In the Gospel of John (14:26), we see Jesus saying:

But the Parakletos, Who is the Holy Spirit, Who the Father will send in My name, He will teach you everything…”

The pronoun “He” is demanded since the Greek word Parakletos, is a masculine noun. It means “advocate” (or “comforter” as Origen and the KJV would have it). Many Christians regard the word Paraclete as a proper name for the Holy Spirit, but this assumption is false because the Holy Spirit is not the only Paraklete.

If anyone sins, we have a Parakletos Who is with the Father – Jesus Christ the righteous. – I John 2:1

We see here, quite plainly, that Jesus Christ is a Paraklete along with the Holy Spirit, Who is another Paraclete.

“I (Christ) will pray to the Father and He will give you another Parakletos, Who will live with you forever, even the Spirit of truth.” – John 14:16

What does the term “another” mean except that there must be at least two Parakletes, the Son and the Spirit. Therefore, the word “Paraklete” cannot be a specific name for the Holy Spirit. It is not a proper name. It is only a descriptive noun whose gender is incidental and unimportant. Once this is grasped, the masculinity of the Holy Spirit becomes completely unnecessary.

Another reason for why the Holy Spirit is traditionally called “He” occurs because of Hebrew-Greek translation issues. As mentioned before, the Hebrew word Ruach, a feminine noun meaning breath, wind, or spirit, was used frequently in the Hebrew Bible in the phrase Ruach Elohim which means “Spirit of God.” Thus, the Holy Spirit of the Old Testament is undoubtedly feminine. When the Hebrew was translated into Greek, the Greek word “Pneuma” was chosen to substitute for “Ruach,” since it also meant breath, wind, or spirit. But the gender was lost in translation, for Pneuma carries a neuter gender. Thus, the phrase Pneuma to Agion, which is used very commonly throughout the New Testament and means “Holy Spirit,” actually possesses a neuter gender. We can see the linguistic tension displayed by studying several translations of Acts 8:15-16,

Prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for it had not yet fallen on any of them – RSV

Prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost: (For as yet he was fallen upon none of them) – KJV

Prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them – NIV

The RSV preserves the most literal meaning, calling the Holy Spirit an “it,” according to pneuma’s neuter gender. The KJV calls the Holy Spirit “He” in an attempt to preserve the Personhood of the Trinity’s third member, but the literal translation demands the pronoun “It.” The NIV attempts to sidestep the issue altogether, intentionally ignoring the actual Greek and spelling out the noun again when, in fact, the Greek text demands a pronoun instead. Of course, the KJV’s solution to the problem has become the convention. The web of doctrinal errors caused by the translators can be superseded by a more ancient doctrine that is closer to what the earliest Christians believed, which that the Mother is one and the same as the Holy Spirit. Interestingly, according to scripture, the Holy Spirit is composed of seven parts!

Wisdom has built Her house. She has hewn out Her seven pillars. – Proverbs 9:1

Grace and peace be with you from Him Who is, Who was, and Who is to come, and from the seven Spirits Who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ…”- Revelation 1:4-5

There are seven eyes on that stone – Zechariah 3:9

She says “Come, eat My bread and drink the wine I have mixed.” – Proverbs 9:5

“There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse,

And a Branch shall grow out of his roots.

The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him,

The Spirit of wisdom and understanding,

The Spirit of counsel and might,

The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.” – Isaiah 11:1-2

The seven pillars, the seven spirits of God and the seven eyes of the holy stone all refer to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit according to St. Paul 1 Corinthians (12:27-31):

27 Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. 28 And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way.

And yet without the spirit of Love, all of these gifts are vanity as St. Paul continues in the next chapter:

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

Revelation 12 also seems to have a Gnostic flavor to it as well, as I’ve discussed in depth in Gnostic Exegesis in Revelation 12. As quoted above, we do see the woman with eagle wings who gives birth to the “male child” sounds curiously close to Sophia-Achamoth who is oppressed by the “red dragon” or the “serpent,” which are codes in Ophite-Gnostic terminology for Yaltabaoth, the “child of chaos” we see in many Gnostic texts. He is a sort of a Chimera of Satan, the Dragon of Revelation, and Yahweh or Jehovah’s more negative aspects of jealousy, anger and wrath. The “male child” is a Gnostic code word for spirit. And as we already saw, the spirit is often portrayed as female, however it is equally acceptable for the spirit to to be depicted as male as well. The offspring of Sophia, or the Mother are the pneumatics who obey God’s instructions and commandments and worship the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. As Tim Claason points out in Sophia and the Queen of Heaven, there are striking similarities between the Winged Mother and Male Child and the Christ that was brought forth from a heavenly Mother per Irenaeus in Against Heresies (Book 1, 11).

