When I first began my exploration (back in 2001)of the femininity of the Holy Spirit, the road was bumpy. Few Christians were interested in the topic, and many Christians grew furious when faced with discussing the topic. One episode stands out for me. A pastor, when he heard I was writing on the topic of the femininity of the Holy Spirit, was outraged that I would dare to change the Bible. He said (something like), “Jesus called the Spirit a ‘He’ and so I am sure that Jesus knew what he was talking about.”
In the New Testament, yes… it’s true–according to some translations of the Greek–Jesus is seemingly calling the Spirit a “He.” But, we must remember… this is a translation.
Scripture, at least as far as New Testament translations go, refer to the Holy Spirit as “he.” Most translations do. If “he” is not used than “it” is used to refer to the Spirit. For myself, when first faced with the idea of the “she” in the Holy Spirit this proved problematic. After all, I had called the Holy Spirit “he” or occasionally “it” for years. Suddenly now, as I began exploring the “she” in the Spirit, God was challenging my personal theology. But wasn’t this theology the Bible’s theology and, therefore, the founders of my faith’s theology, too? How could I come against what the apostles believed or what the giants of faith believe today? I seriously told God, during my prayer time, that I couldn’t begin to write on this topic unless He explained the “he” factor to me. And explain it, He did.
The Greek (New Testament) word for spirit is “pneuma” whereas the Hebrew (Old Testament) word for spirit is “ruach.” Both words mean: a current of air, wind, a breath in reference to either a human, demon, or the Holy Spirit of God. We see the use of this word in Genesis as God breathed into man the breath or “ruach” of life:
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath [“ruach”] of life; and man became a living being. (NKJV Genesis 2:7)
Through this verse I came to understand that God’s Spirit or His “breath” is what gives and maintains life. So then I began to search the New Testament for every mention of God’s Holy (“pneuma”) Breath. I looked for “Holy Spirit” or “Spirit” or “Spirit of the Lord” or “Spirit of God” to see what pronoun had been placed in front. For the most part no pronoun was used. Often “he” was used. I then noticed that “it” was used sporadically. Now a year earlier (this was way back in 2001 before we had LOGOS Bible Software), my dad had bought me a disk called The Bible Library with many different Bible translations on it: the NIV, the King James version, the New Revised Standard, the Morris Literal Translation of Hebrew and Greek… and so on. I began to cross-reference these instances of pronouns and found that among the different translations there was no concrete congruity between verses. “He” would be used in some instances, “it” in others. The New King James almost always used “he” when referring to the Spirit, whereas others seemed to prefer “it”:
And John bore witness, saying, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him.” (NKJV John 1:32)
And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. (NRSV John 1:32)
So what was going on? Why was there no consensus? How should we relate to this word “pneuma”? Of course, I’m not a translator. I don’t know Greek from a hole in my head. So what I needed was a translator. I prayed to God, “God, you know I’m a mother of three girls, very busy, and with what free time I have I read and pray and write … please send me a translator.” I then opened up my NRSV and sent an email to the publishing house’s web site, asking why this difference existed.
Then I waited.
No answer.
So then I noticed my Bible Library also had the Morris Literal Translation of Hebrew and Greek on it, so one day I looked up a sentence referring to the Holy Spirit and zeroed in on the word “he.” To my surprise the Greek pronoun “autos” means, “she, he or it.” The translators of the Bibles which we all read had all chosen to use “he” or “it,” but never “she.” Even though “she” seemed to be an option:
The Spirit Himself [autos] bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God…. (NKJV Romans 8:16)
The Spirit itself [autos] bears witness with our spirit, that we are children of God. (DARBY Romans 8:16)
The Spirit herself [autos] bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God…. (no one has chosen to translate autos like this, Romans 8:16)
However, this wasn’t enough. I wanted a professional opinion on the matter. This was important, after all. So I prayed to God again. “God, you know I’m a mother of three girls, very busy, and with what free time I have I read and pray and write … please send me a translator.” And then the email came. This is the email sent to me (in February of 2004) by Walter Harrelson who was part of the translation team for the NRSV:
The Greek word PNEUMA is neutral—that is, neither masculine nor feminine. The translation “it” is linguistically correct, which explains the widespread use of “it” in translations of the New Testament. The NRSV translators decided to use “he,” I am confident (though I was not a part of the New Testament panel that made this decision), because “Holy Spirit” refers regularly to the deity, and the translators decided always to remain with the masculine pronoun to refer to deity.
