The Deity of The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament

Bond-servant of Christ

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In Evangelical, Orthodox Christianity, the Holy Spirit is the Third Person in the Holy Trinity. He is as much “God” as the Father and the son. Like the Father and Son, the Holy Spirit is, coeternal, coequal and coessential. The Holy Spirit does not, as some of the early Church “creeds” put is, “proceed from the Father”; or “from the Father and the Son”. “Procession” is language that teaches “subordination”, and not “coequality”. There is not a single text in the Holy Bible that teaches this.

To say that the Holy Spirit is a “Person”, is not the same to say that He is a “human being”, as we normally understand the term “Person”. But, it is used in the sense of, “A living, self-conscious being, as distinct from an animal or a thing; a moral agent” (Webster’s English Dictionary, 1913 ed). The Holy Bible is clear that the Holy Spirit is not just an “impersonal, active force”, like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and others teach. He is a “Personal Being”, as are the Father and Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament we are told of the Holy Spirit:

Nehemiah 9:20, “And you gave your good Spirit to instruct [heb, ‘sakal’, cause to consider, give insight, teach] them”

Job 33:4, “The Spirit of God has made [heb, ‘asah’, make, create, produce] me”

Isaiah 48:16, “And now the Lord Yahweh has sent [heb, ‘shalach’, to send on a mission] Me and His Spirit.”

Isaiah 63:10, “But they rebelled, and grieved [heb, ‘atsab’, to hurt, pain grieve] His Holy Spirit”

Isaiah 63:14, “the Spirit of the Lord caused them to rest [heb, ‘nuach’, give rest to i.e. bring to resting-place]”

Ezekiel 3:24, “Then the Spirit entered me and set me on my feet, and spoke [heb, ‘dabar’, talk, command, commune, declare, pronounce] with me and said to me”

Micah 2:7, “Do I change, O house of Jacob? Is the Spirit of the LORD straitened [heb, ‘qatsar’, ineffective, powerless]? Are these His doings [heb, ‘maalal’, action, practice, deeds]?”

None of this can be said for an “impersonal, active force”, a “thing”. This language is only used for “Personal Beings”. Just because the Holy Spirit is termed by “wind” (Hebrew, rauch; and Greek, pneuma. Words that also can be translated “spirit”), as in John chapter 3. Does not mean that we are to understand “impersonality” is implied in any way. The passages shown from the Old Testament, and many from the New, are very clear that the Holy Spirit is as much “Personal”, as the Father and Jesus Christ are.

The Old Testament is also clear that the Holy Spirit is Deity, that He is none other than Yahweh, or Elohim. The former is the Personal Name of God, which means, “eternal and uncreated”. We have the following passages which teach the Deity of the Holy Spirit.

2 Samuel 23:2

"The Spirit of the LORD speaks by me (heb. verb, ‘dibber’, is masculine); His word (heb. noun, ‘millah’, feminine) is on my tongue. The God of Israel has spoken; the Rock of Israel has said to me” (ESV Hebrew-English Old Testament)

This is very interesting in the Hebrew text. The subject is “The Spirit of the LORD”, which is used for the One Person. Here “Spirit” is the Hebrew “rauch”, which is a feminine word. (grammatical gender, and nothing to do with the “sex” of the object). However, we would have expected the Hebrew to then use the feminine, “doberot” (speaks); which would grammatically agree with the feminine “rauch”. But, this is not the case. Instead, it reads, “dibber”, which is masculine. This is because the construct-phrase, “The Spirit of the LORD”, is a “Person”, and not just “wind or force”. Here we have very clear testimony to the Deity of the Holy Spirit, and further evidence that He is “uncreated and eternal”, which is the Name YAHWEH, used for the Holy Spirit. Even though there is the use of the feminine Hebrew noun, “millah”, translated “His word”, for grammatical purposes (“rauch”), this does not affect the meaning in any way.

Micah 2:7-8

“You who are named the house of Jacob: “Is the Spirit of the LORD restricted? Are these His doings? Do not My words do good To him who walks uprightly? “Lately My people have risen up as an enemy”

“Shall it be said,] “O house of Jacob, ‘Is the patience of Spirit of the Lord short? A[re th]ese his doings?’ Do not [my words] do good to him that walked uprightly? But lately] my people rise up as an enemy.”(Martin Abegg Jr., Peter Flint and Eugene Ulrich. The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible)

"The Spirit of the LORD” here is the one subject. There is no distinction that can be made between “rauch, Spirit” and “Yahweh, LORD”, One and the same Person is meant. “His doings”, is the Hebrew “ma’alal”, which is masculine, and refers to “The Spirit of the LORD”, as do, “My words” and “My people”, which are also masculine.

This exactly as we have seen in the previous example from 2 Samuel, where the Holy Spirit is also called “YAHWEH”.

Isaiah 40:13-14

”Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, Or as His counselor has taught Him? With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him,. And a taught Him in the path of justice? Who taught Him knowledge, And showed Him the way of understanding?”

