My question regarding the Holy Spirit/Restrainer goes to the actual language used regarding the Holy Spirit.
I’ve heard that the language used refers to the Holy Spirit in a feminine wording or context (not sure how to say it exactly). In creating the family as God did, I can see how that kind of fits. I’ve heard that many people are very set against this, but my question is (if this is true, that the Holy Spirit is spoken of in a feminine sense), “Is the Restrainer spoken of in a feminine sense?”
Personally, I could make a human case for the Holy Spirit being the basis by which females were created, but I realize that is human and I am trying to put a human understanding to God’s business.
Anyway, I thought maybe you could help me since I neither read Greek, nor Hebrew, nor am I any kind of theologian.
The Greek phrase translated “the restrainer” is literally “he who restrains” and is obviously in the Masculine gender. The Greek phrase for Holy Spirit is Hagios Pneuma, and Pneuma is a neuter noun.
Although the Hebrew word Ruach (Spirit) is of the feminine gender, the idea of the Holy Spirit being a female presence probably stems from the Hebrew Shekinah, a feminine noun based on the verb shachan (to dwell) that doesn’t appear in the Bible but which was coined by Post-biblical Rabbinic scholars to describe God’s Presence.
In an outrageous re-invention of history pagan feminists falsely claim that the earliest Jews called the Holy Spirit Shekinah and believed that “she” and God acted out the Song of Solomon and had sex in the Holy of Holies every Friday night to celebrate the Sabbath. They say that Jews believed this until King Josiah re-invented Judaism as a patriarchal religion about 600 BC, eliminating the feminine goddess who had been part of their religion since the beginning of time. To counteract this move, the people adopted the Canaanite goddess Asherah, and gave her the role as Jehovah’s consort.
The fact is that this is a total fabrication. If you know anything about the morality of the Jewish religion you know what an affront this is to them and to God. For any Jew to even speculate aloud about this would have resulted in his or her immediate death by stoning for blaspheming the Holy Spirit. And of course this is a sin that our Lord said would not be forgiven in this life or the next. (Matt. 12:32).
God is not human that He should need a partner to complete Him. He only speaks in Human terms so that we’ll be able to understand Him. As this example shows, attempts to make Him like us will always get us into trouble.
By the way, here’s a link to the study I did on this topic in case you want more information