The Conversation - The Spirit - masculine and feminine
The lectionary reading for today is a short passage with a very strong emphasis on the pronoun ‘he’.
When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”
After reading those four short verses it’s reasonable to ask: is the Holy Spirit male?
Different from the data we access today, accuracy in ancient texts requires we source the oldest manuscripts available. In our world, to be informed about the latest scientific, archaeological or whatever discipline, including theology, recent publications are more reliably accurate and that is because knowledge is rapidly increasing. Not so ancient text, the oldest documents that are closer to the source are more accurate, and thanks to the internet, digitalised texts are easily assessable.
To answer the question, “is the Holy Spirit male?” we need to investigate semitic languages, primarily biblical Hebrew, Aramaic - the language Jesus spoke, Akkadian, Arabic, and also, early Christian thought. The Old Testament was written in biblical Hebrew, Akkadian, the language of the Babylonian and Assyrian empires and Arabic were used to clarify obscure Hebrew terms and Aramaic preserves many of the expressions found in the New Testament.
Courtesy of www.LumoProject.com
The Hebrew word for ‘Spirit’ in Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke is ‘ruach,’ and in Classical Syriac, used in early Eastern Christianity, ‘Spirit’ is Rukha, both are grammatically feminine. Early Syriac-speaking Christians and their writings referred to the Holy Spirit as “she” and used maternal nurturing metaphors. Ephrem the Syrian, and Aphrahat, a Syrian speaking Christian, both from the 4th Century, draw parallels between the Spirit’s role in the Church and a mother’s nurturing care, and used feminine language and functions when referring to the Holy Spirit. In ancient Syriac baptismal liturgies believers were said to be “Born again of the Holy Spirit, their ‘Mother,’” and the Spirit was invoked as a compassionate mother.
But by way of contrast, the word ‘Spirit’ in Greek is ‘pneuma,’ which is neuter in gender, and in Latin, ‘Spirit’ is ‘spiritus’ a masculine word. So, now we see where the designation “He” comes from, it’s from the Greek and Latin, not from Hebrew or Aramaic.
Sebastian Brock, a leading scholar in Syriac studies, discusses the feminine portrayal of the Holy Spirit in early Syriac literature; “In the earliest literature up to about the year 400, the Holy Spirit is virtually always feminine” he wrote. In the Bible God’s nurturing nature is often portrayed as a woman in labour, a nursing mother, a mother comforting her children, and many other examples use feminine imagery.
In the earliest Genesis story, the Hebrew grammar allows for, “the Spirit of God she was hovering over the face of the waters…” as a literal rendering. Jesus continued feminine language, weeping over Jerusalem he cried: “…I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings…” [Matt.23:37] Paul too, in his letter to the Galatians, spoke of himself, “in the pain of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.” In some early Christian communities that spoke Aramaic, the Holy Spirit was described with feminine and maternal imagery, even referred to as a mother.
This language was not universal, and the Holy Spirit is not literally female - or male.
Just as the Father and the Son have distinct characteristics, the Holy Spirit is sometimes described with feminine qualities, even though terms like ‘Spirit of Truth’ in Greek use masculine grammar. The early church Fathers Origen and Jerome preserved the feminine language found in the earliest Hebrew and Aramaic texts.
In the Gospels and throughout the NT, the Holy Spirit is most often referred to using masculine pronouns, for example, the title Paraclete is a masculine noun in Greek. The change in gender designation for the Holy Spirit from female to male is less about grammar and more the evolving understanding of the Spirit’s role within Trinitarian theology.
In the reading for today, Jesus is emphasising the Spirit’s function as teacher and revealer of truth: “he will guide you into all the truth.” The shift to referring to the Holy Spirit with masculine language began in the 4th and 5th centuries, and by the 6th Century masculine language became entrenched in most theological writing.
English is not a gendered language but in translation, gendered language was imported into the Bible, and as we known, the pronoun ‘he’ implies far more in English than it does in the original biblical languages. But the truth remains, that in the earliest Semitic texts the most accurate pronoun is ‘she,’ Not ‘He’ and not ‘it.’
Biblical scholars know this, but the masculine has persisted with the result that the equality of women in the early church gave way to male domination. Over time, a patriarchal Church suppressed the influence and leadership of women which deprived the Christian community of much that women could and would have contributed. Even today, women have second-class status in many churches, in society and in the family too.
This inequality of women has not been limited to the Church and is still entrenched society today. We are acutely aware of inequality, lower wages, limited representation, the problem of domestic violence, and the abuse of women in Australian politics. Many women have lived their whole lives subservient to husbands who wrongly believed they had a right to their own personal servant to the detriment of the well-being of their wives.
Early Christians understood equality, and despite a later misrepresentation of Paul’s teachings, women served as apostles and teachers with oversight and equal authority with men. They participated together with men in missionary journeys establishing Christian groups and teaching new converts.
Egalitarianism continued in the early church for the first two centuries with women exercising ecclesiastical authority, but over time, the church adopted a patriarchal hierarchy, and the imagine of God became masculinised.
Whether feminine or masculine, in some translations, the ‘Helper’ and ‘another Helper’, is called the ‘Comforter’ which in Aramaic conveys heavenly arms around us, embracing, helping, teaching and leading. Fulfilling that divine role, the Spirit lifts the human spirit above itself with a gentle but insistent voice. When human love has failed, the Spirit can bring people out of a hell of despair and rejection. The Spirit transforms moods of depression and habits of aggression and liberates people from negative behaviours. The Spirit helps us rise above the anxiety we suffer and from the fear many people have that they are not good enough.
It’s been said to me by people who don’t attend a church, that they just don’t feel good enough to come. How sad is that?
The Spirit waits at the door of our heart to fill our emptiness and heal our wounds. People ask, “Where is God?” when they are going through hard times. Even when God seems absent and hidden, with every breath we breathe, God is near to us and the Spirit walks with us through our darkest moments. No feelings of doubt can drive the Spirit away.
When God’s love burst into my life, I was feeling like a hopeless case, and without understanding what I was saying or doing, in a flood of tears, I just gave up. At that moment, love rushed in and healed my deep wounds and transformed me into the happy person you know today.
The more the Spirit of Truth is active in our lives, the more we see beauty in one another instead of focusing on each other’s flaws and dark side. Shining the light and love of the Cosmic Christ into each other’s dark places requires that we create a safe place for one another.
Thomas Berry, a pioneer of eco-spirituality and Earth-centred theology said: “Nothing can be itself without everything else.” You have heard me say many times that the multi-layered nature of the Aramaic language expands the depth of meaning in his words. Like the air we breathe surrounds us and is in us, the Spirit of Truth guides us into all truth – ultimate truth. When Jesus gave his disciples the Spirit: He breathed on them, and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. [John 20:22] Like the breath of the wind, the Spirit blows calling and beckoning as if through an open door. Do you hear the call?
More on Gender in the Bible
The Aramaic Prayer of Jesus - The Lord's Prayer