In this post, I want to highlight the maternal or motherly metaphors used. The metaphor of rebirth or new birth makes it seem natural to talk about an engendering Deity. H�\��n�0��y Answer: A common mistake made with regard to the Holy Spirit is referring to the Spirit as "it," something most translations of the Bible are careful to avoid. 0000004849 00000 n In the Pauline literature of the New Testament, the characteristics of the Spirit and Christian life are described through the use of metaphor. With that in mind, let us consider certain biblical images of the Holy Spirit. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the … Trans. �pd �Xv} endstream endobj 73 0 obj<> endobj 74 0 obj<> endobj 75 0 obj<>stream According to Wikipedia, So he was the one who decided which books make it to the New Testament and which ones don’t. Feminine Metaphors for Men Jürgen Moltmann's The Spirit of Life: A Universal Affirmation, In the following quotation from Moltmann's The Spirit of Life: A Universal Affirmation, several examples of feminine and maternal images of God are discussed in a polemic explaining why Moltmann believes that the Holy Spirit should be "termed a 'feminine' Spirit." Both the Father and the Mother are hence liberated, and they are liberated in the Son (Jesus Christ), such that the Son (Jesus Christ) also is not subjugated to the Father or Mother (Holy Spirit). 0000061879 00000 n Nothing is said about a bearded old man in flowing white robes. Moltmann's famous for his Social Doctrine of the Trinity, that sees the three persons of the one god as a society, emphasizing the three over the one, and the Divine Femininity brings the Trinity closer to the analogy of a nuclear family, such that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are familial understood as the Father, Mother and Son. Of course by calling God the Holy Spirit 'Mother' we are merely putting parallel to the 'Father' another power as primal source. . Even if these two questions produce new problems, the strength of Moltmann's position is that his overthrows Trinitarian Patriarchy. In the Greek translations of these Gnostic text, 'Mother' is then often already replaced by 'Holy Spirit'. I’ve held the belief that the Holy Spirit is the original image of woman for just over 20 years now. g݂x3-���PR26���h���D5���82�Q$f����K@� �1Tn �9@�e �� 6�@���|9�Vb}����Xe�=tҁ&3=b�a� �����p��_�U�! For my mother gave me life.' ... feminine images used of God. 3. The typically semitic, motherly form of the Holy Spirit can also be found in his view of the Paraclete. As people of God today, we can aspire to be like the numerous outstanding women of the New Testament because they are faith exemplars, gifted by the Holy Spirit, and effective in ministry. 0000012130 00000 n The Holy Spirit is really the best image, not of God’s femininity, but of the marginalization of the feminine, which reaches also our idea of God. 0000001658 00000 n Some critics point out that the Greek word for "spirit," pneuma , is neuter (not gender specific) or that the Hebrew Old Testament word for "spirit," ruach , is used as feminine … 0000007136 00000 n For Count Zizendorf, this perception was a kind of revelation, and in 1741, when the Moravian Brethren founded their community in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, he officially proclaimed 'the motherly office of the Holy Spirit'. 0000002192 00000 n 'The Father must love us and can do no other, the Son, our brother, must love souls as His own soul, and must love the body as His own body, because we are flesh we are flesh of His flesh, bone of His bone, and He can do no other.' 1 In later Jewish writings in the midrashim, or stories, the Shekhinah, or Divine Presence, is depicted literally in female form. Title of youtube video: PROOF Female HOLY SPIRIT, a SHE in Bible - Hebrew feminine more than grammatical gender (see URL below) (Transcription from video to words - 22/01/2013): Remember, Hebrew is the original language of the Bible - undoubtedly … Some early churches referred to the Holy Spirit in feminine terms. The biblical grounds Zinzendorf contributes was inspired by the era of 'sensibility' - the cultivation of the feelings - which was now beginning. Thousands of new, high-quality pictures added every day. We see the dove at Noah’s ark. 0000055953 00000 n 0000010277 00000 n �(xNBf�0��� ��B~��G�#��} | } | } | �̆y3ț!