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HTS Theological Studies<http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_serial&pid=0259-9422&lng=en&nrm=iso> Herv. teol. stud. vol.72 n.1 Pretoria 2016 http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/hts.v72i1.3225 ORIGINAL RESEARCH The Holy Spirit as feminine: Early Christian testimonies and their interpretation Johannes van OortI, II IRadboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands IIDepartment of Church History and Church Polity, Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria, South Africa Correspondence<http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0259-94222016000100026#corresp> ________________________________ ABSTRACT The earliest Christians - all of whom were Jews - spoke of the Holy Spirit as a feminine figure. The present article discusses the main proof texts, ranging from the 'Gospel according to the Hebrews' to a number of testimonies from the second century. The ancient tradition was, in particular, kept alive in East and West Syria, up to and including the fourth century Makarios and/or Symeon, who even influenced 'modern' Protestants such as John Wesley and the Moravian leader Count von Zinzendorf. It is concluded that, in the image of the Holy Spirit as woman and mother, one may attain a better appreciation of the fullness of the Divine. ________________________________ Introduction In two previous articles, I discussed the place and role of both the doctrine and the experience of the Holy Spirit in the Early Church (Van Oort 2011;2012). An important aspect remained, however: namely the fact that many early Christian authors - in particular those belonging to so-called 'Jewish Christianity'1<http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0259-94222016000100026#back_fn1> - spoke of the Holy Spirit as Mother. How did this come to pass? And which consequences may be derived from this phenomenon for present-day discourse on the Holy Spirit? An essential background to the occurrence of the Holy Spirit as Mother is, of course, the fact that the Hebrew word for Spirit, ruach, is in nearly all cases feminine. The first Christians, all of whom were Jews, took this over. Also in Aramaic the word for Spirit, rucha, is feminine. All this, however, does not fully account for the early Jewish Christian practice. A close reading of the relevant texts will reveal more. Jewish Christian sources Origen and the 'Gospel according to the Hebrews' The first prooftext, which already brings in medias res, is from the Greek church father Origen (c. 185-254). In his Commentary on the Gospel of John, he says: If anyone should lend credence to the Gospel according to the Hebrews, where the Saviour Himself says, 'My Mother (mētēr), the Holy Spirit, took me just now by one of my hairs and carried me off to the great Mount Tabor', he will have to face the difficulty of explaining how the Holy Spirit can be the Mother (mētēr) of Christ when She was herself brought into existence through the Word. But neither the passage nor this difficulty is hard to explain. For if he who does the will of the Father in heaven [Mt. 12:50] is Christ's brother and sister and mother (mētēr), and if the name of brother of Christ may be applied, not only to the race of men, but to beings of diviner rank than they, then there is nothing absurd in the Holy Spirit's being His Mother (mētēr); everyone being His mother who does the will of the Father in heaven. (Origen, Commentary on the Gospel of John 2, 12 - Preuschen 1903:67) Origen, who in all probability dictated these lines when he was in Palestinian Caesarea, refers to a 'Gospel according to the Hebrews'. Until today there is much discussion about the origin and contents of this Gospel (e.g. Frey 2012:593-606; Luomanen 2012:1-2, 235-243), but all specialists agree that it was of Jewish Christian provenance. Apart from several other things, we learn from this quote that, sometime in the beginning of the second century CE, the Jewish Christians of this Gospel spoke of the Holy Spirit as Mother (mētēr). The same is evident in another quote from Origen: … but if one accepts (the following): 'My Mother (mētēr), the Holy Spirit, took me just now and carried me off to the great Mount Tabor,' one could see who is his Mother (mētēr). (Origen, Homilies on Jeremiah 15, 4 - Klostermann 1901:128) >From