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it can always be used, whereas “Ghost” always requires the word “Holy” prefixed.) In the
following list the omission of the definite article marks its omission in the original
(concerning this see below): “Spirit, Matt. 22:43; Eternal Spirit, Heb. 9:14; the Spirit,
Matt. 4:1; Holy Spirit, Matt. 1:18; the Holy Spirit, Matt. 28:19; the Spirit, the Holy, Matt.
12:32; the Spirit of promise, the Holy, Eph. 1:13; Spirit of God, Rom. 8:9; Spirit of (the)
living God, 2 Cor. 3:3; the Spirit of God, 1 Cor. 2:11; the Spirit of our God, 1 Cor. 6:11;
the Spirit of God, the Holy, Eph. 4:30; the Spirit of glory and of God, 1 Pet. 4:14; the
Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead (i.e., God), Rom. 8:11; the Spirit of your
Father, Matt. 10:20; the Spirit of His Son, Gal. 4:6; Spirit of (the) Lord, Acts 8:39; the
Spirit of (the) Lord, Acts 5:9; (the) Lord, (the) Spirit, 2 Cor. 3:18; the Spirit of Jesus, Acts
16:7; Spirit of Christ, Rom. 8:9; the Spirit of Jesus Christ, Phil. 1:19; Spirit of adoption,
Rom. 8:15; the Spirit of truth, John 14:17; the Spirit of life, Rom. 8:2; the Spirit of grace,
Heb. 10:29.Ӡ
The use or absence of the article in the original where the “Holy Spirit” is spoken of
cannot always be decided by grammatical rules, nor can the presence or absence of the
article alone determine whether the reference is to the “Holy Spirit.” Examples where the
Person is meant when the article is absent are Matt. 22:43 (the article is used in Mark
12:36); Acts 4:25,
RV
(absent in some texts); 19:2, 6; Rom. 14:17; 1 Cor. 2:4; Gal. 5:25
(twice); 1 Pet. 1:2. Sometimes the absence is to be accounted for by the fact that
8 $
(like
) is substantially a proper name, e.g., in John 7:39. As a general rule the article
is present where the subject of the teaching is the Personality of the Holy Spirit, e.g., John
14:26, where He is spoken of in distinction from the Father and the Son. See also 15:26
and cf. Luke 3:22.
In Gal. 3:3, in the phrase “having begun in the Spirit,” it is difficult to say whether the
reference is to the “Holy Spirit” or to the quickened spirit of the believer; that it possibly
refers to the latter is not to be determined by the absence of the article, but by the contrast
with “the flesh”; on the other hand, the contrast may be between the “Holy Spirit” who in
the believer sets His seal on the perfect work of Christ, and the flesh which seeks to better
itself by works of its own. There is no preposition before either noun, and if the reference
is to the quickened spirit it cannot be dissociated from the operation of the “Holy Spirit.”
In Gal. 4:29 the phrase “after the Spirit” signifies “by supernatural power,” in contrast to
“after the flesh,” i.e., “by natural power,” and the reference must be to the “Holy Spirit”;
so in 5:17.
The full title with the article before both
$
and
(the “resumptive” use of
the article), lit., “the Spirit the Holy,” stresses the character of the Person, e.g., Matt.
12:32; Mark 3:29; 12:36; 13:11; Luke 2:26; 10:21 (
RV
); John 14:26; Acts 1:16; 5:3; 7:51;
10:44, 47; 13:2; 15:28; 19:6; 20:23, 28; 21:11; 28:25; Eph. 4:30; Heb. 3:7; 9:8; 10:15.
The Personality of the Spirit is emphasized at the expense of strict grammatical
procedure in John 14:26; 15:26; 16:8, 13, 14, where the emphatic pronoun
, “He,”
is used of Him in the masculine, whereas the noun
$
is neuter in Greek, while the
corresponding word in Aramaic, the language in which our Lord probably spoke, is
† From
Notes on Galatians,
by Hogg and Vine, p. 193.