God is a uniplural Being, a compound unity…yet the Creator God-kind is One. De.6:4 “Hear O Israel, YHVH our God is one [echád Strongs h259, Hebrew].” But this term doesn’t mean numerically or solely ‘one’. Ge.2:7, 24 Adam & Eve were echad/“one”, unified in togetherness…the two of them. Ezr.2:64 the whole assemblage together was echad, as one, although it numbered 42,360 people!
The intertestamental Bible books were included in most canons until 200 years ago. These apocryphal or deuterocanonical books were in the Septúagint/LXX, in the early KJV, and remain in the canons of the Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church (RCC), and others. Since the early Christians used these books, the Jews dropped them. Because the books were used by the RCC, in 1534 AD Martin Luther placed the books after the canon, rather than keeping them interspersed within it. (He began the Protestant Reformation.) Around 200 years ago, Protestants dropped them from the Bible.
However, these intertestamental books were quoted or referenced by Jesus in the New Testament! Compare: Mt.27:43 & Wisdom of Solomon (WSol) 2:13, 18; Lk.11:31 & WSol.8:1; Mt.6:14 & Wisdom of Sirach (WSir) 28:2. WSol (written circa/c 20 BC) and WSir (written c 180 BC in Hebrew) will be quoted as we proceed with this topic.
In Ro.1:18-30, the apostle Paul paraphrased WSol. Compare: Ro.1.21-22 & WSol.14:22; Ro.1:23-29 & WSol.14:29-30, 24-26. In WSol.13:5, 8 & Ro.1:19-20 KJV, “The invisible things of Him from the creation are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made…even His Godhead.”
The Creation evidences and reflects the Godhead, especially the family generative order of humans and animals. Ep.3:14-15 Father God is the great prototype of all family relationships. Orthodox Study Bible “God the Father is the ultimate Source of every living being.”
However, the expression ‘eternal Father’ doesn’t appear in scripture. Although the Godhead is echad, one, uniplural…scripture indicates the Godhead wasn’t uniplural originally!
Before God became the Father, God alone was the Self-Existent Being, Ancient of Days. Not yet the Most High, since no one was below at that ‘time’. The Being existed alone for an incalculable duration.
This great Omnipotent, Omniscient Being alone was the androgynous prototype or image of human male and female attributes & characteristics. Were the theory of left-brain right-brain hemisphere dominance correct, the Being would’ve been both sides equally dominant.
But the great Being won’t remain alone! As if to say (analogous to the later Ge.2:18)…‘It is not good for the androgynous Self-Existent Being to be alone (forever); I will make a Helper for The Being!’
Prehistory doesn’t begin with Ge.1:1! Prior to Ge.1:1…Pr.8:1-2, 22-30 has a 1st Person quote from Wisdom. “Does not wisdom call. She stands in the top of high places. ‘YHVH possessed me at the beginning of His way, before His works. From everlasting I was established, from the earliest times. When there were no depths I was brought forth. When He established the heavens, I was there. I was beside Him, and I was daily His delight.” Wisdom, at the Being’s side…She has a beginning!
WSir, also called Ecclesiásticus, supports and expands Proverbs. WSir.1:4, 7 “Wisdom was created before all things….The Lord Himself created wisdom. He poured her out on all His works.” The Being brought forth Wisdom before all else, pouring her out.
WSir.24:3-6 is a 1st Person quote by Wisdom. “I came forth from the mouth of the Most High. My throne is in the pillar of a cloud.” The Shekínah glory of YHVH is in the pillar of a cloud, and later led ancient Israel. Ex.13:21 “YHVH went before them in the pillar of a cloud.” cf. Ex.40:34-35.
He (now the Most High) and She (Wisdom) are both YHVH. They are echad, one, uniplural.
WSol.7:22, 25 “In herself, wisdom is a spirit that is understanding, Holy. She is the breath of the power of God, and the emanation of the pure glory of the Almighty.” Wisdom is the Holy Spirit, split-off or spirated or emanated through the Being’s breath/mouth. WSol.8:3-4 “She glorifies her noble birth by living with God, and the Master of all loves her.”
WSol and WSir reflect how Jews believed and interpreted Proverbs & Wisdom in latter BC times. Wisdom is sophía (g4678) in Greek, and chokmáh (h2451) in Hebrew. Orthodox Bible “The Holy Spirit receives eternal existence only from the Father.” Wisdom says in Pr.8:25 LXX, “He begets [gennáo g1080] Me”. Philo On Flight and Finding, p.325 “Wisdom, even if it be most ancient of all other things, still has only second place to that Omnipotent Being.” He is the Most High.
Another 1st Person quote from Wisdom is Pr.1:20-23. “Wisdom shouts/sings in the street. ‘Turn to my reproof, Behold I will pour out my spirit upon you.” She is poured out, wisdom the Spirit. Note the word of YHVH that came to Joel in 2:28-29. “I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind.” Wisdom is the Holy Spirit! Compare Nu.27:18, “Joshua, a man in whom is the Spirit.”…with De.34:9, “Joshua was filled with the spirit of wisdom”. The spirit of Wisdom in Joshua is the Holy Spirit!
