Evidence that the Holy Spirit - the Power/Breath/Shakti of God Almighty - is Feminine

[Guest guest]

The Holy Spirit - the power of God

 

" The Holy Spirit, rather than being a distinct person, is spoken of in

the Bible as being God's divine power. The Anchor Bible Dictionary,

in its article on the Holy Spirit, describes it as " [t]he

manifestation of divine presence and power perceptible especially in

prophetic inspiration " (Vol. 3, Doubleday, New York, 1992, p. 260).

 

Scripture refers to the Holy Spirit as the power of God (Zechariah

4:6; Micah 3:8). Paul told Timothy that it is the " spirit of ...

power and of love and of a sound mind " (2 Timothy 1:7, emphasis added

throughout).

 

Luke 4:14 records that Jesus Christ began His ministry " in the power

of the Spirit. " Speaking of the Holy Spirit, which would be given to

His followers after His death, Jesus told them, " You shall receive

power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you ... " (Acts 1:8).

 

Peter relates how " God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy

Spirit and with power, [and Jesus] went about doing good and healing

all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him " (Acts

10:38). The Holy Spirit is here associated with the power by which

God was with Him - the power through which Jesus Christ performed

mighty miracles during His earthly, physical ministry. The Holy

Spirit is the very presence of God's power actively working in His

servants....

 

The other word used most often of the Holy Spirit is the Greek word

pneuma. It is translated as " breath " or " spirit " and means breath,

breeze, wind or spirit. "

 

www.ucgstp.org/

 

 

" The term " Spirit " translates the Hebrew word ruah, which, in its

primary sense, means breath, air, wind. Jesus indeed uses the sensory

image of the wind to suggest to Nicodemus the transcendent newness of

him who is personally God's breath, the divine Spirit. "

 

J. Cardinal Ratzinger, Catechism of the Catholic Church

(J.C.R., Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1994, p. 182.)

 

 

" The Spirit resides in our heart; it's the reflection of God

Almighty. In Sanskrit language, this aspect of God which is all-

pervading and is the first and the last, is called as Sadashiva; is

the Father, who does not incarnate. We say Yehovah, we can say, or

the God who does not incarnate. This great aspect which encompasses

everything ultimately and also manifests everything is the reflection

within our heart as the Spirit. This aspect is just the witness

aspect; it witnesses the play of its power, the Primordial Power, the

Holy Ghost, to see what is created by Her. He's the only enjoyer of

the game. He sees the game, the Leela, the fun. She organises

everything, it is She who gets divided into three powers, it is She

who creates the whole universe, it is She who gives us this

evolution, it is She who makes us human beings and it is She who has

to make us the higher human being. That's the Holy Ghost, the

Primordial Holy Ghost and the reflection of that is this Kundalini

within us. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

Sat-Chit-Ananda, Houston, Texas, Oct 7, 1981

 

 

" It is a difficult subject to talk about Adi Shakti because it's not

easy to understand that Adi Shakti is the power of Sadashiva.

Sadashiva is the God Almighty. She is His breath, as they some people

call it. Some say She is the desire and some say that She is the

entire power of Sadashiva and Sadashiva cannot do anything without

Her powers. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

Adi Shakti Puja, Cabella Italy, May 25, 1997

 

 

" We might go so far, as to consider the Holy Spirit, God's feminine

presence in the world. The primary attribute of the feminine

principle is receptivity. Therefore, the Holy Spirit demonstrates

itself through it receptivity to others. I have mentioned before,

the Kabbalist look upon Shekinah, a Hebrew term which means God's

presence, as the feminine expression of the Divine. Likewise, in the

Genesis story, the Spirit of God is said to be " hovering " over the

void and formless world just before creation. In college, my Old

Testament Professor remarked, " It's the idea of a hen hovering over

her egg, waiting for it to hatch. " In this sense, the Holy Spirit, is

mother God, who loves and shelters all her children without

condition. "

 

www.cliftonunitarian.com/

 

 

Supporting evidence that the Holy Spirit is Feminine

 

If any of you lack wisdom [sophia], let him ask of God, that giveth

to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

 

- James 1:5

 

If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your

children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy

Spirit to them that ask him?

