Added by Lev/Christopher on January 17, 2010 at 6:02am
Welcome to Session Five of Tic Toc Ministries groundbreaking seminar, The Seven Spirits Of God!
Who is the Holy Spirit? Why is it that to most of us, unlike the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit does not seem to have a specific gender? And why, out of all of the spirits of God, does the Holy Spirit appear to be the only member without a clearly defined family role? Does Scripture provide us with such information? And if so, what are the benefits of such a revelation?
Join Monica Dennington as she goes straight to the Bible for the hidden link between The Holy Spirit and the other members of Gods family.
Comment by DR on February 1, 2010 at 3:07pm
And whil there are no rue adjectives in Hebrew (nouns ae used as adjecties), noun modifiers must agree in gender with the noun.
Sounds like Aramaic is similar to Greek in this regard. I'm not sure if pronouns in Aramaic must also agree in gender with the nouns they refer back to, but in Greek, they do. Again, the grammatical gender of nouns/pronouns do not reflect natural gender.
So again, you can't prove the Holy Spirit is a "He" or "She" in Greek. But in the same manner we can prove the Holy Spirit is a Personage by looking at references where the Holy Spirit acts like a Personage, a pretty good inference can be made that the Holy Spirit is feminine also and on that much, I believe Monica is plausible.
Comment by Mats Rydin on February 1, 2010 at 1:49pm
If You read other than the english translations You will find that the Holy Spirit often denotes in feminine terms. I prefer to look at the Holy spirit as a mother who cares. That dosen´t mean that I refer to God as a mother. I always direct to Him as a father. We as human beings are very need of both a father and a mother. If not why has we been created to be like that? This question is not only a grammatical question but about our deepest needs as human beings.
"Gender of Ruach
One problem that present itself in translating the New Testament from Hebrew and Aramaic into English is that of the gender of Ruach HaKodesh (Holy spirit).
English is very different from Hebrew and Aramic. To begin with english has tree genders, masculine, femine and neuter (i.e, he,she andn it). Hebrew and Aramaic have no neuter gender. Also gender plays a much more important role in Hebrew and Aramaic than in English. In English gender is usually only an issue when dealing with pronouns. But in Hebrew and in aramaic nouns and verbs are also masculine or feminine. And whil there are no rue adjectives in Hebrew (nouns ae used as adjecties), noun modifiers must agree in gender with the noun. Now the Hebrew word RUACH (Aramaic RUCHA) is gammatically feminine as is the prahse Ruach HaKodesh. This is matched by the role of the Ruach HaKodesh as "comforter" (Jn. 14-16) and the identification of the "comforter" with YHWH acting as a "mother" Is. 66:13).
Now in English the ruach is often to as "he" or "it" as also in the Greek New estament. However this seems very odd indeed to the semitic mind.
Now it is very clear that gender of the RUACH has been revised in many pasages of the aramaic to agree with the Hellenistic concept of the Holy Spirit as being a "he" or an "it". Thus the pronouns used or the ruach HaKodesh in Jn. 14-16 in the Peshitta are all masculine.However the hand of revision is very clear. for example while both the Peshitta and Old syriac have "he" in Jn. 16:18 the Old Syriac has "she" just a few verses futrther down in 16:13while the Peshitta has "he".
Morever thera are many passages in which Peshitta itself pairs the ruach HaKodesh with feminie verbs and/or feminine modifers: Mk. 1:10; Jn.1:32,33; 6:63;7:39; Acts 8:29,39;16:17;Rom.8:9,10,11,16,26a,26b, 1Cor.3:16; 1Tim.4:1;1Pt.1:11; 4:14 and 1Jn.5:6. In the fact the Peshitta aramaic of rom. 8:16 opens with :
And she the ruach gives testimony...
While it is clear that the ruach HaKodesh has no literal gnder, it is also clear that the Ruach HaKodesh is grammatically and figuratively a "she" .
From the introduction of the Hebraic-Roots Version scriptures by James Trimm pages 1v and 1vi.
Comment by DR on February 1, 2010 at 11:17am
Actually the pronouns for the Holy Spirit in the Gospel of John are masculine AND neuter. BUT pronouns in Greek say nothing about natural gender, just as grammatical gender says nothing about natural gender. Greek pronouns refer back to their antecedent using the same grammatical gender, whether the natural gender is male or female.
In short, if anything, the Greek New Testament is silent about the Holy Spirit's natural gender. But still, Monica is still wrong making the connection between natural/grammatical gender. The Bible is otherwise silent on the Holy Spirit's gender.