Christ also was not produced from the Æons within the Pleroma, but was brought forth by the mother who had been excluded from it, in virtue of her remembrance of better things, but not without a kind of shadow. He, indeed, as being masculine, having severed the shadow from himself, returned to the Pleroma; but his mother being left with the shadow, and deprived of her spiritual substance, brought forth another son, namely, the Demiurge, whom he also styles the supreme ruler of all those things which are subject to him.

The “wilderness” that the dark face of Sophia finds herself stranded in is the bitter waters of primordial chaos that existed before the ordered structure of the universe as does the floods spewed from the serpent’s mouth to drown the “male child”. We see other instances of the “wilderness” of chaos throughout the Old Testament including where the Israelites and the sacrifice of atonement, Azazel, were cast into. 1 Enoch also tells us that sin would be “ascribed to” or “given” to Azazel, chained in Sheol, or the wilderness, from the time of Noah. In a way, the wilderness can be seen as being somehow connected to “Sheol,” “Hades” or the intermediate realm. And somehow the Winged Woman escapes the wrath of the gods and hides in the wilderness, as well. The flood symbolism also connects to Jesus’ own words from Luke 17:26, connecting the return of Christ during a time that resembles just like the days of Noah, in which the flood obviously occurred: “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man.”

In the first part of Revelation 12, we see the Woman Clothed with the Sun as being in labor pains about to give birth while the great, fiery red dragon with seven heads and ten horns is not too far behind that is preparing to devour the “male child” of the Sun Lady. This red dragon also happened to drag one third of the stars with him from heaven to earth. The male child or the Body of Christ is also prophesized to be given a “rod of iron” to rule the nations one day, under the reign of Christ and the saints to replace the rulership of Satan and hostile his angels over the world.

The word “rod” is connected to the Shepherd’s club as well as the raised staff with the brazen serpent that Moses was instructed to erect so that the children of Israel could look upon it be saved from the wrath of fiery serpent demons. The male child here seems to have a threefold meaning: it represents not only the “spirit” but also the church. Although the church is depicted many times as the “Bride of Christ” it can also be depicted as “male.” The male child can also symbolize the Messiah as prophesied in Isaiah and fulfilled in the Gospels and in Paul’s epistles.

In both the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions, believers are encouraged to offer prayers to the Virgin Mary, whom they honor as the Mother of God. It is fitting for them to turn to her and ask her to intercede on their behalf before her beloved Son. In many of their services, they find themselves singing a simple refrain: “O’ Most-Holy Theotokos, Save Us!” Another popular prayer to the Virgin is based on the words of the Archangel Gabriel at the Annunciation: “Rejoice, Mary full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women.” And so, Orthodox Christians are reminded to never lose sight of the significant role that the Theotokos played in God’s plan of salvation for mankind. She found favor with God and was selected from all the women who ever lived to the instrument of God’s grace, giving flesh to His Divine Son.

Irenaeus in Against Heresies (1.15.3), tells us that a certain arch-heretic, Marcus the Magician taught that the historical, fleshy Jesus was born not just from the Holy Spirit but also from the “Son of Man,” the Church, the Logos, and Life:

As to the AEons, they proceeded from the Tetrad, and in that Tetrad were Anthropos and Ecclesia, Logos and Zoe. The powers, then, he declares, who emanated from these, generated that Jesus who appeared upon the earth. The angel Gabriel took the place of Logos, the Holy Spirit that of Zoe, the Power of the Highest that of Anthropos, while the Virgin pointed out the place of Ecclesia. And thus, by a special dispensation, there was generated by Him, through Mary, that man, whom, as He passed through the womb, the Father of all chose to [obtain] the knowledge of Himself by means of the Word.

The Sun Lady is also taken into the wilderness and is actually prepared a place for her to rest in as some sort of bubble that separates her from the chaos outside and is even “fed” for 3 and ½ years. In the second part of the chapter, we see Michael battling Satan, the Devil and Deceiver, who casts him out from heaven and his angelic host. Next, Revelation 12:10-13 states:

10 Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. 11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. 12 Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.”

It is clear that after the “Male child” is snatched away and taken up to heaven, while the Devil is cast out to the earth and tribulation and chaos quickly ensues thereafter upon all who dwell in the world, hence: “Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.” Margaret Barker in The Woman Clothed with the Sun and the Book of Revelation remarks on this part of Revelation 12, connecting Jesus’s testimony to his disciples from Luke 10:

Jesus had seen this vision. When the seventy disciples returned from their mission, joyful that they had been able to cast out demons, Jesus said: ‘I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy…’ (Luke 10.17-19). When had he seen this? Seventy is a significant number since there had been 70 sons of God, that is, 70 great angels, in the world of the first temple, and here they have defeated the offspring of the great dragon, the ancient serpent.

