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Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Note (9.) to HS - "Is the Holy Spirit a Person, God or an Impersonal Force From God?"

9. A trinitarian correspondent, a minister, told me that these were not properly translated with "she." I checked them by comparing them with many uses of "and she …" and "and he …" and discovered what every Hebrew scholar probably learns very early in his studies. The suffixes and prefixes to the basic word give us the information we need. For example,
Numbers 11:26 in all texts, speaking of the Spirit, uses the word nuach (Nun, Het) for 'rested' and it has the prefix Waw ('and') and the prefix Tau ('she') which altogether literally means "and she rested." ["and he rested" would be Waw Yod Nun Het.]

Judges 3:10 in all texts, including the one the KJV was translated from, speaking of the Spirit, uses the word hayah (hay yod) for 'came' and has the prefix waw ('and') and the prefix tau ('she') which, altogether, literally means "and she came."

Judges 6:34 in all texts, speaking of the Spirit, uses labash (Lamed, Beth, Shin) for "came" and has the feminine ending hay (-ah) which, altogether, labashah, means "she came."

1 Sam. 10:6 in all texts, speaking of the Spirit, uses tsalach (Tzade, Lamed, Heth) for 'come' and has the prefix Waw ('and') and the suffix Hay (-ah), the feminine ending, which, altogether, means "and she will come."

1 Sam. 11:6 in all texts, speaking of the Spirit, uses tsalach (Tzade, Lamed, Heth) for 'come' and has the prefix Waw ('and') and the prefix Tau ('she') which, altogether, means "and she came."

Something else that can be discovered merely by looking at the Hebrew text (if you refuse to believe serious Hebrew scholars): Numbers 11:26 in all texts, speaking of the Spirit, uses the word nuach (Nun, Het) for 'rested' and it has the prefix Waw ('and') and the prefix Tau ('she') which altogether literally means "and she rested." ["and he rested" would be Waw Yod Nun Het.]

Judges 3:10 in all texts, including the one the KJV was translated from, speaking of the Spirit, uses the word hayah (Hay Yod) for 'came' and has the prefix Waw ('and') and the prefix Tau ('she') which, altogether, literally means "and she came."

To be certain that the prefix Waw = 'and' and the second prefix Tau = 'she' let's examine the uses of shoob (shin beth) which means "came again" or "returned."

1 Sam. 30:12 (speaking of the Spirit: "and she returned" = Waw (and) Tau (she) Shin - Beth (shoob or 'returned').

Others (not Spirit-related):

Gen. 8:9 ("and she returned") = Waw ('and') Tau ('she') Shin-Beth (shoob or "returned").

Judges 11:39 ("and she returned") = Waw ('and') Tau ('she') Shin-Beth (shoob or "returned").

2 Sam. 11:4 ("and she returned") = Waw ('and') Tau ('she') Shin-Beth (shoob or "returned").

And,

Exodus 4:20 ("and he returned") = Waw ('and') Yod ('he') Shin-Beth (shoob or "returned").

Numbers 23:6 ("and he returned") = Waw ('and') Yod ('he') Shin-Beth (shoob or "returned").

2 Sam. 19:39 ("and he returned") = Waw ('and') Yod ('he') Shin-Beth (shoob or "returned").

1 Kings 19:21 ("and he returned") = Waw ('and') Yod ('he') Shin-Beth (shoob or "returned").

And just to be doubly certain that the prefix Waw = 'and' and the second prefix Tau = "she" really meant what has been said, I checked out a number of uses (not related to the spirit) of "and he said" and of "and she said." The usage remained true:

Gen. 3:1 "and he said" = amar ('said') Aleph, Mem, Reysh. It is prefixed with Waw ('and') and Yod ('he').

Gen. 3:10 "and he said" = amar ('said') Aleph, Mem, Reysh. It is prefixed with Waw ('and') and Yod ('he').

Gen. 3:11 "and he said" = amar ('said') Aleph, Mem, Reysh. It is prefixed with Waw ('and') and Yod ('he').

Gen. 4:10 "and he said" = amar ('said') Aleph, Mem, Reysh. It is prefixed with Waw ('and') and Yod ('he').

Gen. 18:9 "and he said" = amar ('said') Aleph, Mem, Reysh. It is prefixed with Waw ('and') and Yod ('he').

Gen. 18:10 "and he said" = amar ('said') Aleph, Mem, Reysh. It is prefixed with Waw ('and') and Yod ('he').
…………..……

Gen. 3:13 "and she said" = amar ("said") Aleph, Mem, Reysh. It is prefixed with Waw ('and') and Tau ('she').

Gen. 16:2 "and she said" = amar ("said") Aleph, Mem, Reysh. It is prefixed with Waw ('and') and Tau ('she').

Gen. 16:5 "and she said" = amar ("said") Aleph, Mem, Reysh. It is prefixed with Waw ('and') and Tau ('she').

Gen. 16:8 "and she said" = amar ("said") Aleph, Mem, Reysh. It is prefixed with Waw ('and') and Tau ('she').

