Early Christian view of the Holy Trinity

[Paul Younan]

Some Early Syriac writings do portray the Holy Spirit as being feminine. I do appreciate your reply.

Hi TrueVineBranch,

Welcome to the forum. In Aramaic, as in many languages, nouns have a grammatical gender. It is a somewhat strange concept to English speakers as this is not common in English. It is a feature of other European languages, most notably French.

In Aramaic, the word "spirit" is feminine in gender, grammatically speaking. That doesn't mean that a spirit is feminine. Of course a spirit is neither male nor female in gender.

Due to the grammar, many early (and modern) Aramaic writers played on this feature of the language for dramatic effect. Often times, you will read early Aramaic poems that refer to the Holy Spirit with feminine features (especially in adjectives and verbs). That is because the grammar of the language demands it. Verbs will also reflect this, because in Aramaic a verb must agree with the noun in gender, number and person.

Be careful not to read too much into this. The Holy Spirit is of course neither male nor female - that's a matter of X and Y chromosomes, a strictly human differentiation.

+Shamasha