Male

Vine's Expository Dictionary of OT Words

A. Noun.

Zâkâr ( זָכָר , Strong'S #2145), “male.” Cognates of this word appear in Akkadian, Aramaic, and Arabic. It occurs 82 times and usually in early prose (Genesis through Deuteronomy), only 5 times in the biblical prophets, and never in biblical wisdom or poetical literature.

Zâkâr emphasizes “maleness” as over against “femaleness”; this word focuses on the sex of the one so named. Thus, “God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (Gen. 1:27). The word can be used not only of an “adult male” but also of a “male child” (Lev. 12:7). Zâkâr is used collectively in many passages—in singular form, with a plural reference (Judg. 21:11).

In some contexts the word represents a “male animal”: “And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female” (Gen. 6:19).

B. Adjective.

Zâkâr ( זָכָר , Strong'S #2145), “male.” Sometimes zâkâr is used as an adjective: “Number all the firstborn of the males of the children of Israel from a month old and upward …” (Num. 3:40). The word appears in Jer. 20:15: “A man child is born unto thee; making him very glad.”

Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words

1: Ἄρρην (Strong'S #730 — Adjective — arsen | arren — ar'-hrane, ar'-sane )

is translated "men" in  Romans 1:27 (three times); "man child" in   Revelation 12:5 (ver. 13 in some mss.); "male" in   Matthew 19:4;  Mark 10:6;  Luke 2:23;  Galatians 3:28 , "(there can be no) male (and female)," RV, i.e., sex distinction does not obtain in Christ; sex is no barrier either to salvation or the development of Christian graces. See Man.

Webster's Dictionary

(1): ( v. t.) Of or pertaining to the sex that begets or procreates young, or (in a wider sense) to the sex that produces spermatozoa, by which the ova are fertilized; not female; as, male organs.

(2): ( v. t.) Capable of producing fertilization, but not of bearing fruit; - said of stamens and antheridia, and of the plants, or parts of plants, which bear them.

(3): ( v. t.) Suitable to the male sex; characteristic or suggestive of a male; masculine; as, male courage.

(4): ( v. t.) Consisting of males; as, a male choir.

(5): ( v. t.) Adapted for entering another corresponding piece (the female piece) which is hollow and which it fits; as, a male gauge, for gauging the size or shape of a hole; a male screw, etc.

(6): ( n.) Same as Mail, a bag.

(7): ( n.) An animal of the male sex.

(8): ( n.) A plant bearing only staminate flowers.

(9): ( a.) Evil; wicked; bad.

King James Dictionary

MALE, a. L. masculus, from mas,maris.

1. Pertaining to the sex that procreates young, and applied to animals of all kinds as a male child a male beast, fish, or fowl. 2. Denoting the sex of a plant which produces the fecundating dust, or a flower or plant that bears the stamens only, without pistils. 3. Denoting the screw whose threads enter the grooves or channels of the corresponding or female screw.

MALE, n. Among animals, one of the sex whose office is to beget young a he-animal.

1. In botany, a plant of flower which produces stamens only, without pistils. 2. In mechanics, the screw whose threads enter the grooves or channels of the corresponding part or female screw.

Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology

See Human Sexuality

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

māl ((1) זכר , zākhār , זכר , zākhar , זכוּר , zākhūr (the root means "to stand out," "to be prominent," here a physiological differentiation of the sex, as נקבה , neḳēbhāh , "female," which see); (2) אישׁ , 'ı̄sh literally, "man"; (3) by circumlocution, only in the books of Samuel and Kings, בּקיר משתּין , mashtı̄n beḳı̄r  ; οὐπῶν πρὀς τοῖχον , ourṓn prós toı́chon , which the Revised Version (British and American) euphemistically renders "man-child" (  1 Samuel 25:22 ,  1 Samuel 25:34;  1 Kings 14:10 )): Gesenius has rightly pointed out that this phrase designates young boys, who do not as yet wear clothes, of whom the above description is accurate, while it does not apply in the case of adults, even in the modern Orient. We know this from the statement of Herodotus ii. 35, relating to Egypt, and from  Judges 3:24;  1 Samuel 24:3 . The Greek translates these words with ἄρσην , ársēn , ἄῤῥην , árrhēn , while 1 Macc 5:28, 51 has the adjective ἀρσενικός , arsenikós .

The above words (the phrase mashtı̄n beḳı̄r excepted) are used promiscuously of animals and men, e.g. "Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee seven and seven, the male ( 'ı̄sh ) and his female, of the birds also of the heavens, seven and seven, male ( zākhār ) and female" (  Genesis 7:2 ,  Genesis 7:3 ). A careful distinction was made in the use of male and female animals in the rules concerning sacrifice; in some offerings none but males were allowed, in others females were permitted along with the males ( Leviticus 3:6 ). The same distinction was made in the valuation of the different sexes ( Genesis 32:14 ,  Genesis 32:15;  Leviticus 27:5 ). Certain priestly portions were permitted to the Levites or the male descendants of Aaron for food, while women were not permitted to partake of the same ( Numbers 18:10 ,  Numbers 18:11 ).

As a rule Jewish parents (as is now common in the Orient) preferred male children to daughters. This is seen from the desire for male progeny ( 1 Samuel 1:8-18 ) and from the ransom paid for firstborn sons to Yahweh ( Exodus 13:12;  Luke 2:23 ). It was reserved to the New Testament to proclaim the equality of the sexes, as it does of races and conditions of men: "There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there can be no male and female; for ye all are one man in Christ Jesus" ( Galatians 3:28 ). See Woman .

Among the prominent sins of oriental peoples, "the abominations of the nations which Yahweh drove out before the children of Israel" was one of the most heinous character, that of sodomy, against which God's people are repeatedly warned. The Greek expression for the devotee of this vice is a compound noun, ἀρσενοκίτης , arsenokoı̄tēs , literally, "he who lies with man," the abuser of himself with mankind, the sodomite (  1 Corinthians 6:9 ), while the Hebrew קדשׁ , ḳādhēsh , literally means the (male) devotee of lascivious and licentious idolatry ( Deuteronomy 23:17;  1 Kings 14:24;  1 Kings 15:12;  1 Kings 22:46;  2 Kings 23:7;  Job 36:14 ).

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Heb. זָכָר , Zakar',  Genesis 1:27;  Genesis 6:19;  Genesis 34:25), applied to the male of either man or beasts. The superior estimation in which male children were held among the Hebrews is testified by numerous passages of Scripture, and we find the same feeling, expressed almost in the same words, still existing in Eastern countries (see  Job 3:3; and comp. Roberts, Observ. ad loc.). (See Child).