There are many indications in the gospels that Jesus knew the visions in Revelation. His parable of the angel reapers, for example (Matt.13.36-43) is very similar to the vision of the angel reapers in Revelation 14; and the so-called little apocalypse (Mark 13 and parallels) is a summary of Revelation 6, the vision of the seven seals. The opening lines of the Book of Revelation say that these are the visions received by Jesus: ‘The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him to show to his servants what must soon take place…’ John the Baptist knew that Jesus had received visions: ‘He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony (John 3.32). The meaning of the visions was revealed to John, when Jesus the Lord sent his angel to him. In John’s gospel, this angel is the called the Paraclete, the Spirit of truth who teaches all things and helps the disciple to remember (John 14.26; 16.13).

The number 70, as Barker points out is a very important point and is tied with numerology/Greek gematria. As pointed out previously in my article, High Priests of the Heavenly Temple: Jesus, Melchizedek and Metatron of 3 Enoch, Paul believed that his generation was ruled under the 70th angel, which is one the “Sons of God” of the “Most High God” being “El Elyon.” This is indicated in Ephesians 6:12, where he states that various principalities, powers and archons of darkness that rule over the heavens and earth. Psalms 82 tells us that the Most High God, through his Son, Yahweh/Jesus, will eventually judge the seventy angelic princes who fell from their “first estate” in the Divine Council. He will also judge the nations that are put under the sway and control of Satan, the “Prince and Power of the Air” and the injustices carried out under the rulership of “the gods” or the archons. There are many meanings attached the the number 70. The number 70 is also connected to the number of generations that exist between Enoch and Jesus. In 1 Enoch 10 (11-12), God commands Michael to bind the sinful Watchers in the valleys of the earth for 70 generations:

And the Lord said unto Michael: ‘Go, bind Semjâzâ and his associates who have united themselves with women so as to have defiled themselves with them in all their uncleanness. And when their sons have slain one another, and they have seen the destruction of their beloved ones, bind them fast for seventy generations in the valleys of the earth, till the day of their judgement and of their consummation, till the judgement that is for ever and ever is consummated.

It was the mission of Jesus to undo the damage inflicted from the cursed covenant made with the Watchers, placed upon mankind. In the article, The Divine Council and the Kabbalah by Peter Goodwill, he writes:

Liberation is what the sacrifice of Jesus did for humanity. Prior to the Messiah God possessed just one nation, but after the Cross the grip on the nations that was held by the wicked b’nai ha elohim was broken, and the way became open for every human being to become one with the Creator. The old system of God dealing with the pagan nations on a second-hand basis through the medium of the Divine Council was ended. The rule of the gods was over, and through Christ every human being could become personally reconciled with the one true God.

In the Old Testament God stands in the divine assembly and accuses the b’nai ha elohim of being unjust and merciless in their dealings with humanity (Psalm 82), and of being in error (Job 4:18), and unclean (Job 15:15). And in Psalm 82 and Isaiah 24:21 God declares that one day these powers will be punished and destroyed. That day is not far off, but in the meantime these fallen and humiliated b’nai ha elohim continue to plot against God and deceive humanity.

It should be noted that these are also the same as the “Shepherd angels” or “Watchers” discussed at length in Jeremiah and 1 and 2 Enoch and even their titanic and daemonic Nephilim children. The Dead Sea Scroll Damascus Document (3:15-20) even mentions the angels who would intermarry with the daughters of men and have intercourse with them.

Hear now, my sons, and I will uncover your eyes that you may see and understand the works of God, that you may choose that which pleases Him and reject that which He hates, that you may walk perfectly in all His ways and not follow after thoughts of the guilty inclination and after eyes of lust. For through them, great men have gone astray and mighty heroes have stumbled from former times till now. Because they walked in the stubbornness of their heart the Heavenly Watchers fell; they were caught because they did not keep the commandments of God. And their sons also fell who were tall as cedar trees and whose bodies were like mountains. All flesh on dry land perished; they were as though they had never been because they did their own will and did not keep the commandment of their Maker so that His wrath was kindled against them.

And as Barker mentions in her lengthy article, Jesus Christ himself in Luke (10:1-7), gives his seventy disciples, a holy mission to preach that “the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you”:

After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come. Therefore said he unto them, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers into his harvest. Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves. Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes: and salute no man by the way. And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace be to this house. And if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it: if not, it shall turn to you again. And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the laborer is worthy of his hire.”

