1.
Wind. From a root denoting vital force acting as a stream of
air, pneúma first means wind both in its movement and its rarefied
materiality. The wind may be stormy, or a normal wind, or a breeze,
or even a vapor. It has an effect on climate, health, and character,
and is seen as both natural and divine. 2. Breath. A second sense of pneúma is breath,
inhaled and exhaled in breathing, and ranging from snorting to the fading
breath. Poetically pneúma denotes the sound that human breath
produces by blowing on flutes etc. 3. Life. Breath is a sign of life, and by way of the
idea of the breath of life, pneúma comes to be used for life
or living creature. 4. Soul. As the principle of life, pneúma means
much the same as psych?. Bound to the body in life, it escapes it with
the last breath and returns to the ethereal sphere. 5. Transferred Sense of Spirit. In a transferred sense
pneúma is used for the spirit that blows in interpersonal relations.
Thus it may denote the spirit of a city, or the influence of the gods
or other people, or various forms of excitement. 6. pneúma and noús. In contrast to noús
(mind), which resembles the calmer medium of light, pneúma (spirit)
is a dynamic term suggesting the forceful movement of air that seizes
us with elemental power and catches us up into tension or movement.
7. Mantic pneúma. In manticism and mantic poetry, pneúma
is the spirit that stirs, enthuses, fills, and inspires (cf. priests,
poets, and prophets). It may also denote lofty rhetorical speech, the
captivating flow of the orator, etc.
8. Divine pneúma. Elemental and uncontrollable, pneúma
is felt to be divine (e.g., in divine music). But there is in Greek
no sense of a personal holy spirit. The divine spirit is immanent.
9. God and pneúma. In Stoicism pneúma is a cosmic power
or substance, and as such it may be seen as the being or manifestation
of deity itself.
1O. Non-Greek Development of Meaning. Under Jewish and Christian influence
there is a twofold development of meaning. On one side pneúma
is severed from nature and personified as the active cosmological or
soteriological Spirit or God. On the other it is materialized as a demonic
magical force that magicians manipulate for good or ill.
1. Life-Creating
pneúma. On the basis of the connection between wind or breath
and generation and life, the idea is widespread that there is conception
by wind. This concept may be found in poetry and natural science, and
passes into the Stoic theory of pneúma. In both Egypt and Greece
one reads of the gods begetting life by their breath. The mode of generation
distinguishes the divine operation from human conception in accordance
with the difference of essence or substantiality.
2. pneúma and Inspiration. The breath of wind or breathing is
a form by which higher divine forces impart something of their power
either for good or evil. Plato still uses epípnoia for inspiration,
reserving pneúma for natural science. He distinguishes four forms
of inspiration corresponding to the four cultural spheres, namely, poetic,
mantic, mystic, and erotic. a. Poetic. When Hesiod is called to be a poet, the
Muses breathe into him a divine voice. Socrates ironically refers to
his divine gift of poetic speech. A divine force (pneúma) lifts
the poet above the normal order. Manticism offers a prototype. b. Manticism. At Delphi Apollo in a kind of sacred
marriage fills the woman with divine breath. The pneúma sets
the Pythia in an ecstatic state which entails physical effects (e.g.,
streaming hair, panting breath, etc.). Sound effects are associated
with the giving of the oracle. The pneúma fills the house, and
especially the inner being of recipients, carrying them off into the
ecstatic sphere, and disclosing hidden things. Uncontrollable, it possesses
rather than being possessed, and its theme, content, and source are
divine. Mantic inspiration of this kind fills with deity, as Plato puts
it, and thus makes people ministering organs of the gods. But it also
robs them of understanding, so that their utterances are not their own.
The philosopher is needed to assess and interpret the sayings, just
as the priests at Delphi clarify the burblings of the Pythia to make
them valid oracles. For Plato mantic inspiration is the prototype for
poetic inspiration and for the element of enthusiasm in his own philosophy.
Plutarch takes up and develops this concept. While rejecting direct
inspiration, under Stoic influence he suggests that a natural force
acts as the medium of inspiration in poetry and prophecy. This does
not lead to irreligion, for the earth and the sun, which bring forth
pneúma, are for Plutarch divine essences. In Iamblichus divine
inspiration or spirit is a pure gift from the gods. Spirit here is more
closely associated with light than breath, and epípnoia is spiritualized
as illumination. While pneúma is divine, the deity itself is
distinct and more worthy of reverence. Not all people are equally adapted
for operations of the pneúma. The simpler and younger are more
receptive. The intensity and forms of manifestation are as different
as the gods (or angels and demons); union with the deity is the supreme
form.
III. pneúma in Natural Science
and Philosophy.The term pneúma
does not seem to play much part in earlier physical theories; a?r and
psych? are more common terms. Later, of course, the three are equated
as the comprehensive life-principle that integrates all things. In medicine
pneúma is more important. As the air that is taken in with breathing
and nourishment, it is a vital and decisive element in health. Distinction
is made between the colder external air and the warmer internal air that
circulates in the body and has, its seat in the heart. For Aristotle pneúma
is the breath of life that gives soul to varying degrees. In higher creatures
outward pneúma is added to inner pneúma. Both moving and
moved, it brings warmth and directs and sustains the body in its movements
and experiences. Stoicism makes of this scientific theory a universal
principle which explains the whole world in its constitution, unity, tension,
and vitality. pneúma is here a separate substance that unites fire
and air, that is the source and principle of the four elements, that permeates
and gives soul to all reality in all its forms, and that is also the basis
of individuality in ascending degrees of purity from the inorganic to
the organic and finally the human world. Even as the chief organ of the
soul, pneúma is not a mere principle but a substance, although
in rarefied form; the rational pneúma is a portion of the most
rarefied cosmic divine pneúma. It embodies God in the inner being
of humanity. pneúma, then, is both the vital force and substance
that generates and permeates all things, and the rational soul whose functions
of guidance and control it executes. In the indissoluble unity of matter,
power, life, and form, pneúma is ultimately God, who is by nature
pneúma. Destiny, then, is a pneumatic power, and in religion, myth,
and poetry, Zeus is the cosmic pneúma. Because Stoicism regards
pneúma as material, however, Plotinus finds in psych? a higher
principle; pneúma can no more constitute the essence of life than
blood. In Hermetic writings pneúma belongs to the ethereal sphere,
has the form of immaterial light, and forms a bridge between body and
soul, enabling the soul both to descend into the world and also to ascend
out of it. Whether people are good or evil depends on whether the psych?
rules the pneúma on which it rests or is ruled by it. Here again
pneúma is matter; it is thus a phenomenon of second rank in the
cosmic and human world.
1. In spite of formal parallels,
e.g., the idea of pneúma as a power, pneúma plays only
a secondary role in Greek thought as compared to the NT. Belonging to
the material world, it is never “spiritual” in the NT sense.
As a cosmic factor, it is a vital, impersonal, natural force. It can
be the seat or agent of mental and spiritual functions but not their
true subject. Stoic monism makes it the essence and power of deity permeating
the cosmos, but the saying in Jn. 4:24 offers only a formal parallel.
The Apologists and Alexandrians see the difference; God, for them, cannot
be material pneúma.
2. Even in poetry and manticism pneúma is never wholly free from
matter. Here, of course, it is something exceptional imparted to the
few and bearing an ecstatic character. Again there is a formal parallel
to the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts, but in assessing these the NT
avoids the religious vocabulary of secular Greek, coining instead a
new and distinctive term like glossolalia.
3. Greek thought has a theoretical interest in the process and nature
of pneúma. This interest is alien to the NT, which is oriented
to the divine content.
4. In medicine, philosophy, and religion, pneúma has a mediatorial
role on the border between the material and the immaterial. The Holy
Spirit plays a similar part, but the theological presuppositions are
totally different. Secular Greek knows no person of the Spirit as a
divine entity; pneúma is always a thing, not a person.
5. The Greek view can never completely break free from the idea of pneúma
as a natural phenomenon. In the NT, however, this idea is no longer
present when the Spirit is proclaimed as the Spirit of truth who reacts
to sin and gives birth to faith in Christ. The fundamental difference
between the Greek and NT concepts is that a different God stands behind
them. [H. Kleinknecht, VI, 332-59]
B. Spirit in the OT.
I. Review of the Term.
1. rû(a)h in the OT.
a. Breath, Wind. (a) Breath of the Mouth.
