(November 16, 2018 at 12:31 pm)Whateverist Wrote:(November 16, 2018 at 11:48 am)TwoKnives99 Wrote: 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
I think it must be masculine since so many acolytes describe being filled by it and those who haven't long for it. Frankly I think Christianity might be gay ... not that there is anything wrong with that!
Ah.. yes that famous part of the Trinity.
The Holy Gigolo