Is Sophia/Wisdom a feminine Spirit? If so, what is its relationship to Christ? (Solved)

[rakovsky]

As I understand it, in Orthodox theology, Christ is the Word, the Logos, Begotten of the Father "before all ages". Also in Biblical thought is the concept of Holy Wisdom, Sophia. Hence in Exodus and in the Wisdom of Solomon, Wisdom has or is called a "spirit". In Hebrew and Greek, Wisdom is a feminine term ("Sophia" being the Greek word).
Here is Exodus 28:3: "And thou shalt speak unto all that are wise hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom".

In Proverbs 8, Solomon describes wisdom as speaking and as saying that the Lord possessed her before the creation of the earth.:

1 Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice?

2 She standeth in the top of high places, by the way in the places of the paths.

3 She crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors.

4 Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man.
...
22 The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.

23 I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.

24 When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water.

25 Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth:

In comparison, Gnostic writings taught that Sophia was a feminine Spirit united with Christ, thus forming an androgynous being. Philip Harland explained that according to the 1st-mid 2nd century Gnostic "Epistle of Eugnostos" and "Sophia of Jesus Christ", in the super-celestial realm,

beings include the “Self-Father” (the image of the Forefather as if viewed in a mirror), the “Immortal Androgynous Man” (who emerges in the beam of light as the Forefather views his/her image), the “Son of Man” (who is the first-begotten–the others were not begotten), and the “Saviour” (who is “revealed” as a “great androgynous light” by the Son of Man). Each of these figures are androgynous and have their corresponding “female” portion, usually called “Sophia” (Greek for Wisdom).

SOURCE: Sophia’s mistake: The Sophia of Jesus Christ and Eugnostos (NT Apocrypha 16) | Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean

Here is how the Epistle of Eugnostos talks about the relationship between the Begotten Perfect Mind who is full of light and Sophia, which reminds me of the question of the relationship between The Word - Logos and Wisdom - Sophia:

The First who appeared before the universe in infinity is Self-grown, Self-constructed Father, and is full of shining, ineffable light. In the beginning, he decided to have his likeness become a great power. Immediately, the principle (or beginning) of that Light appeared as Immortal Androgynous Man. His male name is 'Begotten, Perfect Mind'. And his female name is 'All-wise Begettress Sophia'. It is also said that she resembles her brother and her consort. She is uncontested truth; for here below, error, which exists with truth, contests it.
...
Afterward another principle came from Immortal Man, who is called 'Self-perfected Begetter.' When he received the consent of his consort, Great Sophia, he revealed that first-begotten androgyne, who is called, 'First-begotten Son of God'. His female aspect is 'First-begotten Sophia, Mother of the Universe,' whom some call 'Love'. Now, First-begotten, since he has his authority from his father, created angels, myriads without number, for retinue.
...
Then Son of Man consented with Sophia, his consort, and revealed a great androgynous Light. His masculine name is designated 'Savior, Begetter of All things'. His feminine name is designated 'Sophia, All-Begettress'. Some call her 'Pistis' (faith).

You can read The Epistle of Eugnostos in The Nag Hammadi Library in English:
The Nag Hammadi Library in English

Maybe one can say that Proverbs was just using allegorical language when it talked about Wisdom as a Spirit. However, I think that some early mainstream Christian writings also identified Christ/the Logos with "Sophia"/"Wisdom". And so if it's true that Sophia or Wisdom is feminine and a "Spirit", then what becomes the relationship to Christ the Logos, which is masculine? Are they consorts that are united into one being, or is the whole "feminine" aspect really purely an issue of Hebrew and Greek grammar that the Epistle of Eugnostos and other Gnostic writings took too far?

 

[HTacianas]

As I understand it, in Orthodox theology, Christ is the Word, the Logos, Begotten of the Father "before all ages". Also in Biblical thought is the concept of Holy Wisdom, Sophia. Hence in Exodus and in the Wisdom of Solomon, Wisdom has or is called a "spirit". In Hebrew and Greek, Wisdom is a feminine term ("Sophia" being the Greek word).
Here is Exodus 28:3: "And thou shalt speak unto all that are wise hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom".

