Talk:Luke 1:1-56

Holy Ghost (v. 15)

I'm posting the following is in answer to BrianJ's question here, taken from the Theological dictionary of the New Testament. 1964-c1976. Vols. 5-9 edited by Gerhard Friedrich. Vol. 10 compiled by Ronald Pitkin. (G. Kittel, G. W. Bromiley & G. Friedrich, Ed.) (electronic ed.) (1:103). Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans:

a. The holiness of the Spirit (→ πνεῦμα) is inseparable from that of Christ. The OT root is obviously רוּחַ הַקֹּדֶשׁ (Is. 63:10 f.; Ps. 51:11).

Though the expression is infrequent in the OT, its substance is common. In David רוּחַ has Messianic as well as prophetic content (2 S. 23:2); in Isaiah the Messiah is a bearer of the Spirit (Is. 11:2), and in Deutero-Isaiah the עֶבֶד יהוה is anointed with the Spirit (42:1; 61:1). As the Spirit is here a possession of the Messiah, so elsewhere of the prophets. Elijah bears the Spirit (2 K. 2:9), and Elisha asks of his master a double measure of the firstborn’s portion of the Spirit (cf. Dt. 21:17). If Elisha is depicted as a holy man of God (2 K. 4:9), his holy character presumably rests on his possession of the Spirit. Hosea, too, is called אִישׁ הָרוּחַ (Hos. 9:7), and both Isaiah (30:1) and Micah (3:8) are conscious of being filled with the Spirit. In Ezekiel the Spirit of God becomes a possession of the community in the Messianic future (36:26 f.), and in Joel He is poured out on all flesh as a prelude to the last time (3:1), this passage being adopted by Peter in his preaching at Pentecost (Ac. 2:17 ff.). Yet the post-exilic people of God is already aware that it is indwelt by the Spirit of Yahweh (Hag. 2:5; Zech. 4:6; 7:12), as was also the Israel of the time of Moses (Is. 63:10 f.). The Psalmist is unmistakeably thinking of this common possession of the Spirit when in relation to Ezekiel’s promise of a new heart and spirit (Ez. 36:26 f.) he prays for a clean heart and right spirit, and asks that he should not be expelled from the fellowship of the Holy Spirit (Ps. 51:10 f.).

b. In the NT there is the textual difficulty that in the Synoptics and Acts πνεῦμα ἅγιον is often an emendation of πνεῦμα alone (i.e., without ἅγιον).53 In both Matthew and Luke τὸ πνεῦμα ἅγιον is the principle of the derivation of Christ even on the natural side (Mt. 1:18, 20; cf. Lk. 1:35) as distinct from πνεῦμα as an immanent potency. Above all, however, πνεῦμα ἅγιον plays an important role in the baptism story (Mt. 3:11 and par.); for according to the old Synoptic conception the Messiah is to baptise ἐν πνεύματι ἁγίῳ (cf. Ac. 1:5), with a clear forward reference to the fulfilment at Pentecost.54 With the baptism of Christ the age of the Spirit begins in the full sense (Mt. 3:13 ff. and par.). As the dove of Noah after the flood indicates the dawn of a new epoch (Gn. 8:8 ff.), so the dove-like form of the Spirit indicates the dawn of a new creation rising with Christ from the baptismal waters (cf. 1 Pt. 3:19 ff.). In the first instance the Spirit of God is linked exclusively with Christ; He is freed to be the Spirit of Christianity only by the resurrection of Christ (Jn. 20:22; Ac. 2:1 ff.; 4:27 ff.), being then imparted to the disciples as the Spirit of Pentecost. The promise of the πνεῦμα ἅγιον undoubtedly goes back to Jesus and is referred back by Him to John the Baptist (Mk. 1:8 and par.).

Even the obscure saying concerning the sin against the Holy Ghost (Mt. 12:32 f. par.) has a Pentecostal content.55 In the υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου God is present in hidden form. Hence sin against the Son of Man is committed in ignorance and may be pardoned. In the πνεῦμα ἅγιον of the Pentecostal age, however, God manifests Himself through Christ. Hence he who is apprehended by the πνεῦμα ἅγιον, but resists His power and thus blasphemes Him (βλασφημεῖ), commits unforgivable sin. The possibility of this sin thus arises only with the Pentecostal era when the Holy Spirit has been poured out by Jesus on the disciples and has become their indwelling possession.56 Even the Trinitarian baptismal command, in which we have the divine name as πατήρ, υἱός and ἅγιον πνεῦμα, is linked with the Pentecostal age.

