Thursday, June 14, 2018

May the Force Be With You: Genesis 1:2 and the Word "Spirit"

The Bible translates the words ruach (Hebrew) and pneuma (Greek) in various ways, but this article just concentrates on how the word Ruach/Ruah was used the very first time in Genesis 1:2.

One way to understand how the Bible often uses the word "spirit" is to think of the Force as used in Star Wars as the spirit or power of God. Sure, the Greek word for spirit PNEUMA and the Hebrew word for spirit RUACH/Ruah have "wind" and "breath" as primary definitions, but these fail to flesh out full meaning.

Let's take a look at Genesis 1:2, the first place in the Bible where the word in question is used:

"And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." King James Version
"a mighty wind swept over the waters." New American Bible
"a divine wind sweeping over the waters." New Jerusalem Bible
"and the power of God was moving over the water." Good News Bible-TEV

The New World Translation of the Bible however has and "God's active FORCE was moving to and fro over the surface of the waters."

This translation may better explain what the text is trying to explain:

"In the OT, Heb. Ruah means first of all wind and breath, but also the human spirit in the sense of life FORCE and even personal energy." Eerdman's Dictionary of the Bible

"Spirit is the principle of life and vital activity. The spirit is the breath of life (Gn 6:17; 7:15, 22; BS 38:23; WS 15:11, 16; 16:14). The breath is the breath of God, the wind, communicated to man by divine inspiration....The spirit of Yahweh or the spirit of God (Elohim) is a FORCE that has unique effects upon man...and the spirit of Yahweh is a FORCE which operates the works of Yahweh the savior and the judge. The spirit of Yahweh is often the FORCE which inspires prophecy (Nm 11:17 ff; 24:2; 2 S 23:2; 1 Ch 12:18; Is 61:1; Mi 3:8; Ezk 2:2; 3:12, 14, 24; 8:3; 11:1, 5, 24; 37:1; 43:5; Ne 9:30; Zc 7:12 Dictionary of the Bible by John L. McKenzie, S.J.

"wind, air in motion…breath…an influential principle, a pervading influence…" Perschbacher's The New Analytical Greek Lexicon

Pnuema: "a movement of air, **blast**…God's power and agency." Thayer's Greek Lexicon (a BLAST is a force...God's power is a force)

"This powerful and invisible FORCE is under the direct control of God." The Use of Ruah in the Old Testament and of Pneuma in the New Testament By William Ross Schoemaker 1904

Brown Driver Brigg's Lexicon: energy of life, vital power (a vital power is a force)

A Catholic Dictionary: "On the whole, the New Testament, like the Old, speaks of the spirit as a divine energy or power."

The New English Bible, (Catholic edition called the Oxford Study Edition), has this footnote at Joel:2:32: "The Lord's spirit-the animating FORCE behind the prophets".

The Companion Bible (KJV), appendix No. 9, "The Usage of Ruach-Spirit": "The one root idea running through all the (224) passages is invisible FORCE…Invisible Divine power manifesting itself."

"As the principle of cosmical life, as ruach Elohim, as the mighty divine FORCE of all things" Biblical Theology of the Old Testament By Revere Franklin Weidner

"It may be gathered from the passages which have been cited, that the word Ruach conveys to us at once the idea of wind or invisible FORCE" Synonyms of the Old Testament By Robert Baker Girdlestone

"From these combinations between the wind, the breath of God and the human breath arise manifold, and in their turn opposite, relations for the ruach. As the wind is chiefly a destroying and dreaded nature-FORCE, so the breath, resembling in its snorting movement that of stormy wind, gets the sense of anger" St. Paul's Use of the Terms Flesh and Spirit By William Purdie Dickson

"Even in the original organization of life on this earth (Gen. i. 2 seq.), spirit takes the form of a universal physical FORCE" Outlines of Biblical Psychology By Johann Tobias Beck

"In Hebrew, the original inspired language of the Tanach (Old Testament), the word 'Ruach' cannot be construed as a person. It is a FORCE." https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Hebrew_Roots/Trinity/Holy_Spirit

"The Hebrew ruach and Greek pneuma mean 'breath' or 'wind' and are translated by 'spirit', denoting an unseen life-giving FORCE." A Dictionary of the Bible by W.R.F. Browning

"Hebrew, ruach; Greek, pneuma; Latin, spiritus. The root meaning of these words is wind or breath, and the idea conveyed is that of an invisible FORCE or wind, and life, and feeling or breath." "What is Man?": His Origin, Life-history and Future Destiny as Revealed in the Word of God By J. Anderson

"This testifies that the fundamental idea underlying the word 'spirit' is that of invisible FORCE. The earliest form of invisible force of which men became aware was undoubtedly the wind without, the breath within, themselves. And there is great significance in the fact that in many languages the same word has stood for 'wind,' 'breath,' and 'spirit.' The spectacle of the leaves being whirled over the ground, or of the trees shaken by the gale, was impressive evidence of an invisible FORCE." The Spirit: The Relation of God and Man, Considered from the Standpoint of Recent Philosophy and Science By Andrew Seth Pringle-Pattison, James Arthur Hadfield, Charles Archibald Anderson Scott, Cyril William Emmet, Arthur Clutton-Brock 1919

"The phrase describes not chaos but the creative power of God in action. Wind, a symbol of power, is used theologically in the Old Testament to refer to the dynamic activity and presence of God in the world - his Spirit." -Genesis 1-11 Cambridge Bible Commentary, Robert Davidson (1973), page 16.

"In sharp contrast with the orderly heavens and earth, the cosmos of verse 1, created by the will of a free and sovereign God, is the formless void of verse 2, over which the divine Spirit broods like a mighty bird to effect the miracle of creation (see also Deu 32:11). Here the underlying conception of creation is a struggle between the Deity and certain FORCES of nature in which the mysterious, invisible divine power brings order out of chaos, conquers the realm of the darkness, and subdues the wild and boundless sea." -Genesis, C. T. Fritsch (1959), page 22.

"The wind of divine proportions might also be "the spirit [i.e., the life-giving breath] of God" moving upon the waters preparatory to the beginning of creation. "For the Spirit of God has made me, the breath of the Almighty keeps me alive" (Job 33:4): in Hebrew the words for spirit, breath, wind, all symbols of power, are one and the same." On Genesis, Bruce Vawter (1977), page 41.

"'Spirit' as understood in the Bible means the FORCE or power proceeding from God, which is opposed to 'flesh,' to created, perishable reality: that invisible FORCE of God and power of God which is effective creatively or destructively, for life or judgment, in creation and in history, in Israel and in the church." Hans Kung, On Being a Christian

"The Holy Spirit is usually presented in the Synoptics and in Acts as a divine force or power." The Triune God: A Historical Study of the Doctrine of the Trinity By Edmund J. Fortman

So when the Bible says at Luke 1:80 "The child grew and became strong in spirit" (New American Bible) it is the same as saying that "the force grew strong in the child." To think...Jesus may have been the first Jedi.

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