Solomon’s prayer of WSol.9:4, 10, 17. “Give me the wisdom that sits by Your throne…Send her forth from Your holy heavens…Your Holy Spirit from on high.” Wisdom the Holy Spirit sat beside God’s throne in the heavens, as a Queen beside the King’s throne. The real “Queen of Heaven” (Je.44:17) isn’t Ashtóreth (e.g. 1Ki.11:5), other pagan goddesses, or Mary…rather, She’s the Holy Spirit (HS).
Returning to prehistory…The Being emanated the HS. The Being is now become He, no longer an androgyne…the HS, She is with Him. A later figure of this masculine and feminine is Is.42:13-14. “YHVH will go forth like a warrior. Like a woman in labor I will groan.” YHVH is as warrior and pregnant woman both! And Ps.123:2 “As servants look to their master, and a maid to her mistress, so our eyes look to YHVH.” YHVH is both Master and Mistress! He and She. Yet they are one/echad.
Since the Godhead is divine ‘Persons’, we most often use personal pronouns to refer to Their reality. In English, personal pronouns are masculine or feminine. In the next scriptural revelation of prehistory, He will become Father too (but not Mother). She will become Mother.
God made the family (father, mother, offspring) the foundational unit (Ro.1:19-20)! The church ideal for children is two–parent families. Yet are God’s born-again children, adopted into a single–parent family? Can there be a Son of God without a Father God and a Mother God? Was the Word or Logos begotten into a one-parent family? Again, YHVH reflects both masculine and feminine (Ps.123:2)!
The Works of Philo, p.85, 331, 405 “The Word [Lógos g3056, Greek] has received wholly pure parents…God being the Father and husband of wisdom, the mother of the Word….the Divine Logos flows forth from Wisdom as a spring.” (A spring of Living water poured-out, Jn.4:14.) Creation of man/mammals reflects & teaches us that it’s impossible to have a father without having a mother!
When did the Word/Logos, the One who later became Jesus in the flesh, originate?
At Creation in Ge.1:1-2, “The Spirit of God was hovering [h7363]….” JFB Commentary “The Holy Spirit was hovering as a mother bird, when hatching eggs.” The Holy Spirit is the real Mother Nature, so to speak! De.32:11 a mother eagle hovers (h7363) over her young. Re.12:14 the Holy Spirit-filled church is metaphorically given the wings of a great she-eagle, “that she might fly”.
Jn.1:1-5, 14, 18 “In the beginning, the Word [Logos] was with God and the Word was God. All things came into being through Him. In Him was life and the life was the Light of men….And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us….the only-begotten God.” The Word/Logos/Light became Jesus. He.1:2-3 Jesus the Son is the radiance of God’s glory.
Ge.1:2-4 “God said, ‘Light…Be!” A great cosmic Light was brought forth on the 1st day of Creation. But no sun, moon, or stars luminaries appeared until the 4th day (v.14-19). 2Co.4:6 Jesus is a great primordial Light! Jesus Himself said in Jn.8:12, “I AM the Light of the world”. Jesus was begotten or emanated from His Father and Mother (who “hovers”). And Jesus said in Jn.12:46, “I have come as Light”. 1Jn.1:5 “God is Light.” This first Light has been described as ‘the ongoing and working reflection of His [the Father’s] Intelligence.’
Thus God became a Family. (Other closely related topics are: “Tri-unity of God”, “Holy Spirit Personification”, “Holy Spirit’s Identity”, “Jesus Is God…Jesus has A God”.)
Jesus said of Himself in Lk.7:35, “Wisdom is justified by her children”. Jesus acknowledged His Mother God, Wisdom!
Orthodox Study Bible “The Son is begotten before all time and ages from the essence of the Father. The Son…has the Father as His Source from eternity.” The oldest manuscript of Jn.1:18 refers to Jesus as the “only begotten God”. The Word (Jesus) was begotten or generated, “made” in that sense. He.3:1-2 says Jesus “was faithful to Him who made [poiéo g4160] Him”. Jn.17:24 the Father gave Jesus His glory. Jn.6:57 the Word/Jesus’ very life is because of the Father!
Theophilus, the 6th bishop of Antioch (born approximately 20 years after the apostle John died), was the first to use the term trinity/triad. In 175 AD he wrote To Autólycus, 2:10. “God, having His own Word internal within His own bosom, begat Him, emitting Him along with His own Wisdom before all things.” 2:15 Theophilus’ triad was, “The Trinity of [Father] God, His Word, and His Wisdom”. To Autolycus is “the earliest extant Christian work to use the word ‘Trinity’ [trías Greek, triad].”
Christian historian Robert Grant’s Greek Apologists of the 2nd Century, p.169. “Theophilus and almost every early Christian theologian agreed the Logos (like Sophia/Wisdom) was originally in God.”
Irenaeus (130-200 AD) of Lyons, France wrote Against Heresies. “The Son is rightly and properly called Word, while the Spirit is called the Wisdom [Sophia] of God.” Ibid 4.7.4 “The Son and the Holy Spirit, the Word and Wisdom [Sophia], whom all the angels serve.”