In Proverbs 8, Solomon describes wisdom as speaking and as saying that the Lord possessed her before the creation of the earth.:

In comparison, Gnostic writings taught that Sophia was a feminine Spirit united with Christ, thus forming an androgynous being. Philip Harland explained that according to the 1st-mid 2nd century Gnostic "Epistle of Eugnostos" and "Sophia of Jesus Christ", in the super-celestial realm,
SOURCE: Sophia’s mistake: The Sophia of Jesus Christ and Eugnostos (NT Apocrypha 16) | Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean

Here is how the Epistle of Eugnostos talks about the relationship between the Begotten Perfect Mind who is full of light and Sophia, which reminds me of the question of the relationship between The Word - Logos and Wisdom - Sophia:

You can read The Epistle of Eugnostos in The Nag Hammadi Library in English:
The Nag Hammadi Library in English

Maybe one can say that Proverbs was just using allegorical language when it talked about Wisdom as a Spirit. However, I think that some early mainstream Christian writings also identified Christ/the Logos with "Sophia"/"Wisdom". And so if it's true that Sophia or Wisdom is feminine and a "Spirit", then what becomes the relationship to Christ the Logos, which is masculine? Are they consorts that are united into one being, or is the whole "feminine" aspect really purely an issue of Hebrew and Greek grammar that the Epistle of Eugnostos and other Gnostic writings took too far?

Actually, the Holy Spirit is spoken of in feminine terms on occasion.

Wisdom as a feminine entity is found oftentimes among some early writers here and there. Philo of Alexandria had it that wisdom itself was masculine though with a feminine name if I remember right.

 

[rakovsky]

St. Irenaeus in Against Heresies noted how there were gnostics who wrote about Christ as having Sophia as his consort:

When all the seed shall have come to perfection, they state that then their mother Achamoth shall pass from the intermediate place, and enter in within the Pleroma, and shall receive as her spouse the Saviour, who sprang from all the Æons, that thus a conjunction may be formed between the Saviour and Sophia, that is, Achamoth. These, then, are the bridegroom and bride, while the nuptial chamber is the full extent of the Pleroma. The spiritual seed, again, being divested of their animal souls, and becoming intelligent spirits, shall in an irresistible and invisible manner enter in within the Pleroma, and be bestowed as brides on those angels who wait upon the Saviour. The Demiurge himself will pass into the place of his mother Sophia; that is, the intermediate habitation.
...
For they maintain that the whole besprinkling of light rushed to him, and that Christ, descending to this world, first clothed his sister Sophia [with it], and that then both exulted in the mutual refreshment they felt in each other's society: this scene they describe as relating to bridegroom and bride. But Jesus, inasmuch as he was begotten of the Virgin through the agency of God, was wiser, purer, and more righteous than all other men: Christ united to Sophia descended into him, and thus Jesus Christ was produced.
CHURCH FATHERS: Against Heresies, I.7 (St. Irenaeus)
CHURCH FATHERS: Against Heresies, I.30 (St. Irenaeus)

This shows up in gnostic writings that we have:

Whenever Sophia receives her consort and Jesus receives the Christ . . . then the Pleroma will receive Sophia joyfully and All will be unified. [Valentinian Expo. 39]

Jesus’s consort is the Great Sophia, who from the first was destined for union with him by the self-Begotten Father. [Sophia of Jesus Christ 228/101]
...
Sophia is also called Bride, because of the joy of her who gave herself to him in the hope of fruit from the union. . . . Sophia is also called Queen. [Tripartite Tractate 93]

Here is what Wikipedia says about the Pleroma mentioned in the quote from the Valentinian Exposition above:
The Pleroma "(Greek πλήρωμα) generally refers to the totality of divine powers. The word means fullness from πληρόω ("I fill") comparable to πλήρης which means "full",[1] and is used in Christian theological contexts: both in Gnosticism generally, and by St. Paul the Apostle in Colossians 2:9".
Colossians 2:9 uses the word Pleroma this way: "For in Christ all the fullness [Pleroma] of the Deity lives in bodily form"

 

[ArmyMatt]

the Wisdom of God is Christ Himself, so not feminine.

 

[Pavel Mosko]

I've read some interesting writings on the general OP.

