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Etchi_Besem
Guest
It is great to be here! Didn’t know such a forum exists.
Talking about the Trinity and gender as used in the New Testament and liturgy, I have always known that the pronoun for all three persons of the Trinity is ‘He’ till I was reflecting on the Annunciation for a paper recently and got the insight that in the new creation as in the old the Trinity is distinctly involved. The Holy Spirit overshadows Mary, to enable the conception of Jesus by the Power of the Most High (the Father) Lk 1:35. It struck me that the conception of Jesus is by the power of the Father through the Holy Spirit and Mary (Also Creed 200ce by Tertullian). The Holy Spirit gave Mary the possibility to conceive the Divine and contribute her humanity. So the Word became flesh in Mary; a male child who is inseperably human and divine by the power of the Father.Theotokos thus Mary is rightly called. I felt strongly that the Holy Spirit is feminine. First thought heresy. Looking around, I found that Wisdom is ‘associated’ to the Spirit of God (Irenaeus says The Holy Ghost is the Father’s Wisdom) and ‘she’ is used in the Book of Wisdom, secondly the Hebrew for Spirit is ‘Ruach’ which is feminine and the Greek ‘pneuma’ is neuter. I begin to ask who and how the translation into English became ‘he’. I also asked
How much did the culture of masculine hegemony-the prioritizing of the male gender- in thought and language patterns affect the redaction/editing/translation of the New Testament text? Would it have been possible to use ‘she’ for God the Holy Spirit if it were so in such a culture or would it have been ‘left out’ as an error?
Irenaeus says the Son and the Holy Ghost are the ‘two hands’ with which God created humanity. Why did man (English text) need the breath of the Spirit and woman need flesh (The Word became flesh) to become alive? Was it given to the one what the other’s form was? Was the unity between them from the fashioning of a body proper to each by the Father using the same bone?
When Jesus says one must be born of water and the Holy Spirit, is to give birth not an exclusively feminine trait? is it coincidence that at the start of creation we read the Holy Spirit and water and when a woman is in labour first is water and then the new birth?
For the Holy Spirit to be feminine I feel more of a **sister **and friend as Jesus is brother and friend and daughter in relation to the Father
In searching for answers I found this forum, can someone suggest Church writings which I can read that explains how and why the Holy Spirit is ‘He’?
Talking about the Trinity and gender as used in the New Testament and liturgy, I have always known that the pronoun for all three persons of the Trinity is ‘He’ till I was reflecting on the Annunciation for a paper recently and got the insight that in the new creation as in the old the Trinity is distinctly involved. The Holy Spirit overshadows Mary, to enable the conception of Jesus by the Power of the Most High (the Father) Lk 1:35. It struck me that the conception of Jesus is by the power of the Father through the Holy Spirit and Mary (Also Creed 200ce by Tertullian). The Holy Spirit gave Mary the possibility to conceive the Divine and contribute her humanity. So the Word became flesh in Mary; a male child who is inseperably human and divine by the power of the Father.Theotokos thus Mary is rightly called. I felt strongly that the Holy Spirit is feminine. First thought heresy. Looking around, I found that Wisdom is ‘associated’ to the Spirit of God (Irenaeus says The Holy Ghost is the Father’s Wisdom) and ‘she’ is used in the Book of Wisdom, secondly the Hebrew for Spirit is ‘Ruach’ which is feminine and the Greek ‘pneuma’ is neuter. I begin to ask who and how the translation into English became ‘he’. I also asked
How much did the culture of masculine hegemony-the prioritizing of the male gender- in thought and language patterns affect the redaction/editing/translation of the New Testament text? Would it have been possible to use ‘she’ for God the Holy Spirit if it were so in such a culture or would it have been ‘left out’ as an error?
Irenaeus says the Son and the Holy Ghost are the ‘two hands’ with which God created humanity. Why did man (English text) need the breath of the Spirit and woman need flesh (The Word became flesh) to become alive? Was it given to the one what the other’s form was? Was the unity between them from the fashioning of a body proper to each by the Father using the same bone?
When Jesus says one must be born of water and the Holy Spirit, is to give birth not an exclusively feminine trait? is it coincidence that at the start of creation we read the Holy Spirit and water and when a woman is in labour first is water and then the new birth?
For the Holy Spirit to be feminine I feel more of a **sister **and friend as Jesus is brother and friend and daughter in relation to the Father
In searching for answers I found this forum, can someone suggest Church writings which I can read that explains how and why the Holy Spirit is ‘He’?