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Thus, when referring to the Holy Spirit, they used the feminine forms of adjectives, verbs, etc. Likewise, in those parts of the eastern Roman Empire where Aramaic, rather than Greek, was both spoken and written (such as much of Syria and Palestine), Aramaic became the language of many early Christian communities accordingly, when these communities spoke of the Holy Spirit they naturally used the standard Aramaic word for 'spirit', ruha (also 'wind' as pneuma), which, like Hebrew ruah, is grammatically feminine.
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The aim of this paper is to explore some of the repercussions of this grammatical feature of the Semitic languages in the history of the only early Christian literature to have been written in one of these languages, namely Syriac.Īlthough the New Testament was written in Greek, Christianity was born in a Semitic milieu and Jesus himself will have spoken Aramaic (of which Syriac is a dialect).
![aramaic bible in plain english isaiah 11:2 aramaic bible in plain english isaiah 11:2](https://i.thenile.io/r1000/9781365046544.jpg)
No one should be scandalised on this matter, comments Jerome, in that 'Spirit' is feminine in Hebrew, but masculine in 'our language' (Latin) and neuter in Greek, 'for in the deity there is no gender'. In his Commentary on Isaiah.(1) Jerome quotes from a passage in the Gospel according to the Hebrews where Jesus proclaims that 'my mother the Holy Spirit has taken me.