Gen. 24:18 "and she said" = amar ("said") Aleph, Mem, Reysh. It is prefixed with Waw ('and') and Tau ('she').

Gen. 24:19 "and she said" = amar ("said") Aleph, Mem, Reysh. It is prefixed with Waw ('and') and Tau ('she').

Gen. 24:24 "and she said" = amar ("said") Aleph, Mem, Reysh. It is prefixed with Waw ('and') and Tau ('she').

Gen. 24:58 "and she said" = amar ("said") Aleph, Mem, Reysh. It is prefixed with Waw ('and') and Tau ('she').

I believe it is fair to say that my initial statements concerning "she" being used for the Spirit in the OT are correct.

A spirit person (a person with a body of spirit rather than flesh) could be called 'a spirit' (see Thayer), but, in these cases, the Bible writer would often violate the gender agreement rule to show that this was a person not a force. Yes, by making the pronouns for it masculine he was saying this is a spirit [person]. This is not the case with "Holy Spirit." What seems to be involved here is similar to calling Jehovah 'a rock' in a figurative sense. The difference is that there could be no confusion here that it was a figurative expression. Using the substance a person is composed of as a term for that person is a similar figurative expression. But is is more likely to be confused with the other more literal meanings of "spirit."

It would have been the same way if "flesh" had been feminine. But since it was masculine in both Greek and Hebrew anyway, its pronouns probably would have remained masculine anyway. In other words if the usage had been "a flesh stood before them," meaning a 'fleshly person,' and flesh had been feminine, it probably would have used masculine pronouns also. As it is only context (which would have been quite adequate in such a case) would have told us it meant a person not a lump of inanimate flesh.

With spirit being feminine (neuter) in the Hebrew and neuter in the Greek and capable of being used for a spirit (a person composed of the "energy"/"substance" known as 'spirit') and for an impersonal force of a similar "energy/substance" (see Thayer's and other serious scholars) there had to be a way to distinguish them when context might not be not sufficient.

That way appears to be by ascribing masculine pronouns to the feminine or neuter (in the Greek) antecedent "a spirit."

Notice these examples presented by the same trinitarian correspondent as proof that the neuter "spirit" can obviously be a person:

"1 Kings 22:21 " 'Then a spirit [feminine gender] came forward and [he, Yod] stood before the Lord, and [he, Yod] said, 'I will persuade him.' - This spirit has personal qualities. The context shows clearly that it is an angel or spiritual being". - [But Instead of following the examples of the Holy Spirit where the pronoun prefix is feminine to agree with the feminine "Spirit" here we have a violation of the agreement rule. I believe this was in order to show that this was a person composed of spirit (a spirit person): 'And he stood' (waw yod ….) 'and he said' (waw yod aleph mem reysh)]

"2 Chron. 18:20 "Then there came out a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and [he] said, I will entice him. And the LORD said unto him, Wherewith?" - ["and he said" Waw Yod Aleph Mem. reysh.]

"Job 4:15,16 "Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up: It [He] stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof: an image [was] before mine eyes, [there was] silence, and I heard a voice, [saying]..." - ["He stood still" (Yod Ayin Mem Daleth).]

"Ezek. 1:21 "When those went, [these] went; and when those stood, [these] stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creature [was] in the wheels." - [Not a person but the force or power of the living creature was in the wheels, moving them.]

"Isaiah 48:16 "Come near to Me, hear this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; From the time that it was, I [YHWH] was there. And now the Lord God and His Spirit Have sent Me [Isaiah -see RSV; NAB; GNB punctuation]." - [Jehovah and his invisible, impersonal, communicating, motivating Force - which is controlled by God Himself.]
[Ezekiel 1:19, 20, speaking about the angels or cherubim who control the movement of God's chariot, says literally, "and when the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them; and when the living creatures rose from the earth, the wheels rose .... for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels." - RSV. It is clear that this means the controlling power of the cherubim moved the wheels. In fact the very trinitarian Good News Bible (GNB) paraphrases this to read: "the wheels did exactly what the creatures did, because the creatures controlled them."]

But the word "spirit" as used for these persons who are composed of spirit is not a literal word or title of personal position as relating to other persons [e.g., "God,: "Lord," etc.], or the word or title showing personal relationship to other persons, or (most important) the very personal name by which other persons identify him for them. They are literally angels, demons, devils, etc.

Again, we have the members of the "Godhead" according to trinitarians: (1) 'God' (masc.); 'the Father' (masc.); and most important: the personal name: Jehovah (masc.); (2) 'The Christ' (masc.) or 'Messiah' (masc.); the 'Son of God' (masc.); and most important: the personal name Jesus (masc.); (3) The Holy Spirit (neuter in NT language, feminine in OT language) and no personal relational title ("mother" "brother," daughter," etc.) and, (most important) no personal name! (or if it is a 'personal' name, it is proof that it is not a person since it is neuter in the NT language - and feminine for neuter in Hebrew!)

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