As breath of the mouth, rû (a)h means breath (cf. Job 19:17) in
such expressions as drawing breath (Job 9:18), gasping for breath (Jer.
2:24), breathing heavily (Job 15:13), the breath of life (Jer. 10:14). (b) Breath of air. As wind, rû (a)h may be a
soft wind (Job 4:15), a daily west wind (Gen. 3:8), a strong wind (Is.
32:2), a tearing wind (Ps. 55:8), a hot wind (v. 11). The four winds
are the four corners of the earth (Zech. 6:5). Figuratively wind is
vanity or futility or deception (Job 6:26); we read of windy knowledge,
speech, etc., as well as of vain striving. b. Human rû(a)h. (a) The Life Principle.
rû (a)h gives life to the animal or human body (cf. Gen. 7:22).
Its entry gives life (Ezek. 37:5-6), its removal means death (Ps. 104:29).
Terms used in this connection are reviving, vanishing, languishing,
expiring, becoming powerless, etc. (b) Seat of the Emotions, Intellect, and Will. Emotionally
we find such concepts as disquiet, unhappiness, despondency, lack of
spirit, impatience, irritation, bad temper, terror, jealousy, arrogance,
etc. Intellectually there are references to cleverness, insight into
divine mysteries, artistic sense, and planning; negatively to lack of
perception, error, and lack of religious or moral insight. Volitionally
associated ideas are readiness for things, attitudes of will, courage,
forbearance, freedom, longing for God, renewal, and, negatively, unfaithfulness
and ungodliness.
(c) Divinely Effected rû (a)h. God, the God of spirits (Num. 16:22),
gives vital force (Is. 42:5), upholds it (Job 10:12), and takes it away
(Ps. 10:29). Life is in his power (Job 12:10). He causes disquiet (2
Kgs. 19:7), gives fervor (Zech. 12:10), grants reason (Job 32:8), and
imparts artistic sense (Ex. 28:3). He is behind planning (Jer. 51:1)
and may frustrate it (Is. 19:3). He gives or hardens the moral power
of the will (Ezek. 11:19; Dt. 2:30). The divine spirit is given with
laying on of hands (Dt. 34:9). c. God’s rû(a)h. (a) Effective Divine
Power. God’s rû (a)h gives power to the cherubim (Ezek.
1:12) and Samson (Judg. 13:25), and sets the prophet on his feet (Ezek.
2:2). It induces ecstasy (Num. 11:25), lifts up (1 Kgs. 18:12), snatches
away (Ezek. 3:14), gives prophetic speech (Gen. 41:38), grants visions
(Ezek. 8:3), endows with the gift of leadership (Judg. 3:10), and is
behind human wickedness (Judg. 9:23). (b) Creative Divine Power. God’s power creates
life (Ezek. 37:9), injects (37:14), sends (Ps. 104:30), and withdraws
it (Job 34:14). It creates the cosmos and life within it (Gen. 1:2;
Ps. 33:5). It gives mental abilities, e.g., artistic skill, enlightenment,
and wisdom (Ex. 31:3; Dan. 5:14). It gives the gift of prophecy (Mic.
3:8). It equips for kingship (Is. 11:2). It also gives moral qualities,
e.g., sanctification (Is. 59:12). It is a power to judge (Is. 4:4) and
to save (Is. 32:15). It gives help (Ps. 143:10), shows what is right
(Neh. 9:20), and is put in the hearts of the people (Is. 63:11). (c) God’s Inner Nature. rû (a)h denotes
God’s sustaining power (Is. 31:3), omnipresence (Ps. 139:7), wisdom
and power (Is. 40:13), command (Is. 34:16), holiness (Is. 63:10), and
patience (Mic. 2:7). (d) Personal Being. rû (a)h has a personal aspect
in 1 Kgs. 22:21; Ezek. 37:9; perhaps Is. 48:16.
2. nešamâ in the OT.
a. As Breath. This
word occurs for strong breathing in Is. 2:22, for God’s wrathful
breath in Is. 30:33. b. Human Breath. The reference is to the breath of
life in Gen. 7:22, to vital force in Is. 42:5, to living things in Dt.
20:16, to the seat of understanding or inspiration in Job 26:4. c. God’s Breath. Used of God, the term refers
(a) to the principle that gives life (Job 33:4) and (b) to that which
gives insight (32:8). 3.’ôb in the OT. This term occurs in the
OT with reference to a. the spirits of the dead (Lev. 19:31) and b.
those who conjure up such spirits (1 Sam. 28:3, 9).
1. God’s Spirit represents
true power in Is. 31:3. The Spirit changes the desert into paradise
in Is. 32:15ff. The power of the Spirit has an ethical character (cf.
Is. 30:1). It fashions creatively (Ps. 51:10-11). It works through the
servant (Is. 42:1ff.). It perfects the people (Ezek. 36:26-27). It is
already at work (Is. 31:3); the transformation of the people takes place
through divine judgments in history (Ezek. 11:19; 18:31; 36:26). It
both ends and consummates Israel’s history. This is not polytheistic
power but the personal work of God’s will. Divine powers are not
habitually present in humanity. People are subject to God’s power.
Though experienced as God’s work, it is inscrutable. Even the
prophets do not give precise details of its operation. Its dynamic is
plain, but its logic defies analysis.
2. God’s Spirit is creative, life-giving power (Gen. 1:2). All
life derives from this dynamism (cf. Gen. 2:7). By it God sustains his
work (cf. Job 34:14). The Spirit’s power is personal. It is no
immanent force of nature; nature is de-deified in the OT. God’s
creative power is free, sovereign, and inscrutable (cf. Gen. 6:3). Its
dynamism is known but unsearchable.
3. By the Spirit, God raises up charismatic leaders, e.g., Gideon, Saul,
and David (Judg. 6:34; 1 Sam. 11:6; 16:13). The mysterious aspect here
finds expression in ecstasy (1 Sam. 10:6). Ecstasy marks the descent
of the Spirit on the 70 elders (Num. 11:24ff.). Again we see God’s
unpredictable and irresistible power. The dynamism is known but the
logic is hidden.
4. Similar phenomena occur in other religions, but prophecy lifts the
thought of God’s rû (a)h out of religious and ethical neutrality
and sees it as the teleological will and work of personal divine power
in creative historical action. God’s Spirit expresses his inner
nature and presence. Even in judgment God is present as the Lord of
history (Hag. 2:5). His is finally a saving action (Zech. 6:1ff.). His
Spirit seals his covenant faithfulness (Is. 59:21).
5. The OT even anchors the demonic in the concept of spirits that come
from God. Thus God sends an evil spirit in Judg. 9:23 and a lying spirit
comes from God in 1 Kgs. 22:19 (cf. Job 1:6ff.). Cosmic spirits are
thus deprived of their autonomy.
C. Spirit in Judaism.
I. pneúma in the LXX.
l. The Translation of the
Hebrew Terms. a. The LXX uses pneúma
277 times for rû (a)h, ánemos 52 times, and various other
words on occasion. b. The usual rendering of nešamâ is pnoe. c. engastrímythos is the normal equivalent of
’ôb. [F. Baumgärtel, VI, 359-68] 2. pneúma as Wind. Two references
for this sense are Jon. 4:8 and Jer. 4:11.
3. pneúma as Breath of Life. a. God sends, controls,
and withdraws this breath (Job 27:3; Dan. 5:4; Tob. 3:6). One may yield
it up but not retrieve it (2 Macc. 12:19; Wis. 16:14). b. The vital force can retire temporarily (Dan. 10:17)
and then return (Judg. 15:19) or be restored (1 Sam. 30:12). c. The pneúma constructs and fills the world
as cosmic spirit (Jdt. 16:14). God is the God of spirits (Num. 16:22),
but the LXX avoids the dualism of a material and a spiritual world (cf.
Is. 31:3). d. In the last time God gives the pneúma as
resurrecting power (Ezek. 37:6, 14). 4. pneúma as the Power of
Blessing and Punishment. In Is. 11:4 pneúma and lógos
are parallel. God gives a spirit of stupefaction in Is. 29:10. The pneúma
inspires the teacher of wisdom in Sir. 39:6.
5. pneúma as Spiritual Ability, Resolve, Constitution of Soul.
God fills with artistic sense and gives understanding (Ex. 28:3; Job
32:8). He stirs up a will to build (1 Esdr. 2:5). pneúma is the
seat of the functions of the soul (Wis. 5:3). Fullness of thoughts constrains
(Job 32:18). The spirit may lack, or may be given, understanding (Job
20:3; Sus. 45). Courage ebbs (Jdt. 7:19) and flows (1 Macc. 13:7).
6. pneúma as Eschatological Gift. God’s Spirit may be one
of judgment and burning (Is. 4:4). God can destroy by a breath (Wis.
11:20). His breath of judgment is like a stream in flood (Is. 30:28).
It puts the unclean spirit to flight (Zech. 13:2). In the day of salvation
the Spirit will bring animals together (Is. 34:16). God will give his
people a new spirit (Is. 44:3). He will pour out his Spirit and give
a spirit of grace and pity (Joel 2:28; Zech. 12:10). The Spirit will
stand in the midst of the people (Hag. 2:5). The servant will bear the
Spirit (Is. 42:1). Those who cannot escape the Spirit (Ps. 139:7) but
commit their spirits to God (Ps. 31:5) long for messianic salvation
(Is. 26:18).
7. pneúma in Ecclesiastes. pneúma is always an anthropological-psychological
term in Ecclesiastes. proaíresis pneúmatos is the LXX
term for vain striving in 1:14; 2:11; 4:4, etc. The same expression
occurs in 2:22 for the arbitrariness of the human spirit in its aspirations.
8. pneúma in Wisdom. a. The Principle of
Life. The author of Wisdom thinks God inbreathes or loans the principle
of life (15:11, 16). God gives himself to the individual entity, so
that while people lose the breath of life at death they gain immortality
(5:15). b. Wisdom. The pneúma as wisdom is granted in
answer to prayer (7:7). It is a power of clear insight that is oriented
to the good. It does not permeate all things or people, but only the
prayerful, thoughtful, and morally pure, who may thus be called pneúmata
(7:23). The pneúma that fills the pneúmata is superior
to all things human, free from care, unlimited in possibility, able
to see and hear all things, and uniquely related to God (1:7). As a
spirit of discipline, it has no fellowship with evil. Representing God’s
activity in the world, it has some hypostatic independence, but is still
subject to God (9:17). Whether it is material or immaterial is not stated;
God is the immaterial God, but he acts in the material world. The pneúma
shares God’s transcendence and yet also his participation in events.
The pneúma may be equated with the psych? on the one side, but
it is identical with sophía on the other. The author thus perceives
a twofold cosmic activity of the pneúma which is to the advantage
both of the elect and of all humanity.
1. Philo. a. pneúma in
Philo is a term for the higher element of the air, for wind, and for
human and animal breath. b. pneúma as the substance of air holds things
together; all matter is permeated by it, and by its binding power the
earth itself consists. c. Blood and pneúma are the soul’s essence.
The nonrational soul has blood as its essence; the rational soul, which
is distinctively human, has pneúma. pneúma is the impress
of divine power that begets thought. d. Different is God’s pneúma. As rational
beings, humans receive the divine pneúma by inbreathing. The
total life of the soul is a divine gift. The refined purity of the mind
of heavenly humanity depends on participation in the divine pneúma
as distinct from the pneúma as the impress of divine power (cf.
Gen. 1:2; 2:7). Philo’s statements about the divine pneúma
are hampered by his philosophical vocabulary, but for him the influx
of the spirit has an ethical character and he maintains the divine transcendence
over against Stoic pantheism. At times he calls the noús the
divine pneúma, but only if those who bear it make ethically good
decisions. If reason is a genuine impress of the divine pneúma,
it is the divine pneúma only on an ethical basis. If imprecise,
the distinction that Philo makes here is a firm one. e. The Prophetic Spirit. Philo refers to the prophetic
spirit but believes that he himself, as an expositor, has the spirit
of inspiration like Moses. The prophetic spirit is the supreme divine
spirit conferring knowledge that even the noús (mind) cannot
have in spite of its spiritual endowment. The worlds of rational enlightenment
and divine prophecy meet in the sage. Pneumatically permeated rationalism
reaches its limit in prophetic ecstasy. The new thing received with
the divine pneúma points to the world of revelation of a transcendent
God. If rational beings receive the divine pneúma, they live
in the forecourt of a pneumatic reality imparted to the chosen in prophetic
ecstasy. 2. Josephus. The usage of Josephus
is related to that of the LXX and Philo. pneúma is the constitution
of the soul or the seat of martial ardor. Saul has an evil spirit. daimónia
are equated with the pneúmata of the wicked dead, and the divine
angel and the divine pneúma are equated. Josephus normally avoids
pneúma theoú for the spirit of inspiration. He uses it
only when the reference is to the biblical prophets, preferring pneúma
theíon for present inspiration. Zealots and Essenes prophesy,
but they have nothing to do with God’s Spirit. In Antiquities
1.27 Josephus has pneúmatos epithéontos for the Spirit
of God of Gen. 1:2; he probably has breath in view, but the Latin rendering
(spiritus dei) suggests the cosmic Creator-Spirit. [W. Bieder, VI, 368-75]
1. Wind, Quarter of the World.
As in the OT, rû (a)h is the common term for “wind.”
We also find the expression “the four winds”; thus rû
(a)h can denote “side” or “direction.”
2. Angels and Evil Spirits. Beings in the heavenly world can be called
spirits, especially in apocalyptic. The elemental spirits are a special
class reigning over natural events. The fallen angels, mingling with
women, have begotten evil spirits that live on earth. Belief in demons
is widespread among religious leaders and scribes as well as the people.
Satan and the evil spirits are God’s foes seducing or harming
people. They arise only in a distortion of God’s creation. Thus
absolute dualism is avoided, and their activity is integrated into God’s
rule. In the last time they will be bound and punished. .
3. The Deceased. The term spirit also applies to the deceased in graves
who may roam the earth at night or may be guests in heaven to overhear
divine secrets.
4. The Human Spirit. Later Jewish anthropology strongly underlines the
idea of the human spirit. a. Vocabulary. It is hard to fix distinctions in the
terms that denote the human soul. Various words are used, but the soul
is one. A relative distinction is made linguistically between the soul
as vital force and the soul as it comes down from heaven, but there
are many exceptions. b. The OT Legacy. The OT view of spirit as vital force
and the seat of spiritual functions remains the same in Judaism, with
an emphasis on the emotional and volitional element, e.g., the proud,
rapacious, or humble spirit, the spirit which may be refreshed with
joy or given rest. God’s spirit finds pleasure in those whose
human spirit finds pleasure in him. c. Spirit and Body. The rabbis develop the distinction
between body and soul—the former earthly, the latter heavenly
and hence preexistent and immortal. At creation, God already creates
a fixed number of souls that are stored up until bodies are ready. These
souls are pure and holy and must be returned to heaven pure and holy.
The preexistent soul is the spirit that God puts in us. It preserves
some independence of the body, as in sleep. After death, it is in a
hidden place in heaven or in the realm of the dead awaiting reunion
with the body at the resurrection for judgment. The souls of the righteous
are kept apart from those of the wicked. At the resurrection, when soul
and body are reunited, life is restored either by the returning human
spirit or by the Spirit of God. d. Age of the Ideas of Preexistence and Immortality.
These ideas exist quite early in Hellenistic Judaism. The thought of
the immortality of the spirit may be found in Palestinian Judaism in
Jubilees and Ethiopian Enoch. The Pharisees accept both the soul’s
immortality and the resurrection. Preexistence, however, is less clearly
taught in Palestinian Judaism. The ideas of the soul coming from heaven
and of a fixed number of people occur, but these do not necessarily
imply preexistence, for which there is firm attestation only from the
second century A.D. e. The Historical Problem. Palestinian as well as Hellenistic
Judaism shows Greek influence in its anthropology. On the other hand,
the ancient view that the spirit that comes from God is the vital force
in humanity remains. The OT legacy thus prevents a complete Hellenizing,
especially by ruling out the view that the body is the seat of evil.
5. The Spirit of God. a. Terminology. In apocryphal
and pseudepigraphical writings we find the titles “the Spirit,”
“God’s Spirit,” and occasionally “the Holy Spirit.”
The spirit in us may be called the spirit of God, but the Spirit of
God in the strict sense is an entity that is separate from us. b. The Works of the Spirit.
(a) The OT
speaks about a spirit of wisdom, understanding, etc., and increasingly
these qualities are seen as works of God’s Spirit. Prophecy
in particular is a work of the Spirit, and so is a moral life. Knowing
all human deeds, the Spirit may accuse in the judgment. (b) The Spirit finds manifestation in light or sound,
but in the rabbis God’s Spirit never appears as a dove.
c. The Spirit
and the OT. For the rabbis the Spirit is the prophetic Spirit who speaks
in the OT. Each book is inspired by the Spirit and hence canonical.
In exposition some passages may be ascribed to Israel or other speakers
and some directly to the Spirit. Some words may even be said by the
Spirit to God. But Scripture as a whole is still inspired by the Spirit. d. The Spirit and Righteousness. The gift of the Spirit
is for the rabbis a reward for righteous conduct which further promotes
such conduct. The Spirit turns aside from sinners and will not work
in unclean places. At first the Spirit works among the Gentiles (cf.
Balaam) but he is then restricted to Israel. Health and strength of
body and soul are also conditions for the gift of the Spirit. e. Past, Future, and Present Endowment with the Spirit.
(a) Great figures
of the past, e.g., the prophets, Rebekah, Jacob, the righteous, speak
and act under the Spirit’s influence. This applies especially
to the patriarchs and to those who write Scripture. (b) In the last time the Messiah will have the Spirit,
although the Messiah is not equated with the Spirit. The redeemed
righteous will also receive the Spirit, undergoing moral renewal by
an alteration of the human spirit which either God or the Spirit effects.
On the basis of Ezek. 36:26-27 and 37:14 resurrection by the Spirit
is expected. (c) Although the great age of prophetic inspiration
has passed, those who obey the law may receive the Spirit today. Apocalyptic
writers speak and write in the Spirit in the names of others, and
occasionally there are prophetic experiences. The rabbis do not expect
the Spirit as in the past, but they think that a life that pleases
God leads to the Spirit, and rabbis at times have visions through
the Spirit. Ordination is not viewed as impartation of the Spirit,
although later the thesis is advanced that the Spirit is not taken
from the wise, i.e., the scribes.
f. The Cosmic
Function of the Spirit. The Spirit’s function at creation finds
a place in Judaism but is secondary in the rabbis to the concept of
the Spirit as the agent of prophecy and a gift to the righteous. g. The Autonomy of the Spirit. The rabbis often speak
of the Spirit in personal categories, e.g., speaking, sorrowing, rejoicing,
etc. Yet the Spirit is not a separate heavenly being like an angel.
He is an objective divine reality encountering us, and as such may also
be described in impersonal categories. This reality represents God but
is not identical with God. The personal categories derive from the rabbis’
love of personification and are always associated with words of Scripture.
For all the Spirit’s autonomy, the Spirit finally is God’s
Spirit and comes from God. The Spirit is not a substitute for God’s
presence nor is the Spirit identical with the Shekinah. Since he comes
from God and represents him, his possession means a link with God himself. h. The Spirit as Advocate. This thought is only weakly
attested in Judaism. It occurs clearly only in expositions of Prov.
24:28-29 and in a passage where the bath qol, which is a substitute
for the Spirit, is called an advocate. [E. Sjöberg, VI, 375-89] D. Development to the Pneumatic Self in Gnosticism.
1. When the soul is seen as a responsible
ego that survives death, the question of its salvation becomes an urgent
one, for dealings with the Spirit of God seem to be involved, and speculation
arises as to the nature of life after death. In Judaism the idea that
the Spirit is the power of ethical goodness becomes increasingly important.
Under the impact of Persian dualism, the Spirit as a determinative force
is the good for which one has to decide. At Qumran a struggle is seen
between the spirit of knowledge and the spirit of darkness. The counsels
of the good spirit command various virtues. One must either live by
the power of God’s Spirit or fall victim to evil. At the same
time, the Spirit may be the human spirit embracing both understanding
and acts and hence identical with the self.
2. Similar thoughts occur in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs
and the Hermetic writings. Contrasted with the good Spirit are evil
spirits. These strive for control of people, who are then indwelt by
them and do either good or evil. A problem, however, is that the human
spirit represents responsible existence before God. A possible solution
is to view the human spirit as the spirit that is determined by ethical
decision and thus given back to God either corrupt or intact and renewed.
II. Gnosticism.
1. The Problem: The Spirit
as Creator of Matter. In contact with Greek thought the creative role
of the Spirit in Gen. 1:2 becomes highly significant as Spirit is understood
increasingly in terms of substance. If spirit denotes divinely given
spiritual existence, Hellenists equate this with the soul that comes
from God, is imprisoned in the body, and will return to the heavenly
sphere. A parallel thought in Judaism is that of the restoration of
paradise, with the associated ideas of a primal and eschatological man,
easily construed by Hellenists in terms of the myth of a descending
and ascending god, and the identification of believers with the destiny
of the god. Put in the language of substance, this means that the original
heavenly substance comes into matter to liberate the substance of the
human soul. But how, then, can the Spirit be the Creator of matter?
2. The Redemption of the pneúma from Matter. For Gnostics, God
is spiritual by nature. Somehow spiritual substance has been bound to
matter and must be freed from it. The answer lies in the distinction
of pneúma from psych?. The pneúma, which is of the nature
of God or Christ, is a seed or spark that Christ gathers up and takes
back with him when he consigns body and psych? to chaos and commits
pneúma to God. Redemption is completed with the reassembling
of redeemed pneúmata into the great spiritual body.
3. Trichotomy. The separation of the pneúma from the psych? produces
a threefold division of humanity. Early triads include noús,
psych?, and s?ma, or theíon, psych?, and s?ma. In Judaism the
Spirit of God stands over against the human body and soul. Here the
idea of a transcendent pneúma is decisive. The same idea recurs
in Irenaeus, for whom the Spirit of God is the power that resurrects
body and soul, although granting perfection by adding spirit.
1. The Demonic and Anthropological
Spirit. Of the 23 pneúma sayings in Mark, 14 refer to an unclean
spirit or the like. Matthew has “spirits” in 8:14. Anthropologically
in Mk. 2:8 and 8:12 pneúma is the seat of perceptions and feelings,
and in Mt. 27:50 it is the vital force. In Mk. 14:38 the spirit that
is willing in contrast to the weak flesh is not a better part. On the
basis of Ps. 51:12, it is the Spirit of God that is given to us and
that strives against our human weakness.
2. The Spirit as the power of God. pneúma is mostly used in Mark
and Matthew for God’s power to perform special acts. Not to see
God at work in Jesus’ exorcisms is to blaspheme against the Spirit
(Mk. 3:28ff.). The community finds here an assurance that the Spirit
is with it, and hence an enhancement of the seriousness of the decision
it demands. Yet the emphasis is on forgiveness; judgment falls only
when there is willful defiance that does not want forgiveness. Mt. 12:28
equates the power of the Spirit in exorcisms with the presence of the
kingdom (cf. 12:18, where the healings are seen to denote the dawn of
the end-time). Mk. 1:12 is to the same effect. As in the OT, the Holy
Spirit is the irresistible power of God operative in the salvation event.
3. General Endowment with the Spirit. The Spirit is equated with Scripture
in Mk. 12:36 and is active in the present in Mk. 13:11, where the Spirit’s
speaking is a sign of God’s help in affliction. Mk. 1:8 mentions
a general endowment with the Spirit. The imparting of the Spirit corresponds
to eschatological expectation. The addition “and fire” in
Mt. 3:11 may suggest judgment, and if so, the Spirit hints perhaps at
a stormy wind that scatters the chaff. Yet already in baptism believers
undergo a sifting and purifying judgment which is itself deliverance.
4. Jesus’ Endowment with the Spirit. In Mk. 1:9ff. Jesus’
baptism is more than a prophetic call; it depicts the endowment of the
Messiah with the Spirit, as attested by the dove and the heavenly voice.
God’s new age begins, although this beginning involves no conflict
with Jesus’ prior conception by the Spirit. Jesus is unique in
virtue of God’s direct work upon him at decisive points. The Hellenistic
categories of substance are not used; God himself is at work.
5. Verses Peculiar to Matthew. In Mt. 5:3 the reference is not to those
who are poor in the Holy Spirit. The dative is one of relation; the
blessing rests on those who are not rich in religious knowledge or achievement
but who find their sole help in God. In Mt. 28:19 the new feature is
the association of the pneúma with the name. Once the Lord is
associated with God, it is easy to associate the Spirit too. This is
not the result of speculation or logical inference. It rests on the
fact that God is encountered only where he confronts the community,
i.e., in the Son, or in the Spirit in whom there is encounter with the
Son.
6. Jesus’ Conception by the Spirit. Mt. 1:18ff. does not narrate
the event but has an angel dispel suspicion about Jesus’ conception.
As in Luke, the Spirit is God’s creative power fashioning the
life of this unique child. Popular writings and the exegesis of Is.
7:14 in Hellenistic Judaism form a background, as do many religious
parallels. The creative power of the Spirit (cf. the OT) is simply transferred
to the process of conception.
7. Summary. The paucity of statements about the Spirit in Mark and Matthew
is surprising. Yet it supports the fidelity of the tradition. The temptation
to portray Jesus as a pneumatic is resisted. He is clearly the bearer
of the Spirit, as his power and authority demonstrate. Yet he does not
speak much about the Spirit, perhaps because his disciples cannot understand
such things until his work is complete. When the community experiences
the outpouring of the Spirit that stamps it as the people of the end-time,
it realizes that this rests solely on the coming of Jesus and faith
in him. Yet it also perceives that to depict Jesus as a pneumatic is
to suggest that he makes it the people of the end-time merely as Example
or Teacher. The real point is that God meets his people in Jesus. The
Spirit-statements stress his uniqueness, his eschatological status,
the direct presence of God in him (cf. Mt. 12:18, 28; Mk. 1:10; 3:29-30;
Mt. 1:20). The Spirit is God’s power making possible speech and
action that are beyond human resources. The phenomena of the Spirit
are subordinate to the realization that the messianic age has dawned.
They have a christological reference.
1. The Relation of the Spirit
to Jesus. In Luke and Acts pneúma occurs three times more often
than in Mark. In Lk. 4:1 Jesus is full of the Spirit, not subject to
the Spirit but acting by the Spirit. In 4:18 the Spirit abides on Jesus.
In the conception by the Spirit (1:35), the pneúma is God’s
life-giving power, but the result of the act is what counts, namely,
that Jesus has the Spirit from the first. If the Spirit is later given
at baptism, this does not denote growth but shows that each actualization
is a new divine act. Himself having the Spirit, Jesus dispenses the
Spirit after the resurrection (24:49). Jesus, then, is not a pneumatic
like pneumatics in the church. The Spirit manifests himself for the
first time in Jesus, and through Jesus comes to the community (cf. Acts
2:33; 10:14, 19).
2. The Abiding of the Spirit with the Community. The Spirit does not
leap on the community and then leave it. He shapes its whole existence,
not as a natural possession, but as God’s abiding Spirit. Thus
the term “full of the Spirit” (Acts 6:3; 11:24) stresses
the lasting union, while repeated “filling with the Spirit”
retains the dynamic aspect (4:8; 13:9).
3. The Outward Manifestations of the Spirit. At the baptism of Jesus,
“in bodily form as a dove” stresses the objectivity of the
event. The same applies to the phenomena at Pentecost (Acts 2:1ff.)
and the earthquake of Acts 4:31. Glossolalia is also an outward manifestation.
The Spirit subordinates physical nature to God by extending his work
to this area.
4. The Works of the Spirit. In Lk. 12:10 the Spirit is the power of
God in the inspired sayings of the witnesses of Jesus; he is the Spirit
of prophecy (cf. 4:23ff.). In Luke healings are not associated with
the Spirit but with the name of Jesus, with faith in Jesus, with Jesus
himself, with prayer, with bodily contact with apostles, and with the
power of Jesus. The Spirit enables disciples to speak with tongues and
to prophesy (Acts 2:4; Lk. 1:41, 67). He also grants discerning of the
heart (Acts 13:9). Above all he gives power to preaching. Prophesying
is the work of the Spirit. The eschatological community is a community
of prophets. In Acts 5:3, 9 it is hardly likely that we have blasphemy
against the Spirit. Perhaps the idea is that the lying is to those who
are full of the Spirit (cf. 13:9). A special event takes place in Acts
8:39. Along with prophecy, the Spirit grants other gifts and is also
at work in the ethical life of the community. If, as a Hellenist, Luke
is interested in the visibility of the Spirit’s work, under OT
influence he stresses the centrality of prophetic proclamation in this
work.
5. The Spirit as a Feature of the Age of the Church. Lk. 11:13 promises
the Spirit to those who ask (cf. Mt. 7:11). The Spirit is the absolute
gift. The coming of the Spirit is an eschatological event which fulfils
the promise of the Spirit to the people of the end-time (cf. Num. 11:29).
All the baptized possess the Spirit (Acts 19:2). The Gentiles are included
(15:8-9). Endowment with the Spirit goes hand in hand with coming to
faith. The outpouring of the Spirit (Acts 2:1ff.) is a renewal of the
covenant paralleling in some sense the lawgiving at Sinai. The church
age begins, bringing a new speech which all may understand. Yet the
Christ event, not the outpouring of the Spirit, is the true eschatological
event at the center of time. Hence there can be new outpourings of the
Spirit when new steps are taken (cf. 8:17-18; 10:44-45). Again, there
may be filling with the Spirit even before the coming of Jesus (Lk.
1-2). At the same time, the Spirit is now given to the church in totality.
All God’s people are prophets. The Spirit gives believers special
gifts enabling them to express their faith in an ongoing history of
mission. Luke does not specifically attribute faith, salvation, or obedience
to the Spirit. Nor is prayer the Spirit’s work. These things precede
endowment with the Spirit, which is more specifically an enablement
to discharge special tasks. By not attributing the mere existence of
the community to the Spirit, Luke reminds it of the task which is indissolubly
associated with its existence.
6. The Reception of the Spirit. The Spirit comes with baptism in 2:38;
9:17-18; 19:2, but precedes baptism in 10:44ff. Baptism is not, then,
a necessary means of obtaining the Spirit. In the case of Apollos and
those at Ephesus, the point is not to relate baptism to the Spirit but
to show the movement of salvation from the OT by way of the Baptist
to the church. Baptism is a self-evident expression of conversion and
as such it is related to the imparting of the Spirit. But prayer and
faith are the true preparation for reception. In Acts the freedom of
the Spirit is to the fore. If baptism is important, the Spirit may come
on people before it (10:44) or without it (2:1ff.). Only in 8:14ff.
is endowment with the Spirit linked with the apostolic laying on of
hands. Here, however, the relationship with Jerusalem may be the important
point. As there is a link with Judaism in Lk. 1-2, so believers in new
regions are now associated with the existing community. Prophets and
apostles come from Jerusalem (11:27; 8:14). Both Jesus and Paul journey
to Jerusalem. God’s history goes out from Jerusalem and returns
to it. The new act of the Spirit relates to previous acts.
7. Different Meanings of pneúma. Anthropological use occurs in
Lk. 1:48, 80, but with a strong sense of divine power (cf. Acts 17:16).
The spirit is the part that survives death in Lk. 8:55. In Lk. 24:37
pneúma denotes a shadowy, noncorporeal existence which does not
constitute the true I (v. 39).
1. OT and Hellenistic Strands. a. The Problem. Thus
far the Spirit has been seen as the sign of what is still to come. His
outpouring is a prelude to the parousia. His gifts, however, confer
power for historical mission. Hellenism finds this a difficult thought,
for in its view power means substance. Gnosticism, then, works out the
idea that Jesus as the Bearer of the Spirit brings a heavenly substance
into the world, attachment to Jesus being attachment to this substantial
power. Along these lines the impartation of the Spirit is itself salvation.
The role of Jesus is primarily to give instruction. The cross loses
its role, and the incarnation becomes a deception of hostile powers. b. Hellenistic Ideas in Paul. For Paul the cross and
resurrection are the great turning point, and life in the Spirit is
the life of the new creation: the new existence of the community and
not just an added phenomenon. In Rom. 1:3-4 the pneúma denotes
the heavenly sphere (cf. 1 Tim. 3:16; 1 Pet. 3:18). Jesus is Son of
David in the flesh and Son of God in the Spirit. At his resurrection
Jesus, already God’s Son in v. 3, is designated the Son by entry
into the sphere of divine glory, which stands opposed to the earthly
sphere. Yet while the relationship of Christ to the Spirit may be formally
a statement about his substance (as in Hellenism), materially it is
a statement about his power. The Lord’s spiritual body embraces
all the members (cf. the phrase “in Christ”). The one body
is Christ himself (1 Cor. 12:12). It is not just a coming body but the
existing body into which believers are baptized. The en pneúmati
of 1 Cor. 12:13 is probably instrumental (“by one Spirit”).
The Lord is equated with the Spirit in 2 Cor. 3:17. The point of the
saying is that turning to Jesus is turning to the new covenant in the
Spirit and hence the removal of the veil that rests over the old covenant.
To come to Christ is to come into the sphere of the Spirit. The term
“Spirit of the Lord” denotes Christ’s mode of existence
and the power with which he encounters the community. In his powerful
action he is equated with the Spirit, in his lordship over it he is
differentiated from the Spirit. The union of believers with Christ in
his spiritual body comes out plainly in 1 Cor. 6:17. Christ is a life-giving
Spirit in 1 Cor. 15:45, and as such he will give believers a spiritual
body (v. 44). Union with Christ insures believers of spiritual life,
which is life in the community. c.
Primitive Christian Eschatology. Paul differs from Gnosticism by starting
with the resurrection. He never speaks of the spiritual substance of
the preexistent Lord. The idea of the spiritual body of the risen Lord
is simply an aid to understanding. The spiritual body will be given
only at the resurrection as a creative act of the risen Lord. No spiritual
body underlies the earthly body. Paul’s opponents perhaps believe
in a spiritual body that will survive death. For Paul, however, our
present image is that of the man of dust (v. 49). We are heavenly only
in faith in Christ, who one day will make us heavenly in resurrection
reality. Paul does not suggest, of course, that the body itself is a
continuum, first physical and then spiritual. The body is marked by
weakness and corruptibility. Continuity between the physical and the
spiritual body is a work of God’s creative power. Humanity is
first made of dust but will then be made from heaven. The spiritual
body is not made of pneúma but controlled by pneúma. The
terms may be Hellenistic, but the matter is biblical. Similarly, in
1 Cor. 6:14 it is clear that consubstantiality with Christ, which the
sexual union seems to express, is not the real point. What counts is
that God has raised up Jesus and will raise up believers with him. The
body here is not a physical substance; it is distinguished from the
stomach (v. 13). The union with Christ, though bodily, is personal,
not physical. Rom. 8:11 also starts with the resurrection. The God who
raised up Jesus is already at work in believers by the Spirit, and in
virtue of the work of the Spirit the righteous will rise again. d.
pneúma as a Sign of What Is to Come. If the resurrection and
the parousia are decisive, the Spirit is a sign and pledge of what is
still to come. The Spirit is the firstfruits (Rom. 8:23) or seal (1
Cor. 1:22). His mighty acts (1 Th. 5:19; Eph. 5:18) are manifestations
of his presence. Paul can list tongues, healing, and miracles among
these acts (1 Cor. 12). Formally these may resemble the ecstatic phenomena
of paganism, but confession of Christ as Lord is a criterion by which
to distinguish them (cf. 1 Jn. 4:2 and the ethical test in Mt. 7:16).
All Christians are bearers of the Spirit (1 Cor. 14:37). All have gifts-some
extraordinary, some not (cf. Rom. 12:7-8). Speaking in tongues has no
special importance (1 Cor. 14:5ff.). The criterion of the extraordinary
does not apply. The true criterion is confession of Christ and hence
the edification of the community. 2. Paul’s Interpretation. a. The Problem. Paul
adopts Hellenistic terms that enable him to present the Spirit as representing
the new existence in relation to Christ. But he corrects Hellenistic
thought along OT lines by showing that salvation is not a human possession.
The Spirit represents the new life, for the new creation is present,
but there is this new creation and new life only by the decisive event
of the cross and resurrection. b. pneúma as the Power of Faith. In 1 Cor. 2:6ff.
the Spirit is the power that mediates understanding of the gospel of
the cross. The Spirit fixes both the form and content of preaching.
The content is formally Gnostic (“the depths of God” in
v. 10) but materially it is the very opposite (God’s saving work
at the cross). The wisdom of God revealed by the Spirit (vv. 7ff.) is
foolishness to the nonspiritual (v. 14). The cross divides the old world
and the new. If the Spirit is the power that takes us out of the old
age, union with the Lord is given, not in pneumatic materiality, but
with the knowledge that the Spirit gives of the crucified Lord. The
significance of the spiritual body, then, is that of entry into the
saving event of the crucifixion and resurrection. Bearers of the Spirit
do not live by a new substance but wholly by God’s work. The Spirit
gives the new life, but not as supplementary miraculous power nor as
substantial possession. The new knowledge is supernatural, yet not because
it is taught or received ecstatically. The knowledge relates to the
act of divine love at the cross, and the miracle is believing that God
is for us in Jesus Christ. Hence the Spirit is the Spirit of faith (2
Cor. 4:13). The primary gift is confession of Christ (1 Cor. 12:3).
No human merit secures the Spirit (Gal. 3:14). The work of the Spirit
lies in ongoing as well as initial faith (Gal. 5:5). The whole life
of sonship derives from the Spirit (4:6). Integration both into God’s
saving event and hence also into the body of Christ is ascribed to the
Spirit (1 Cor. 6:11). Being in the Spirit is the same as being in Christ,
for the Spirit, as the subjective cause of justification, reveals Christ.
The orientation is still to the future. Thus the hope of righteousness
(Gal. 5:5), or awareness of the coming redemption (Rom. 8:23), is the
gift of the Spirit. The Spirit is no magical power but the power of
God for affirmative life. Creating faith, the Spirit is the norm by
which faith lives. Thus in Gal. 5:25 the Spirit is the power of God
that sustains life, but believers must let their lives be shaped thereby.
To live in the Spirit is to renounce the flesh and to be responsive
to God and neighbor. c. Renunciation of the Flesh. The antithesis of Spirit
and flesh is that of divine power and human weakness (Gal. 3:2, 5).
Living in the Spirit is relying on God’s power, not on one’s
own strength. Worshipping God in the Spirit means having no confidence
in the flesh but glorying in Christ (Phil. 3:3). Revelation of God’s
work by the Spirit demands renunciation of human wisdom (1 Cor. 2:6ff.).
Circumcision of the heart in the Spirit sets aside human criteria (Rom.
2:29; cf. 2 Cor. 3:6). Whereas the law uncovers sin, and even incites
to it, the Spirit gives the new life of service (Rom. 7:5-6). In Gal.
4:25ff. the two births (by the flesh and the Spirit) represent living
by human possibilities and living by divine promise. In Gal. 5:17 believers
are not just neutral. The flesh is their own will, but having crucified
the flesh they may live and walk by the Spirit. Their life is thus determined
by whether they sow to the Spirit or to the flesh (6:8). The liberating
norm of the Spirit is that God has done what the law could not do. While
the flesh to which one might sow is one’s own, the Spirit is a
divinely given possibility. To walk in the Spirit (Rom. 8:4-5) is to
accept the normative power of God. This implies a decision of faith,
although this, too, is God’s act. On the basis of God’s
saving work, those who walk in the Spirit fulfil the law (Rom. 8:4).
The antithesis of Spirit and flesh is not a cosmological factor. It
arises through God’s act in Christ as this is accepted by the
Spirit in faith, or rejected. d. The Spirit as Response to God and Neighbor. The
proper act of the Spirit is prayer (Rom. 8:15, 27; Gal. 4:6). The Spirit
bears witness to the sonship established in Christ and makes the life
of sonship possible. Sonship, however, means service, meeting the demands
of the law and not fulfilling the desires of the flesh (Rom. 7:5-6).
Loving others is faith at work (Gal. 5:6, 14). Living by Christ, by
grace, by the cross, means freedom from the law and freedom for love.
The Spirit produces fruit, not works (5:22). But this fruit finds expression
in concrete acts, e.g., of worship (1 Cor. 12-14) and love (1 Cor. 13).
Love includes all else (Col. 1:8). Yet love relates to faith and is
oriented to other gifts. Similarly, when the Spirit sanctifies (Rom.
15:16; 1 Cor. 6:11), this means both that he sets us in God’s
saving action and that he enables us to live thereby in obedience. He
does not destroy individuality (as in Gnosticism) or bring separation
from others by knowledge, for knowledge is subordinate to love. The
Spirit frees from self and opens up to others, restoring an individuality
whereby one may stand before God and live for one’s neighbor.
The community thus becomes a regulative concept. Spiritual gifts are
valuable if they edify, and each has some gift. The Spirit as God’s
power allows no appeal to wonderful religious potentialities but makes
trust in oneself impossible and opens up the self to a life of love.
The cross is both the ransom and the call to repentance, i.e., to the
shattering of false security. The Spirit is no additional phenomenon.
The Spirit is the power of God bringing people to faith in Christ’s
cross and resurrection, both as a dynamic force and as the basis of
a lasting being in Christ. This power determines the new life of faith. 3. The Spirit and Christ. In Rom.
8:1ff. Paul alternates such phrases as the Spirit dwelling in you (v.
9) and Christ being in you (v. 10). This might suggest that the exalted
Christ is Spirit, but “in the Spirit” might also be taken
instrumentally. Paul’s concern, of course, is not to differentiate
Christ and the Spirit as persons, but to state in what sphere of power
believers live. The pneúma in Paul is often impersonal (1 Th.
5:19), and the term may alternate with wisdom or power (1 Cor. 2:4-5).
Indeed, the pneúma may be the spirit that is given to us. Even
if the pneúma is said to speak etc., the same is said of wisdom
or the flesh. Nevertheless, the Spirit is not an obscure or anonymous
force. The Lord is present by the Spirit (cf. 2 Cor. 3:17- 18), and
God, Christ, and Spirit are associated inasmuch as they encounter believers
in the same event (cf. 1 Cor. 12:4ff.). In 2 Cor. 13:13, the genitive
could be objective (cf. Phil. 3:10), but the parallels are against this;
fellowship with the Spirit (as granted by the Spirit) is the point.
The three terms also occur together in Rom. 5:1ff. and Gal. 4:4ff.,
which show that God’s work in the Son or Spirit is always genuinely
God’s own work. The mode of relationship is not, of course, an
issue.
4. The Anthropological pneúma. Since the Holy Spirit affects
the whole person and cannot be explained psychologically, Paul adopts
popular anthropological ideas quite freely. He uses pneúma for
psychological functions in 1 Cor. 7:34; 2 Cor. 7:1. It is parallel to
psych? in Phil. 1:27, denotes the whole person in 2 Cor. 2:13, and is
equivalent to “you” in closing greetings (Gal. 6:18; Phil.
4:23). In the last resort, however, the pneúma is for Paul the
God-given pneúma that is alien to us (cf. 1 Cor. 14:14; Rom.
1:9). In 1 Cor. 5:3ff. the pneúma seems to be the new I of faith
which will be saved if purifying judgment is exercised on the flesh.
Paul’s pneúma, however, is his divinely given authority.
The human pneúma is not the soul perfected by the Spirit, for
it, too, is given by God (Rom. 8:15). The secret of Paul’s use
lies in the priority of the work of the Holy Spirit and the determination
of the believer’s existence thereby. The Spirit manifests Christ’s
saving work and makes responsible acceptance of it possible. Hence pneúma
denotes both God’s Spirit and the innermost being of those who
no longer live by the self but by God’s being for them.
5. pneumatikós. The pneumatikoí are for Paul those who
know God’s saving work by the Spirit (1 Cor. 2:13-15). The psychikoí
do not know it and are thus controlled by the spirit of the world. A
distinction is made between pneumatic and physical bodies in 1 Cor.
15:44-46. The spiritual know spiritual things (pneumatiká; 1
Cor. 2:13; 9:11; Rom. 15:27) in contrast to earthly things, i.e., those
pertaining to natural life. Spiritual gifts are called pneumatiká
in 1 Cor. 14:1. The law, too, is pneumatikós (Rom. 7:14). It
is the law of God (vv. 22, 25) deriving from the divine world, not the
human.
1. The Significance of Eschatology.
John strongly proclaims the presence of the salvation that will one
day be consummated. He does not depict Jesus as a pneumatic, nor ascribe
his words and acts to the Spirit. In Christ one meets the Father himself
and not just his gift. The descent of the Spirit in Jn. 1:33 demonstrates
but does not effect the divine sonship of Jesus. It is believers who
are born of the Spirit in 1:13.
2. pneúma as a Sphere in Antithesis to sárx. pneúma
and sárx represent the spheres of God and the world in Jn. 3:6;
6:63. pneúma is the equivalent of theós, sárx of
diábolos or kósmos. God is pneúma in 4:24. The
eschatological hour has come, but it is a summons to encounter with
God in Christ, not a meeting of the substance of God with a similar
substance in humanity. To worship God in pneúma is not to worship
in one’s own spirituality but to worship in the world of God and
hence of true reality. The true God (1 Jn. 5:20) has entered the world
in Christ. True worship is thus oriented to the incarnate Son. To know
truth is to know the true God in Jesus (cf. Jn. 8:32; 17:3). “In
spirit,” then, is equivalent to Paul’s “in Christ.”
No worship is “in spirit” unless it is based on the divine
act in Christ.
3. pneúma as Life-giving Power in Antithesis to sárx.
In Jn. 3:3ff. pneúma is the divine world that is accessible only
to those who live in the spirit because they are born of the Spirit.
For John life is knowledge (17:3). Christ abolishes the distinction
between God and world. The pneúma is the world of God as the
sphere that controls the new life. Birth of the Spirit is the given
realization that in Jesus God has come into the world. This realization
is not within human capability. It means renunciation of human possibilities
and acceptance of God’s gift in faith. The wind (pneúma;
3:8) is like the Spirit, but the point is that those who are born of
the Spirit are compared to the wind; the world knows nothing of their
whence or whither. Although faith leads to love, the world has no criteria
by which to measure regeneration by the Spirit. In 6:63 the sárx
profits nothing but the pneúma gives life through Jesus’
words. Here (cf. vv. 51ff.) the sárx is that of Jesus, which
avails only when the pneúma grants the realization that life
is to be found in it, i.e., when the Spirit shows in the sárx
of Jesus the glory of the Father. We are not to try to take the external
element spiritually (cf. the sacraments), nor to seek life in it alone;
we can discern glory and find life only in the Spirit’s power.
Similarly in 7:38-39 the point is that the Spirit as the water of life
will flow into the community in proclamation by word and act, but only
after the death of Jesus. In the imparting of the Spirit in Jn. 20:22
the Spirit is the power of proclamation which leads to the knowledge
of the true God that means life. The authority of this proclamation
is of decisive concern.
4. The Paraclete. As the Spirit of truth (14:17; 15:26; 16:13), the
Paraclete represents the world of reality. In him the world of God,
present in Jesus, will continue to be present in the word (17:13ff.).
He is in the disciples (14:17). The disciples know both him and Jesus
(14:17; 16:3), who are both sent by the Father (14:24, 26), teaching
and witnessing, yet not speaking about themselves (17:14; 14:26; 8:14;
15:26; 14:10; 16:13). The Paraclete is another Paraclete in whom Jesus
comes but who is not Jesus (14:18; 16:7). He abides with believers forever
(14:16). He alone truly discloses Jesus to them (14:26), showing that
the historical Jesus is the Son and giving force to his words (16:8ff.).
While the Spirit’s own words are the same as those of Jesus (6:63)
and the community (20:22-23), it is thus that he is advocate and supporter.
God is pneúma, and only those who come to him are in the pneúma.
But pneúma is not a heavenly substance; pneúma is the
power that gives encounter with God through the knowledge of Christ,
the power that is present in the proclamation of the community, shaping
the life of the eschatological people of God and in so doing summoning
and judging the world.
1. The Pauline Circle. a. Ephesians. pneúma
is here the power of growth (3:16), of prayer (6:18), and of revelation
(1:17). The Spirit works in Scripture (6:17). The one Spirit is related
to the one body of Christ (4:4). An evil pneúma works in the
lost, and evil spiritual powers rule in the air (2:2; 6:12). The Spirit
is a seal in 1:13-14; 4:30, although with no sense of a substance. b. The Pastorals. Here we have formulas in 1 Tim. 3:16;
2 Tim. 4:22. The prophetic Spirit is at issue in 1 Tim. 4:1. Everyday
qualities manifest the work of the Spirit (cf. 2 Tim. 1:7). In Tit.
3:5 the Spirit effects the new birth which means justification and hope.
1 Tim. 4:1 refers to seducing spirits. 2. Hebrews. In Heb. 12:23 the spirits
are the departed. In 1:14 angels are meant. The Spirit who speaks in
Scripture is at issue in 3:7; 9:8; 10:15. pneúma and psych? are
distinguished in 4:12. Miracles are works of the Spirit in 2:4; 6:4-5.
The Spirit apportions his gifts as he wills (2:4) and offers a foretaste
of the coming aeon (6:4-5). He is a sign of eschatological grace in
10:29. In 9:14 Christ offers himself as one who comes from the sphere
of the Spirit and who has the Spirit; hence he brings a salvation that
lasts beyond the sárx. The diá (“through”)
denotes the nature and manner of the sacrifice.
3. The Catholic Epistles. a. James. The use in
Jms. 2:26 is anthropological (body and spirit). Similarly in 4:5 the
spirit is the spirit which God has set in us and will require of us. b. 1 Peter. The Spirit of 1 Pet. 1:11-12 is the prophetic
Spirit working in the OT prophets and the apostles. In 1:2 the Spirit
is the power of sanctification. The spirit of glory rests on those who
are reproached for the name in 4:14. 3:18-19 and 4:6 refer to the spheres
in which judgment and deliverance are enacted. In 3:19 the en h? probably
has the general sense “wherein”; one event of the resurrection
is intended. The spirits in prison are the departed, not demons. The
dead of 4:6 are probably not the spiritually dead and can hardly be
dead Christians. “Judged in the flesh” seems to refer to
death as a judgment in the earthly sphere. c. 2 Peter and Jude. In 2 Pet. 1:21 the Spirit is the
prophetic Spirit inspiring canonical Scripture. In Jude 19-20 worldly
people are devoid of the Spirit, but believers pray in the Spirit as
they also keep themselves in God’s love and wait for the mercy
of Christ. d. 1 John. In 1 John the pneúma marks the great
turning point of the ages; this consists of Christ’s abiding in
his people (3:24). The Spirit is a gift (4:13). He bears witness (5:6ff.)
as the power of proclamation. His testimony to the incarnate Christ
opposes the spirit of antichrist (4:2ff.). This is the criterion by
which to know his authentic utterances. 4. Revelation. Unclean demonic forces
are pneúmata in Rev. 16:13-14; 18:2. The Spirit of prophecy plays
a dominant role (19:10). The pneúma gives visions and leads off
into wonderful regions (17:3; 21:10). In 11:8 pneumatik?s means “in
prophetic speech.” The Spirit still speaks (14:13); the one through
whom he speaks is immaterial (cf. 2:17; 14:13). The Lord speaks as the
Spirit speaks (cf. 2:1, 7, 8, 11). The church calls for its Lord in
the power of the Spirit (22:17). The seven spirits are probably the
seven archangels; grace and peace go forth from them (1:4); they stand
before the throne (4:5); they are sent out over the earth (5:6); they
represent the Spirit in all his fullness; they are also parallel to
the angels of the churches. If they depict God’s work in concrete
figures, the work is still God’s, and they thus represent God’s
own action.
F. The Apostolic Fathers.
1. The Gnostic-Substantial
Strand. Three dangers develop in the post-NT period. First, Christ tends
to be made a spiritual substance. This applies to the preexistent Lord
in 2 Clem. 9.5; Hermas Similitudes 9.1.1. Even Ignatius sees in Christ
a union of the substances of flesh and spirit (Ephesians 7.2; Smyrneans
3.2-3).
2. The Ecstatic Strand. Second, the Spirit is confused with psychological
phenomena (Hermas Visions 1.1.3), which may be a reward for special
faith (1 Clem. 2.2).
3. The Official Strand. Third, those instituted to office are seen to
have the guarantee of endowment by the Spirit (Ignatius Philadelphians
7.1-2; 1 Clem. 4.1-2).
pnéo, empnéo.
1. pnéo denotes a.
the blowing of the wind, b. breathing or snorting, c. wafting forth,
and d. full of, or panting for.
2. The first two senses occur in the LXX (cf. the wind in Ps. 148:8
and the breath of God in Is. 40:24). empnéo occurs for the inbreathing
of the soul in Gen. 2:7.
3. In the NT the blowing of various winds is what is meant in Mt. 7:25;
Jn. 6:18; Lk. 12:55; Rev. 7:1. The blowing of the wind denotes the Spirit’s
work in Jn. 3:8. Only in Acts 9:1 do we have the sense “breathing
out” (empnéo).
4. The sense “to be fragrant” occurs in Mart. Pol. 15.2
(the scent of the dying martyr is like incense) and Ignatius Ephesians
17.1 (the anointed Jesus wafts incorruption on the church as a divine
fragrance).
ekpnéo.
This word means “to
breathe out,” “to blow out,” “to flag,”
“to expire.” In the NT it occurs only in Mk. 15:37, 39 with
a suggestion of the vital force leaving the body at death. Mt. 27:50;
Jn. 19:30; Lk. 23:46 show that the true self may still survive with
the handing over of the spirit to God.
pnoe.
1. This word means “blowing”
(wind or fire), “snorting,” “afflation,” the
“sound” of a wind instrument, e.g., the flute.
2. In the LXX it denotes the stormy wind as God’s breath (2 Sam.
22:16). The human spirit is God’s inbreathing (Job 27:3). pnéo
is the human spirit or wisdom in such passages as Prov. 1:23; 11:13;
20:27; 24:12.
3. Philo in Allegorical Interpretation of Laws 1.33.42 suggests that
pnoe in Gen. 2:7 signifies the spirit that is created in the divine
image.
4. A mighty wind (pnoe) announces the Spirit’s coming in Acts
2:2. The Creator gives the breath of life to all people in 17:25.
theópneustos. This word is used for the wisdom or dreams that
come from God. In the NT it occurs only in 2 Tim. 3:16, where, along
with “sacred,” it describes the OT writings that have divine
authority. In the Hellenistic world the idea of inspiration is common
but seldom refers to writings. In Judaism, however, God inscribes the
commandments on tablets (Ex. 24:12) and inspires the prophets (Num.
24:2ff.). The law, being taught, dictated, or written directly by God,
has supreme authority, but later works, being inspired by God, have
a secondary authority. Philo regards all the OT authors as prophets.
2 Tim. 3:16 advances no particular theory of enthusiastic inspiration,
uses no comparisons such as that of the flow of air through the flute,
and offers no criteria such as the agreement of witnesses, the age of
the writing, or the fulfilment of prophecies. The stress is on the work
of Scripture. [E. Schweizer, VI, 389-455]