Backup 5
The Holy Spirit is the Divine Mother of Jesus.
Here is supporting documentation----
 Origen, famous early Biblical scholar,
in his Commentary on the Gospel of John 2 wrote circa A.D. 230: “ But if someone accepts the Gospel according
to the Hebrews, where the Savior says, “ My mother, the Holy Spirit, took me by one of my hairs and carried
me off to the great mountain Thabor,” he will question how the “mother” of Christ can be “ the Holy Spirit” which
was made through the Word.....it will not be strange at all for the Holy Spirit to be his “mother”, since every
woman is called the “mother of Christ” because she does the will of the Father in heaven.”
ORIGEN DISCUSSES THE CONCEPT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT BEING THE MOTHER OF JESUS. It is interesting to note that the Gospel
of Hebrews is not in the canon of the church. Why is this?
2 The Fathers of the Church, Origen, Commentary on the Gospel According to John, Books 1-10, translated
by Ronald E. Heine, Comm. on John, Book 2, p. 116, (87), (88).
THE HOLY SPIRIT IS THE MOTHER OF JESUS
BY THE PROCESS OF ELIMINATION. We note:
The Holy Spirit is either the Mother or the Father of Jesus when it says: “This is my Son,
my Beloved, on whom my favour rests.” -NEB, Matthew III: 17.
JESUS ELIMINATES THE FATHER WHEN HE SAYS: “ your Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name,
will teach you everything, and will call to mind all that I have told you.” -NEB, John XIV: 26.
JESUS IS REFERRING TO THE HOLY SPIRIT AS A SEPARATE AND DISTINCT ENTITY DIFFERENT FROM THE FATHER. THEREFORE, AS
JESUS’S PARENT, THE HOLY SPIRIT MUST ( BY ELIMINATION ) BE THE MOTHER.
JESUS INDICATES THE SPIRIT IS MOTHER:
In response to a question from Nicodemus who asked “ But how is it possible for a man to be born when he is old?
Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born?” -NEB, John III: 4.
Jesus responds “ No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born from water and spirit. Flesh can give birth
only to flesh; it is spirit that gives birth to spirit.” -NEB, John III: 5-6.
THE DIVINE MOTHER OF JESUS IS DESCRIBED
IN REVELATION: “ Next appeared a great portent in heaven, a woman robed with the sun, beneath her feet the moon,
and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant.”-NEB, Rev. XII: 1-2
“ She gave birth to a male child, who was to rule all nations with an iron rod.” -NEB, Rev. XII: 5
NEW FINDINGS SUGGEST THE HOLY SPIRIT IS
JESUS’S MOTHER- Powerful evidence has recently surfaced in support of the Holy Spirit being the Divine Mother of
Christ.
The Coptic Gospels found by Egyptian peasants in 1945 near the town of Nag Hammandi may be viewed on the web.
They include the Gospel of Thomas, reportedly written by one of the 12 apostles, compiled circa AD 110, the Gospel
of Philip written by Philip the Evangelist circa AD 70, and the Gospel of Truth composed AD 150 by Valentine, famous
Saint of Alexandria.
According to the “Introduction” on the above mentioned website (concerning the Gospel of Thomas): “almost all biblical
scholars who have been studying this document since its first publication have now concluded that Thomas must be
accounted an authentic fifth Gospel, alongside the canonical quartet of John and the synoptics.”
The first page of the “Commentary” portion of the website covers “The Female Spirit”, and states:
“In a remarkable entry of the Philip Gospel, particular attention is drawn to the fact that ‘spirit’ is a feminine
concept in the Semitic languages (Hebrew:---,ruakh):
‘Some say that Mary was impregnated by the Holy Spirit. They are confused, they know not what they say. Whenever
was a female impregnated by a female?’(Ph 18)
”And indeed this fundamental point, traditionally obscured in scriptural translation and ignored by commentators,
recurs thematically in both Thomas and Philip as well as the Gospel of Truth. It clearly has the most far-reaching
theological implications.
“--- With the Holy Spirit as a female figure, however, the underlying idea is considerably elucidated: Father God
and Mother Spirit and Incarnate Son as the basic mystery of three-in-one, the threefold Godhead. Here the concept
is clearly that of a transcendental holy family, in which the divine Christ-Child- and indeed each child (Mt 18:10,
Jn 11:52)- is eternally born of the mystical union between the paternal and maternal aspects of the selfsame Divinity.”
The author goes on to quote other passages in Thomas, Philip and Valentine which relate to this topic, after which
we read:
“In numerous entries in the latter part of Philip, reference is then made to the holy ---bridal-chamber wherein
the Son is born of the mystical union of the Father with the Spirit- thus for example:
‘He came forth in the bridal bed as one issuing from the bridegroom with the bride. This is how Yeshua established
the essence of the totality.’ (Ph 89)
That primal mystery is then celebrated in the apostolic sacrament of the holy bridal-suite----.”
( according to the Gospel of Philip, “Yeshua is a secret name, Christ is a revealed name.” --Ph 20a)
SOME SCHOLARLY EVALUATIONS OF THIS MATERIAL:
“My mother [ bore ] me, yet [ my ] true [ Mother ] gave me life.” (Th 101)
Elaine Pagels in her book The Gnostic Gospels (1981) states: “ In the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus contrasts
his earthly parents, Mary and Joseph, with his divine Father- the Father of Truth- and his divine Mother, the Holy
Spirit.”
