When the Bible refers to men, mankind, brothers, etc., does it include women?

Verse 27 states that duality characterizes man. It says that God created "him; male and female created He them." This fact is elaborated in Genesis 2, but the few words here show us how closely male and female are identified. The word, "man" covers both, and jointly they were to have the dominion, though the male from the outset was given the leading place. From the outset too they were blessed by God and bidden to multiply and replenish the earth. Before sin came in therefore children were in God's purpose for them.

ἄνθρωπος, man in the sense of 'humanity,' irrespective of sex. "Man shall not live by bread alone." Matt. 4:4. In a few places it is used in a stricter sense in contrast to a woman: as "Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife?" Matt. 19:3.

ἀνήρ, man as distinguished from a woman. "The head of the woman is the man." 1 Cor. 11:3. It is thus the common word used for 'husband:' a woman's man is her husband. "Joseph the husband of Mary." Matt. 1:16, 19. The words τις, μηδείς, οὐδείς, are often translated 'man,' 'no man,' 'any man,' which would be more correctly translated 'one,' 'no one,' 'any one.' In 'men [and] brethren,' Acts 1:16; Acts 2:29, etc., there are not two classes alluded to, but 'men who are brethren,' or, in our idiom, simply 'brethren.' So in Acts 7:2; Acts 22:1, not three classes, but two: 'men who are brethren, and fathers.' See NEW MAN and OLD MAN.

In using the word 'men' here, both sexes are included as with the Greek word anthropos. When distinguishing between men and women, New Testament Greek uses aner or gune respectively.

It may be needed to point out that there are only two classes here addressed, elders and youngers, "men" applying to both by a well-known idiom.

Besides the literal meaning of the term, it was used for persons morally or nationally associated together; also for those who formed the Jewish nation. Acts 2:29, 37 (where the expression 'Men and brethren' should be translated simply 'Brethren'); Rom. 9:3; etc. It was applied by the Lord to His disciples: "Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend to my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God." John 20:17. "He is not ashamed to call them brethren." Heb. 2:11; Ps. 22:22. The Lord has placed the Christian in His own relationship as man with His Father and God, and "He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one." In accordance with this the saints are constantly addressed in the Epistles as 'brethren,' and referred to in the Acts as 'the brethren.'

When Paul gives directions to Timothy concerning prayer he emphasises the fact that it is Christian men who are to pray (1 Tim. 2:8). The word for "men" in this verse is not the general term for human beings, it is the word for men in contrast with women. The words "in like manner also" in verse 9 do not mean that women are to pray in like manner also, but that just as Paul says "I will" in connection with men, in like manner also he has an "I will" in connection with women, and what he wills is told us in verse 9.

All this has been brought before us by the Apostle to enforce upon us how necessary it is that prayer for all men, and not only for ourselves and our own small interests, should mark the church of God if it is to rightly set forth the God whose house it is. But who are to actually voice the church's prayers? The answer is, the men. The word used in this eighth verse is not the one which means mankind, the human race in general, but that which means man distinctively, the male, as contrasted with the female.

Here “men” means men in contradistinction to women. The Greek word employed here excludes women.

The common word for "man" in the Old Testament is Adam (literally meaning "red earth"), emphasising his origin rather than his constitution. There is no thought in the word that man was destined to return to the earth or dust. The analogous term "Son of Man" shows that the One to whom the term is applied was a true man in descent and inheritance. These names denote mankind in general as distinct from the "sons of Ish," (the men of high degree or princely position).

In Genesis 5 we have the generations of Adam. Upon this I would not now dwell farther than to draw attention to the commencing words, "In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam in the day when they were created." But "Adam," it is said, "begat a son in his own likeness, after his image." It was no longer in the likeness of God, but in the image of God always. For man, now as ever, fallen or not, is in the image of God; but the likeness of God was lost through sin. Seth therefore was begotten in Adam's own likeness, not in God's. He was like Adam fallen, not his representative only. And this is what is referred to in James 3, where he speaks of our having been made in the likeness of God. But it is the more important because, when it is a question of the guilt of taking man's life, the ground is that he was made in God's image. This, it is plain, was never lost; it abides, whatever man's state. Had the crime depended on man's retaining the likeness of God, murder might have been denied or justified, because if a man were not like God the unlikeness might be urged in extenuation of killing him. But it is a crime against man made in the image of God, and as this abides, whether he be fallen or not, the guilt of murder is unimpeachable and evident. This accordingly is the ground taken, to which I refer as an instance of the perfectness of scripture, but at the same time of the profound and practical power of the truth of God.