Goddess Page
The Goddess in Christianity
at
Home2b.nl
The Goddess in Christianity
This webpage will be one of a series,
where Robert will study the presence of the
Goddess
in modern religions.
"Modern" I define "after
Antiquity",
which means from 600 CE to the present day.
Although the Goddess is denied by a majority
of the clergy of Christianity,
this ancient origin of religion could not be
pushed aside totally.
In other religions the Goddess is either denied
like in Christianity,
or happily honored in her own way.
Many important discussions are necessary in this
line of thinking:
1. what is divinity?
2. what type of holy books and writings are in
use?
3. what is the meaning of important words in
the holy texts?
4. who is divine?
5. who is named God or Goddess, although being
created
by God the Creator and Almighty?
6. what is Oneness and Manyness?
These discussions will be important to
understand
the position and the importance of the Goddess.
Every discussion will need a webpage of its
own.
Nevertheless the result of these discussions
will be used also in this webpage.
These discussions have been repeated in ancient
and modern times.
Many answers to these discussions have become
unchangable positions (dogmas) in the modern
religions.
Even then many misunderstandings about these
dogmas
can be taken away by open rethinking.
To study the Goddess in Christianity
we have to realize, that Christianity is an
ancient religion,
many times transformed into the thinking of new
cultures,
the
so-called"inculturation"
and many times overpowered by influential clerical
leaders.
So rethinking of the old positions into new
cultures
has been part of "normal" Christian
behavior.
Also leaving behind the influence of former
leaders
is a normal behavior of the new generations.
We know from ancient writings, that the Goddess
in Christianity
was called Sophia, which means Wisdom.
Many ancient churches have seen these ancient
books as
inspired and holy words.
It will be very interesting to study
very direct words from the Goddess, which are
noted down in
the Old Tespament,
Proverbs, chapter 8:1 until 9:6
1. Is not wisdom crying out, and the
voice of knowledge sounding?
2 At the top of the highways, at the
meeting of the roads, she takes her place;
3 Where the roads go into the town her
cry goes out,
at the doorways her voice is loud:
4 I am crying out to you, O men;
my voice comes to the sons of men.
5 Become expert in reason, O you simple
ones;
you foolish ones, take training to
heart.
6 Give ear, for my words are true,
and my lips are open to give out what is
upright.
7 For good faith goes out of my mouth,
and false lips are disgusting to me.
8 All the words of my mouth are
righteousness;
there is nothing false or twisted in
them.
9 They are all true to him whose mind is
awake,
and straightforward to those who get
knowledge.
10 Take my teaching, and not silver;
get knowledge in place of the best gold.
11 For wisdom is better than jewels,
and all things which may be desired are
nothing in comparison with her.
12 I, wisdom, have made wise behaviour
my near relation;
I am seen to be the special friend of
wise purposes.
13 The fear of the Lord is seen in
hating evil:
pride, a high opinion of oneself, the
evil way,
and the false tongue, are unpleasing to
me.
14 Wise design and good sense are mine;
reason and strength are mine.
15 Through me kings have their power,
and rulers give right decisions.
16 Through me chiefs have authority,
and the noble ones are judging in
righteousness.
17 Those who have given me their love
are loved by me,
and those who make search for me with
care will get me.
18 Wealth and honour are in my hands,
even wealth without equal and
righteousness.
19 My fruit is better than gold, even
than the best gold;
and my increase is more to be desired
than silver.
20 I go in the road of righteousness, in
the way of right judging:
21 So that I may give my lovers wealth
for their heritage,
making their store-houses full.
22 The Lord made me as the start of his
way,
the first of his works in the past.
23 From eternal days I was given my
place,
from the birth of time, before the earth
was.
24 When there was no deep I was given
birth,
when there were no fountains flowing
with water.
25 Before the mountains were put in
their places,
before the hills was my birth:
26 When he had not made the earth or the
fields or the dust of the world.
