Son’s origin in order to bridge the gap between infinity and absoluteness and man’s inability to comprehend and visualize spiritual reality.The
grass withers, the
flower fades,
when the רוּחַ (
breath) of the Lord
blows upon it;
surely the
people are
grass. The
grass withers, the
flower fades, but the
word of our
God stands forever (Isaiah 40:7–8).Both רוּחַ and πνεῦμα, its counterpart in the Septuagint (LXX) as well as the New Testament, are varied and diverse in meaning: spirit, breath, and wind. God’s רוּחַ is the Third Person of the Godhead, Who proceeds from either the Father (Matthew 10:20; Romans 8:10-11; 2 Corinthians 1:21–22; Ephesians 3:14–16) or His Son (Romans 8:9; Galatians 4:6; Philippians 1:19; 1 Peter 1:11.) The function of His Breath is to source {cf. Romans 15:19; 1 Corinthians 3:16; Galatians 5:22; Colossians 3:16}, convey {cf. Matthew 4:4,10:20; John 16:7–8; 1 Corinthians 2:10,13; 1 John 5:7} and execute {cf. Zechariah 4:6; Romans 8:11} all that God desires.Then the
Lord God formed
man…and
breathed into his
nostrils the
breath [
נְשָׁמָה] of
life; and
man became a
living being. (Genesis 2:7)Job: “In (the Lord’s)
hand is the
life of
every living thing, and the
breath [ רוּחַ ] of
all mankind.” (Job 12:10)Job: “For as
long as…the
breath [ רוּחַ ] of
God is in my
nostrils” (Job 27:3).Elihu: “
If (God) should
determine to do so, if He should
gather to Himself His breath [רוּחַ] and His anger [
נְשָׁמָה],
all flesh would
perish together and
man would
return to
dust.” (Job 34:14–15)Now 2 Timothy 3:16 affirms that
“all Scripture is
inspired by
God…” with ‘inspiration’ being a God-breathed activity: His breath fills a person with the motivation and ability to do something creative for His glory. Anthropomorphically speaking, whenever God “speaks” or “says,” His speech is caused, borne, sourced, and delivered by His breath:…Yahweh’s
word came to me
saying… (Jeremiah 1:5)The early English translations for
