Sophia: Lost Goddess of Wisdom
In
Search of the Lost Christian Goddess
The Sophia Tradition
n
Sophia means wisdom.
n
Philosophy, first used by Pythagoras, means “lover of Sophia.”
n
The Sophia
tradition is found in the Wisdom literature in the Hebrew Bible.
n
For the earliest
Christians:
n
Divine masculine =
Jesus
n
Divine feminine =
Sophia
The Sophia Tradition
n
Once patriarchy
infected the Christian church, the Sophia tradition was lost…but not
entirely, if you know what to look for.
n
When passages in the
Hebrew Bible (OT) or New Testament use “wisdom,” they are referring to the lost
Sophia tradition.
n
Logos, the “word” of God, is the Greek masculine form of Sophia
= WISDOM; God’s creative energy; mediator between God & creation.
Searching for the Sophia Tradition
n
John 1:1-3 “In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning
with God. All things came into being
through him, and without him not one thing came into being.”
n
Is “the Word” actually SHE, not HE,
the feminine principle of Being?
Is the “Word” a Goddess?
n
Greek philosophy saw Sophia, goddess of Wisdom, as
the creative power that formed the cosmos out of original chaos.
n
Hebrew biblical tradition, in the Old Testament and
the Apocrypha, see Wisdom as Sophia and Sophia as Yahweh’s companion in
creation.
Proverbs 8: 22-31
n
Proverbs is part of
the Wisdom literature in the Hebrew Bible, including Job and Ecclesiastes.
n
Wisdom (Sophia) is
Yahweh’s (God) intimate companion in creating the world.
n
Sophia serves as
God’s channel of communication with humanity.
n
The “Holy Spirit” of
Christianity?
Apocryphal Literature
n
Apocryphal books are later Hebrew writings not
included in most Protestant Bibles.
n
Ecclesiasticus 24; Wisdom of Solomon 6:12 – 9:18.
n
Sophia becomes both the agent or means of creation
and the revealer of the Divine Mind.
Genesis 1:3
n
God first creates by
uttering “the word”; “Then God said ‘Let there be light’; and there was
light.”
n
“The Word” = “Sophia”
= Wisdom = the creative force of God.
n
Philo Judaeus (a 1st
century Jewish scholar) uses the masculine “logos” for “the word” instead of
the feminine “Sophia” – PATRIARCHAL THINKING!
Clues in the New Testament: 1 Corinth: 2:6-16
n
Paul speaks of the Wisdom of God that is revealed to
humanity through the Spirit.
n
The Wisdom of God is only revealed through the
Spirit of God.
n
Here is the “lost goddess” of Christianity: the Holy
Spirit!
The Gospel of Q
n
Scholars posit the
existence of the lost Gospel of Q to explain similar passages found in Matthew
and Luke not found in Mark.
n
Q portrays Jesus and John the Baptist as messengers sent
by Sophia. (See Luke 11:49).
n
Q may have been destroyed by the “Patriarchal
Establishment” that took over the Church.
The Advocate in John
n
The Advocate = the Holy Spirit that Jesus bestows on his followers
after his death (John 14: 12-26).
n
The Sophia
tradition, the Lost Goddess of Christianity, lives on as the Holy Spirit
described in John.
n
Patriarchal authors
use the masculine pronoun, but the Holy Spirit is Sophia described in
earlier Hebrew literature (see Proverbs 8).
Holy Spirit in John
n
Only by being “born in the Spirit” can Christians
“enter the kingdom of Heaven” (John: 3:4-9)
n
The Holy Spirit continues to reveal Jesus’ cosmic
splendor after his departure (16: 12-15)
n
The Holy Spirit answers prayers for knowledge and
power (14: 12-26)
Sophia Lost
n
The patriarchal Roman Church eradicated the
Christian Goddess
n
Original Christians valued men and women equally as
expressions of God and the Goddess.
n
The mystical marriage of Jesus and Sophia brought
believers into the bliss of Christ Consciousness.
Patriarchal Christianity
n
Longs for the divine
feminine; Mary worship, the “Da Vinci Code,” the work of reconstructionists and
reformers in the church.
n
Historic Christianity
is linked to violence and hatred even as it professes love for all.
n
Without the recovery
of Sophia, Christ consciousness evades Christian believers.