27 When he made ready the heavens I was
there:
when he put an arch over the face of the
deep:
28 When he made strong the skies
overhead:
when the fountains of the deep were
fixed:
29 When he put a limit to the sea,
so that the waters might not go against
his word:
when he put in position the bases of the
earth:
30 Then I was by his side, as a master
workman:
and I was his delight from day to day,
playing before him at all times;
31 Playing in his earth;
and my delight was with the sons of men.
32 Give ear to me then, my sons:
for happy are those who keep my ways.
33 Take my teaching and be wise; do not
let it go.
34 Happy is the man who gives ear to me,
watching at my doors day by day,
keeping his place by the pillars of my
house.
35 For whoever gets me gets life,
and grace from the Lord will come to
him.
36 But he who does evil to me, does
wrong to his soul:
all my haters are in love with death.
And continuing into the next chapter 9:
1 Wisdom has made her house,
putting up her seven pillars.
2 She has put her fat beasts to death;
her wine is mixed, her table is ready.
3 She has sent out her women-servants;
her voice goes out to the highest places
of the town, saying,
4 Whoever is simple, let him come in
here;
and to him who has no sense, she says:
5 Come, take of my bread,
and of my wine which is mixed.
6 Give up the simple ones and have life,
and go in the way of knowledge.
Many parts of the modern Bible
are about Wisdom, who is Sophia, the Goddess.
The Wisdom writings were part of the Goddess
religion.
In many cultures Riddles were part of the
Goddess religions too.
So were the original fairy-tales of old.
Wisdom sayings have a special structure:
an opening sentence and a parallel extra
detailed sentence.
In old Dutch thousands of Wisdom sayings were
known
and I learned many Wisdom proverbs
by the teaching of my relatives,
who were still insiders of the Goddess
religion.
I have no doubt, that in many languages and
cultures
these Wisdom sayings were known.
Some comment on the text
above:
The house of the Goddess has seven pillars. 9:1
Does this remind us of Hathor?
Apparently the Holy Supper was part of the
religion
of the Goddess, but was taken over into
the liturgy of the Jesus movement. 9:5
The Goddess was given her place
from the birth of time 8:23
The Lord Creator has made the Goddess the start
of his Way
the first of His works. 8:22
Ancient Greek: Argoon hodoon
Now we know the Hodos starts at the Goddess.
The Goddess is heard on the cross roads and the
high-ways 8:2
Does this explain the fact that the ancient
holy places
were found on the crossings of ley-lines?
Ofcourse the Jesus movement has brought these
words
in relation with Jesus,
but this is in contradiction with the whole
setting
of this text and also in contradiction
with the wider ancient Christian tradition of
Sophia.
This is certain and sure:
Everything
starts by God the Creator, the Almighty,
the all Knowing,
Invisible, Love.
Ancient Egypt used the name "Amen"
for the unvisible, almighty Creator God.
The Sun disc was His symbol, even in
Christianity
until modern times, let us say until 1550 AD.
We have no name for the Almighty Creator,
or may be "God the Father".
Also the Hebrew text does not give a name.
"Elohim" is clearly a title, not a
name.
So is "Adonai" a title.
The name "Jah" comes later in the
parallel creation story.
The name of God is never pronounced by the
Hebrew people.
So we should not expect the name of God in the
text either.
The Goddess Sophia is the first of His works.
8:22
The Goddess played with the sons of men 8:31,
calling the sons of men: "My sons".
8:32.
Jesus is the first born from the Mother of God.
The ancient Egyptians named her Hathor,
or also Nefer Mut, which connects to the word
Mother.
This brings Jesus back into very ancient times
far before the Roman times of the New
Testament.
The above text of Proverbs 8:1 to
9:6
could very well be a part
of the Full Moon ritual.
See the
Full Moon Ritual page.
We hope, that the above Bible citation
does not hurt any copyright.
We don't know whether there is any copyright,
or whom it belongs to.
It seems that this citation is
from "The Bible in Basic English"
If necessary I will make my own translation.
You may e-mail:
Updated March 18,
2006
Everything on this website:
CopyrightŠ2002-2006 by Robert and Susan