Here is another interesting reading in the Hebrew. In the Masoretic text, (which dates from between the 6th and 10th centuries A.D.), “Him” (taught Him), is in the masculine, as “Yahweh” is also masculine. However, in the Dead Sea Scrolls, which are about 600 years earlier, it has the “feminine” (her), again grammatically agree with the feminine “rauch”. This would make “the Spirit of the LORD”, as in the previous passages, the subject, referring to the One and same Person, the Holy Spirit.

“Who has directed the spirit of the Lord, or as his counselor has taught him*. With whom did he consult, to instruct him and guide him in the ways of justice? Or taught him knowledge or showed him the ways of wisdom?” (Martin Abegg Jr., Peter Flint and Eugene Ulrich. The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible. * Refers to spirit in lQIsaa. To the Lord in MT.)

The Biblical evidence for the Personality and Deity of the Holy Spirit, as taught in both Testaments, is very clear.

As I am fairly new to Hebrew, please feel free to correct/suggest. It would be greatly appreciated! Thanks
 
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Scott Husted

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John 15:26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me.

John 8:42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me.
 
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Bond-servant of Christ

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John 15:26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me.

John 8:42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me.

Hi thanks for these texts. I am aware of them. Neither of them actually teach that the early creeds do, that Jesus Christ, as the Second Person in the Godhead, derived His Deity from God the Father. And, the Holy Spirit from the Father, or Father and Son. In 15:26, the phrase, "ο παρα του πατρος εκπορευεται", literally means, "to depart (come) from besides the Father", where the Greek preposition, "παρα", has the meaning "from the side of, from beside". In 8:42, Jesus speaks of Himself as having from "from God" (εκ του θεου), but does not say, "εκ του πατρος" (from the Father). The Greek preposition used here, "εκ", does denote "out of", which in the context is that Jesus Christ is "εκ the Godhead", which asserts His Deity. In John 16:28 Jesus says of Himself, "εξηλθον παρα του πατρος", that is, "I came out from besides the Father". John 1:1 shows the eternal relationship of the Father and Jesus Christ. Here John says, "και ο λογος ην προς τον θεον", literally, "and the Word was besides the Father". And verse 18 of this chapter, "ο ων εις τον κολπον του πατρος", literally, "Who is always on the bosom of the Father", signyfing the closeness of their realtionship.

Take the famous Nicene Creed, which has its basis in the Creed of Caesarea, which was produced by the Church historian, Eusebius, who was an Arian in his Christology! Here we read the clauses, "God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God", the Greek being, "Θεὸν ἐκ Θεοῦ, Φῶς ἐκ Φωτός, Θεὸν ἀληθινὸν ἐκ Θεοῦ ἀληθινοῦ". Notice the use of the Greek preposition used here, "εκ", which is done for the pupose of teaching that Jesus Christ, in His essential Deity, derives this from the Father. This is the heresy of Origen's "Eternal Generation", which is to show the subordination of Jesus Christ to God the Father, which sadly some of "evangelicals" also hold to! The Father is seen as the sun in all its glory. Jesus Christ is the "rays" that proceed from the sun, and therefore secondary. This of course is Biblically impossible, and heretical.
 
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Scott Husted

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The process of Jesus coming to himself is the process every son must go through, in this way who He was came from the Father, or the use of the word Father becomes a moot point for Him, and only designed for a relational point for the creature.
 
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Bond-servant of Christ

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The process of Jesus coming to himself is the process every son must go through, in this way who He was came from the Father, or the use of the word Father becomes a moot point for Him, and only designed for a relational point for the creature.

do you believe that God the Father, and God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, The Three distinct (but not separate) Persons, are coequal, coeternal and coessential, in the Godhead? That neither Person is "greater" than the other, or "less" than the other, in the Godhead? I am not on about their "roles", but the "essential nature", as Yahweh.
 
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Scott Husted

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do you believe that God the Father, and God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, The Three distinct (but not separate) Persons, are coequal, coeternal and coessential, in the Godhead? That neither Person is "greater" than the other, or "less" than the other, in the Godhead? I am not on about their "roles", but the "essential nature", as Yahweh.

You can't be one and not be ...

One of my favorite verses is where Jesus asked to be restored to the glory he had with Him before the world was.
 
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You can't be one and not be ...

One of my favorite verses is where Jesus asked to be restored to the glory he had with Him before the world was.

interesting also is the use of the verb, "εἷχον" (I had), which is in the imprefect, which is "continual possession". The "δόξα" (Glory) is something that Jesus "gave up" (see Philippians 2:5-8; Hebrews 2:7,9) during His time on earth, when He subjected Himself to the Father; but shared with (παρά, along-side) the Father from eternity. As it was "θεος εφανερωθη εν σαρκι" (1 Timothy 3:16)!
 
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Scott Husted

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interesting also is the use of the verb, "εἷχον" (I had), which is in the imprefect, which is "continual possession". The "δόξα" (Glory) is something that Jesus "gave up" (see Philippians 2:5-8; Hebrews 2:7,9) during His time on earth, when He subjected Himself to the Father; but shared with (παρά, along-side) the Father from eternity. As it was "θεος εφανερωθη εν σαρκι" (1 Timothy 3:16)!