 

- Luke 11:13

 

Perhaps the first argument which can be offered in support of the

feminine gender of the Holy Spirit is Her association with " the

spirit of wisdom " (Exodus 28:3; Ephesians 1:17). In both the Old and New

Testaments, Wisdom is often personified in the feminine gender:

 

" Say that Wisdom is thy sister " (Proverbs 7:4)

 

" Wisdom has built a house for herself, and set up seven pillars "

(Proverbs 9:1)

 

Proverbs chapters 8 and 9 are in fact an extended allegory of Wisdom

depicted as a woman.

 

" Wisdom is known by her children " (Matthew 11:19; Luke 7:35)

 

" Therefore also said the Wisdom of God, I will also send them

prophets and apostles . . . " (Luke 11:49). In this text our Lord is

equating the " Wisdom of God " with the Holy Spirit who provided

Divine inspiration to those who wrote the Scriptures (2 Peter 1:21).

He refers to Wisdom in the feminine gender.

 

The Old Testament word for " wisdom " is chokmah which has the

feminine ending.

 

The New Testament word - in the Greek - is sophia - also feminine.

In fact " Sophia " is the name for a goddess of wisdom in the Greek

pantheon. It should be obvious that the Early Church, when reading

the Greek Septuagint - the translation of the Old Testament for the

Greek-speaking Jew - would have made the connection between that

goddess and the Holy Spirit. Of course, a Gentile Christian would

have known that the Holy Spirit was not a Greek goddess. Rather, he

would have confessed that the Holy Spirit was the true Sophia in

contrast to the pagan imitation.

 

The connection between the Holy Spirit and Sophia is more pronounced

in the Apocrypha. The Apocrypha are writings from the

Intertestamental Period which was contained in the Septuagint but

are not included in our modern Bibles. (They are regarded as deutero-

canonical by the Anglican Church).

 

For Sophia is a loving spirit... For the Spirit of the Lord filleth

the world.

 

- Wisdom of Solomon 1:5,7

 

For Sophia, which is the worker of all things, taught me: for in her

is an understanding spirit, holy, one only. . . For she is the

breath of the power of God, and a pure influence flowing from the

glory of the Almighty . . . And being but one, she can do all

things: and remaining in herself, she maketh all things new: and in

all ages entering into holy souls, she maketh them friends of God

and prophets. For God loveth none but him that dwelleth with Sophia.

 

- Wisdom chapter 7 (excerpts)

 

And thy counsel who hath known, except thou give Sophia, and send thy

Holy Spirit from above?

 

- 9:7

 

In the writings of the Early Church, Wisdom (Sophia) is preserved as

feminine (e.g. the Shepherd of Hermes)

 

Jesus associates the " spirit of truth " with the Holy Spirit (John

16:13). Sophia and the Holy Spirit share identical roles (1

Corinthians 2:7-11; Romans 5:5; 1 John 5:6-7 KJV). Were it not for

the masculine bias of later theologians, the Church would likely

have acknowledged the allegorical associations in the Old Testament

as literal theophanies of the Holy Spirit.

 

The second argument which can be offered in support for the feminine

gender of the Holy Spirit is found in the very names ascribed to God

and the Holy Spirit. The name for God in the Hebrew language

is " Elohim " . Most scholars acknowledge that this word has a plural

ending, which some use to suggest an Old Testament anticipation of

the Trinity. What most scholars either do not know or care not to

inform their constituents is that " Elohim " is not the plural of " El "

the masculine form of the name. It is plural of the

feminine, " Elowah " . Strictly speaking, we can translate the Old

Testament name for God as " goddesses " .