Here the Bible book of Proverbs chapter 8 comes to mind. There the verses 22 to 31 read:

“The LORD [Hebrew: YHWH] created me the beginning of his works, before all else that he made, long ago. Alone, I was fashioned in times long past, at the beginning, long before earth itself. When there was yet no ocean I was born, no springs brimming with water. Before the mountains were settled in their place, long before the hills I was born, when as yet he had made neither land nor lake nor the first clod of earth. When he set heavens in their place I was there, when he girded the oceans with the horizon, when he fixed the canopy of clouds overhead and set the springs of ocean firm in their place, when he prescribed its limits for the sea and knit together earth’s foundations. Then I was at his side each day, his darling and delight, playing in his presence continually, playing on the earth, when he had finished it, while my delight was in mankind.”[15]

In these verses the quality of wisdom is personified. As the gender of wisdom [in Hebrew: ח֗כְמַה: ḥoḵmah] is feminine, some claim that the agent I question is a feminine being. However, it should be remembered that there is a difference between sex and gender. This is also the case in other Semitic languages that Hebrew. For instance, the Arabic word for Caliph (خليفة: ḵalīfe) is a word in the feminine gender although it always refers to a male.[16]



Hellenized Christians

With the second century Christians the wisdom personified in Proverbs chapter eight was believed to be Jesus in his pre-human existence. In his book The Book of Proverbs: Chapters 1-15, Bruce K. Waltke writes: “Beginning at least as early as the apologist Justin Martyr (A.D. 125), Christians, almost without exception, identified Sophia (the Greek equivalent of Heb. ḥoḵmâ) in Proverbs 8 with Jesus Christ.”[17]

Of Justin Martyr, who is famous for his logos-theology, the theologian Henry Chadwick writes:

“Justin’s debt to Platonic philosophy is important for his theology in one respect of far-reaching importance. He uses the concept of the divine Logos or Reason both to explain how the transcendent Father of all deals with the inferior, created order of things, and to justify his faith in the revelation made by God through the prophets and in Christ… It is implicit in Justin’s thesis that the distinction between ‘Father’ and ‘Son’ corresponds to the distinction between God transcendent and God immanent.”[18]

This was an idea inspired by Greek philosophy. In Hellenistic Greek the primary meaning of the word logos is the intelligent order of or reason displayed in the universe while certain philosophers regarded it is as a sort of person, the ‘world soul.’ This philosophical approach was taken up by later Christian writers, where some, such as Theophilus of Antioch (d. 181), preferred to regard the logos as God’s thoughts.[19] “ In Stoic thought the Word is reason expressed in voice or word, and in Theophilus we find a distinction between the Word of God residing in the Deity and the Word of God uttered or expressed in divine activity.”[20] Others, such as Origen (d. 234) regarded the logos as a sort of mediator between a transcendent God and the physical universe.[21] Interestingly, most of the Christian writers of the second and third centuries did not regard the logos as equal to God.[22]

But Hellenized Christian writers were not the only ones who took up the philosophical denotation of the word logos. So did the Gnostics.

The Gnostics were “a number of unorthodox sects that flourished in the Roman empire and western Asia in the first few centuries of the Christian era. Its chief diffusion centre was Alexandria.”[23] Unlike the early Christians, the Gnostics were rabid dualists. According to them, the world was split up in two opposites: the good and the bad. The good was all what is spiritual and the bad all what is physical, the visible world and everything related to it. They believed that this world originally was created, not by God Almighty, the loving Father, but by some malevolent demiurge. Consequently some of them believed that Jesus was the logos, but not with a human body. He just looked like a man, they said.[24]



Logos and Memra

 

[icxn]

As far as Christ being Wisdom, scripture states so explicitly:

1 Corinthians 1:23-24

But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.​

Also, as some have already said, wisdom is (grammatically) a feminine word in Hebrew and in Greek, hence the female article and personification used when referring to it/her (Him).

 

[St. Helens]

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[buzuxi02]

Theophilos of Antioch and Irenaeous used the term Sophia as a name for the Holy Spirit. A common formula was to say God (the Father) created all things through His Word (Son) and Wisdom (holy Spirit). Most other Church Fathers ascribed the title to Christ. Christ himself used feminine imagery to describe his mission (Luke 13:34) and message (Luke 7:35)

 

[Knee V]

English seems to be one of the few western Eurasian languages that doesn't inflect for gender (very much), so perhaps seeing gendered nouns can lead some people to think of those nouns as particularly masculine or feminine. I have always understood "sophia" to simply be a noun with grammatical gender like so many other nouns in so many other languages.

 

[~Anastasia~]

English seems to be one of the few western Eurasian languages that doesn't inflect for gender (very much), so perhaps seeing gendered nouns can lead some people to think of those nouns as particularly masculine or feminine. I have always understood "sophia" to simply be a noun with grammatical gender like so many other nouns in so many other languages.