both quotes we may also learn that Origen himself accepted the concept of >the Holy Spirit as Mother. Jerome and the 'Gospel according to the Hebrews' The church father Jerome (c. 342-420), who spent many years in Bethlehem, makes mention of several passages from the Gospel of the Hebrews, too. In his Commentary on Micah, he says: … and he should believe in the Gospel, which has been edited according to the Hebrews, which we have translated recently, in which it is said of the person of the Saviour: 'My Mother (mater), the Holy Spirit, took me just now by one of my hairs ….' (Jerome, Commentary on Micah 2, 7, 6 - Adriaen 1969:513) The essence of the same quote from the Gospel of the Hebrews is found in Jerome's Commentary on Ezekiel: … and this relates to the Holy Spirit, who is mentioned with a female name (nomine feminino) among the Hebrews. For also in the Gospel which is of the Hebrews and is read by the Nazaraeans, the Saviour is introduced saying: 'Just now, my Mother (mater), the Holy Spirit, took me up …' (Jerome, Commentary on Ezekiel 4, 16, 13 - Glorie 1964:178). In his Commentary on Isaiah, Jerome states: And also this: (in the text) 'like the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress' [Ps. 123:2], the maid is the soul and the mistress (dominam) is the Holy Spirit. For also in that Gospel written according to the Hebrews, which the Nazaraeans read, the Lord says: 'Just now, my Mother (mater), the Holy Spirit, took me.' Nobody should be offended by this, for among the Hebrews the Spirit is said to be of the feminine gender (genere feminino), although in our language it is called to be of masculine gender and in the Greek language neuter. (Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah 11, 40, 9 - Adriaen 1963:459) While Jerome was well acquainted with the old Jewish Christian tradition of the femininity of the Holy Spirit, which in his time was still alive among the 'Nazaraeans', who read the 'Gospel according to the Hebrews', he considered it to be a question of language only. Epiphanius and Hippolytus on the prophet Elxai For the Jewish Christians themselves, however, it was not merely a question of language. Apart from the Gospel according to the Hebrews, this is testified by a number of testimonies regarding the prophet Elxai. This Jewish Christian prophet-in the various sources also named as Elchasai, Alchasaios, Elkesai and Elxaios-is said to have received the revelation written about in the Book of Elchasai in Mesopotamia in the year 116-117. The church father Epiphanius (c. 315-430), for many years bishop of Salamis and the metropolitan of Cyprus, transmits this revelation as follows: Next he describes Christ as a kind of power and also gives His dimensions (…)And the Holy Spirit is (said to be) like Christ, too, but She is a female being (thēleian) (…). (Epiphanius, Panarion 19, 4, 1-2 - Holl I, 1915:219) Later on in his book, Epiphanius reports essentially the same: And he [i.e., Elxai] supposed also that the Holy Spirit stands over against Him (i.e., Christ) in the shape of a female being (en eidei thēleian) (…). (Epiphanius, Panarion 30, 17, 6 - Holl I, 1915:375) Earlier the learned Hippolytus (c. 170-c. 236), a Christian presbyter at Rome, had transmitted the same tradition on Elchasai: There should also be a female (thēleian) with Him (i.e., with Christ as an angel) (…) The male is the Son of God and the female (thēleian) is called the Holy Spirit. (Hippolytus, Refutatio 9, 13, 3 - Wendland 1916:251) The Pseudo-Clementines A next testimony to the Holy Spirit's femininity may be derived from the so-called Pseudo-Clementines. The Pseudo-Clementines is a work circulated under the name of Clement of Rome (fl. c. 96), which came down to us in two fourth-century forms: the Greek Homilies and the Latin Recognitions. Both forms contain very old Jewish Christian source material. The Jewish Christian concept of the Spirit as a feminine Being is, by implication, preserved in one of the Homilies: And Peter answered: 'One is He who said to His Wisdom, 'Let us make a man' [Gen. 1:26]. His Wisdom (sophia), with Her (Greek: hei, 3rd p. sing. feminine) He Himself always rejoiced [Prov. 8:30] just as (hōsper) with His own Spirit (pneumati).' (Ps.