Bonus - God and the Divine Feminine

Hey, this is Anthony parrot.

One of the pastors at the table church, and a couple of months ago.

I was preaching and that service got interrupted by a medical emergency.

And so I was never able to finish that sermon.

And so.

Couple months later here I am in front of a microphone because I, I thought.

I would share what I was gonna share that evening at church

and put it out as a podcast.

Instead.

So the topic is the holy spirit and the divine feminine or

God and the divine feminine.

Essentially talking about how does scripture talk about God and gender?

And all of that.

So what's dive.

Right in

So Genesis chapter one.

Verse one, we get the creation of the world when God began.

Create the heavens and the earth.

And the word here for God in Hebrew is alloheim.

I is usually in Hebrew, a plural.

Ending, and it can be in the right context to translate it as the gods.

It's also the ending of Hebrew words like face, which is pad name or water maim.

Aim.

And in general it has something to do with like flow.

Expansiveness beyond a single definable thing.

So in the beginning, EEM God, not the gods, but God began to create the

heavens on the earth and this EEM.

Is expansive.

It.

God goes beyond one single definable thing.

Verse two says the earth was formless and void.

And darkness was over the face of the deep.

And the spirit of God moved hovered.

Fluttered.

It depends on your translation.

Over the face of the waters.

Now the spirit of God is they ruak.

ELO the spirit of God.

And the, this spirit of God, this ruak Elohim flutters

over the face of the waters.

The Panem.

My RUOK.

Spirit is a feminine noun.

Hebrew is a language that has masculine and feminine endings.

Which then changes what verbs and adjectives that you pair with it.

And so RUOK spirit.

As a feminine now, and it can can mean air or wind or breath.

But I also in the Hebrew scriptures refers to an aspect

of how God relates to humanity.

It's one of the personas of God that shows up in scripture.

Now Hebrew scholar, old Testament scholar will uh, see Gaffney.

She states that when languages of gender forms.

There are cur correct translation rules.

That you have for how to deal with that when you're dealing with a

non-gendered language like English.

So you correct translation.

Necessitates adding an appropriate pronoun for clarity.

If you're dealing with a feminine noun in the original language, and

then you need to have a feminine.

Pronoun in English to make sure that that translation's coming across.

Clearly, but.

This has not happened in English.

Our Hebrew Bible translations.

Don't.

Usually add appropriate.

Female pronouns, basically due to like patriarchy and sexism.

We just remove the pronouns all together.

So she does this thing in one of her books.

And I I've kind of carried this out in front of my notes in front of me

here of like, what would it sound like if we added those pronouns back?

So the spirit of God, Genesis one,

Verse two, she fluttered over the face of the waters.

Number chapter 11 talks about the spirit, the spirit she

rested upon L dad and may dad.

As they prophesied the story of Baum Baum raises his eyes numbers.

24 spirit of God.

She came.

Upon him, justice chapter six.

So the spirit of Yahweh she covered at Gideon, like clothing

and this covering like clothing.

Metaphor happens a bunch of times in the book of judges, chapter three,

chapter 11, chapter 13, 14, 19.

15 first Samuel.

Talks about Samuel anointing, David with oil and the spirit of Yahweh.

She rushed upon David from that day forward.

And again, similar language in first Samuel chapter 10, chapter 11, chapter 19.

1 Samuel 10 · chapter mention

The spirit of yawe.

She spoke through me.

It says in second, Samuel 23, the spirit of the Lord, she will rest on

the branch of Jesse, Isaiah chapter 11, as the Lord spoke to me, it

Isaiah 11 · chapter mention

says Ezekiel two, the spirit, she entered me and set me on my feet.

And I heard her speaking to me, the spirit.

She lifted me up and took me.

Away as he keel says in chapter three, my spirit, she remains in my midst.

Do not fear.

Teach me to do your will for you or my God.

Let your good spirit, let her lead me on level ground.

As, as in Psalm 1 43.

So you can see if we add these pronouns back into our English translations.

It actually really changes.

How we might speak about.

God and divine.

Names and D divine identity.

When we actually have accurate Bible translations, but they've been removed.

And so, you know, even having a sermon about like, well, what

pronoun should we use for God?

We get you thrown into like some sort of, you know, conservative church jail.

But it doesn't have to, it shouldn't because this is actually in.

Ingrained in our Hebrew Bibles.

That these pronouns are entirely appropriate for how we speak about.

The spirit for sure.

Gaffney says feminine language occurs in the text, the Hebrew Bible.

Repeatedly of God.

This means that feminists and womanists.

Advocating for inclusive and explicitly.

Feminine God language aren't changing, but.

Restoring the text and could be considered biblical.

Literalists.

I love that, you know, it's often folks who call themselves biblical.

Literalists like, why you can't say she about God.

Sorry for my, sorry for my biblical literature was you can't

say she about God, but actually.

It's already in the text and when we remove it that's, what's

changing the Bible, the idea of a feminine aspect of God.