It seems to me that these seventy missionaries are undoing the evil influence of the angelic rulers in the cities and nations that Jesus threatens with fiery judgement, in the end, as we see only sentences later. Jesus then testifies that he witnessed Satan fall like lightning from heaven to earth, mirroring how the Devil is cast to earth by Michael in Revelation 12:

“Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, which have been done in you, they had a great while ago repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment, than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell. He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me.”

And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, “Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. And he said unto them, “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding, in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.”

In the book, Gnostic John the Baptizer: Selections from the Mandæan John-Book by G.R.S. Mead says that the Jonah myth is tied with the idea that the initiate would have to descended to the “Belly of the Whale” which is a metaphor for descending to Hades or hell, would preach to those in Nineveh, which is symbolic of the world much like how Jesus descends to Hades to preach to the condemned spirits. Such episodes sound like they are related to spiritual alchemy and the rebirth process.

The Jonah-legend provided a very suitable setting wherein to depict the life of a prophet who caused his hearers to repent, and it may be that Jesus referred to John as ‘a greater Jonah’ (Mt. 12:41). The most striking image in the mythic story is the Great Fish. Now the belly of the Great Fish for the Jewish allegorists, and indeed it is plainly stated in the legend itself, was Sheōl, the Underworld, the Pit. But another mythic Great Fish, or perhaps the same in another aspect, was the cosmic monster Leviāthān. And symbolists, allegorists and mystics got busy with this mythic figure. Thus we find that Leviāthān was the name given by the Ophites of Celsus, who are plainly of Syrian Babylonian origin, to the Seven,—that is to the cosmic animal psychē, the hierarchy of rulers and devourers of the animal souls of men as well as of animals proper, each of the Seven being symbolized by an animal figure, probably an animal-faced (lion, etc.) dragon or fish.

In the Mandæan tradition the Fisher of Souls takes the Seven in his net and destroys them, even as in the old Babylonian myth the Saviour-god Manduk {sic., read Marduk} catches Tiamāt, their mother, the primeval dragon of the deep, in his net and destroys her. And strangely enough there is an old Rabbinical legend of Jonah preserved in the Midrash Yalqut Yona (§ 1), which relates that, when the prophet was in the belly of the Great Fish, he prayed that it should carry him quickly to the Leviāthān, so that be might catch it with his fishing tackle. For Jonah desired, when once again safely ashore, to make of its flesh a feast for the righteous,—a distinct reference to the Messianic fish-banquet which is to take place in the days of the End.

In the Strong Concordance, we see the number 70 is connected to the Hebrew word “oben.” Oben means a “wheel” or a “disk.” In the Greek, the number 70 is connected with “watching” or “sleeplessness” which have potent connections to gnosis as we see in the Parable of the Ten Maidens (Matthew 25:1-13) and in the Gospel of Mark 14 (32-42). The prophet Ezekiel had a vision of a “tetramorph,” which is composed of four creatures, having the heads of a man, a bull, a lion and an eagle, each attached to one of the sides of God’s “chariot,” or traveling throne.

Now as I beheld the living creatures, behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four faces. The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the color of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel (Ezekiel 1:15-16).

In the Gnostic text, On the Origin of the World, it tells us that the redeemed Archon Sabaoth creates for himself a throne attended by “Cherubin” or Cherubim. This Archon sounds a lot like Yahweh and his heavenly throne envisioned by Ezekiel. It also tells us that there also 72 gods or kosmocrators that rule over the 72 languages of the “peoples” being mankind.

And before his mansion he created a throne, which was huge and was upon a four-faced chariot called “Cherubin”. Now the Cherubin has eight shapes per each of the four corners, lion forms and calf forms and human forms and eagle forms, so that all the forms amount to sixty-four forms – and seven archangels that stand before it; he is the eighth, and has authority. All the forms amount to seventy-two. Furthermore, from this chariot the seventy-two gods took shape; they took shape so that they might rule over the seventy-two languages of the peoples. And by that throne he created other, serpent-like angels, called “Seraphin”, which praise him at all times.

This is what St. John the Divine also sees (with some variations) in Revelation 4:6-9. The wheel is also connected to “wheel of fate” mentioned by the church father Hippolytus in Refutation of All Heresies (V, 10), as being guided by Kronos, the demiurge as testified by the Peratic gnostics. What does any of this have to do with the assumption of the Mother and the male child into heaven? As we saw just now, the Book of Revelation has many correspondences to not only Gnosticism, but also other apocalyptic literature such as Ezekiel and the Book of Enoch. It is this wheel of fate that also seems to be broken and even transformed as we will discuss more in depth in a future chapter. And in the next post, we will see how all of this connects to what is occurring on the world stage and perhaps even in future events.