The Holy Spirit and the Old Testament

Peace be with you.

Before I ask for some assistance on a question, I want to thank those who offered prayers in connection with the birth of my daughter recently.  Those prayers have been answered and are greatly appreciated.  I also apologize if I have failed to respond to posts directed to me, but I have been a little pre-occupied (not to mention sleep deprived) and have lost track of those posts.

The question involves whether or not the Old Testament "revealed" the existence of the Holy Spirit.  My understanding is that the Trinity, and therefore the existence of the Holy Spirit, was only revealed with the coming of Jesus (thus in the New Testament).  I'm not certain exactly where I learned this (so I fully accept that I may be totally incorrect), so I have, unfortunately, no point of reference.

This came up last night while reviewing a book about the Holy Spirit which a non-Catholic (in fact a fundamentalist Christian) friend asked me to review and comment on.  The author of the book, R.A. Torrey, claimed that the Holy Spirit is revealed in the OT and offers Nehemiah 9:20 as his source.  So far, in my reading of his book, this is the only OT citation Torrey provides to support this.

Any guidance is appreciated.

God Bless and stay safe.

 

Souljah, Peace be with you.

Thank you for your response. You are referring to Gen 1:26. The only odd part I find about that in regards to your response is that the "us" is not "Us", which I would suspect it would be if it referred to the Trinity. I think that your response makes sense, but that one thing leaves an opening in interpretation. It would be help, most likely, to see how the translation was made. Is anyone aware of an official Church position on this?

God Bless and stay safe.

Originally posted by lambslove
I Sa 10:9-10 -
When Saul turned around to leave Samuel, God changed Saul's attitude. That day all these signs happened. When Saul came to the hill, a group of prophets came to meet him, and God's Spirit came over him. He prophesied with them.

1Sa 16:14 -
Now, the LORD's Spirit had left Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD tormented him.

1Sa 16:23 -
Whenever God's spirit came to Saul, David took the lyre and strummed a tune. Saul got relief [from his terror] and felt better, and the evil spirit left him.

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Lambslove, Peace be with you.

It appears we are using different Bibles.  I use the Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition.  I agree with you on this concerning I Samuel 16:13-14, but not on the other two passages.

I Samuel 10:10 reads: "When they came to Gibeah, behold a band of prophets met him; and the spirit of God came mightily upon him, and he prophesied among them."  Much like the earlier Scripture in Genesis pointed out by Souljah, the word "spirit" should, in reference to the Holy Spirit, be "Spirit."  The lack of the capitalization makes me pause at believing that this meant the Holy Spirit.  This same lower case use is also found in I Samuel 10:6 when the event was foretold to him.

Skipping to the third passage you quoted (I Samuel 16:23), I believe that does not concern the Holy Spirit at all. Not only is the word "spirit" not capitalized, but were it the Holy Spirit, it would mean that the Holy Spirit could be "evil" and God cannot be evil.  This is, nonetheless, a very interesting passage! 

I Samuel 16:13-14 both use the term "Spirit": (13) "...and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David...."  And (14) "Now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul...."  This certainly seems, to me, to indicate the Holy Spirit.  I am most interested in others' opinions on this.

For those perhaps reading through this thread, I am asking a question regarding something on which I do not know the position of the Catholic Church.  I am trying to clear up an impression I got from something I read (unrecalled) which for some reason stuck with me.  My reading is far from limited to Catholic materials, so I could have gotten this impression from... well who knows!?

Thank you.  God Bless and stay safe.

Peace be with you.

I have not had time to research this much further, but from what little I have done, it appears that there is a distinction between "Holy Spirit" as we know it in the sense of the Trinity and the "Spirit of God" or "Spirit of the Lord" as used in the Old Testament. Any help on what that distinction is would be greatly appreciated!!

God Bless and stay safe.

Originally posted by Warrior FC
In the old testament the Spirit would COME UPON a person, now in the new testament the Spirit has come to LIVE IN a person!

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Warrior FC, Peace be with you.

That is a very interesting point and perhaps therein lies the distinction. 

I wonder too if there is some translation/use issue here as well; something language or historically oriented, much like the often misinterpreted "brethren" of Jesus or "betrothal" of Mary and Joseph.

Other thoughts on this issue? Anyone?

God Bless and stay safe.

Peace be with you.

Here was a response from a different board on this question of a distinction between the "Holy Spirit" as we know it in the Trinity and the "Spirit of the Lord" or "Spirit of God" as used in the OT:

"Allusions to the "Spirit of the Lord" in the Old Testament would not, of themselves, lead us to the mystery of the Holy Trinity, which has been revealed to us in the New Testament. But in view of God's total revelation, it is certainly legitimate to ascribe to the Holy Spirit what is said of the "Spirit of the Lord"."

This is in-line with what I already believe and leads me to believe that my recollection was incorrect, as posts here have already made me begin to think.

Thanks be to God!

God Bless and stay safe.