However is not restricted to just a clever grammatical argument.

It's also made.

Utterly explicit in the book of proverb.

So Proverbs chapter three and chapter eight.

And talk about wisdom.

And wisdom is.

Personified in Proverbs as a, as a woman.

So chapter Proverbs three 19, yawe founded the earth by wisdom.

He established the heavens by understanding.

And in chapter eight, we actually get this wisdom personified.

Speaking.

So she says.

Yawe possessed me at the beginning of his way before his works of old from

eternity, I was established from the

beginning

before the earth was.

When there were no watery depths, I was brought forth when there

were no Springs with water.

Before the mountains were settled before the Hills, I was brought

forth before the earth and the fields and the first dry land I was.

Beside him as a master architect.

And I was his delight daily playing always before him frolicking within

the inhabited earth and delighting and the children of humanity.

So this is wisdom, personified, and Proverbs a speaking.

As a woman wisdom.

This is chapter eight, verse one wisdom cries outta top the Heights along the

path that the crossroad, she takes her stand by the gate before the city

and at the entrances, she shouts.

So not as surprise.

The Hebrew word for wisdom is hookah.

And the Greek word for wisdom is Sophia.

And these are both again, feminine.

Nouns and women wisdom actually takes on a whole life and character.

Throughout Jewish wisdom, literature, and a collection of books called

the Apocrypha, which are written towards the end of the, the Hebrew

Bible and, and the time of Jesus.

So woman wisdom.

It Doesn't just show up in Proverbs, but she shows up in, in a bunch of Jewish

literature, not all of which makes it into our Bibles, but we're still

being written about around this time.

So listen to this section on lady wisdom.

From a book called the wisdom of Solomon, which is written about a

hundred years before the time of Jesus is . Wisdom of Solomon chapter seven.

Wisdom, the designer of everything that is, has taught me.

Her spirit is insightful.

Holy.

Unique diverse, refined, kinetic.

Pure spotless, transparent harmless delighting in what is good.

Sharp unstoppable overflowing with kindness, delighting in

humans, steadfast, secure, not anxious, all powerful, all seen.

Her spirit can be found in every spirit that is perceptive pure and refined wisdom

is more mobile than anything that moves.

She pervades and embraces everything because she is so pure.

Wisdom is the warm breath of God's power.

She pours forth from the all powerful ones, pure glory, therefore

nothing in pure can enter her.

She's the brightness that shines forth from eternal light.

She's a mere that flawlessly reflects God's act activity.

She's the perfect image of God's.

Goodness.

She can do anything since she's one and undivided.

She never changes.

Yet.

She makes everything new generation after generation wisdom, enters

souls, and she shapes them into God's friends and prophets.

God doesn't love anything as much as people who make.

Their home with wisdom.

She's more splendid than the son and more wonderful than

the arrangement of the stars.

She's even brighter than sunlight for night follows day, but evil

could never overcome wisdom.

She stands strong from one in the world to the other.

She is a marvelous governor.

Over everything in between.

So yeah.

Author of wisdom of Solomon has a bit of a crush on.

Women wisdom and there's a connection.

Between the feminine spirit of God and Genesis one, the spirit

of God, she fluttered over the surface of the waters and.

Lady wisdom of Proverbs of Jewish wisdom literature.

I.

Woman wisdom was at the creation of the world as the master architect.

So, yeah, in, in Jewish literature there was, they would connect.

The spirit that hover over the waters, Genesis one, and this

woman wisdom in Proverbs, the, the.

Wisdom of Solomon.

They saw a connection between these.

Two feminine, divine.

Characters now.

Let me make a point about gender in the Trinity.

Christians have.

Believed in the, the Trinity for long, long, long, long time.

And what I'm not arguing.

Is that, that there are clear, thick.

Lines to be made between.

Masculine aspects of God.

In God, the father and feminine aspects in.

Only God, God, the holy spirit.

I think that's really far too neat and clean of a divide and the Trinity.

Is nothing.

If not mysterious.

And difficult to put in the language.

Throughout scripture and Christian literature.

Each person of the Trinity has had both masculine.

And feminine language applied to them.

Throughout Jewish literature, Yahweh God.

And the RUOK.

Glory and wisdom of God have had masculine, feminine

language applied to them.

So some examples, Deuteronomy chapter 32.

Deuteronomy 32 · chapter mention

Says a mother Eagle protecting its nest.

Hovering over its young as a mother Eagle has done that.

So is God spread out wings.

Deuteronomy 32 this LOA.

EOI God gives groans.

Gives birth from heavy.

Labor uh, Isaiah 42, God says like a woman in labor.

I will moan.

I will pant.

I will gasp.

Isaiah 49 says as a woman cannot forget the infant at her breast

or walk away from the child.

She bore.

No more.

Can I forget you?

Jesus.

And Luke chapter 13 says Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the

Luke 13 · chapter mention

prophets and stones God's messengers.

How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hi.

Protects her chicks beneath her wings.

