The Hebrew language phrase ruach ha-kodesh (Hebrew: רוח הקודש, "holy spirit" also transliterated ruacḥ ha-qodesh) is a term used in the Hebrew Bible and Jewish writings to refer to the spirit of YHWH (רוח יהוה). Thus, the decision to capitalize a word is taken from textual clues. "Holy Spirit", More Than Just a Controversy: All About The Holy Spirit. Turner, The Holy Spirit, 77-78. However, both of these words in Hebrew are feminine.” The Gospel of John inthe Light of Indian Mysticism, Ravi Ravindra, page 18. http://www.theology.edu/journal/volume3/spirit.htm, More Than Just a Controversy: All About The Holy Spirit - by R.P. Understanding the Hebrew word ruach (and its Greek counterpart pneuma) is central to understanding why Yeshua is called "Messiah" (Mashiach, Christos). [26] These texts were particularly significant when Christians were debating whether the New Testament teaches that the Holy Spirit is a fully divine hypostasis, as opposed to a created force. That’s what the word holiness means in Hebrew and Greek. That means in English we are in danger of importing too much into the gender language for God in the Bible. Both words are commonly used in passages referring to the Holy Spirit. Translit: Ru•ach Ha•kó•desh. Wallace concludes that "it is difficult to find any text in which πνευμα is grammatically referred to with the masculine gender".[8]. [22][23][24], Discovering Biblical Equality maintains that viewing God in masculine terms is merely a way in which we speak of God in figurative language. The Greek New Testament, however, was written in all capital letters without punctuation and spacing between words. The next step, as suggested by the Church of Sweden, will be our liturgy. We also cannot avoid the fact that Jesus describes his Father as “the Father” and himself as “the Son.” These are not just randomly chosen names as if he could have chosen mother and daughter if he so liked. The Holy Spirit was furthermore equated with the (grammatically feminine) Wisdom of God by two early Church fathers, Theophilus of Antioch (d. 180) and by Irenaeus (d. 202/3). Who/What is the Ruach HaKodesh? Feminine-Maternal Images of the Spirit in Early Syriac Tradition, by Emmanuel Kaniyamparampil, O.C.D. d) As in Hebrew, grammatically masculine nouns are used of physically male people and grammatically feminine nouns are used of physically female people. 54 RUACH HA KOIDESH (Hebrew) “The Holy Spirit ” The Infinite Spirit of God that is Holy and expressed as a central part of the Trinity Power for All the Universe. By contrast in English “she” is a much more pregnant term, if you will excuse the pun! Thus, Andrei Rublev's The Trinity represents the Trinity as the "three men" who visited Abraham at the oak of Mamre[48] often considered a theophany of the Trinity. Hebrew Word of the Day. Thus, it is argued that these Greek prepositions teach a twofold relationship of the Holy Spirit with the believer. An obvious example is the beatitudes in Matthew 5:3-10. ; Greek, πνεῦμα ἅγιον): Tweet. Nettelhorst, Chapter Seven - Pneumatology: Doctrine of the Holy Spirit, Appendix 3 -The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament - The Occurrences of Spirit, "Gender Is an Essential Characteristic of Eternal Identity and Purpose", Ensign, Oct. 2008, 67, "Strengthening the Family: Created in the Image of God, Male and Female", Ensign, Jan. 2005, 48–49, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. At which point it gets complicated. This expression is also connected with the Hagios Pneuma in Greek (e.g., Luke 11:13; Eph. Donate now and show your support for Israel. Person of the Godhead that completes the Holy Trinity: God the Holy Spirit. Άγιο Πνεύμα. Therefore, second, in English the gender of a noun carries much more significance than in Greek or Hebrew. Use * for blank tiles (max 2) Advanced Search Advanced Search: Use * for blank spaces Advanced Search: Advanced Word Finder: See Also in English. However, in Greek the word (pneuma) is neuter. May 2020 Those first three and fundamental differences immediately gives us a number of implications. The expression itself is literally “ your (God’s) Spirit of holiness” (;v=d+q* j^Wr, ruakh qodeshkha), but the Hebrew language often creates adjectival expressions by means of what is known as the construct genitive relationship between words (i.e., the construction “the…of…”; so the “Spirit of holiness” = “the Holy Spirit”). Gregory of Nazianzus in the fourth century wrote that terms like "Father" and "Son" in reference to the persons of the trinity are not to be understood as expressing essences or energies of God but are to be understood as metaphors. The Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible combines essential tools for Hebrew and Greek with translations that are accurate and clear. [30], They take the Oneness of God to mean the "familial" unity which exists between them, which unity is not seen in any other depiction of the Godhead by the various non-Hebrew peoples. It's all Greek to Them The Holy Spirit He, She, or It? The short answer is that if this is true, then the