��!��!����wh��������������20[�X�X�X��j�+sMY3׎��}�N���<6�xl�/�X�X���^"�6���-��ȧ����O�|:�;�;=׻#��#��#��K��������������5��E��ZS#����jx�-5xjG �͢l�^:]�h�����������-�[��o��2��1�g�|n�=�{������l���4��?�a�U���5/� 0000061613 00000 n In the words of Cooper, “As the Bible progressively reveals God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God, the feminine imagery for God does not increase but recedes into the background” (90). Divine Femininity appears frequently in the bible and in Church History: The apostles describe themselves as "nursing mothers" (1 Thess 2:7) and God himself as well (Isa 49:15), and Jesus also in a maternal reference to Jerusalem like a mother hen (Matt 23:37). But also in Genesis 1:2 the Spirit is the Spirit of God and “God” there is a masculine plural noun. November 29th, 2020 Interviews with Rabbi Isaac VandeWalle, then head rabbi at Cnesses Israel Congregation, Green Bay, WI, summer 1978. Just as a human mother teaches her child proper behavior by saying, "My child, you must do it this way, [and] you must not do that," so too does the Holy Spirit. Ruah, the word meaning, “Spirit,” is a feminine noun. . It was discovered near Nag Hammadi. 0000008719 00000 n If the Holy Spirit is 'the Comforter' (Paraclete), it comforts 'as a mother comforts'. 0000004585 00000 n This may be alarming to some evangelicals today, especially those use gender-inclusive languages for the purpose of scrubbing feminism out of the bible (compare the translation of Romans 16:7 in the ESV to the NRSV). In the Christian-Gnostic 'Hymn of the Pearl' (in the apocryphal Acts of Thomas), the Trinity consists of God the Father, the Holy Spirit as Mother, and the Son. If these experiences are thought of as rebirth or as being born again, this suggests a singular image for the Holy Spirit, an image which was quite familiar in the early centuries of Christianity, especially in Syria, but which came to be lost in the patriarchal Roman empire: the image of the mother. God as Mother Bird & Mother Bear. Linguistically this again brings out the characteristics of the Hebrew expression 'Yahweh's ruach'. Yet, this does not mean the natural gender of the Holy Spirit is feminine. 0000016807 00000 n The theme was the Holy Spirit and the aim was to allow us all to reflect on the different images we have of the Holy Spirit in the Bible and elsewhere. x�b```b``������h� �� �@Q�����;����T��?�&�.�-�w���78o_*�"+}[��1ò�'��.w��Ib@"�'&u�\��5��[s�vɩˎΪ���pL���h�L��3�eD._ dE�kgNt�i*;:9u��D��̂�v'/c�ԅ�C2��Oj����Ι��NJ��P�Y}Q��څPs�u�J�Ϊ��D�ѳ��9��f�=1J$4�L�;P'�̀�#�z0m^#D���c�PC�� How much we read into the gender and number of those nouns is a rather moot point. �{;v�S�7!�(����Q; �8��~�6�5u�Bm�Qcn������~�|�GK�sLY,t��z�����B�G����[��G��z��� [10] The Syriac Church used feminine pronouns (corresponding to “she”) when speaking and writing about the Holy Spirit until about 400 AD. 0000014160 00000 n Aphraates is an early witness. Understanding the Holy Spirit as a feminine Spirit brings Feuerbach's criticism of the Divine Family as a projection of the human family, that Moltmann begins to address below but requires more discussion. . 0000043021 00000 n He has the attributes of personhood, performs the actions of persons, and has personal relationships. 0000012840 00000 n Question: "Is the Holy Spirit a "He," "She," or “It,” male, female, or neuter?" 63 0 obj <> endobj xref 63 40 0000000016 00000 n 0000007026 00000 n they are driven forward by a certain tender Impulse, through Delight in the matter, through a blessed Attraction which souls feel for this and that thing, through a Sympathy which they also discover in themselves, and yet the awareness of the Savior and his Image is the concept. Paul Gerhardt describes the leadings of the Spirit in much the same way as a guiding 'with motherly hand' ('Mit Mutterhänden leitet er die Seinen ständig hin und her . If believers are 'born' again from the Holy Spirit, then the Spirit is 'the mother' of God's children and can in this sense also be termed a 'feminine' Spirit. 