The Holy Spirit as feminine: Early Christian testimonies and their interpretation

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Introduction

In two previous articles, I discussed the place and role of both the doctrine and the experience of the Holy Spirit in the Early Church (Van Oort 2011; 2012). An important aspect remained, however: namely the fact that many early Christian authors – in particular those belonging to so-called 'Jewish Christianity'1 – spoke of the Holy Spirit as Mother.How did this come to pass? And which consequences may be derived from this phenomenon for present-day discourse on the Holy Spirit?An essential background to the occurrence of the Holy Spirit as Mother is, of course, the fact that the Hebrew word for Spirit, ruach, is in nearly all cases feminine. The first Christians, all of whom were Jews, took this over. Also in Aramaic the word for Spirit, rucha, is feminine. All this, however, does not fully account for the early Jewish Christian practice. A close reading of the relevant texts

Jewish Christian sources

Origen and the 'Gospel according to the Hebrews'

The first prooftext, which already brings in medias res, is from the Greek church father Origen (c. 185–254). In his Commentary on the Gospel of John, he says:

If anyone should lend credence to the Gospel according to the Hebrews, where the Saviour Himself says, 'My Mother (mētēr), the Holy Spirit, took me just now by one of my hairs and carried me off to the great Mount Tabor', he will have to face the difficulty of explaining how the Holy Spirit can be the Mother (mētēr) of Christ when She was herself brought into existence through the Word. But neither the passage nor this difficulty is hard to explain. For if he who does the will of the Father in heaven [Mt. 12:50] is Christ's brother and sister and mother (mētēr), and if the name of brother of Christ may be applied, not only to the race of men, but to beings of diviner rank than they, then there is nothing absurd in the Holy Spirit's being His Mother (mētēr); everyone being His mother who does the will of the Father in heaven. (Origen, Commentary on the Gospel of John 2, 12 – Preuschen 1903:67)

Origen, who in all probability dictated these lines when he was in Palestinian Caesarea, refers to a 'Gospel according to the Hebrews'. Until today there is much discussion about the origin and contents of this Gospel (e.g. Frey 2012:593–606; Luomanen 2012:1–2, 235–243), but all specialists agree that it was of Jewish Christian provenance. Apart from several other things, we learn from this quote that, sometime in the beginning of the second century CE, the Jewish Christians of this Gospel spoke of the Holy Spirit as Mother (mētēr).

The same is evident in another quote from Origen:…

but if one accepts (the following): 'My Mother (mētēr), the Holy Spirit, took me just now and carried me off to the great Mount Tabor,' one could see who is his Mother (mētēr). (Origen, Homilies on Jeremiah 15, 4 – Klostermann 1901:128)

From both quotes we may also learn that Origen himself accepted the concept of the Holy Spirit as Mother.

Jerome and the 'Gospel according to the Hebrews'