The translators who decide for “it” have a point, and those who decide for “he” do as well. The use of “he” in NRSV is a consequence of a larger decision and can well be rejected by translators. The use of “it” may well be rejected by translators on the principle that for the Bible, God is surely personal, and “it” conveys little of the intimate association characteristic of the relation of human beings and the deity.. . . . You are right: “she” could well be used as the pronoun for Spirit or spirit. The Hebrew for spirit, ruach, is almost always feminine.”
So there it is. The pronoun “he” can be rejected and so can the pronoun “it.” Choosing the correct pronoun must come from the source we are addressing. When “autos” is placed in front of Jesus, we know to use “he.” When it is placed in front of God, because God is referred to as our “Father” (a multitude of times), we feel completely confident in using “he.” But when the participle “autos” is placed in front of “pneuma” we are at a bit of a standstill because we do not get much of a hint toward the correct pronoun to use from the word “breath” or the phrase “breath of God.” Often “it” seems a logical choice when referring to “breath” except this particular “holy breath of God” is alive: the Spirit makes decisions, speaks and leads both Jesus and his disciples. Because of this, “it” seems horrifically lacking. Therefore, our understanding must come from the source we are trying to address.
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In the beginning Genesis 1:26 God said let us make man in our IMAGE, our LIKENESS…man and female made he them. ….On earth as it is in heaven…be fruitful and multiply. The father, the mother and the son(Christ). All of Gods creation creates….Two men cant create a son naturally but a man and a woman can. WISDOM is known of HER children.
Pneuma means Spirit not neutral. God is Spirit. God as well is Father, Lord and King! As for a woman you were created after man by a rib from a man , which the Lord God had taken from man, then he made a woman, and brought her unto the man.
23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. So therefore it is impossible for man and woman to be made in the likeness of God because there has to be order not confusion! In (1 Cor 11:3) , puts it well “the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. There is an order to everything God has put into place. Therefore repent and humble yourself to the truth! Woman are very important in Gods creation. God tells man in (Ephesians 5:25) For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her. There is a deep meaning to this. As well if your not being led by the Holy Spirit, don’t teach!
Kris,
Ruach in Hebrew is feminine. Also “rib” is not an accurate translation. According to my King James version foot notes the Hebrew word means “side”. Men have the same number of ribs as women. Maybe you should pray about this…
The holy Spirit just revealed this to me! Jesus said many times during prayer today “she” to the holy Spirit and I was like “no”, He said “mother” as well and i was terrified to think of anything feminine pertaining to God but I researched to make sure I’m not crazy, I certainly was very partial towards the holy Spirit being a He as I don’t consider myself feminist so I wouldn’t ever say this to myself! Thank you so much for verifying and May God always bless you in the name of Jesus 🕊️🕊️🕊️
Can I say my spine on this ? Hi I’m Ed , a mechanic , I have had the holy spirit speak to me on many occasions and first of all what I hear , does it line up with scripture ? I think to reduce the holy spirit to He , She , It is not correct , I think the comforter is all of these , Jesus called the holy spirit the comforter and will guide u into all truth , I have 5 kids , I have 8 sisters and I’d rather talk to a women than a man , I’d rather in the check out have a lady ring my groceries through , why because I’m comfortable around women but to say the holy spirit is a she ? Comforter, I was driving to work the other day and I hear in my mind Ed , u need to drive slower this morning , I have a porsche , this thought was direct like a man and also comforting like a women , I listened to this , I was watching , on high alert , little did I know but up ahead , an SUV in front of me I could not see traffic ahead of that car , in the on coming traffic was a tractor trailer, 4 cars , the suv in front of me swerved to the shoulder and right in front of me were headlights from a speading suv , I would been killed with the spead that car was driving , I was able to swerve also to the shoulder , here the comforter guided me , protected me and this is only in the physical what is happening at that moment , he also helps to guide in scripture to bring the truth out , I say thanku God for protecting me and guiding me with your comforter
Ed,
The Holy Spirit speaks to people in their own voices, so I’m not surprised at all that you think the Spirit is masculine.
