Sophia : The wife of God

[Jeleia]

Now I never head any mention of Sophia in Church. Up until a few days ago I never knew that the Christian God had a wife. She is a goddess of wisdom and knowledge. Anyway I began doing some research and here are a few sites that I've found on her;

http://www.sophiaswisdom.com/
http://northernway.org/sophia.html

In Gnostic text it says that Sophia is to decide whether the soul lives in the light or returns for reincarnation.



Any thoughts? Comments?

[jelly.belly]

:eek: I didn't know that the Christian God had a wife, I never ever heard about her!
It's interesting to know that!

[Mnemosyne]

I didn't know that Sophia had ties to Christianity. This site offers some interesting links to Sophia. http://www.lunaea.com/goddess/wisdom/sophlinks.html

When I think about Sophia, I immediately think about the goddess of wisdom, spiritual love, and grace. Even though her name is Greek, I don't think of her as being a part of the classical Greek pantheon. Sophia is a mystery to me. You don't hear much about her worship, but she has connections to gnosticism, christianity, and even modern feminism.

[Ryhla]

I wonder how many fundamentalist out there would agree with the authors of these websites? When I was growing up, I was taught in my grandmother's church that there was no female figure in the trinity aspect. In fact I always wondered how come there was no goddess in the church. I think that's why I always felt out-of-place in a church situation.

[Mnemosyne]

I was kind of thinking the same thing, Ryhla, about the fundamentalists.

Well, I kind of think that there are goddesses in the Church. I think that the female saints have similar characteristics to the goddesses. Think about it- In ancient Rome, the Pantheon was dedicated to the gods and goddesses. If you go to the Pantheon today, the temple is dedicated to the saints.

[Blu Heather]

Wow...thats really interseting I've never heard about her at all.

I agree with you Ryhla, and in my opinion, I think its kind of a rip-off that we don't learn about her in church or something. I mean if she was once considered the be the wife of God then what happened? One day someone go...Um do we really need a wife for God? Nope didn't think so and she just sorta became invisible.

[Ryhla]

In church I was taught there was God the father, and God the son, and God the holy spirit. The spirit was never associated as male or female. If the other 2 are identified with gender, why not the 3rd? In all the churches I attended in the past, things were predominantly male run. One church I attended was totally run by the men. During the business meeting, women could attend, but not have any say in the decision making. If they were appointed the speaker of a womens group, they would give a report on the group, but otherwise were required to stay quiet. No opinions, no votes...nothing. No wonder I felt out of place there. I can be extremely outspoken and like the idea of having imput in matters.

[jelly.belly]

Originally posted by Ryhla
In church I was taught there was God the father, and God the son, and God the holy spirit. The spirit was never associated as male or female. If the other 2 are identified with gender, why not the 3rd? In all the churches I attended in the past, things were predominantly male run. One church I attended was totally run by the men. During the business meeting, women could attend, but not have any say in the decision making. If they were appointed the speaker of a womens group, they would give a report on the group, but otherwise were required to stay quiet. No opinions, no votes...nothing. No wonder I felt out of place there. I can be extremely outspoken and like the idea of having imput in matters.

wow... a little extreme, aren't they? I wouldnt be able to shut up...

I do understand that a long time ago women didn't really play a part in religion, which i think isnt fair btw, but you already know that! :D Anyhoo, we aren't in the old days and i think that when i was in church, I wouldve liked to know about her...

I dunno what happened but it's just stupid not to include her there when she is the wife of god...

And I just remembered that i was always taught that god was neither a man or a woman, we didnt know if he was man or woman... then how come there is God the father, the son and the holy spirit? That just doesnt work... I'm all messed up here :eek:... I need to take a brake from all the thinking..

[Asherah]

The trinity: The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit.

In Hebrew the word for Holy Spirit is Ruach Ha Kodesh.

Ruach is a FEMININE WORD Ha Kodesh = The Holy

Um so....

The Father, The Son and The Holy Goddess?


The word god used in Genesis **Elohim** is comprised of 2 words in hebrew. El and Eloah... want to venture a guess on what Eloah stands for?

The goddess has been in the bible all along, we've just been programmed not to see her.

[Ryhla]

Originally posted by Asherah

The goddess has been in the bible all along, we've just been programmed not to see her. My thoughts exactly. It's just for so many years we have been programmed the women are seen and not heard. Look how long it took in the states to have an amendment to the constitution to guarentee women the right to vote...but this isn't a discussion about womens rights.

[Jeleia]

Originally posted by Asherah
The trinity: The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit.

In Hebrew the word for Holy Spirit is Ruach Ha Kodesh.

Ruach is a FEMININE WORD Ha Kodesh = The Holy



Thats really interesting, I didn't know that.


A few more sites I found on her :
http://home.fuse.net/lfosse/Who_is_Sophia.htm
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Agora/6776/index.htm

The word "Chokmah" as Sophia, when the Hebrew scriptures were translated into Greek. Which was "wisdom" in english. So the book of wisdom, is actully the book of sophia...


