Shekinah, the Holy Spirit and Feminine Imagery of the Divine

[JRosemary]

[Josh]

The Book of Common Prayer (used by the Episcopaleans) actually has a slightly different translation of the creed. In the non-Episcopalean translation, no gender is indicated for the Spirit. When speaking of the Spirit, I've always used, and I've always heard used, the pronoun "it," which perhaps is consistent with the neuter gender of the Pauline usage. Here's a comparison of the two versions of the Creed: http://www.creeds.net/ancient/nicene.htm

I believe the Jewish version of the Christian idea of the Spirit is ruwach (e.g., Gen 1:2, Num 11:26, Num 24:2, Jdg 3:10, Jdg 13:25, Jdg 14:6, Jdg 14:9, Jdg 15:14, 1 Sa 10:6, and at least a couple dozen other places). Ruwach is feminine, so I don't think it would be inapropriate to use a feminine pronoun. But since we're Hellenized Christians, we probably gravitate toward the Pauline Greek pneuma, which is neuter (an "it").

If we ever go to church together, I won't be offended if you use the feminine pronoun.

[girlfreddy]

[Adam]

Hello Rose,

I would like to answer this question at length some time later, but for now, I wanted to note that, traditionally, the Shekinah is associated with the Son, rather than the Spirit.

Adam

[JRosemary]

Thanks for the answers & information, Josh & Girlfreddy!

Judging from my 2 repsonses here, 100% of Christians are ok with the Holy Spirit being spoken of as feminine

I'm familiar with the word 'ruach' or 'ruah' (depending on how you transliterate it, I suppose) and I know that it means 'wind' or 'spirit'--but I thought it was more neuter than feminine. I don't think I ever connected it with the Holy Spirit, but that certainly makes sense.

Um, I don't actually recite the Creed, Josh, but if I ever attend church with you I'll stand respectfully and be glad that some people might be saying 'She'

[JRosemary]

[Leslie]

[alliebath]

The Hebrew word rûah can mean breath, wind or spirit. It is breathed into the human being in the Eden story and breathed into the recreated bodies in Ezekiel’ valley. It is translated by the Greek word pneuma, which has exactly the same range of meanings (hence pneumatic tyres).

The word for wisdom (which can also mean guile or, indeed, experience) is hokmâ, translated by the Greek sōphia (hence philosophy, sophisticated).

Both hokmâ, and sōphia are grammatically feminine in form.

The word shekinah comes from the root ŠKN which means ‘to dwell’, and is associated with YHWH, as it is a Jewish rabbinical term, and not with the Son = Christ.

[JRosemary]

Thanks for the response, Alliebath! I'll let you and Adam duke it out over the exact understanding Christianity has of Shekinah. As for ruah...I'll have to recheck my Torah. I usually hear words related to 'naphash' being used for breathing or being breathed upon. (Or 'nephesh' for breathing creatures, etc.) But it makes a certain sense, I suppose, that the initial breath God breathes into Adam would be the wind/spirit ruah.

(My Hebrew is only at the early stages--it's still mostly what I pick up from the Torah service on Shabbat and Torah study classes and a few random Israeli Hebrew classes, lol.)

I wasn't even going to bring up Chokmah or Sophia regarding the Holy Spirit, as I understand that some Christians associate Sophia, especially, with Christian Gnosticism. But if you want to go there at greater length, I think it'd be a fascinating discussion!

[Josh]

[Adam]

[alliebath]

Néphesh can mean mean life, self or even throat! So, indeed it is both that which receives rûah and also that through which rûah flows, JRosemary.

Sorry, JRosemary, I did not know you were Jewish: if that should make a difference, with regard to Adam’s comments, I apologise for any omission or commission through my ignorance.

I was not aware, Adam, that shekinah turned up in the Greek of the Johannine writings!

Are you aware of the Kanai tradition, JRosemary? They have 144 names for God.