The question that was spoken to me in 1971, which turned out to be my baptism in the Spirit that John said would come to pass, was, “What would She like?”. this puzzled me for years and was the only part of that wonderful experience of my rebirth, that I couldn’t put into words.
Finally a few years ago I was watching the Christian movie, the Encounter,
where a man named Jesus is the owner of a roadside diner, that in the end did not exist. To one of the stranded patrons driven in by a road closure and storm he said, “God speaks to people in their own voices.”
Bingo! that’s what I was waiting to hear because the question, that happened for me twice that night, “What would she like” wasn’t another voice that I heard but it was me asking the question. I had no earthly reason to have used the pronoun “She” but yet I had no reason to doubt the question whatsoever.
God spoke to me in my own voice, about the invisible presence I was playing music for. She!
Terry
Just because a word is masculine or feminine in a language it doesn’t mean that the word has balls or long curly hair. Words that are grammatically masculine can be used for males, females, or chairs. the grammar itself should not dictate our theology, but a close reading of the whole Bible.
Amen
The article autos is only used because grammatically the word pneuma is in the neuter noun gender form. It isn’t because the Spirit isn’t masculine. The “fullness of the Godhead bodily” dwelt in a MAN as Jesus. Does this mean God has big biceps and facial hair? No, because God is not a man, but only dwelt in a body. God is not feminine. The word ruach might be feminine, but that is just the hebrew language, not God himself. In spanish, the word for head is feminine but I would not be calling myself feminine or a woman if I said “mi cabeza”, I would just be obeying the rules of the language.
People speak as though it is all just linguistic semantics and as such is irrelevant to the truth. People are also quick to understand the distinct differences between the natural man and woman with woman even obviously being on the receiving end, or receptive side of sexual union.
If Christians and their leaders are so quick to acknowledge that woman is also made in the image of, or better, as natural imagery of a presence or distinct characteristic of God, why are they so quick to conclude that any mention of a definable femininity within God, is simply a convention based on linguistic translational differences.
The WORD, the Creative, the Father, the masculine was “made flesh and dwelled among us.” The Word, was the son of the Father and MOTHER,
as the masculine does not give birth.
The Holy Spirit is the FEMININE through whom everything that was made, was made.
Solomon knew that the Holy Spirit was the MOTHER!
Read the Book of Wisdom in the 1966 Jerusalem Bible (not the NEW Jerusalem Bible!) and also the Wisdom of Ben Sirach in the neglected book that follows the Book of Wisdom.
If you won’t go and study those books, your faith is lukewarm, and you are being inspired to remain unteachable by anyone other than your chosen worldly teachers or your own unreceptive self.
People may as well endorse two men and a boy as a perfect family as to think of the Trinity as all masculine.
Wait a minute!
That’s exactly what modern Christianity teaches and what revised sexual norms endorse.
When people fancy themselves too wise to bother focusing on the Holy Spirit being the feminine, the Mother, because that would be a limitation to their understanding, then their knowledge is regurgitated human knowledge not wisdom.
WISDOM, is the name of the Holy Spirit
and the name of the Holy Spirit’s own revelation through Solomon that the unteachable will not venerate or study, is called The Book of Wisdom.
Seems like a no-brainer to me.