0000008037 00000 n Additionally, does this Divine Femininity open the door to an affirmation of Mariology as exemplified by Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy? Another feminine image found in the early Syriac tradition is that of the Holy Spirit as mother. Scholars speculate that the works as such were buried there in response to a letter from Bishop Athanasius (296 – 373 AD) declaring a strict canon of Christian scripture. On the one hand we do need to accept that the Holy Spirit has chosen to use a feminine-form noun to talk about himself in Genesis 1:2. Acts 2:2-4. The Holy Spirit is a person. What is motherly about the operations of the Spirit can be sensed in its tenderness and sympathy: '. 0000006862 00000 n  A simple search of the Bible reveals that the Divine Femininity appears frequently! The promised Comforter (the Paraclete) will 'comfort you as a mother comfort's (here John 14:26 is put together with Isa 66:13); and 2. 'Unless you become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven' (Matt 18:3). On occasion this poetic imagery is allegorized literally as female; most often the feminine appears in the Hebrew Bible in metaphor and allegory, as in Deuteronomy 32:18b where God, here named Eloah, gives birth to Israel in groaning and travail as of a woman giving birth. 157-60. Like Israel's prophets, Christianity actually replaced the patriachal and matriarchal powers of origin by the messianism of the Child, as the bearer of hope and the beginning of the future. But when the man has taken a wife, he leaves this Father and Mother of his, and his heart is fettered by this world.' But among the Syrian Fathers this language held its ground. feminine images and metaphors of holy spirit. In the Syriac language too, the grammatically feminine word rucha means "spirit", and writers in that language, both orthodox and Gnostic, used maternal images when speaking of the Holy Spirit. But this is not brought out by the patriarchal or matriarchal image of God. In Trinitarian theology, the image of the divine family raises the Spirit to the same rank as the Father, and puts the Spirit before the Son. 0000067259 00000 n is our true Brother.' The biblical images of the Holy Spirit are tangible means that convey the character and activity of the Holy Spirit to us. The care of the Holy Spirit mainly takes the form of preserving Christians from sin. Men and women are 'born anew' from the Spirit. Although the Hebrew word Ruach (Spirit) is of the feminine gender, the idea of the Holy Spirit being a female presence probably stems from the Hebrew Shekinah, a feminine noun based on the verb shachan (to dwell) that doesn’t appear in the Bible but which was coined by Post-biblical Rabbinic scholars to describe God’s Presence. 0000062510 00000 n This imagery is found in the fourth-century theologians Aphrahat and Ephrem the Syrian. Yet, Jesus most certainly did reveal God in female terms in the New Testament. The Hebrew gospel has passed down the following saying: 'Then my mother, the Holy Spirit, seized me by the hair and bore me away to the great Mount Tabor.' 0000012396 00000 n They are 'children of the Spirit' and the Spirit is their 'Mother'. In Moltmann's view, the Holy Spirit is not subjugated to the Son or the Father, because the Holy Spirit appears besides the Father as the Divine Mother of the Divine Family, such that the Father and the Holy Spirit (as Mother) exclude both Patriarchy and Matriarchy. In part three of this series, I will present the third biblical metaphor revealing the Holy Spirit: oil.We need to discern what the metaphor is, and what its meanings are within the biblical and ANE framework. The Gospel of Thomas is an early Christian non-canonical sayings gospel. The Holy Spirit The Elusiveness of the Spirit George Hendry wrote, “The true doctrine of the Holy Spirit will always be one that recognizes the ... that the Holy Spirit is the “feminine” part of God. _�`�v��H %R.�G��H��F�Dҋ����X��H�c3���!ov���tS������MOC?���c�z��!+��O�-��w>�YX��_o����l�R��p�z���᥿���,�6�~: ���W�T��c���n�P���1˛/�����U�=��p�t�?�5s���蕎�,ݥ������0��lU��Z�������w�, Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons. "�d�$����4��V�����5�060����'�5��i�a�f���10'���0 ��8 endstream endobj 64 0 obj<>/Metadata 61 0 R/Pages 57 0 R/Type/Catalog/PageLabels 55 0 R>> endobj 65 0 obj<>/Font<>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text]/ExtGState<>>>/Type/Page>> endobj 66 0 obj<> endobj 67 0 obj<> endobj 68 0 obj<> endobj 69 0 obj<> endobj 70 0 obj[/ICCBased 90 0 R] endobj 71 0 obj<> endobj 72 0 obj<>stream %PDF-1.4 %���� 0000002948 00000 n Moltmann believes the Holy Spirit should be referred to with feminine attributes and names, such as "she" or "her" or "mother". 