Sophia

I was recently re-listening to Marcus Borg’s Meeting Jesus Again for the Very First Time . If you haven’t read it, it is one of my top all-time religious books.

The chapter on Sophia struck me powerfully this time in a way that has not before. Sophia is the Greek word for the female personification of wisdom, which is present in the Old Testament and Apocrypha. Proverbs 8 is especially powerful, where Sophia speaks saying “Then I was constantly at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind. Now then, my children, listen to me; blessed are those who keep my ways. Listen to my instruction and be wise; do not disregard it.”

In the Apocrypha’s Wisdom of Solomon, it is said of Sophia: “She delivered the righteous people and blameless seed from the nation that oppressed them. She entered into the soul of the servant of the Lord, and withstood dreadful kings in wonders and signs; Rendered to the righteous a reward of their labours, guided them in a marvellous way, and was unto them for a cover by day, and a light of stars in the night season.”

Borg argues that the narrative in John 1 about the Word being in the beginning, can and should be about Sophia.

The gnostics taught that Sophia was the Holy Ghost. I know there has been some recent controversy about Fiona Givens and others teaching the Holy Ghost is Heavenly Mother. To me, it would make perfect sense and has scriptural backing for Heavenly Mother to be Sophia and the third member of the Godhead and the Holy Ghost. There is the theological dilemma about the father and son having flesh and bones and the Holy Ghost being a spirit, but otherwise it seems to make so much sense.

Sophia is powerful, in Proverbs 8 she says “Blessed are those who listen to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway. For those who find me find life and receive favor from the Lord. But those who fail to find me harm themselves; all who hate me love death.” In other passages she summons servant girls to prepare the banquet for her children. She comes across as more of a mother of dragons than a passive milktoast. It has been moving to hear this voice speak for itself and much more interesting and appealing than our current narrative about Heavenly Mother who is great and we don’t know anything about her and never speak of her.

To me, God is a force, a non-tangible mystery that can be manifested differently. I like the idea of God having the manifestation as a father, a mother and as a son who represents the fusing of the divine with the human in Jesus Christ.