Is the "Holy Spirit" male or female?

Jesus actually spoke Aramaic, but who's counting....

You, apparently - LOL!

same smegging diff when it came to tatitudes, I wouldn't mins betting.

Anyway - who SET down and TRANSLATED Jesus' chats with the deity?

Lol!

and attitudes, too, wot's more...

Hmm...thems who set down and interperetateded were men, methinks, don't make 'em right.

no indeedy...

When I was at St. James School, 1961, the nuns arrived one morning to tell us we wouldn't be saying "the Father, Son and Holy Ghost" anymore it would be the Holy Spirit. It was supposed to make it easier for outsiders to swallow the whole idea of the Trinity, but to my mind ruined the ending of a great Song "Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost" and seemed to trouble Sister Mary Trinida greatly. Through the rest of the year she constantly reverted to the old usage, much to her shame.

The Holy Spirit was never referred to with a gender. It merely came upon people, it filled people, it was a presence more than a being.

Many years later, sitting in a theatre, watching the ending of "The Lost Ark" where Indiana Jones escapes the wrath of God merely by keeping his eyes shut, I thought "Yeah, yeah," as the Holy Spirit turns the Nazis to melting, molten flesh before our open eyes,"Yeah, that's the kind of Holy Ghost I want my God to be."

And maybe that's why I've turned away from all that to something smaller, more internal. After all, what good is an all-powerful God if He won't smite down a few evil people for you now and then?

Joe

The name of God Shaddai, is often interpreted as Almighty, but may actually mean the Breasted One and all-sufficient One. This points out the motherly aspect of God.

God does compare Himself to a mother.

Luke 13:34 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who continue to kill the prophets and to stone those who are sent to you! How often I have desired and yearned to gather your children together [around Me], as a hen [gathers] her young under her wings, but you would not!

The Hebrew word for the Holy Spirit, Ruach, is feminine in gender.

Wisdom, which is a key aspect of God is referred to as a woman and the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Wisdom.

Pro 1:23 If you will turn (repent) and give heed to my reproof, behold, I [Wisdom] will pour out my spirit upon you, I will make my words known to you. [Isa. 11:2; Eph. 1:17-20.]
Pro 3:15 Skillful and godly Wisdom is more precious than rubies; and nothing you can wish for is to be compared to her. [Job 28:12-18.]
Pro 4:6 Forsake not [Wisdom], and she will keep, defend, and protect you; love her, and she will guard you.
Pro 4:8 Prize Wisdom highly and exalt her, and she will exalt and promote you; she will bring you to honor when you embrace her.

Pro 8

Pro 9:1 WISDOM HAS built her house; she has hewn out and set up her seven [perfect number of] pillars.
Pro 9:2 She has killed her beasts, she has mixed her [spiritual] wine; she has also set her table. [Matt. 22:2-4.]
Pro 9:3 She has sent out her maids to cry from the highest places of the town:
Pro 9:4 Whoever is simple (easily led astray and wavering), let him turn in here! As for him who lacks understanding, [God's] Wisdom says to him,
Pro 9:5 Come, eat of my bread and drink of the [spiritual] wine which I have mixed. [Isa. 55:1; John 6:27.]

Exo 31:3 And I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom ...

Deu 34:9 ...Joshua son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands upon him...

Isa 11:2 And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him--the Spirit of wisdom...

Dan 5:14 ...the Spirit of the holy God is in you and ...superior wisdom are found in you.

Act 6:3 ...select ... seven men of good character, full of the [Holy] Spirit and wisdom...

Act 6:10 ...they were not able to resist the intelligence and the wisdom and the Spirit with which and by Whom he spoke.

Eph 1:17 ...that He may grant you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him

1Co 2:13 ...truths ... in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the [Holy] Spirit...

The Holy Spirit is also called the Spirit of Christ and Christ is also called the Wisdom of God.

1Co 1:24 ...Christ (the Anointed) [is] the Power of God and the Wisdom of God.

The Holy Spirit is the Anointing.

Mat 13:54 ...Where did this Man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?

Wisdom and power come by the Holy Spirit.

As we have a father, mother and son in the world so
too we have Heavenly Father, Holy Spirit and Jesus in heaven.

Genesis 1v26 God said, Let Us [Father, Son, and Holy Spirit] make mankind in Our image, after Our likeness, and let them have complete authority over ... the earth.
27 So God created man in His own image, in the image and likeness of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Psalms 27v10 When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.

And as a son leaves his parents house to be united with his wife " to extend and increase the family. So too we have Jesus Who left heaven (the Father and Holy Spirit), for a time, to find His bride the Church on earth. And now the Church has become the bride of Christ and the mother of those who are born into Christ's likeness. So we have the Church and the Holy Spirit acting as our Mother.

Mat 12v50 For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.

Gal 4v26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

Revelation 12v1 a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and with a crownlike garland (tiara) of twelve stars on her head. 2 She was pregnant and she cried out in her birth pangs, in the anguish of her delivery.
5 And she brought forth a male Child, One Who is destined to shepherd (rule) all the nations with an iron staff (scepter), and her Child was caught up to God and to His throne. [Ps. 2:8, 9; 110:1, 2.] 13 And when the dragon saw that he was cast down to the earth, he went in pursuit of the woman who had given birth to the male Child.
17 So then the dragon was furious (enraged) at the woman, and he went away to wage war on the remainder of her descendants--[on those] who obey God's commandments and who have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

This verse gives the prophetic picture of Jesus being born from the Church as its firstborn and going to heaven (through the ascension). The church is clothed with the power of God (Ruler of the day - sun) and the church stands on the ruler of the night (the moon). The 12 apostles forming its headship. The devils now attack the churches children " those who follow Jesus Christ and do His will.