0000001096 00000 n 0000066865 00000 n 0000006235 00000 n [11] ... (See footnote 15.) What is said is that Spirit, denoted by a feminine word and a feminine … I stated, before this sub-discussion, how Jesus applied a feminine metaphor to Himself (hen and chicks). In the Syrian version of the poem we find the prayers: 'Come merciful Mother' and 'Come, giver of life'. In 1744 this finding was elevated to the rank of community doctrine. The Holy Spirit is also addressed as 'Mother of all created being'. Only the person who has been 'born anew' can see the kingdom of God. These homilies talk about 'the motherly ministry of the Holy Spirit', using two arguments. 1. The earliest testimonies are probably to be found in the Gospel of Thomas: 'He who will not love his Father and his Mother as I do, cannot be my disciple. Believers enter the school of the Holy Spirit where they are taught what they should and should not do. The real author was in fact the theologian Symeon of Mesopotamia, who was a Messalian, not the desert father Makarios. 0000002553 00000 n . But more important than these speculative possibilities is the new definition of what it means for human beings to be the image of God. In this sense it is the motherly comforter of believers. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993. Jul 31, 2020 - Explore Kathleen Ellinger, OFS's board "Holy Spirit Images" on Pinterest. 2 Print. The Spirit of Life: A Universal Affirmation. Margaret Kohl. Psychologically speaking, inward liberation from the mother is as much a part of human development as emancipation from the Father. 0000003689 00000 n An interpreter of Paul must understand his metaphors in order to arrive at a complete understanding of the Pauline pneumatological perspective. By doing this, Zizendorf made the divine Trinity, conceived according to the pattern of a family, the prototype for the community of brothers and sisters on earth: 'since the Father of our LOrd JEsus Christ is our true Father, and the Spirit of JEsus Christ is our true Mother; because the Son of the living God . trailer <<6E9B431C5FB811DCB7420011247F35C4>]>> startxref 0 %%EOF 102 0 obj<>stream This is the explanation: as long as a man has no wife, he loves and reverences God his Father and the Holy Spirit his Mother, and has no other love. Thanks for sharing! I am amazed how this truth is not generally accepted in the Church. They express mutual intimacy, not sovereign and awful distance. I also mentioned how Scott Hahn used feminine metaphors for the Holy Spirit. , the grammatical gender is feminine. 3 Pastor Ted Kirnbauer Such claims, however, are based on the ignorance of language. I’ve grown comfortable with my belief mostly because experience with the Spirit lies behind me and scripture backs me up. In order to justify his problematical ascetic and celibate way of life, he said: 'Why does a man forsake father and mother when he takes a wife? Is God a "She"? Jürgen Moltmann thinks so! Very helpfull! Here God is experienced, not as the liberation Lord but as 'the well of life'. Find holy spirit stock images in HD and millions of other royalty-free stock photos, illustrations and vectors in the Shutterstock collection. "In Trinitarian theology, the image of the divine family raises the Spirit to the same rank as the Father, and puts the Spirit before the Son.". For thou are my rest, thou my first-born Son, who reigneth in eternity."' 0000036984 00000 n In particular, it considers Mary Daly's statement that "if God is male then the male is God," in the light of the female imagery of the Holy Spirit in the Bahá'í Writings. 0000011036 00000 n This discussion is not about what we think or believe, but that scripture informs our belief. These images enable us to experientially know the personal presence and power of the invisible and incorporeal Living God. There are, albeit few, feminine metaphors used to describe God in the Bible. 0000005973 00000 n Wisdom, the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit of truth are all feminine and though there are many spirits, including evil ones, there is only one Holy Spirit of … c. Comments Off on feminine images and metaphors of holy spirit. 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