 

Such a fact is naturally shocking to traditionalists who are largely

ignorant of the origins of their faith. We do not favor, however, a

translation of the name for God into the feminine because masculine

pronouns are used in association with " Elohim " . But we do argue that

the use of the feminine ending by Divine Revelation ought to settle

unequivocally that God's being encompasses both the masculine and

feminine genders. Indeed, when describing man as made in God's image,

the Scriptures say,

 

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he

him; male and female created he them.

 

- Genesis 1:27

 

Thus indicating that both genders exist in the Godhead.

 

That the Holy Spirit is the designated representation of the

feminine principle is further supported by the Hebrew word

for " spirit " . I quote now Jerome, the author of the Latin Vulgate:

 

In the Gospel of the Hebrews that the Nazarenes read it says, " Just

now my mother, the Holy Spirit, took me. " Now no one should be

offended by this, because " spirit " in Hebrew is feminine, while in

our language [Latin] it is masculine and in Greek it is neuter. In

divinity, however, there is no gender.

 

- Jerome's Commentary on Isaiah 11

 

This explanation contains an astonishing admission. First, it tells

us that there was a tradition among a sect of Early Christians which

believed that the Holy Spirit was our Lord's spiritual mother.

Second, Jerome - a more orthodox figure cannot be imagined - admits

that the Hebrew word for " spirit " (ruach) is feminine, meaning that

for the 1st Century Christians - who were largely operating in the

Aramaic world (Paul's churches were tiny in comparison) - the Holy

Spirit was a feminine figure. It was lost in the translation from the

Hebrew into the Greek, and then it was changed to a masculine gender

when it was translated from the Greek into the Latin.

 

Finally, Jerome's theological bias leads him to believe the

distinction of gender is unimportant. He believes there is no gender

in God, therefore, it does not matter whether God is referred to as

a " he " or a " she " or an " it " , presumably. With many centuries of

misogynist behavior by Christian leaders behind us, I think it does

matter. We are not allowed to change one " jot or tittle " of the Law,

and if God is represented as a being encompassing both the masculine

and feminine genders, then we are foolish to hide that fact in our

translations of the Sacred Text.

 

The third argument which can be offered is the example of early

Christian leaders in how they handled this doctrine. In his Homily

on Jeremiah 15, the learned Origen argued the case that the Holy

Spirit was Christ's mother. In a more practical application,

Methodius - also a leader with an impeccably orthodox reputation -

states directly that the family is meant to reflect analogously the

blessed Trinity:

 

[T]he innocent and unbegotten Adam being the type and resemblance of

God the Father Almighty, who is uncaused, and the cause of all; his

begotten son [seth] shadowing forth the image of the begotten Son and

Word of God; whilst Eve, that proceedeth forth from Adam, signifies

the person and procession of the Holy Spirit.

 

- Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 6, p. 402

 

The Didascalia, a 3rd Century clergy manual, commanded the churches

that, " the deaconess should be honored by you as the Holy Spirit is

honored " . Thus, officially confirming that the role of the Holy

Spirit is of a feminine nature.

 

It should be emphasized that we are not saying that the Holy Spirit

is a woman. Neither is God the Father a man. We are made in God's

image. God is not made in our image. We must maintain a theistic

perspective, rather than a humanistic one. The Holy Spirit is not

married to the Father, nor is She His wife in any human sense of the

word. Rather, marriage is a creaturely reflection of the glorious

unity which exists within the Trinity. As long as we remain loyal to

the Ecumenical Creeds, we will not go astray with this doctrine.

 

In conclusion, we affirm that it is not impious, nor does it in any

way diminish the deity of the 3rd Person, to address the Holy Spirit

as a " She " rather than as a " He " . While we do not favor the call for

a gender neutral Bible, we do believe that a new translation of the

Scriptures is in order - under the supervision of the Desposyni -

which will correct the Latin biases which have been carried over

from the Vulgate.

 

Supporting evidence that the Holy Spirit is Feminine

www.grailchurch.org/sophia.htm