I am ever intrigued and continually blessed by the language derived out of the different stages of that city/mind; something borne out through the process of time.
 
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What is the Ruach HaKodesh? Or should we ask who is Ruach HaKodesh? What is its role and how can we recognize it? Is there any information hidden in the Hebrew pictographs for these words that remains to be discovered? Does the Ruach HaKodesh have anything to do with Messiah? Let’s find out.

Psalm 51 refers us to a very sad account in our ancient text. David, the King of Israel, wrote Psalm 51 in anguish as a result of his trespasses against God. Verse 1 reminds us of some of what King David had done:

To the chief Musician, a Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

Bathsheba was the wife of another man named Uriah, who was one of David’s fierce and loyal warriors. Not only did David abuse his position as king to commit adultery with her, he then arranged the death of Uriah to cover his wrongdoing when it became apparent Bathsheba had become pregnant by him. David was finally forced to admit his guilt when confronted by the prophet Nathan. With that on his heart, he composed Psalm 51 including this in verses 11 and 12:

Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

The word spirit here is Ruach and the word holy is Kodesh. This is most often simply stated as Ruach HaKodesh or the Holy Spirit. Why was King David afraid of losing Ruach HaKodesh? What was so important and so valuable about the relationship between them? Who is Ruach HaKodesh? For these answers let’s turn to the ancient pictographs contained in these two words.

Let’s begin with Ruach which is most often translated spirit, wind, or breath. Ruach is spelled Reysh Vav Chet.

Reysh is the picture of the head and means the master, the leader, or the prince.

Vav is the picture of the iron nail or the wooden hook and means to fasten or

to secure two things that are separated from one another.

Chet is the picture of the fence and means to separate, to protect, or to

cut off, and can be a sanctuary.

Ancient Hebrew


Modern Hebrew


The first thing we can discover in these pictographs is that in Ruach there is a leader who will connect us to a fence or boundaries that are intended to protect and provide sanctuary. Who will these boundaries be protecting and how will anyone know what these boundaries are? Before answering that, let’s investigate HaKodesh.

HaKodesh is actually two words, Ha which is the, and Kodesh which is translated apartness, holiness, sacredness, or separateness. HaKodesh is spelled Hey Qoof Dalet Sheen.


Hey is the picture of the man with uplifted arms and means to behold, to pay attention to what follows, to reveal, or the Holy Spirit as the revelator.

Qoof is the picture of the back of the head and means the least, the last, or behind.

Dalet is the picture of the door and means a doorway, a place of decision, a place where change can take place, or an entrance to life or death.

Sheen is the picture of teeth and means to press, to consume, or to destroy, and is the one letter God uses to identify Himself.

Ancient Hebrew


Modern Hebrew


We are told in the pictographs to behold something or to pay attention to what follows. What follows is Kodesh. Someone unworthy, the least, is being brought through a doorway to a place where God will identify Himself. Going through this doorway will set this unworthy person apart from those not entering this special place before God. He is going to be granted access that he is obviously not able to provide on his own merit. This leader can do this because He Himself is Kodesh.

When we put the pictographic messages in the two words together, we arrive at this conclusion: the title Ruach HaKodesh is given to the leader who intends to join us to clear boundaries which will allow the least of us to be set apart and invited to pass through a doorway into a place where God will identify Himself to us.

Who is the leader from the pictographs and how does this leader work to show us those boundaries?

This leader first appears in Genesis Chapter 1 verse 2 where it is written:

And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

This leader, here called the Spirit of God, is literally the wind of God or the breath of God and was instrumental in the creation account. In the ancient world soul and spirit are both frequently denoted by wind or breath and we can see that this Spirit was indeed God.

Besides being co-creator, what else does this remarkable unnamed leader do? In the Gospel of John Chapter 14 verse 26 another role of this leader is explained:

But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

Here Ruach HaKodesh is called the Comforter, which is the word used for the advocate who goes before the judge on behalf of someone to plead his case. We are told in this verse that this leader, who comes from the Father at the request of Jesus, will teach us all things. This will certainly include the boundaries established by the Father that is intended for our protection, just as we saw in the pictographs.

In the letter of Rabbi Paul to the Romans Chapter 8 verse 1, we see Ruach HaKodesh is the advocate of all those who follow Messiah:

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Now we can see why King David wanted so much to preserve his relationship with Ruach HaKodesh. Not only will there be no blame, but Rabbi Paul adds this in verse 11:

But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

This leader, Ruach HaKodesh, has wanted all along to demonstrate His power in your life, not only to guide and teach you how to walk after Christ Jesus but to also one day by His power raise you from the dead to dwell for eternity with the Heavenly Father.

(From a very beautiful site that I can’t remember the name of now.)
 
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2 Samuel 12
1The LORD sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, "There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor.
2The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle,
3but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.
4"Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.

God has given everything to the world that it could possible need. Grace made that possible. But He is very jealous of what is His own. He has kept for Himself but one thing, His glory.

As nouns the difference between glory and grace

is that glory is great beauty or splendour, that is so overwhelming it is considered powerful while grace is (not countable) elegant movement; poise or balance.
 
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