The Father, Holy Spirit (Wisdom), and Son comprise YHVH…the Godhead. In those early writings, the Christian belief wasn’t the same tri-unity/trinity the RCC later promulgated. As the RCC changed from the belief of the early church, in ensuing centuries much of Christianity has also adopted the position of the RCC. (Additionally the RCC began to emphasize Mary…see the topic “Holy Spirit versus Mariolatry”.)
{Sidelight: Although the feminine HS was present (Ge.1:2, Pr.8:22) before the Word or Light (Ge.1:3), She isn’t a Son. Only sons are firstborns in scripture (e.g. Ex.13:13-15 LXX, g4416 firstborn). Therefore the Word/Christ the Son, not the HS, is “the firstborn [g4416] of all creation” in Col.1:15.}
Next, after the Word (who became Jesus) was begotten, came other days of Creation…see Ge.1:6-25.
Ps.33:6 “By the Word of YHVH the heavens were made, and by the Spirit of His mouth [cf. WSir.24:3] all their host.” Creation was by the Word/Jesus and the HS. WSol.9:1-2 “God, who made all things by Your Word and in Your Wisdom built a man.” Col.1:16 “Through Him [Jesus the Word, the Son, v.13] were all things created.” Ps.104:24, 30 “You send forth Thy Spirit, they are created.” Pr.3:19 “The Lord by Wisdom founded the earth.” Job.33:4 “The Spirit of God has made me.”
The above verses all reflect the Spirit/Wisdom and the Word active at Creation. Also, Philo The Special Laws 1, p.541 “Now the image of God is the Word [Logos], by which all the world was made.” Written in Aramaic pre-200 AD, the Targum Neofití Ge.1:1, “In the beginning, with Wisdom, the Memra of the Lord created and perfected the heavens and the earth”. The Memra is the Aramaic equivalent of the Word (English) and Logos (Greek). Wisdom/HS and the Word were Creator(s).
Theophilus also wrote in Autolycus 1:3, 7, 2:10, 22 that God made all things (he quotes Ps.33:6) by the Logos/Son and Wisdom, His two offspring/hands (2:18). They are the “Us” in Ge.1:26 (below). 1Clement 15:7-8 “He with His holy and pure hands formed man…‘Let Us make man in Our image.”
Ge.1:26-27 “Let Us make mankind [adám h120] in Our image, according to Our likeness…in the image of God.” (not in the image of non-reproductive angel-kind spirits). The human (adam h120) was created by the Word and Wisdom/HS, the Us…who are God. Humans, both male and female, are made in God’s image/pattern/attributes. (cf. a later reference for “image” is Nebuchadnézzar’s statue, also an image.) And humans are made in God’s likeness/shape/form. The Hebrew term for image (h6754) is masculine, and the term for likeness (h1823) is feminine. How did we imagine God, and what does God appear like? ref the Ezk.1:26-28 vision, when God appeared in the likeness (h1823) of mankind!
In Jewish thought, the first human possibly was created androgynous, or a two-sided being, with male and female attributes. Ge.5:1-2 “In the day when God created mankind [h120] in the likeness of God, He created them male and female.” “Them” is a plural. Dual gender indwelling the human, on the 6th day!? Eve was then brought forth from Adam’s side (h6763). Ge.2:21-23 “She shall be called woman [isháh h802], because she was taken out of man [ish h376].” The human/adam (h120) wasn’t called ‘male human’ (ish h376) until Ge.2:23…when Eve is drawn out of Adam! Not before then was the adam termed ish…male human. 1Co.11:12 “The woman came from the man.” (not from the ground.)
Within man was wo(mb)man, his ‘other half’. John H. Walton Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament, p.208 “All men and women are to be viewed as two sides of an original whole.” The first human (adam h120), formed from the ground (adamáh h127, Ge.2:7) in The Being’s image, was perhaps a ‘quasi-androgynous’ (for lack of a better term) image of what God originally had been. God then fashioned that human into two, Adam and Eve…as The Being had brought forth the feminine HS Wisdom from the “mouth” of The Being’s sole essence! Husband and wife are to cling together as one/echad (flesh), Ge.2:24; as an androgynous first human was solely one flesh prior to the ish/male and ishah/female Eve. And the Godhead is unified as One (De.6:4).
It takes both male and female humans, ish and ishah, to fully express the image and likeness of God! Man and woman must both exist, or there would be no complete image and likeness of God (after The Being emanated the HS)! Note: Though Paul did address female roles in the assembly, and the husband is the head of the wife (Ep.5:23), women were wrongly considered inferior by the institutional church.
In our various languages, we use terms which correspond to the ancient Hebrew & Greek terms chosen by the Bible writers to identify and describe the ‘Persons’ of the Godhead. Jewish and Christian theology usually refers to God in male language and images, yet agrees it doesn’t adequately express all that the Divine is. The Godhead possesses all the masculine and feminine attributes. Words just cannot express how great God is!
Bible Topic Exposition 