Very good point. When you're used to seeing EVERYTHING gendered, from pencils to furniture to plants, and often not the anticipated gender when there is a slight expectation, gendered nouns mean a lot less.

And it's good to see you!!!!!

 

[rakovsky]

As far as Christ being Wisdom, scripture states so explicitly:

1 Corinthians 1:23-24

But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.​

Also, as some have already said, wisdom is (grammatically) a feminine word in Hebrew and in Greek, hence the female article and personification used when referring to it/her (Him).

This is a pretty interesting observation.
Good answers in this thread.

 

[Euodius]

The Hagia Sophia (The Holy Wisdom) refers to Christ, not to another entity. The only times where 'sophia' is depicted as feminine in context of relation. There is an essential masculine and feminine relationship which inherently exists - hence male and female, both having equal human nature, but they exist in relationship with one another (not a dialectic opposition.) The feminine is often used, in regard to many things, when describing the relationship of that thing to something else. A brief example might be that the feminine closes gaps and is invitational, wheras the masculine is leading and boundary setting.

 

[rakovsky]

I appreciate everyone's replies. What I am hearing you saying is that Wisdom/Sophia is Christ. However, I am also reading online that supposedly Wisdom/Sophia is sometimes the Holy Spirit, or that the Holy Spirit imparts "wisdom" as a gift like other gifts, which would seem to make Wisdom not Christ, Who actually is supposed to be the One who imparts the Holy Spirit, sending it down.

Wikipedia's article on Sophia (Wisdom) notes:

In Gnosticism, Sophia is a feminine figure, analogous to the soul, but also simultaneously one of the emanations of the Monad. Gnostics held that she was the syzygy of Jesus (i.e. the Bride of Christ) and was the Holy Spirit of the Trinity.
...
Following 1 Corinthians, the Church Fathers named Christ as "Wisdom of God".[9] Therefore, when rebutting claims about Christ's ignorance, Gregory of Nazianzus insisted that, inasmuch as he was divine, Christ knew everything: "How can he be ignorant of anything that is, when he is Wisdom, the maker of the worlds, who brings all things to fulfillment and recreates all things, who is the end of all that has come into being?" (Orationes, 30.15).

Irenaeus represents another, minor patristic tradition which identified the Spirit of God, and not Christ himself, as "Wisdom" (Adversus haereses, 4.20.1–3; cf. 3.24.2; 4.7.3; 4.20.3). He could appeal to Paul's teaching about wisdom being one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:8).
Sophia (wisdom) - Wikipedia

St. Irenaeus wrote:

Now this God is glorified by his Word
who is his Son continually,
and by the Holy Spirit
who is the Wisdom of the Father of all:
and the host of these, of the Word and Wisdom,
which are called cherubim and seraphim,
with unceasing voices glorify God;
and every created thing that is in the heavens
offers glory to God the Father of all.

The website for St. Joseph's Catholic Church, Modesto, CA, notes:

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:
The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit are Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety, and Fear of the Lord. ... (CCC, 1831)
The Catholic Church derives this information on the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit from scripture:
The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and strength, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. ... (Isaiah 11:2-4)
1. Wisdom
Wisdom is not the quoting of facts. Wisdom is a gift that allows a person to understand things from God's point of view. In other words, Wisdom allows a person to recognize truth. A person with the Gift of Wisdom is able to take this truth and use it to glorify God by choosing Godly solutions to problems.
7 Gifts of the Holy Spirit

Maybe the solution to the relationship of wisdom as one of the Seven Gifts to Wisdom as the Logos/Christ is that there are different sense of the concept of wisdom- it can either be a gift like a phenomenon (eg. strength), or it can be Wisdom, the name of a Spirit Who is Christ/Logos.

In The Pillar and Ground of the Truth: An Essay in Orthodox Theodicy in Twelve Letters, Pavel Florensky writes: "And since purification occurs through the Holy Spirit, Who reveals Himself to creation, Sophia is the Holy Spirit to the extent that He has deified creation."
However, the Introduction to Florensky's book says:

Creation is a form of Incarnation and Transfiguration. Florensky, who holds firmly to the notion of creation ex nihilo, redirects attention from this near-gnostic story of Creation to its idea and vision. His Sophia is still passive and feminine, and like Solovyov he associates Sophia with the Logos; their union is conceived as the idea of the Incarnation ever-existing in the Trinitarian Godhead. For Florensky, therefore, Sophia is God's idea of and love for Creation.

All4Christ identified Sophia as sometimes referring to the Holy Spirit on another thread:

First, Holy (Hagia) Sophia could be considered the pre-incarnate Christ, and often is considered to be the Holy Spirit, ... Also, the article misses a very ancient fifth option- Wisdom as the Holy Spirit.

But unfortunately I have trouble finding very much online about identifying the Holy Spirit as Wisdom or vice verse.

One suggestion that I read online is that the Wisdom of Solomon, Chapter 1 equates Wisdom with the Holy Spirit in verses like:

4. ...wisdom will not enter a deceitful soul,
nor dwell in a body enslaved to sin.
5. For a holy and disciplined spirit will flee from deceit,
and will rise and depart from foolish thoughts,
and will be ashamed at the approach of unrighteousness.

6. For wisdom is a kindly spirit and
will not free a blasphemer from the guilt of his words;

I have also heard this about Wisdom 9:17:

Who has learned thy counsel, unless thou hast given wisdom
and sent thy holy Spirit from on high?

But the identification is less clear there. The verse could be saying that God gave both wisdom AND God's holy spirit, not that they are both the same thing.

The Trinity in You article paraphrasing a Latin text of Didymus the Blind's theology about the Holy Spirit does a good job showing that Wisdom is a gift of the Holy Spirit, and it asserts that Wisdom is Christ, but its assertion that the Holy Spirit can be Wisdom was not easily proven to me in the passage that it referred to. Here is an excerpt from Didymus' paraphrased writing:

18. ...The Saviour said to His disciples: When they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not worry about how or what you are to speak in your defence, or what you are to say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say” (Luke 12.11-12).; So make up your minds not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves; for I will give you utterance and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute (Luke 21.14-15). Take note of what He says after these passages: “They should not worry about how they respond to their opponents because at that very moment they will be taught the suitable response by the Holy Spirit,” He immediately proves it providing grounds for confidence; So make up your minds not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves; for I will give you utterance and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute. But when the time comes to respond He says they will be taught the suitable response by the Holy Spirit, He says: for I will give you utterance and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute.

19. What these passages prove is the wisdom given to the disciples by the Son is the very same wisdom as the Holy Spirit.
...
What is the wisdom of our Lord Jesus Christ? Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1Cor 1.24). The Holy Spirit is also called the Spirit of Wisdom. In the Old Testament it shows Joshua, the son of Nun was filled, by the Lord, with the Spirit of Wisdom (Deut 34.9). Thus, since God is the Only-wise, He did not receive His wisdom from anywhere else. He is the source of wisdom and makes others wise by His own wisdom. All who are called wise by His name are so because He is wise. The more wise people there are, the safer the world will be (Wisdom 6.25), They themselves know that they are wise (unknown), Keep company with the wise and you will become wise (Prov. 13.20). Thus the Holy Spirit receives no other source of wisdom other than Himself so He is the spirit of wisdom. His Wisdom is His Being, the spirit of wisdom and is characteristic of the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of God and is no other. We have already spoken at length about this in the book of the Sects, so there is no need to go over this again and again. What we have discussed is more than sufficient.

Didymus the Blind: On the Holy SpiritTrinity In You | Trinity In You

 

[JohnTh]

Sophia, like kindness, peace etc. it an expression of the uncreated divine energy. That's why we have Christ as „Sophia” as well as Holy Spirit as „Sophia” etc. because They express themselves towards us as „wise”.

 

[rakovsky]

Good explanation, JohnT.

 

[Brighid]

I just want to offer my 2 cents as someone who wasted a good portion of my life on Gnosticism. The Sophia in the Nah Hammadi texts and other Gnostic writings cannot be reconciled with the Holy Spirit or Wisdom in the Bible. The Gnostic Sophia (which differs among Gnostic sects) is in no way related to the Holy Spirit or Wisdom in the Bible.
"Against Heresies" is such a wonderful resource. I wish I had read it (and the Bible, for that matter) before my involvement in Gnosticism.
The Bag Hammadi texts will only create confusion and pull one away from God, imo.

 

[Brighid]

Sorry about the typos. My tiny phone keyboard is so difficult. My payment for being a spelling and grammar Nazi.

 

[Hazelelponi]

Oops, sorry. Not allowed to post here.

 

[Brighid]

Oops, sorry. Not allowed to post here.

 

[Brighid]

Sorry, I'm confused. Am I not allowed to comment on threads? Also, is there a way for me to delete my comments?