Is the Holy Spirit God the Mother? Part 2: Historical Evidence

There is historical evidence that some of the earliest Christians thought the Holy Spirit was feminine. The church father Jerome refers to the Holy Spirit as Mother in his writings. Another church father, Epiphanius, states that the Holy Spirit is “a Female Being”.  The Pseudo-Clementines, a work named after Clement of Rome, speaks of the Jewish Christian idea of the Holy Spirit as feminine, specifically stating that “Wisdom”, as described in Proverbs, is the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of wisdom in Proverbs is described as a woman (Van Oort, 2016). Is this simply coincidental or does this point to the Spirit of Wisdom’s nature?

Melito of Sardis wrote a homily “On the Passover”, which states, “Hymn the Father, you holy ones; sing to your Mother, virgins.” This is a clear reference to the Holy Spirit as Mother. The book of Thomas and the Acts of Thomas have several examples of the Holy Spirit being called Mother. While these books are not in the biblical canon decided on by the Church in 381 A.D., they are historical and so are helpful to understanding the thinking of that time. In those books, God is called “The Father of truth and the Mother of Wisdom” (Van Oort, 2016).  God is also called the “invisible Father and thine Holy Spirit the Mother of all creation” (Susan, 2023). Additionally, the Holy Spirit is talked about as “Come secret Mother; Come You who are manifest in your deeds; You who gives joy and rest to those who are united to You….” The Gospel of Thomas includes this prayer, “Come, Holy Spirit, Come, She that dost know the mysteries of him that is chosen, Come, She that has part in all the combats of the noble champion, Come, the silence that reveals the great things of the whole greatness, Come, She that manifests the hidden things and makes the unspeakable things plain, The Holy Dove that bears the twin young, ‘Come, hidden Mother, Come, She that is manifest in Her deeds and gives joy…’” (Marg, 2023). As will be shown in the next section, lady Wisdom in Proverbs is equated with the Holy Spirit in the Bible (Van Oort, 2016).  The Gospel of Philip, another non-canonical book, states that “whoever becomes a Christian gains both Father and Mother” (Susan, 2020).

One old translation of John, a Syrian version of the Gospels, translates the text using “she” as the pronoun for the Holy Spirit (Susan, 2020).  Makarios, an Egyptian monk who lived between 300-390 A.D., wrote about the Holy Spirit as mother. He pointed out that the Holy Spirit gives us spiritual birth: thus, she is our Mother (John 3:5). He explicitly stated that “the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is our true Father, and the Spirit [i.e. the Holy Spirit] of Jesus Christ is our true Mother” (Van Oort, 2016). So, many Christians in the early church thought the Holy Spirit was Mother.

Van Oort, the author of “The Holy Spirit as feminine: Early Christian testimonies and their interpretation”, concludes with this: “…the very first Christians, all of whom were Jews by birth, used to speak of the Holy Spirit as feminine. These Jewish Christians adhered to Genesis 1:27 where it is said that God created male and female after his image. If this text is really taken for true, then something female is inherent to God” (Van Oort, 2016).  By embracing the feminine side of God and seeing God more clearly as both masculine and feminine, we can more fully appreciate and worship God.

In the Gospel of the Hebrews, a gospel not included in the Biblical canon today as divinely inspired but one of the oldest gospels written, quotes Jesus speaking of the Holy Spirit as his Mother.  The gospel reads, “My mother [Jesus says], the Holy Spirit, has recently taken me and carried me up to the great mount Tabor…”  (Susan, 2020).  The Gospel of Hebrews was almost included in the Biblical canon; it was put in the same category as Revelation before Revelation was eventually accepted and the Gospel of the Hebrews rejected (Widmalm, 2021). One Bible scholar wonders why, given the Gospel of the Hebrews many qualifications (Widmalm, 2021). Similar to the book of Thomas and Acts of Thomas, the gospel’s status is not divinely inspired according to the biblical canon decided, but people can learn from the gospel as a historical document that may still contain some truth. Moreover, truth can certainly be found outside of the Bible to complement the Bible’s teachings. The first followers of Jesus, the Nazarenes, kept this Hebrew gospel as precious to their faith (Widmalm, 2019). Widmalm wonders if the explicit reference to the Holy Spirit as Mother in the Gospel of Hebrews factored into the decision to not include the book in the canon (Widmalm, 2021). Historically, certainly, any references to God, the Holy Spirit, as Mother have been almost silenced. The 3-person full male Trinity Godhead sharply contrasts with the image of God given to us by God in Genesis 1:27, which is a 2 in 1 model of united male and female. An early tradition of the Holy Spirit as Mother has been largely lost, forgotten, and/or ignored in churches today. Why is this? Is this because the idea is unbiblical? Much of the early Church clearly thought the Holy Spirit as Mother is biblical.

Another church father, Jerome, from the 4^th century, quotes the gospel of the Hebrews. Jerome quotes the part of the gospel where Jesus calls the Holy Spirit his mother. This book is the only non-canonical Scripture Jerome references in this particular writing, perhaps showing that he did think highly of this gospel and perhaps thought of it in the same category as the other books (Widmalm, 2019). This would make sense, given that the Gospel of Hebrews was so close to being considered part of the biblical canon.

The theme of a divine Mother is referenced in other Christian texts. For example, a section from the “Gospel of Truth” (from around 140-180 A.D.) reads, “purifying them, bringing them back into the Father, into the Mother…”  (Widmalm, 2019). Another manuscript is called “The Teachings of Silvanus,” from the late third century. One quotation reads, “My child, return to your first father, God, and Wisdom, your mother, from whom you came into being from the beginning. Return, that you might fight against all of your enemies, the power of the adversary” (Widmalm, 2019).  Here again Wisdom is described as the heavenly Mother, the Holy Spirit – the Spirit of Wisdom (Ephesians 1:17).

The Bible, Christians believe, is the final authority and source of all truth, so this history does not prove something completely. However, it does show that the belief that the Holy Spirit is female is not a new concept in Christian thought. There is great precedence for it in early Christian thinking and belief. Moreover, there is great precedence for this belief among many of the Church fathers that Christians today revere and look to in understanding other theological topics. Why don’t we look to them regarding this topic?

If considering if the Holy Spirit is feminine makes us feel uncomfortable, why is that? Is that feeling from God or from our personal biases? I personally felt uncomfortable when I first considered the idea of God being feminine in some way. The idea seemed so foreign to what I had been taught my whole life regarding who God is. Yet, ironically, I had also been taught explicitly my whole life that both men and women are equally created in the image of God. Isn’t there a disconnect between that belief and believing in a God that is 3 male persons in 1? If we are completely honest with ourselves and put aside our biases, I think we can agree there is a disconnect. If women are also created in the image of God, there is something – perhaps Someone – in God that is inherently feminine that the Trinity, the 3-person male Godhead, fails to display.