Spirit is also an “it” since the Greek word for “spirit” (πνευμα) is neuter. Find more words! Just because helper is a masculine word it doesn’t mean the helper has masculine gender. In Hebrew the word “Ruah” was translated into English as the word Spirit, and it refers to feminine, and the word Spirit in Greek is “Pneuma” which can mean either male or female. “ – 2 Corinthians 1:21-22. sphragis- … July 2020 In Genesis 1:2, the verb for hovered takes on the feminine of the noun. That goes for whatever theological persuasion we might be. How much we read into the gender and number of those nouns is a rather moot point. So perhaps, like the Hebrew ruach, there is a case for asking whose spirit is being referred to? As it turns out, in the Old Testament, the Hebrew word for ‘spirit’ (ruwach) as in ‘Spirit of God’ is feminine. In the Old Testament it is mentioned 23 times, but in a different form: “Ru•ach Adonai,” the Spirit of God. September 2020 Is the Holy Spirit to be referred to as “she”? Let me demonstrate with the Greek. For instance in Mark 2:8 “Jesus knew in his pneuma”. Answer: Martin Luther, the great Protestant reformer, wrote the following in regard to the importance of understanding Greek and Hebrew when studying the Bible: "The languages are the sheath in which the sword of the Spirit is contained." Our staff Nettlehorst, professor at the, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He sees YHVH redeeming the whole man by beginning at the very heart of man and working outward to make him complete. Some may still attempt to argue that the Holy Spirit is a person because the words holy and spirit are capitalized. So, Genesis 1:2 could be legitimately translated, “the Spirit of God she was hovering over the face of the waters…”. THE HEBREW VIEW OF THE NATURE OF MAN. 2 Corinthians 3:16-17. There are biblical translations where the pronoun used for the Holy Spirit is masculine, in contrast to the gender of the noun used for spirit in Hebrew and Aramaic. Discussion in '2004 Archive' started by Jesus is Lord, Feb 4, 2004. In Hebrew thinking, it is what man does and not what man thinks or believes. So perhaps, like the Hebrew ruach, there is a case for asking whose spirit is being referred to? Whether that is the Holy Spirit or Jesus’ human spirit is not my point here, so much as pointing out that the gender of the greek word pneuma has no indication of the gender-identification of the person whose spirit is being referred to. Matthew 12:31-32 Reference to the strong man’s house (Isaiah 49). a) The Greek uses three types of grammatically gendered nouns and pronouns: masculine, feminine and neuter (Hebrew just has the first two); Scholars speculate that the works as such were buried there in response to a letter from Bishop Athanasius (296 – 373 AD) declaring a strict canon of Christian scripture. Another word for Opposite of Meaning of Rhymes with Sentences with Find word forms … How to say holy spirit in Greek. [15], Some recent authors (1980s to present), while retaining masculine reference to Father and Son, have used feminine language for the Holy Spirit. The term “Holy Spirit” actually occurs only three times in the Hebrew Bible. February 2020. It has nouns that are masculine and feminine. To start viewing messages, select the … To the Hebrew, man is a unity. It is believed that early Christians buried works such as the Gospel of Thomas so that they would not be des… “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” – Ephesians 4:30 “ Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. actually, the word translates as spirit and as breathe in both hebrew and greek. June 2020 So, my discomfort with our songs at the conference is, it seems, a fair one. Sermon Delivered 12-25-04 Part One, Who/What is the Ruach HaKadosh? It is a problem of our language. But “it” has many wrong connotations in English, especially as we believe, rightly so, that the Holy Spirit is a divine person. Some small Christian groups regard the gender of the Holy Spirit to be female, based on their understanding that the Hebrew word for Spirit, ruach, can be feminine or masculine. But this is the spirit of Pharaoh - a man. The grammatical gender of the word for "spirit" is feminine in Hebrew, neuter in Greek and masculine in Latin. PARAKLETOS: A Greek Word for Holy Spirit. just “holy Spirit”. Nick Gowers discusses the linguistic considerations in using the feminine gender for the Holy Spirit, The third person of the Trinity, gender language and translation, I attended an event recently during which we sung a number of songs - as Christians do. I find no present way to incorporate the Greek idea of “person” into the Hebrew idea of “identity,” so this is a problem since Christianity is defined by the central doctrine of the Trinity. An easy-to-use style plus the benefits of the Strong's Dictionary numbering system makes this study Bible one for every student of God's Word, no matter what age. That brings us nicely to the issues of translating from a gendered language into a less-gendered language. 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