Re: John 7:39

From: Harold R. Holmyard III (hholmyard@ont.com)
Date: Sun Apr 16 2000 - 21:06:45 EDT


Dear Bill,
       You ask about PNEUMA in John 7:39:

> ??? "...for not yet was spirit..." "...for not yet was a
>spirit..." "...for not yet was a Holy Spirit..." "...for spirit was not
>yet..." "...for a spirit was not yet..." "...for a Holy Spirit was not
>yet..."

Bill, the NT often uses anarthrous PNEUMA with a modifier like "holy" to
refer to the Holy Spirit. Writers often use anarthrous PNEUMA of the Holy
Spirit in situations where the Spirit is speaking through a person. Perhaps
this is an area where writers felt freer to drop the article, for what
occurred involved a man's spirit, but also might involve an evil spirit or
the Holy Spirit (the NT often uses PNEUMA to refer to unclean spirits, and
sometimes uses PNEUMA of spiritual messages and things [1 John 4:1; 1 Cor
14:12]). Another possibility would be a dropping of a modifier such as
"holy," leaving anarthrous PNEUMA.
     Here are some passages to look at, where anarthrous PNEUMA without a
modifier is arguably the Holy Spirit. A number of passages with question
marks may contrast the realm of flesh with that of spirit, thus weakening a
direct reference to the Holy Spirit. Others offer a choice between man's
spirit and God's. Especially suggestive that anarthrous PNEUMA can be
equivalent to the Holy Spirit are 2 Cor 3:18 and Jude 1:19:

 Matt 22:43; John 3:5; Acts 1:5; 6:3; Rom 8:4-5 (?), 9 (?), 13; 15:19
(there is a text. var.); 1 Cor 2:4, 13; 2 Cor 3:6 (?), 18; Gal 3:3 (?);
4:29 (?); 5:5, 16, 18, 25; Eph 2:22; 3:5; 5:18; 6:18; Phil 2:1 (?); Col
1:8; Jude 1:19.

As you may guess, my inclination is to interpret PNEUMA in John 7:39 of the
Holy Spirit, whom the verse mentions earlier. There would be a dropping of
the modifier "Holy" as unnecessary to repeat. It seems difficult to take
PNEUMA of any more limited idea such as Spirit-inspired utterance, because
the context does not limit PNEUMA that way. All the textual variants show
that the early Church took PNEUMA here to indicate the Holy Spirit. So I
would translate the phrase in question: "For not yet was the Spirit."

                                        Yours,
                                        Harold Holmyard

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