Roman chapter eight, all creation, groans, and suffers with the pains

of childbirth together until now.

And we within ourselves have the spirit within us.

Also groaning within ourselves.

And quite massively.

Christ Jesus.

The second person of the Trinity.

Is also identified with both male and female imagery.

So in John chapter one the author of John identifies Christ as the word.

In the beginning was the word, the word was with God.

And in the Greek, this is the idea of the law OS.

The law OS is synonymous with the Greek.

Concept of Sophia, which is the feminine figure for wisdom.

And that same creation motif is right there in John chapter one at the beginning

of the word, the word is with God.

All things were created by him created by this word.

So Cynthia Snavely writer theologian, she writes.

While the historical Jesus is explicitly male, and I'm not

arguing that not arguing about.

The gender of Jesus of Nasif.

But while the historical Jesus is explicitly male, the living Christ.

Is not limited to male or female Thor form.

That is.

The, the, the second person of the Trinity, which preexist.

The human physical body of Jesus.

Born of Mary.

This is not limited to male or female form.

In other words the eternal presence of Christ in the life of Christians.

Is not bound by human gender categorization, but.

Because Christ is God transcends the limitations of male.

Or female now.

If you wanna argue back and say, Yeah, Anthony, but this is all just metaphor.

Then sure.

Yeah, you would be correct, but that's true of all the language we use about God.

The, the male language for God is no less metaphor.

Than female language.

And just because it's metaphor doesn't mean that.

Lacks meaning imagine sweeping away the entirety of our language about.

Redemption ransom atonement the cross because it's all just metaphor.

I've had people tell me that we can't use feminine language for God, because

it's all just metaphor in scripture.

But can you imagine how upset.

The conservative gospel coalition, Theo bros would be.

If I argued that we can't do communion, cuz it's just a

metaphor that we can't talk about.

Jesus redeeming us.

Cuz it's all just metaphor.

We can't talk about Jesus as good shepherd cuz it's just metaphor.

No, that's absurd.

Yes, it's metaphor.

And so we should have used those metaphors if God employs metaphors calling herself.

A, a mother in labor or a mother who can't walk away from a child at its breast.

Then why would Christians refuse to employ those metaphors?

So some implications.

If we.

Unnecessarily limit our experience of God.

And our language about God.

To masculine language to male only language.

Then we are dramatically.

Reducing our ability.

To relate to God.

Imagine.

Not, and some of us don't have to imagine.

Imagine not having a solid.

Steady mother or father figure.

And I didn't for the first 10 years of my life.

And so that, you know, changed the way that I related to both men and women.

And if I did the same thing with God, I'm just like, yep.

The God is only masculine, never feminine.

Then that affects my ability to relate to this God that I believe is personal

and wants to have a relationship with me.

Next when God made humanity in their.

Image it wasn't the case.

That male was more in the divine image than female.

It was.

But.

When we limit our language around God to only masculine language.

Our language is going to create a culture in which men are more godlike than women.

Only acknowledging God as male.

Weakens women's connection with the divine.

Exclusive God is male language.

Implies that women are lesser.

In other words, because God is male.

Men are somehow more reflective of the divine than women are.

And that has real.

Serious implications for how the culture treats women.

Like will we grant as a culture?

Will we grant women bodily autonomy?

The ability to address how they choose address to have sex with whom they choose

to have sex, the ability to bear children.

Or not.

And when to choose.

Will all those decisions be just left to men who are the real image bearers,

the one who share pronouns with God.

If we see God as solely male.

Will we be able to see women as leaders.

Creators and imaginaries for our social order.

Where is that only left to half of the species in the name of

keeping women in their place.

Limiting our language limits our imagination and our capacity to

see the world as it could be.

And if anyone deserves language that is.

Large and imaginative and creative and grand, I would think it is God.

And to cut off.

So much possible language about God.

Because of patriarchal assumptions about.

What pronouns are in the Bible.

Does a huge disservice to the mystery and the wonder of who God is.

So practically for me, this means that I often refer to God as they.

Which to me recognizes.

The, the bigness, the expansiveness of God's character.

And I also think it's important to refer to God as.

She as a verbal.

Vocal reminder that God is not merely.

Ones set of pronouns that God is not.

Merely.

Identified with male.

Metaphors.

Us God, as she reminds me, that women are created in the image of

God, that God is more expansive than I can possibly imagine.

And that my language needs to continually grow, not shrink.

When I'm talking about the defined character.

I think this also probably reimagines how we pray.

And the images that we think of.

In our minds, the language that we use.

Of if we only refer to God as father and never mother, if we only refer it to God.

As he and never they, or she.

Then our prayer lines are also half of what they could be.

And I don't think it needs to be that way.

Scripture gives us the permission, the language and tools.

To pray in much more expansive and creative ways.

So I hope you found that at least a little bit helpful, a little

bit of biblical background.

And I hope it grants you the permission.

To refer to God in whatever way.

You find most comfortable and helpful.

Peace be with you.