to refer to the concept of God (which is consistent with the theory that God has no particular form).
Hebrew, as it turns out, has no neuter gender. All nouns (including the idea of an abstract God) have to be either masculine or feminine. Several aspects of God (for instance, the concept of the Shekhinah) are feminine nouns. However, the vast majority of the references to God in the Bible are masculine nouns. Hence the idea that God is an old man with a beard.
Suppose Hebrew had a neuter gender and Moses (or whoever wrote down the basis for Judaism) used neuter gender conjugations to refer to his concept of a deity. How would the religion have developed? It would make it pretty obvious to people that God is a concept and not somebody who can be envisioned or personified.
I can't help but think of the ancient saying posted in many synagogues next to the ark holding the Torah scrolls: "Know before whom you stand". Although Hebrew doesn't have a genderless "it", it does have a word for "what" which is different from "who/m". Somewhere between the founding of the faith and the creation of the saying, God transformed from a concept to a person. Otherwise, the saying would have said "Know before what you stand" or "Know for what you stand".
What do you think? More egalitarianism? Less idolatry?
Thanks in advance,
ACG