‘Some say that Mary was impregnated by the Holy Spirit. They are confused, they know not what they say. Whenever
was a female impregnated by a female?’ (Ph 18) R. McL. Wilson, B.D., Ph.D. writes in his book The Gospel
of Philip (1962) on page 81: “The passage rejects the doctrine that Mary conceived by the Holy Ghost, on the
ground that the Spirit itself is female (a view held by the Ophites and the Valentinians, and due in part to the
fact that the Hebrew ruah is feminine).” I observe that Wilson quickly moves on to other matters.
Martha Lee Turner in her book The Gospel According to Philip (1996) states on page 226: “This larger passage
denies the virginal conception of Jesus and seems to flirt with portraying the Holy Spirit as kin to “the forces”,
possibly as a lower Sophia. The apostolic opponents assert that Mary conceived by the Holy Spirit.” This having
been said, she too is off to other subjects.
‘If it is appropriate to tell a mystery, the Father of the totality mated with the virgin who had come down-
and a fire shown for him on that day. He revealed the great bridal-bed. Thus his body came into being on that day.
He came forth in the bridal bed as one issuing from the bridegroom with the bride. This is how Yeshua established
the essence of the totality.’ (Ph 89) R. McL. Wilson, B.D., Ph.D. in his book The Gospel of Philip (1962)
struggles with this one. He states on page 147: “According to Irenaeus (i. 7. 1 ; Grant 176), the Savior is the
bridegroom and Sophia-Achamoth the bride; since Jesus is the Saviour, he can hardly have originated from their
union. There must therefore have been an earlier union, as suggested above. The simplest explanation ---seems to
be that the body of Jesus emerges in a manner of one who has come from the bridegroom and the bride, i.e. in the
form of a child.”
Again, the author fails to develop this startling revelation, but instead quickly changes the subject.
We note on page 146 that Wilson states: “---the gospel of Hebrews --- makes Jesus speak of the Spirit as his mother.
It is thus possible that Mary was thought of as in some sense an incarnation of the Spirit---. The fact that Sophia-Acamoth
is also called ‘the Holy Spirit’ adds to the perplexity of the modern reader, but can be quite readily explained
in terms of Valentinian thought.” The author again fails to expand on the key point that the Holy Spirit has been
identified as Jesus’s mother.
On page 236 of Karen L. King’s book Images of the Feminine in Gnosticism (1988), Kurt Rudolph makes some
startling revelations concerning the passage in the Gospel of Philip cited above (Ph 89). I have included the passage
numbers on the Coptic Gospel website, so that one can refer to the passages Rudolph is citing. The translation
refered to by Rudolph differs slightly from the website translation. He states:
“The ‘great bridal chamber’ is (according to Ph 89) revealed by the Father of the All on the day when he was united
with the virgin (i.e., Sophia) and his body came into being, that is, his manifestation in a shape took place;
probably that refers to Christ ( cf. Ph 71, where the ‘Son of the Bridal Chamber’ came into being out of water,
fire, and light).---- In all these cases ‘bridal chamber’ means a super-mundane world of light, the Plemora. It
is named after the special place of the Jerusalem temple ‘the holy of holies’ (Ph 82 & Ph 136) which is hidden,
beyond our imagination. It is the holiest place of the heavenly Jerusalem. In the same way the expression ‘bedchamber’
is used for the place beyond,---- the ‘secret of truth,’ the perfect glory, the Power that exalts powers, and so
on” (Ph 136- Ph 143).
Rudolph’s explanation of the Gospel of Philip passages sheds light on the ultimate “Divine Mystery”, the holy of
holies. This hidden place is called the bridal chamber or bridal bed, from which we learn that God and Sophia generated
the Christ. Why something as momentous as this discovery (identification of holy of holies, and Sophia’s role in
it as Christ’s Divine Mother) was not front page news in Karen King’s book totally mystifies me. My observation
is that her book largely ignores this major finding.
MY OBSERVATION ON THE COPTIC FINDINGS:
I am delighted to have located this evidence in the Coptic Gospels in support of the Holy Spirit being the Divine
Mother of Jesus.
I can understand why the Coptic Gospels were burned by part of the church 1600 years ago when they were worried
about paganism, the Mother Goddess, and generally wanted to exclude women. But why over the past 50 years since
the discovery of this previously unknown ancient material, is the church still obscuring and ignoring the Holy
Spirit as Christ’s Divine Mother? Here is another “Divine Mystery”.
The Holy Spirit as Mother theme in the Coptic Gospels supports and clarifies such Biblical passages as in Revelation
XII: 1-2, where the pregnant Divine Mother Sophia appears in heaven “robed with the sun, beneath her feet the moon,
and on her head a crown of twelve stars”.Rev. XII: 5 goes on to say: “She gave birth to a male child”.
Similarly, the bride and bridegroom cited above in the Gospel of Philip add whole new meaning to the Old Testament
book The Song of Songs, a powerful love story between bride and bridegroom. This we can now understand to be the
love story between God and Sophia.
Why do you think the church , over 50 years after the Coptic Gospels were found, is so slow to point out these
very significant findings reference Father God and the Mother Spirit?
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