The Holy Spirit and the Divine Feminine
Questions Concerning the Female Component of the Godhead, Pt. 1 of 2
ABSTRACT: Despite the well-known declaration of Scripture, that humans are created in the image of God, it has long been asserted by Western Protestantism that there is no feminine component to be found in the Godhead. But upon further review of two self-evident facts, a much different picture emerges: First, there is the most obvious reality that women—made in God’s image—comprise half of said human race and so this should shed light on the true nature of the Divine. And second, there are the words that biblical writers use, which reveal a further truth in light of the original languages of both The Old Testament and The New Testament…
AND GOD SAID, “LET US make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness… male and female they were created.” (Genesis 1:26-27) So states The Bible, in no uncertain terms. But if that’s true, then we’d also have to believe that if Adam and Eve—which is to say, a man and a woman—were created in God’s image, then the Godhead should reflect this same division of the sexes—as in, male and female. Right? I mean, that train of thought does constitute a genuine sequence of logic, doesn’t it? At least it does based on the kind of logic I’m aware of.
Yet for some inexplicable reason, we’re told—again, in no uncertain terms—that The Bible itself, the alleged fountainhead of all divine wisdom, doesn’t follow suit in this matter.
But as so often happens in cases like this, I can’t help feeling like the bewildered child in Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale: The Emperor’s New Clothes. So many centuries have rolled by, so many thoughtful men and women have sought to further our knowledge of God’s word, and yet rarely, if ever, does anyone ever address the obvious inconsistency that insists there’s no feminine component in the Godhead. And by that I mean to say, when we’re told that God, the Father, and God, the Son, are both masculine, we’re also expected to believe that God, the Holy Spirit, is masculine as well.
Now immediately I can hear the protests of those who are always content to avoid questioning the traditions of the Church. But honestly, shouldn’t we, who love the God Who gave us The Bible, be concerned more with what it reveals than those traditions that continually plague a genuine understanding of it? And because I assume that many of you still reading this are concerned with what Scripture says, you’re also willing to do what I’d do if you were struck by the sneaking suspicion that something wasn’t quite right with what you were being told was the gospel truth.
So, with that in mind, let’s take some time to analyze the question: What does The Bible really say about the gender of the Spirit of God?
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The Holy Spirit and the Divine Feminine: Questions Concerning the Female Component of the Godhead
“Challenges the conventional wisdom… Inviting us to embrace a nuanced understanding of spirituality… Mind-blowing…”
To hear Price’s essay review of The Holy Spirit and the Divine Feminine, CLICK HERE.
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To begin with, let’s look at what we’ve all grown up with as being the conventional wisdom in this case. When it comes to this subject, the verses that speak most directly to our traditional understanding are in The Gospel of John. There we find the most explicit description of the Holy Spirit as being masculine, without even a hint—in the English language translations, at least—of there being any feminine component in the Godhead.
Said Jesus to His disciples:
If love Me, you’ll keep My commandments, and I’ll ask the Father, and He’ll give you another Comforter to be with you forever—the Spirit of Truth. The world cannot receive Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, because He abides with you, and He will be in you…
The only problem with referring to the Holy Spirit as “He” or “Him” is that when we read this passage in the Greek language, we find these words are never used as specific pronouns. In reality, they’re only inferred, much in the same way the Greek word aionios infers the meaning of “eternal” or “time-specific,” depending on the context in which it’s used.
To explain what I mean by that, consider Jesus’ statement: “I’ll ask the Father, and He’ll give you another Comforter.” In the Greek, “Father” is Patera, from the root word Pater, obviously a masculine noun. So, when the sentence goes on to say, “He’ll” give you another Comforter, even though the word “He” doesn’t exist as a pronoun in this sentence, in English it’s inserted so the sentence makes sense. But when Jesus refers to the Spirit, the Greek word is Pneuma, which is a neuter noun. Then, when the sentence goes on to say that the world is unable to see “Him” or know “Him,” the word in the Greek is Auto, a word that doesn’t carry with it a specific gender, and so can mean “he,” “she,” “it,” “himself,” “herself,” or “itself.” According to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, this word auto is “very often used rather laxly, where the subject or the object to which it’s referred is not expressly indicated, but must be gathered from some preceding name or from the context.”
From this, we see that when the Holy Spirit is referred to as “He” or “Him,” there’s something quite illogical in this translation, considering that the Greek word Pneuma, being a neuter noun, would call for the pronoun “It.” But obviously, in the interest of inserting a pronoun more in line with the flow of the conversation, which speaks of God and Jesus as persons, the translator chose to insert the personal pronoun “He” rather than the impersonal pronoun “It.”
Confronted by such a contradiction, the question is: If the linguistic context didn’t call for the Holy Spirit to be referred to as masculine, then what context did inspire the translator to describe the Spirit as such?
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To hear Kent and Zen Garcia talk about correcting biblical misconceptions, from September 9th, 2021, CLICK BELOW.
