familiar texts, and yet the ‘mother’ in them has been filtered from how they are usually read. There are many examples. When Philo, an older contemporary of John, was explaining the hidden meaning of the words of Scripture, he wrote this: We say that the high priest is not a man but a divine Logos … his father being God, who is father of all, and his mother is Wisdom through whom [fem.] the universe came to be. Further, his head has been anointed with oil, which means that [his mind] has been illuminated