Should Bible Believing Christians Use The Esoteric Term Shekinah To Refer To God’s Glory?
Introduction
I am certain most of us have heard the term Shekinah or
Shekinah glory our whole Christian walk. Many people use this term because they
heard others use this term, and never think about its origins. Is it a Biblical
concept? It has to be a Christian term because so many Christians use it, right?
If you prefer to be politically-correct and not rock the boat, this article is
not for you. If you desire to know what the Bible teaches, regardless of
whether any other Christian around you stands for a particular doctrine or
viewpoint, then please keep reading.
In 2021, I came across a few preachers that were using this
term in a way that seemed unusual (even contrary to how most people I know have
used it in the past – including referring to the Holy Spirit as female, Sophia –
like we see in The Shack and other emergent church circles), so I decided to
look up ALL references to glory in the Old and New Testament. During that time,
I was dismayed to learn that the term Shekinah is never used anywhere in the
Bible - in Hebrew or in Greek. In fact, the main New Testament word for glory
is doxa, where we get the term doxology from, songs of praise glorifying
the Lord, and the main Old Testament word
for glory is kabowd. Think of 1 Samuel 4, when Eli’s sons are killed.
Just before his daughter-in-law died she named her grandson, Ichabod:
1 Samuel 4:21-22 And she named the child Ichabod, saying,
The glory is departed from Israel: because the ark of God was taken, and
because of her father in law and her husband. And she said, The glory is
departed from Israel: for the ark of God is taken.
Though there are a couple of other words the Bible uses a
few times each, none of them is Shekinah.
I started to search out the Bible programs and commentaries
I had to see where this term came from and why they were saying it refers to
God’s glory in the Bible. One program I used is called Swordsearcher, and it
allows me to do a full library search through all the books I have downloaded
in the program. Again, further shock and disgust as the truth was revealed.
Shekinah comes straight from the Kabballah and Jewish
mysticism. It is not a term or concept found anywhere in the Bible. It is a
term that esoteric people like Alice Bailey and other theosophists added to
Christianity. You can find this explanation of its origins and its meaning explained
in old Christian dictionaries and encyclopedias from 100-150 years ago.
Basically, the mystic Jews and rabbis did not accept Jesus
as Messiah because they did not believe God could become a man. God was too
holy and man was too sinful - so God created a manifestation of His presence
(of Himself) that He kept with His people - yet like the Eons of gnosticism,
this manifestation was NOT God. It is a female gnostic essence, a
representation of Him. Basically, like a stand in rather than God’s actual
presence. So they are stating that the pillar of cloud and fire and the glory
cloud above the mercy seat only represented God, and not actually Him.
I know most born again Bible-believing Christians do not use
the term the way Jewish mysticism does, BUT just because many nowadays do not
use that word in that sense doesn’t change its origin. And it’s actually a
danger sign when God’s people add pagan terms, practices, and symbols to their
beliefs. We seew this in the Old Testament when the Israelites came out of
Egypt (Exodus 32 – the golden calf; Amos 5:26; Acts 7:43), when they ruled the
Promised Land (1 Kings 12:26-33); after the Assyrian captivity, when the Samaritans
mixed paganism and Judaism together (2 (Kings 17); and also in the church age
when Constantine mingled paganism and Christianity together in his realm to
make “Christianity” the official state religion (what he did in 312 on set in
motion the development of the Roman Catholic Church).
Again, just because Christians unknowingly copied the use of
Shekinah and repeated it for all those years doesn’t make a pagan gnostic
concept Biblical.
Look it up in the International Standard Bible Dictionary,
Alfred Edersheim, some of those older Christian dictionaries and you will see. I
looked up Shekinah/Shechinah in the modules I had in Swordsearcher. Eye
opening. It is like the name Jehovah. They didn’t want to say God’s name
so they just said “the Name” or put the consonants instead, not His full name.**
**This explains why the Critical Text and some other Old
Testament manuscripts refer to the Tetragrammaton as the name of God – YHVH (or
write God as G-D). To them, God’s name is too holy to speak or write, though
God Himself stated that JEHOVAH was His covenant name to all generations. See Exodus
3:14-15, where different forms of this name are referred to: I Am, Jehovah, or
LORD in English). Because they reject this covenant name and have removed the
vowels in the corrupted texts (YET the Hebrew Masoretic Text never had the
vowels removed!), later translators and editors needed to find the vowels that
were “missing” and so literally invented THEIR OWN NAME for God, Yahweh, which
was made by mixing the vowels of the Hebrew name Adonai (Old Testament word for
Lord, master) with the Tetragrammaton (YHVH). Because of corruption and the
origins of this name, I will not call God by Yahweh either!
They didn’t want to talk about God Himself, so they made
references to His Presence (capital P - I'm sure you've seen quotes from
authors that have done this in the past), didn’t want to speak about God and
His actual manifestations to them, so they talked about His Glory (in a way
that made it something in itself). Interesting that some modern versions like
the New King James Bible refer to ” the Presence” as well.
Definitions:
International Standard Bible Dictionary (ISBD) for
dwell: “Another word often rendered "dwell" is שָׁ כן , shakhan or שָׁכֵן , shakhen ("to settle
down"), from which is derived the rabbinic word שְׁכִינָה , shekhinah (literally, "that
which dwells"), the light on the mercy-seat which symbolized the Divine
presence (Ex 25:8, etc.). In
order to avoid appearing to localize the Divine Being, wherever God is said to
"dwell" in a place, the Targum renders that He "causes His Shekinah
to dwell" there.”
ISBD on Shekinah, “she-ki'-na (שְׁכִינָה , shekhinah,
"that which dwells," from the verb שָׁכֵן
, shakhen, or שָׁ כן , shakhan, "to
dwell," "reside"): This word is not found in the Bible, but
there are allusions to it in Isa
60:2; Mt 17:5; Lu 2:9; Ro 9:4. It is first found in the
Targums.”
James Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible says this
about the word Shekinah: “The word is not found in OT, but occurs often in
other Jewish literature, always of God. The OT, particularly in certain of its
writings, uses 'anthropomorphisms' freely, e.g. it speaks of God dwelling in a
place or being seen. Later thought objected to this, as materializing the
Divine nature; hence in the Targums (Aramaic paraphrases of the OT used, though
not in their present form, by the 1st cent. a.d.) various devices were adopted
to prevent popular misunderstandings. Periphrases were used for the Divine
name, 'the Word' (Memra), 'Spirit,' or' 'Wisdom' being substituted. One of the
most important of these was the 'Shekinah.' 'God dwells' usually became
'the Shekinah rests'; 'the temple of God' became 'the house of the S.' (note
the Tabernacle was the mishkân, from the same root)… Now the presence of
God (especially in Priestly Narrative and related writings) was often
manifested by a fiery appearance, or a light in a cloud. It was so in nature (Ps 18:10), on Sinai (Ex 24:16), in the wilderness
and in the Tabernacle (Ex 16:7;
29:43; 40:34; Nu 14:10), in the Temple (1Ki 8:11); cf. Eze 1:28 etc. This glory was
not God, but an effluence from Him, or from His Shekinah. For the S. was
not 'the glory,' as is usually imagined, but the source and centre of it. It
is a stage nearer to God Himself, and, though often used in connexion with
the physical manifestation, represents an invisible and universal presence.”
Periphrasis - another term to avoid talking about
something. Webster’s 1828 Dictionary says periphrase means “Gr.
about, and to speak. Circumlocution; a circuit of words; the use of more
words than are necessary to express the idea; a figure of rhetoric employed to
avoid a common and trite manner of expression.” Basically, to speak about
something without actually using the words normally used to express that idea
or thing.
Smith’s Bible Dictionary says this: “The use of the
terms is first found in the Targums, where it forms a frequent periphrasis for
God, considered ITS* dwelling among the children of Israel.” (Jerry’s note: The
Jewish Talmud is the Rabbinical commentary on the OT Scriptures, and the Targums
are their commentaries on their commentaries – not joking – both written by
unbelieving and apostate Jews.)
*Either they are calling God an It here or they have
elevated His glory to a status more important than God Himself.
Conclusions
The use of this word is to keep away from the idea of God
appearing physically or taking on a physical appearance - hence they can reject
the Incarnation/deity of the Messiah this way. Also, to avoid ascribing any
human passions to God. The Bible itself uses terms that show God identifies
with our emotions, but is not sinful in His use of them - like Jesus Himself
when on earth.
Part of their explanation of this is: no man has seen God
(ie. the Father) at any time, so therefore in passages where the OT says they
did see God, instead of believing it was some pre-incarnate appearance of the
Messiah, they believe it was His Shekinah glory - “an external, visible symbol
which, because it stood for God, is called by his name.” So it is not glory
surrounding God, it is a separate manifestation they prefer to God.
Some discernment ministries like David Cloud and Spencer
Smith do point these things out - AND I FOUND THIS OUT MYSELF THROUGH THE OLD
RESOURCES IN THE SWORDSEARCHER PROGRAM BEFORE EVER READING THEIR RESEARCH ON
IT. I have chosen never to use this phrase any more. I will use the Bible
terms for glory instead, like kabowd (OT) and doxa (NT).
What gets me the most is that these dictionaries, etc. from
way back in the 19th or early 20th century acknowledged that it was not a
Christian concept - some even state where it does come from - but it didn't
matter to them. It was accepted by them. They are not even trying to hide its
origins. They just embraced it and made it “Christian” instead. It's like
reading The Fundamentals by R.A Torrey and other fundamentalist
preachers, and in the book they try to fit in with Bible criticism and accept
evolution. Don't want to be rejected by the scholars. And then we wonder why
modern Christendom is where it is at now.
Again, I realize and acknowledge most using this term use it
in the exact sense that they were taught it meant years ago. But it is not
Biblical, it does not come from God or His Word, and actually mixes pagan
concepts in with Christianity - even if many are not aware of it. I don't hate
on the occasional writer or preacher who uses the term ignorantly - but I hate
those who deliberately brought in this deception and confusion.
Using Shekinah is not like using a non-Biblical word to
describe an actual Biblical doctrine, like Trinity, rapture, incarnation, etc.
- but is actually using a word that means different (ie. pagan) things, when
there are perfectly good Bible words that do mean glory. Strange that people
adopt something like this and then pass it on as truth.
Funny, when I posted this on Messenger in 2021 to some
Christians from my old church, one of the old preacher boys said he knew that,
but defended it. Why use a word with pagan and kabbalistic meanings when we can
use the words God gave (either the English word, or the Greek and Hebrew words that
actually came from the Bible)? Sad.
I am never going to use this word/idea - I don't need to use
some term that was created by infidel Jews to make them comfortable in their
rejection of the true God, and give them reasons to reject the Messiah and to
put on an unbelieving twist to Bible passages.
Exhortation
You can verify this information easily if you have any Bible
study programs or some older Bible dictionaries. I am not sure if any new ones
would even cover the source of the word Shekinah/Shechinah.
One of the articles compared the Shekinah glory to the Holy
Spirit, as part of the Rabbinical idea of the Trinity (ie. the Deity, the Word,
the Shekinah) - which some agree with and others don't agree with. The Targum
(ie. their rabbinical commentary on their traditions) seem such a hodgepodge of
everchanging apostasy and nonsense.
From what I read, it really seems like it is a term to
describe a Jewish version of gnosticism. God can't be physical or connect
directly to us, so let's coin a term that applies to something in the gap, a
middle form that emanates from God but is not actually Him. I don't want some
representation of Him or some substitute - I want the real God, the Father, Son
and Holy Spirit - the one the Bible teaches me about, who created me, who
provided for my salvation, and who walks with me today.
Why adopt a pagan concept (for the sake of this
conversation) only vaguely connected to the Bible (and then attempted to be put
into both the OT and NT passages or accounts of events), created by unbelieving
rabbinic Jews to teach unbiblical things about God and to give them fodder for
denying the physical incarnation/manifestation of the Messiah? We have several
Bible words we can use if we want to use Hebrew or Greek words to describe
God's glory - then we avoid any pagan or apostate associations with the term.
It is like when people use communion to refer to the Lord's
Supper. Coming out of a Catholic background and seeing all the religious
meaning associated with this word, I would rather stick with the Bible's
terminology (ie. Lord's Supper or breaking of bread) and avoid all that
confusion. Yes, communion means fellowship. The NT says we have communion with
other believers in the bread and the blood of Christ, but does not call the
Lord's Supper communion.
1 Corinthians 10:16 The cup of blessing which we bless,
is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it
not the communion of the body of Christ?
The term Shekinah/Shechinah was a term created by the
unbelieving Jewish rabbis in their commentaries on the OT and their
commentaries on their commentaries. Yes, they try to say this is the Presence,
etc. that is in all those OT passages (but then some of these unbelieving
Jewish - nonChristian - rabbis try to insert it into the NT); however, what the
targum says about the Shekinah/Shechinah is as unbiblical and apostate as you
can get - AND THEY DO DEFINE WHAT THEY MEAN IN THEIR COMMENTARIES, so I am not
just guessing or assuming things here. So even if they can somehow associate it
with things or events in the Bible, what they are teaching about God, His
presence, the Messiah, and His glory (by using this term) is as far from true
Bible doctrine as you can get. The people who created the word and applied it
to the passages in the Bible never meant what Christians think it should mean.
It is so nice to get what I believe was my God-guided
research affirmed. This is what I posted to a few friends in late fall 2021:
Someone passed on the link to Spencer Smith’s Third Adam 3 X
video. It took me awhile to get into it, but I started watching some of his
shorter videos and doing research on the speaker. He is KJVonly, IFB. His
videos expose the corruption in modern Christendom. This video is interesting,
because he exposes how modern Christendom is getting caught up in the divine
feminism, and it is influencing so many today. AND, at 3:35 (the 3 hours, 35
minute mark of the video) he gets into how Shekinah (aka the supposed feminine
form of God, the Holy Spirit - the view that comes from gnosticism/the
Kaballah) fits into this.
I have heard people say this in the past or read in some
books. This is from William Newell on Revelation 1. Fits in with the
pagan/unbelieving term Shekinah, or thinking God has both male and female
attributes or characteristics.
“After writing this note, I found to my horror, but I
confess not to my surprise, the following: ‘In order to corroborate the
doctrine (of sex in deity) just mentioned, certain Theosophists have invented a
new derivation for the Hebrew Shaddai, which in our versions is correctly
rendered 'Almighty.' They suppose it to be connected with a word shad, which
signifies a woman's breast.** But such a derivation is impossible, and, so far
as we are aware, has never been proposed by an unbiased scholar. More than one
Christian scholar has taken up this Theosophical derivation of Shaddai, and
explained the word as meaning first 'full-breasted,' and then 'bountiful.' The
irreverent use of one of the grandest titles of the Most High should have
checked them.’ (Pember: THE CHURCH AND THE MYSTERIES. Page 413.) The Babylonian
doctrine of ‘the motherhood of God,’ source of all abominations, is what is
subtly brought in here. The true derivation of Shaddai is Hebrew, yDv from root
ddv to be strong, mighty: in adjective form used only of God (Gesenius). To
miss this meaning of The Almighty is to endanger the consent of our hearts to
His righteous judgments.”
** My comments: After I texted this quote to a friend, he
pointed out that the statue of Diana (of the Ephesians) is covered with breasts
and is often referred to as the many breasted god. The beliefs and portrayal of
Diana is one of the sources for the divine feminism coming into the church, so
it is no surprise that somewhere along the way, false believers would want to
add this to our view of the true God.
Nowadays, many people
are not even hiding the fact that they embrace this concept of a female aspect
to God (Sophia, or referring to the Holy Spirit as female, etc.). It was
probably a very slow and gradual process to get here.
Some may ask why does this matter? Truth matters. I would
rather reject the error and cling to the truth and be blessed by my Lord than
to be willingly or unknowingly clinging to some error just to fit in with the
religious crowd or "Christians" who just do not know their Bibles.
This matters because it actually came close to home
recently. A little over a week before writing the notes on this, I was speaking
with my brother about something - including Mark Lowry referring to the Holy
Spirit as "She" and agreeing with some pagan on a video that the Holy
Spirit is also referred to as Sophia!! - and my brother brought up some
conversations with his girlfriend about God having male and female attributes,
and that she knows some people that refer to the Holy Spirit as a female (like The
Shack does). All I could think of at that time was the definition of El
Shaddai I had heard many times through the years. Didn't want to go there as
that would have truly confused the issue! So I focussed on: Yes, God created
mankind, male and female and our emotions, etc. - BUT He has always revealed
Himself (all three members of the Godhead) as male to us, never as female -
even if He has what some may refer to as feminine attributes (compassion,
mercy, etc.). But seeing now where some of this confusion came from and what
type of people tried to redefine the Bible and add it to Biblical Christianity,
I am glad to have this error exposed. This fit in with my previous research,
and it is eye-opening, for sure.
Original notes put together in 2021, but edited and written
up on August 25th, 2026
Jerry Bouey
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