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TO ANSWER THAT, we’d have to exit the world of linguistics and turn, instead, to that of history. But as I like to do, before doing so, let’s turn to what I believe provides a scriptural foundation for an understanding of the true gender of the Holy Spirit. And mind you, this view will look to not only Scripture but also that other great reservoir of spirituality, God’s own creation made in His image—that is, you and me. In other words, if other great misconceptions were neutralized by looking to our own hearts as a reflection of God’s nature in us, we should expect nothing less when it comes to looking at the image of God in all of us, which is to say, one comprised of both male and female components.
What’s more, this reflection of the male and female aspects of the Godhead isn’t exhibited in humankind alone. It permeates every sphere of life on Earth, from the highest primates down to the lowest invertebrates, even manifesting in the realms of insects and plants. So, when anyone thinks that just because God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are so far above it all, so much so that humanity and nature can’t be compared to their divine status, all we can do is seek refuge in the message of Scripture. And when we do, what are we to make of the Apostle Paul’s statement?
For since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship, so that mankind is without excuse…
So, to those who insist there’s no female component in the Godhead, can you explain why the term for “divine nature,” which Paul used here, is the Greek word theiotes? Obviously this word is derived from the root word theos for God, but what’s not so obvious is this word, which describes the nature of the Divine, just happens to be a feminine noun—not masculine, not neuter, but feminine.
But certainly this would come as no surprise to students of The Bible; and by that I mean, The Bible as a whole, because from its first descriptions of the Spirit of God in The Book of Genesis, this Spirit has been equated with the feminine aspect of the Godhead. “In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth … and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the deep.” (Genesis 1:1-2) The Spirit of God, said Moses; and what was the Hebrew word he used? It was Ruach Elohim, which is to say, Ruach, a feminine noun meaning Spirit, not masculine, and Elohim, which is to say, Gods, not God. Specifically, Elohim—God in the plural—created humanity in Their image, not His. Once again, the personal pronouns “His” and “He” aren’t in the original Hebrew. They’ve been added by the translator. What the Scriptures are really saying is:
Then “Gods” said, let Us make humanity in Our image, according to Our likeness. So “Gods” created humanity in “Their” image .. male and female, “They” created them…
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The Holy Spirit and the Divine Feminine: Questions Concerning the Female Component of the Godhead
“Fascinating… Almost mischievous… A powerful lens for reviewing ancient texts and ourselves…”
To hear Price’s essay review of The Holy Spirit and the Divine Feminine, CLICK HERE.
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And just why do you think the biblical translators inserted the word “God” instead of “Gods” when translating this name Elohim, which as any Hebrew scholar knows is the plural form of El? Why naturally, it’s because of that other great pillar of Hebrew Scripture: “Hear, oh, Israel, our God is one God.” (Deuteronomy 6:4) Flying in the face of the other nations surrounding Israel, who were all steeped in polytheism, the Hebrew religion was unique among the nations because it was monotheistic.
It’s this cultural pressure, then, that forms the basis of why Christian translators, just as Hebrew translators of The Old Testament had before them, succumbed to the decision to portray the Holy Spirit differently from the way it had been before their translation of The New Testament.
More on this subject will come later, but for now, we need to complete our investigation into this earliest of biblical traditions, which clearly equates the Holy Spirit with the feminine aspect of the Godhead.
Other Old Testament passages that speak of the feminine aspect of the Spirit: “Then the Lord God formed man of the dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.” (Genesis 2:7) The Hebrew word used here for “breath” is neshamah, a feminine noun—the Hebrew precursor to The New Testament word for the Spirit, Pneuma, used to translate the words for not only “spirit” and “wind” but also “breath.”
Then, in a verse that requires no knowledge of Hebrew to translate the feminine aspect of the words, we read:
Wisdom calls out in the street. She shouts in the public squares. From the top of the walls and the gateways of the city, she cries out…
In this case, the Wisdom of God is portrayed as a living entity, Who, as the divine agency of the Godhead, functions in the same way that later Christian theology will equate with the primary function of the Holy Spirit.
Echoing this same idea is the prophet Nehemiah, who, speaking of God’s care of the Israelites in their fortyyear sojourn in the Wilderness, said: “You gave Your good Spirit to instruct them. You didn’t withhold Your manna. You gave them water for their thirst.” (Nehemiah 9:20) And when the psalmist cried, “Where can I go to escape Your Spirit? Or where can I flee to avoid Your presence?” (Psalm 139:7) the same word Ruach is used for the Spirit of God.
At various times, the Spirit of God was said to have come upon Moses, Joshua, David, Jephthah, Samson, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Micah, and Zechariah. And in each and every case, the word used for the Spirit Who came upon them all was the same: Ruach. (Numbers 11:17; 27:18; Second Samuel 23:2; Judges 6:34; 11:29; 14:6, 19; First Kings 18:12; Second Kings 5:26; Isaiah 48:16-17; Daniel 4:8-9; Micah 3:8; Second Chronicles 24:20)