When he ( God ) prepared
the heaven, I ( Wisdom ) was present with him; and
when he prepared his throne upon the
winds: and when he strengthened the
clouds above; and when he secured the
fountains of the earth: and when he
strengthened the foundations of the earth:
I was by him, suiting myself to him, I
was that wherein he took delight; and
daily I rejoiced in his presence continually.”
( Septuagint, Prov.VIII: 27-30 )

[Asherah]

Originally posted by Akasha


Thats

The word "Chokmah" as Sophia, when the Hebrew scriptures were translated into Greek. Which was "wisdom" in english. So the book of wisdom, is actully the book of sophia...


When he ( God ) prepared
the heaven, I ( Wisdom ) was present with him; and
when he prepared his throne upon the
winds: and when he strengthened the
clouds above; and when he secured the
fountains of the earth: and when he
strengthened the foundations of the earth:
I was by him, suiting myself to him, I
was that wherein he took delight; and
daily I rejoiced in his presence continually.”
( Septuagint, Prov.VIII: 27-30 )


True Hokmah (sp) is a feminine word in hebrew.
What we need to understand is that hebrew is a classical language.
All words are either male or female. So when proverbs was written and the word hokmah was used it was deliberate.

The writers were showing the goddess in their writings but thru the reforms of the yawists we lost the ability to see her.

[jelly.belly]

Originally posted by Asherah



True Hokmah (sp) is a feminine word in hebrew.
What we need to understand is that hebrew is a classical language.
All words are either male or female. So when proverbs was written and the word hokmah was used it was deliberate.

The writers were showing the goddess in their writings but thru the reforms of the yawists we lost the ability to see her.

very true...

[Mnemosyne]

That's really interesting about the word "Hokmah." When reading works in English, it is essential to have a good English translation. I studied Greek for a few years. I was so surprised to read bits of New Testament in Greek and then see the English translation. :eek:

I think Christianity borrows so much from paganism. In my opinion, Christianity wanted to appear that it was breaking away from pagan beliefs. Perhaps that is why we don't learn about the goddess Sophia. Also, as mentioned earlier, the Church was/is still very male dominated.

[Arzhela]

Wow, this is all really interesting, the original sites and the replies as well! I had heard about Sophia being Solomon's wife, but I had never heard the other bit about her being God's wife. What I found particularly fascinating about the first site is how it said that God made the forms and Sophia breathed life into them. That's the reverse of the Traditional Witchcraft belief that out of the Goddess came everything and the God is the flame which constitutes the spirit, the life.

I looked up that proverb that Akasha quoted and found the whole thing. It does say "The Lord created me at the beginning of his work," so that would imply that God had some amount of power over Sophia at the beginning, but then in Prov. 9 it goes on to talk about her setting up her own house (metaphorically speaking) and inviting folk to partake of her wisdom, saying
"You that are simple, turn in here!
...
"Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed.
Lay aside immaturity, and life, and walk in the way of insight."

There's no mention of God; she's the one directly dispensing wisdom. That, to me, would seem to suggest a power independent from God.
The first part of Prov. 8 is also really interesting, though too long to go over here. The line I'm having trouble getting my mind around is "The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil." That's a good basis for a theology discussion, although it's not specifically "pagan."

[Romani Vixen]

Sophia wasn't the wife of God. According to the Secret Book of John, she's the Mother of God, and consort to the Unfathomable One.

[Mindflayer]

Well, I guess this answers the question of, "who was God talking to when he said "look what WE created" :p

[Romani Vixen]

Actually... he wasn't talking to Sophia... he was talking to the Angels that he created ... who then went and made... US! Luckilly, the Unfathomable One came in and we were touched with the Divine Spirit.

God's just a child who was playing around with his toys.

[Pure Ahimsa]

It is a new age group, many Christians would deny her existence.

[Pandoras]

As far as I know, the majority of modern Christians don't acknowledge Sophia (or any other woman) as a goddess (unless you consider Mary's treatment by Catholics as goddess worship). Sophia is the Greek word for wisdom. The word itself is feminine so it does give the impression that Sophia is an actual female, but that isn't necessarily correct. However, in Proverbs 8 she speaks like a goddess and this isn't the only example as far as I recall. The Gnostics conceived Sophia as a saintly spirit. And yes, the Bible (particularly the OT) does mention goddesses.

[Mab]

http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saints15.htm

I learned about Saint Sophia in Catholic School & in Church History & World History classes.

I understand that Constantine built the Hagia Sophia as the Church of the Holy Widsom, but I"m not sure if it was in her honor.

[ealawyn]

:reading:
I have come to understand that Christianity was a male dominant religion and that the priests or Bishops of Europe had traditionally asked women to pray to their own goddess Mari (later Mary), because the priests' god(God) would not listen to them.
This lowering of women led to the burning times, where women were murdered for just reading, being independant or practicing medicine.

I also thought that Pagan religious symbols and festivals where incorperated into Christianity so that it would be easier to convert the Pagans into Christians.

I never heard of Sophia in Catholic School.
But then again you don't hear a lot of things.
Good find.
I am interested to know more about this. :crystalba