Wisdom is our Mother
Luk 7:35 Yet wisdom is vindicated by all her children [by their life, character, and deeds].

Mat 11:19 ...Yet wisdom is justified and vindicated by what she does (her deeds) and by her children.

Dear jebus! So much has changed, Dove is now my favorite soap...

Gotta start watching your complexion at your age.

It's ONE THIRD moisturiser!!!

Ah, you've grown in spirituality, Crave. Good on ya.

Well I still don't care about my complexion at all. I always liked the feel of the soap when using it (so soft!) but didn't like the marketing towards women and using a "girly" product.

What changed is that I care even less about feeling girly. Nowadays the advertising to men seems so over the top to me (body wash, body spray and razor ads are insulting to your intelligence) that I care about the branding even less.

Dove is nice.

I don't actually use soaps as such any more...but Dove is a nice one.

I guess that is what is meant by being "metrosexual." Back in the late 70s, Saturday Night Live did a commercial parody for a razor with three blades, and the punch line was "Because we think you're that stupid." Now, one of the most heavily advertised razors (i can't say if it's popular) has five blades. I have one, but for reasons which have nothing to do with advertising. We were riding the subway one night, and found a bag on the seat which contained a pack of eight replacement blades for that razor. The Girl says that pack runs $17 or $18. Quite a long while later, she saw an "introductory pack" for that razor, including a set of blades in the razor, and one replacement set of blades, as well as some shaving soap--all of which was on a clearance sale, so she bought if for me. When combined with the free replacement blades from the subway, it makes sense.

But i would never have bought it outright. I've always used a single-blade safety razor, and this goofy thing with the five blades doesn't shave any closer, and i don't find it any more comfortable (of course, i've been shaving for more than 40 years, so i suppose i could comfortably shave with about any razor).

As for soap, i don't much care about that, but i bought the Ivory brand all my life, because is dries the skin a great deal, and i have oily skin. I recommend it to anyone with a problem with oily skin.

There's a great series on CBC radio from a very successful Toronto advertiser, Chris O'Reilly, about the history of marketing and advertising, entitled "The Age of Persuasion." It's very interesting, but when he insists (as he frequently does) that those who say advertising doesn't work with them are deluding themselves, i wonder what kind of view he has of people. The radio network i listen to most frequently is CBC--no ads. I watch very little television, and with both radio and television, i'll frequently turn it off when the advertising blitz starts.

How do the rest of you react to advertising?

How do I react?

Depends.

If it's about stuff I am really interested in, very positively........it's great to hear about a place to get stuff I really want, a film I want to see, something I have been shopping for for ages which is now 50% off...I like getting stuff about new books, or drawing my attention to books that have been critically acclaimed....to things I am likely to want to go to.

A lot of it annoying....which is often presumably the intent.

Most of it escapes my consciousness, which, as you point out, doesn't mean it doesn't affect me.

I don't watch much TV with ads, and I tend to use them to get up and do stuff.

I don't read women's magazines, except the odd decor one....and that is eye candy to me, and I often am interested to follow up things in their ads, and window shop, I guess.


I wouldn't have recalled the male-directed ones you two are mentioning, but since you mention them, I can envisage them.

I can recall being slightly amused at the names they call male cosmetics to make them more acceptable to men...not "girly"....just as I am amused at the attempt to make shaving implements for women all cutesy and pink and stuff.

I've long enjoyed clever ads. I don't think I've been pressured to buy anything by advertising as such. On the other hand, I will learn about something I might like from articles; for example, an article some years ago in the SF Chronicle talked about a tiny shop in a downtown SF building that only sold fine chocolate bars. No, I never went to that store, since I was rarely in San Francisco, but I did start to read more about 'good' chocolate and eventually buy some in other places.

I guess I take that back, as I have bought from catalogs..



As to the holy spirit, my education was much as Joe Nations, and I used to think of it as an it. Now I don't think of it.

Sozlet knows that I sneer at ads. So she commented when I actually was moved to say "wow" during a recent iPhone ad. (It was the thing about flicking photos over to a neighboring phone, and exchanging contact information with a bump... wow.)

Very occasionally such things get to me, but usually I'm more interested in the ad itself than what it's selling.

That's what I was getting at. I was raised in advertising, at least for a period of years, and also was privy as a teen of the fifties to breakthroughs in advertising by clever ad agencies, or clever for the time. Amid a plethora of ads like "Anacin, Anacin, fast fast fast relief, Anacin, Anacin, fast fast fast relief" and so on, suddenly there was the "It's a Foorrrrrrd ad" and later the early VW ads. It was a new world of cognizance. After more years, I had associates who did commercials that were superbowl featured. On the early end of that stream of years I read Vance Packard, and decided against going into advertising (what was I, thirteen? somewhere around there). Eh, I still like clever ads.

"They" say that Oz ads are dumber than US ads.....I couldn't comment, really, because we never watched TV when in the US.

But I have to say that some of the ads I see from overseas (like the John West guy in a grizzly bear suit beating up a "real" bear to get the best salmon, the herding cats ad...and a bunch of stuff I have seen on cleverest ads fests from Europe) ARE clever and amusing.

I don't ever remember to watch the show, but there is a TV show here called The Gruen Transfer (is it some kind of Oz version of an international franchise?) which examines advertising, and does kind of spoof/serious ads to convince people of ridiculous things. I do watch some of the ones most talked about, on You tube...and here are a couple:


This is one persuading Australia to invade New Zealand:




New Zealand's reply: