The Holy Spirit
The "Holy
Spirit" is spoken of under various titles in the NT ("Spirit"
and "Ghost" are renderings of the same word, pneuma;
the advantage of the rendering "Spirit" is that it can always be
used, whereas "Ghost" always requires the word "Holy"
prefixed.) In the following list the omission of the definite article marks its
omission in the original (concerning this see below): "Spirit, <Matt.
22:43>; Eternal Spirit, <Heb. 9:14>; the Spirit, <Matt. 4:1>; Holy
Spirit, <Matt. 1:18>; the Holy Spirit, <Matt. 28:19>; the Spirit,
the Holy, <Matt. 12:32>; the Spirit of promise, the Holy, <Eph.
1:13>; Spirit of God, <Rom. 8:9>; Spirit of (the) living God, <2 Cor. 3:3>; the Spirit of God, <1 Cor.
2:11>; the Spirit of our God, <1 Cor. 6:11>;
the Spirit of God, the Holy, <Eph. 4:30>; the Spirit of glory and of God,
<1 Pet. 4:14>; the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead (i. e., God), <Rom. 8:11>; the Spirit of your Father,
<Matt. 10:20>; the Spirit of His Son, <Gal. 4:6>; Spirit of (the)
Lord, <Acts 8:39>; the Spirit of (the) Lord, <Acts 5:9>; (the)
Lord, (the) Spirit, <2 Cor. 3:18>; the Spirit
of Jesus, <Acts 16:7>; Spirit of Christ, <Rom. 8:9>; the Spirit of
Jesus Christ, <Phil. 1:19>; Spirit of adoption, <Rom. 8:15>; the
Spirit of truth, <John 14:17>; the Spirit of life, <Rom. 8:2>; the
Spirit of grace, <Heb. 10:29>."
From Notes on Galatians, by Hogg and Vine, p. 193.
The use or
absence of the article in the original where the "Holy Spirit" is
spoken of cannot always be decided by grammatical rules, nor can the presence
or absence of the article alone determine whether the reference is to the
"Holy Spirit." Examples where the Person is meant when the article is
absent are <Matt.
In <Gal.
3:3>, in the phrase "having begun in the Spirit," it is difficult
to say whether the reference is to the "Holy Spirit" or to the
quickened spirit of the believer; that it possibly refers to the latter is not
to be determined by the absence of the article, but by the contrast with
"the flesh"; on the other hand, the contrast may be between the
"Holy Spirit" who in the believer sets His seal on the perfect work
of Christ, and the flesh which seeks to better itself by works of its own.
There is no preposition before either noun, and if the reference is to the
quickened spirit it cannot be dissociated from the operation of the "Holy
Spirit." In <Gal. 4:29> the phrase "after the Spirit"
signifies "by supernatural power," in contrast to "after the
flesh," i. e., "by natural power," and
the reference must be to the "Holy Spirit"; so in <5:17>.
The full title
with the article before both pneuma and hagios (the "resumptive"
use of the article), lit., "the Spirit the Holy," stresses the
character of the Person, e. g., <Matt. 12:32; Mark 3:29; 12:36; 13:11; Luke
2:26; 10:21> (RV); <John 14:26; Acts 1:16; 5:3; 7:51; 10:44,47; 13:2;
15:28; 19:6; 20:23,28; 21:11; 28:25; Eph. 4:30; Heb. 3:7; 9:8; 10:15>.
The
Personality of the Spirit is emphasized at the expense of strict grammatical
procedure in <John 14:26; 15:26; 16:8,13,14>, where the emphatic pronoun ekeinos, "He," is used of Him in the masculine,
whereas the noun pneuma is neuter in Greek, while the
corresponding word in Aramaic, the language in which our Lord probably spoke,
is feminine (rucha, cf. Heb. ruach).
The rendering "itself" in <Rom.
The subject of
the "Holy Spirit" in the NT may be considered as to His divine
attributes; His distinct Personality in the Godhead; His operation in
connection with the Lord Jesus in His birth, His life, His baptism, His death;
His operations in the world; in the church; His having been sent at Pentecost
by the Father and by Christ; His operations in the individual believer; in
local churches; His operations in the production of Holy Scripture; His work in
the world, etc.
(from Vine's Expository
Dictionary of Biblical Words)
(Copyright (C) 1985, Thomas Nelson Publishers)