-Clementines, Hom. 16, 12, 1 - Rehm 1969:223) The text identifies Wisdom with the Holy Spirit. This equation of Wisdom (chokma, sophia) and Holy Spirit (ruach, pneuma) has old parallels in Jewish and Jewish Christian traditions. Already in the Jewish book Wisdom of Solomon, preserved in Greek as part of the Septuagint and being in high esteem among most early Christian writers, one finds this equation; for instance, in Wisdom 9, 17 it runs: Who has learned thy (i.e., God's) counsel, unless thou hast given wisdom (sophian) and sent thy holy Spirit (pneuma) from on high? (Wisdom of Solomon 9, 17 [Revised Standard Version]) Wisdom is equated with the Holy Spirit and both are considered to be feminine.2<http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0259-94222016000100026#back_fn2> Hence one understands how in early Christian tradition Christ is so often considered to be the child of mother Sophia or the Holy Spirit.3<http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0259-94222016000100026#back_fn3> In essence, both traditions express the same concept. The oldest patristic testimonies to this concept are the texts from Origen and Jerome quoted above. In interpreting all these testimonies, one should bear in mind that ancient Jewish Christianity did not express itself in Greek discursive terminology, but in Semitic metaphorical language. Or, stated otherwise: the Jewish Christians expressed themselves in images, not in logical concepts. Accordingly, one may also understand that the Christian concept of Trinity is not merely due to Greek philosophical thinking, but has genuine and extremely old sources in Jewish Christian writings.4<http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0259-94222016000100026#back_fn4> One may reread the statements of Hippolytus and Epiphanius on Elxai's vision of God with his Son and the female Spirit as quoted above. Theophilus and Irenaeus The influence of the archaic Jewish Christian tradition on Spirit and Sophia is even found in Greek Christian authors such as Theophilus of Antioch (fl. later 2nd c.) and Irenaeus of Lyon (c. 130-c. 200). In his writing Against Autolycus, the Greek bishop and apologist Theophilus wrote for instance: God made everything through His Logos and Sophia, for 'by His Logos the heavens were made firm and by His Spirit all their power.' [Ps.32:6] (…) Similarly the three days prior to the luminaries [cf. Gn. 1] are types of the Triad (triados), of God and His Word and His Wisdom (Theophilus, Ad Autol. 1, 7; 2, 15 - Grant 1970:10; 52). In Greek speaking bishop Irenaeus' work Against Heresies, which is mainly transmitted in Latin, it runs inter alia: … the Son and the Holy Spirit (Spiritus), the Word and the Wisdom (Sapientia) (…) For with Him were always present the Word and the Wisdom (Sapientia), the Son and the Spirit (Spiritus) Sources from East and West Syria As we have just seen with Theophilus, Irenaeus, the Pastor Hermae and (perhaps) Melito, the concept of the Spirit as feminine is sometimes found as an archaic reminiscence of Jewish Christianity in later Greek writers. However, in several Christian writings stemming from Syria, which mainly had Syriac (a branch of Aramaic) as their original language, this speaking of the Holy Spirit as feminine really abounds. The Gospel of Thomas Apart from some Greek scraps, the Gospel of Thomas has been mainly transmitted in a Coptic translation found in the second codex of the 'gnostic' library which, in December 1945, was discovered near Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt.8<http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0259-94222016000100026#back_fn8> Many researchers maintain that the Gospel of Thomas-in any case in its original form(s)-was not 'gnostic' at all, nor even tincted with typical 'gnostic' ideas, but a fine example of primitive Jewish and Syrian Christianity. One of its logia reads as follows: (Jesus said:) Whoever does not hate his father and his mother in My way will not be able to be a (disciple) to me. And whoever does (not) love (his father) and his mother in My way will not be able to be a (disciple) to me, for My mother (tamaay) (…) but (My) true (Mother) gave me the Life. (Gospel of Thomas, logion 101 - Guillaumont a.o. 1998:50; Nagel 2014:152) Here, the true Mother is the Holy Spirit. -- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <RadicalCentrism@googlegroups.com> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to radicalcentrism+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