It thus follows that in the primitive Gospel πνεῦμα ἅγιον == רוּחַ הֲעקֹּדֶשׁ is used only of the Pentecostal period, though Jesus Himself often enough spoke of πνεῦμα alone. The absolute Pneuma was fully adequate to express the matter, especially on Hebrew soil. Yet the ἅγιος τοῦ θεοῦ added the attribute ἅγιον in order to differentiate the Spirit from all ἀκαθαρσία.

c. Among the Evangelists Luke is most fond of the expression πνεῦμα ἅγιον, whether he uses the definite article and thus selects the formula τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον, or whether he has the indefinite πνεῦμα ἅγιον.57 In general it may be said that the definite form reveals the Pentecostal Spirit manifested at the baptism of Jesus (Lk. 3:22), who at a supreme point broke forth from the lips of Jesus in rejoicing (Lk. 10:21), but only became the possession of the Christian community in the event of Pentecost (Ac. 4:31) in which He now works with sovereign creativity. On the other hand, the indefinite πνεῦμα ἅγιον works less as conscious will than as unconscious power of a creative (Lk. 1:35; 4:1) or prophetic nature (1:15, 41, 67 etc.), although this cannot be pressed too hard. In both cases Luke lays special emphasis on the attribute ἅγιον, though the liberal use perhaps weakens the material force of the expression. As the Holy Spirit, He is everywhere thought to be grounded in God, so that ἅγιον takes on almost the meaning of divine. The antithesis to demonic or natural spirit is thus underlined.

As a Greek nurtured on the mission field rather than in the homeland of the Gospel, Luke had particular reason to distinguish the Spirit of God from other spirits active in the pagan world. There can be no doubt that his conception of the Spirit corresponds to popular ideas in early missionary Christianity rather than Jewish Christianity, in which the cultic element is never completely lost, as shown by Matthew and Hebrews. His conception of the Spirit is shaped by the charismatic processes in the early Christian communities which found expression in the gift of tongues and the prophetic stimulation so dynamically depicted by Paul, especially in the Corinthian Epistles. The Holy Spirit in Luke often bears the character of eschatological unrest as described by Joel (Jl. 3:1 ff.) and as undoubtedly most frequently found in early Christianity in view of the expected end. His descriptions are thus more rewarding for investigators of the Pentecost movement in the broad strata of the apostolic age than for those who seek more clear-cut theological concepts.

d. Far more personal and noble is the conception of the Spirit in Paul, which has many points of contact with the Johannine view except that Paul makes far more use of the attribute ἅγιον, to which he gives a specific sense. Thinking in terms of the temple (1 C. 3:16; 6:19; Eph. 2:20), the sacrifice (Eph. 5:2) and the liturgy (R. 15:16), Paul maintains but spiritualises the cultic character of the holy.

In Christ there is established a holy temple (Eph. 2:21) in which Christians are built up as living stones, God Himself dwelling therein ἐν πνεύματι. The foundation of this building consists of the apostles and prophets (Eph. 2:20) to whom the mystery of Christ is revealed ἐν πνεύματι (Eph. 3:5.). The integration of this living organism, in which the body of Christ is built up, is explicitly described (4:11 ff.). In I Corinthians this thought is individualised (6:19: τὸ σῶμα ὑμῶν ναὸς τοῦ ἐν ὑμῖν ἁγίου πνεύματός ἐστιν, cf. 3:16). To the temple there corresponds the sacrifice which is brought in Christ and which has the character of holiness (1 C. 5:7). In Romans Paul compares himself as λειτουργὸς Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ with the priest who handles the Gospel (ἱερουργοῦντα τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τοῦ θεοῦ) in order that the Gentile world may be accepted as a sacrifice (προσφορά) by God, ἡγιασμένη ἐν πνεύματι ἁγίῳ (R. 15:16). Everywhere it is a matter of building the holy temple and setting up the holy cultus whose holiness consists in the πνεῦμα ἅγιον, in which the fellowship of Christianity is also grounded (2 C. 13:13; R. 5:5). As once in the Israel of the time of Moses (Is. 63:10 f.; cf. 1 C. 10:1 ff.), so now τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον dwells in Christianity (1 Th. 4:8; 2 Tm. 1:14) to the extent that it consists in a state of ἁγιασμός (2 Th. 2:13).

The signs of the new cultic community, of Christianity, created in the death of Christ, are baptism (1 C. 12:13: ἐν ἑνὶ πνεύματι ἡμεῖς εἰς ἓν σῶμα ἐβαπτίσθημεν), in which the Holy Spirit effects the παλιγγενεσία and ἀνακαίνωσις of creation (Tt. 3:5), and the Lord’s Supper (1 C. 12:13: πάντες ἓν πνεῦμα ἐποτίσθημεν). Baptism as a fellowship with Christ in death signifies the death of the old life and the raising up of the new (R. 6:3; Col. 2:12). Similarly the communion of the Lord’s Supper expresses fellowship with Christ in death (1 C. 11:26) from which there springs the new creation (2 C. 5:17: εἴ τις ἐν Χριστῷ, καινὴ κτίσις). Hence in the death of Christ there is advanced the thought of a cultic fellowship of Christianity. The cultic element in its spiritual form is contained in the concept of reconciliation (καταλλαγή), which is effected by the sacrificial death of Christ (R. 5:9 ff.; 2 C. 5:18 f.).