CHRISTIANITY / HOLY SPIRIT
A very interesting blog post from Marianne Widmalm from back in April 17, 2019:
"For those of us who are Christians there is something that has been lost since around the 2nd-3rd century after Jesus walked the earth. In Hebrew, the Holy Spirit is a feminine entity. Scholars are aware of it, but most ordinary Christians are not.
"Jesus spoke Hebrew and Aramaic, which are closely related to each other. In both languages the Spirit is feminine. The reason you cannot see the Spirit’s femininity in the New Testament is because all the earliest manuscripts we have are Greek where the gender of the Spirit is neuter. The Old Testament on the other hand was originally written in Hebrew, with minor parts in Aramaic. But, where the feminine pronouns are present, they are left out of translations.
"When Christianity transitioned from consisting of mostly Hebrew-speaking Israelites to Greek-speaking gentiles, the gender of the Spirit was gradually lost. Once the 4th century creeds were written the Holy Spirit became part of an all-masculine Trinity and the spiritual implications the feminine Spirit had also disappeared. But, if Jesus addressed the Spirit as feminine, it is worth considering if this was theologically important."
Read the full essay here: The Importance of Hebrew with regards to the Holy Spirit in Christianity