Before I begin, I would like to clarify that I am part of the Jacobite Syrian Christian Church, which is the Indian branch of the Syriac Orthodox Church, which uses the Divine Liturgy of St. James and our liturgical language is Syriac.
The Holy Spirit's grammatical gender in Greek is neuter (pneuma) and masculine in Latin (spiritus) and so because the Bible refers to the Holy Spirit as 'it', I believed the Holy Spirit to be genderless
Imagine my surprise, when I discover the word for Spirit in Syriac is rucha and is feminine, same with the Hebrew ruach and that the established gender usage for referring to the Holy Spirit is feminine in Syriac tradition and that early Syriac works like the Odes to Solomon refers to the Holy Spirit as feminine [1][2]
I got to thinking, hey, If the Holy Spirit is feminine then that makes the Trinity:
God the Father
God the Mother
God the Son
So, what do you think? It is better to refer to the Holy Spirit as feminine or should it just stay 'it'?
Cheers, Knives.
[1] The Holy Spirit as Feminine
[2] Susan Harvey on Early Syriac Tradition
The Holy Spirit's grammatical gender in Greek is neuter (pneuma) and masculine in Latin (spiritus) and so because the Bible refers to the Holy Spirit as 'it', I believed the Holy Spirit to be genderless
Imagine my surprise, when I discover the word for Spirit in Syriac is rucha and is feminine, same with the Hebrew ruach and that the established gender usage for referring to the Holy Spirit is feminine in Syriac tradition and that early Syriac works like the Odes to Solomon refers to the Holy Spirit as feminine [1][2]
I got to thinking, hey, If the Holy Spirit is feminine then that makes the Trinity:
God the Father
God the Mother
God the Son
So, what do you think? It is better to refer to the Holy Spirit as feminine or should it just stay 'it'?
Cheers, Knives.
[1] The Holy Spirit as Feminine
[2] Susan Harvey on Early Syriac Tradition