Spirit (Hastings' Dictionary)

Besides its use for the Supreme Spirit, — the Spirit of God, the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Iloly Spirit, the Spirit ot truth, etc., — this word is occasionally used for the extreme opiiosite, as weuixa. Saiixoviou anaBiprov (Lk 4''). Then there is its secondary use for an influence, or power, as 'spirit of error' (1 Jn 4"), ' spirit of the worlil ' ( Eph 2^), ' of bond.ige ' and ' of sonship' (Ilo 8"), etc.

, yet often with a refer- ence to the spiritual personality controlling these influences. But the main use of it is ]isychologicaI, where it is immensely indebted to the Bible and to Christianity. Indc<'d it may be said to be an expression created by Cliristianity. Two Heb. terms are tr. In EV '8|>irit.' I, nn, lit. "wind' (80 often in OT) ; used of the breath of life (rfia/i hayyim) whi(;h animates (io<i'8 creatures, (in »I'7 "lo (Iwth 1*; cf.

with- math haijyim in 2^ (JJ) ; the medium of consciousDCSH, 1 S Sol-, .I(r 16'", Job 918 ; the seat ot emoUonn, 1 K 21», Is («-', I'r lr,i;i, Kzk 31, Jos 2" (coumpe ; and so .'i'. I'r ISl Is B7'i>) ; and of intelligence and will, Kzk 'M»'', Pr \lfii 21' 2412, Dt 2™, Job 209; of an inexplicable or unoontrollabto impulse, Nu 61-1- 30, Is 10'* 288 2010 87\ Hos 4ia 6'.

When used with reference to God, riial^ is usedot the brooding (ncniD) and creative activity of His spirit (On 13, Ps 10430), which imparts itself to men with the result of capacitating them for the performance of extroordinarv deeds, Jf SW (Gideon) 14«^ 1« (Samson), and is specially noted as flttiug thf 612 SPIRIT SPY prophet* for their work. Is 4S^6 5921^ Hqs 9' (the prophet is the man of the siiirit"), Ezk 371 (and often). See, more fully, vol. ii. p. 402 S. ; and add Schultz, ii. 243 ff.

(249 on distinction of rm and C£j); Wendt, Notioiiei camU et spiritug guomodo in VT adhibeanlur ; Brings, "The uses of nn in OT' In JBL,1901, p. 133 fl. (sjTiopsis of passages arranged and translated). 2. n:v'} is twice in EV (Job 26', Pr 20-'') tr. 'spirit.' Its lit. meaning is breath. See, also, under SorL. The tXX and NT t.iCu* follows the usage of rtiah. In the two passages (Mt 142t>, Mk 6'^) where #a»Taw,u« occurs, the AV tr. ' spirit ' is replaced in RV by ' apparition.'

So far as it depends on physiological suggestion, in all the languages ' spirit ' is the same, — the inhaling of the ' breath,' and so ' wind,' and more remotely ' life,' and so is closely allied to ' soul ' (tl'i'X'n), which depends npon a similar physiological derivation. In one respect the two words soul and spirit ditl'er widely. jr»eC/xa is far less than ^vxri con- nected with the life of man in the Greek classics.

irneviia is never used in classical psychology for one of the elements of man's inner life, whereas 'pvx'/i is invariably so used. Indeed it is one of the chief distinctions of biblical from all other psychology to give iryfOfui the supreme place as an element in the life of man. Only in the LXX and in the NT has iryeC^o the sense of a spiritual being, or refers to man in his higher inward aspects. Thus it is a good example of the language-building and enriching power of the Bible religion.

The suggestion depends mainly upon two biblical ideas, viz. the attribution of spirit in man to Divine gift or creation (Ec 12'), and the parallel or analogy between 'spirit' in man, and the Divine Spirit (lCo'2", R08"). Sufficient attention has already been called to the frequent and intimate association of the two terms ' Soul ' and ' Spirit ' (see art. SoUL) occurring so often in the Bible as nearly parallel psyclio- logical expre.

ssions ; yet each implying all tnrough the characteristic distinction : 'soul,' the individual and personal life ; ' spirit,' the principle of life. There is another antithesis, more peculiarly Pauline, of the ' spirit ' over against the ' flesh.' The more obvious antithesis of ' body ' and ' spirit' (Ja 2^) is upon purely natural ground. But the Pauline is a moral distinction, and belongs to specially Christian doctrine. It occurs chietiy in those passages where St.

Paul is describing the conflict of tlie old nature, or the ' old man ' as he calls it, with the new nature or the new man. Human nature, as it comes to any one through the ffdpf, manifests itself in the (rdpj, is determined by it, and called after it, comes to stand in contrast with ' spirit ' (Tri-cD/ia), the Divine nature, or the divinely originated and sustained new nature.

Thus ffip^ came at length, in distinct and pre- supposed antithesis to vfevfUi, to signify the sinful condition of human nature, and in such a manner that this same <r(£p{ mediates or efl'ectuates that sinful condition — the adp^ a/iaprlat, ' the flesh deter- mined by sin ' (Ro 8'). In this antithesis there is progress or intensification in the meaning of irveO/ia as well as of <rdp^.

The rvevfia in man, which is the element originally created by God, and which ought to rule or govern his whole nature, is used by St. Paul for the new nature divinely originated in the Christian, so that a direct antithesis is brought out between ' flesh ' and ' spirit,' and everything wvev/iaTiicdy, spiritual, is a Divine pro- duct or creation, according to that new nature. This use of Trv(vtiaTiK6i> for ever3'tliing determined orinfluenced by the Divine Tticvixa extends beyond St.

Paul's \mtings, and is quite general in the Epistles of the NT. There is the 'spiritual house' (o'aos irycu- ioTi)t45, 1 P 2') because ' built up of living stones ' ; ' spiritual sacrifices,' i.e. ofTeringsCxed or determined bv the Spirit (t6.) ; 'spiritual tmderstanding ' (Col 1') ; ' spiritual songs ' (45al ri/evfuiTiKal, Col 3") ; 'epiritiial food, drink, rock' {^puiia, ■wifta, rh-pa, 1 Co 10'- ). In two sets of passages St. Paul con. trasts it with tfuxiKdv (1 Co 2'-' lo"- *>).

There is one curious exception from this Pauline use of it for divine, viz. Eph 6'^ ra rveviJiariKa rrjs iroin}ptat = ' wicked spirits,' or something equivalent. There is another antithesis in which St. Pan] places it as contrasted with xoCs or aiviffis, where the intention plainly is to contrast tlie action of the 'understanding' in man with that of spiritual or ecstatic impulse even in a Christian (1 Co W*-^).

It is also once or twice opposed to ypiniia, where inwardness or reality is the thing to be brought out (Ro 2=» 7«, 2 Co 3^). There are two things mainly noticeable and dis- tinctive in this biblical use of ' spirit.' The first is the habit of biblical writers to explain the • spirit ' in the natural man as the product or creation directly of God, and as accounted for only by the direct contact of man with the Almighty in his origin. This is peculiarly prevalent in the OT (Gn 2', Is 42').

Then there is the assertion of a parallelism and communication between the self- conscious, inner life of man — his spirit — with the Spirit of God (1 Co 2"' '=, Ro 8'-", Philem "). There is a foundation laid in this way for the whole spiritual life of man, and especially for the renewed and redeemed life of whicn, according to Christianity, he is made a partaker. See also art. HOLV SPIRIT : for ' unclean {or evil) spirit ' cf . art. DEMON, vol. i. p. 593 ; for ' familiar spirit ' art.

SORCERY, p. 606 ; for ' spirits in prison ' see voL iii. p. 795. J. Laidlaw.