[Fea_Istra]

Interesting question! I have never heard the Holy Spirit referred to as 'She'. I'm afraid I don't have enough knowledge to answer this question from a historical/linguistic point of view. But I'm not sure if the Holy Spirit is the same thing as Shekinah. In the New Testament it says:

(John 16, NIV)

5"Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, 'Where are you going?' 6Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. 7But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt[a] in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: 9in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; 10in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. "

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems that when Jesus talks about the 'Counselor' He is talking about the Holy Spirit? I admit I don't know/understand that much about it. I believe in the Trinity, so the Holy Spirit is also God, and He is present on earth - in all who accept Him. So in a way, the Holy Spirit is a lot like 'Divine Presence' (Shekinah), but still different in other ways.

About feminine/masculine: I don't think that God is male/female (after all, both men and women are made in His image) - except Jesus. But I think the reason God is called 'He' is because His relation to us is 'masculine' (CS Lewis). That's just one explanation though.

It's interesting that you said "Shekinah is also associated with the Temple, and wherever 10 or more are gathered in prayer and with those in need, and with prophecy, special moments in religious history, special celebrations, etc., etc. "
In the Bible the Holy Spirit is sometimes mentioned in relation to prophesy, etc..and Jesus said that whenever a few are gathered in His name, there He is (but I don't know how the Holy Spirit ties into this).

Sorry I'm rambling now I still have a lot to learn about the Holy Spirit - don't we all.

fea

[Adam]

::I was not aware, Adam, that shekinah turned up in the Greek of the Johannine writings!

1. I will explain later, thoroughly, why I believe that the Johannine tradition interprets the shekinah as Jesus.

2. This idea is not my own, but one that I have seen in scholarly work on John, so it is not merely a church tradition. It is not, of course, for this reason true, and I'm not even certain in my conclusion, but it is a hypothesis worth consideration.

3. Surely you do not mean to suggest that the soundness of my conclusion is determined by the presence of a particular Hebrew word in a Greek letter? Isn't it at least theoretically possible that there may be allusions and allegories in the text which may indicate a relationship between the two ideas in the Johannine world of thought?

Again, we find ourselves in disagreement, not over our conclusions, but over methods and practice. Shekinah is most certainly a Hebrew idea with it's own particular meaning and context, one which proceeds in a modified form into rabbinic thought. However, it is also adopted and adapted into Christian thought, and in this adoption it is associated, I would argue, with the Son. There are many good arguments against this association, but I think that your argument, the sarcastic challenge to find the precise Hebrew word in the Greek text, is a poor argument, and it is indicative of a sloppy method; tracing the history of ideas through different worlds of thought is not as simplistic as your challenge suggests. Frankly, you have proven that you know better than this in past posts, where you I think rightly trace ideas of covenant through the ancient near east; if I were to object to your conclusions by demanding you show evidence of agreement in word choice in the relevant texts, I think you would do well to ignore me.

4. I stated that Rosemary was Jewish, not to accuse you of slighting her in some manner, but to clarify the nature of my answer to her question. If someone unfamiliar with Judaism and Christianity had asked the question "what is the shekinah?" and I answered "it's a reference to Jesus," someone may rightly respond "Um, Adam, I think there may be something about Judaism in there too." But if a Jewish person, who describes what the shekinah means in Judaism, asks what it means in Christianity, it is alright, in my estimation, to presume that, by answering the question of what it means to a Christian, I am not suggesting that it is initially a Christian idea or that it is even primarily a Christian idea, nor that it means the same thing to a Christian that it does to a Jew.

[alecto]

Is Shekinah a post-Scriptural feminine form of sheken? I've been trying to gloss shekinah in my OT dictionary and am not finding it, and I'm also thinking of all those medieval Jewish commentators who talked about Shekinah. Is Shekinah a post exile concept?

Two weeks ago, the pastor of my church introduced Shekinah with the implication that Jesus was the personification of Shekinah. I think intuitively that equation with the Spirit works better, though.

Is the idea that Shekinah appears whenever ten are gathered a reference to the ten sephiroth? (I don't remember now who originally mentioned this.)