Holy Spirit
Encyclopedia
Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of the Hebrew Bible
, but understood differently in the main Abrahamic religions
.
While the general concept of a "Spirit" that permeates the cosmos has been used in various religions (e.g. Brahman
in Hinduism
and Tao
in Taoism
), the term Holy Spirit specifically refers to the beliefs held in the Abrahamic religions.
For the majority of Christians, the belief in the Holy Trinity implies the existence of three distinct Holy Persons: God the Father
, God the Son
and God the Holy Spirit being One Eternal Triune God. This doctrine and designation, however, are not shared by all Christians denominations, or the other Abrahamic religions.
. The Holy Spirit is seen by mainstream Christians as one Person of the Triune God, who revealed His Holy Name YHWH
to his people Israel
, sent His Eternally Begotten Son Jesus to save them from God's wrath
, and sent the Holy Spirit to sanctify and give life to his Church. The Triune God manifests as three Persons (Greek
hypostases
), in One Divine Being (Greek
: Ousia
), called the Godhead
(from Old English: Godhood), the Divine Essence of God.
. (Found once in Psalm 51:11 and twice in Isaiah 63:10,11) Although, the term "spirit" in the Hebrew Scriptures, in reference to "God's spirit", does occur more times. In Judaism
, God is One, the idea of God as a duality
or trinity
among gentiles may be Shituf
(or "not purely monotheistic"). The term Ruach HaKodesh
(Holy Spirit) is found frequently in Talmud
ic and Midrash
ic literature. In some cases it signifies prophetic inspiration, while in others it is used as a hypostatization or a metonym for God. The Rabbinic “Holy Spirit,” has a certain degree of personification, but it remains, “a quality belonging to God, one of his attributes” and not, as in mainstream Christianity, representative of “any metaphysical divisions in the Godhead.”
In Judaism
, the references to The Spirit of God, Ruach HaKodesh
, The Holy Spirit of YHWH, abound, however it has rejected any idea of The Eternal God as being either Dual or Triune. The term ruach ha-kodesh (Hebrew: רוח הקודש, "holy spirit" also transliterated ruah ha-qodesh) occurs once in Psalm 51:11
and also twice in the Book of Isaiah
(Isaiah 63:10,11) Those are the only three times that the precise phrase "ruach hakodesh" is used in the Hebrew Scriptures
, although the noun
ruach (רוח, literally "breath" or "wind") in various combinations, some referring to God's "spirit", is used often. The noun ruach, much like the English word breath, can mean either wind or some invisible moving force.
, the Holy Spirit (Arabic
: الروح القدس al-Ruh al-Qudus, "the-Spirit the-Holy") is mentioned several times in the Qur'an
, where it acts as an agent of divine action or communication. In Hadith
it is commonly identified with the angel Gabriel
(Arabic Jibreel). The Spirit (الروح al-Ruh, without the adjective "holy") is also used as the creative spirit from God by which God enlivened Adam
, and inspired the angels and the prophets. The belief in Trinity
, as it is defined in the Qur'an, is explicitly forbidden by the Qur'an and called a grave sin. The same applies to any idea of the duality of God (Allah). Though grammatical gender
has no bearing on actual gender in non-personal nouns, the term holy spirit translates in and is used in the masculine form in all the Qur'an. In Arabic language
the word "Holy Spirit" does not translate as سكينة Sakinah used in a feminine term. The term sakinah means state of relaxation.
has the concept of the Most Great Spirit, seen as the bounty of God. It is usually used to describe the descent of the Spirit of God upon the messengers/prophets of God, which are known as Manifestations of God, and include among others Jesus
, Muhammad
and Bahá'u'lláh
. In Bahá'í belief the Holy Spirit is the conduit through which the wisdom of God becomes directly associated with his messenger, and it has been described variously in different religions such as the burning bush
to Moses, the sacred fire
to Zoroaster, the dove to Jesus, the angel Gabriel
to Muhammad, and the maid of heaven
to Bahá'u'lláh. The Bahá'í view rejects the idea that the Holy Spirit is a partner to God in the Godhead, but rather is the pure essence of God's attributes.
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible is a term used by biblical scholars outside of Judaism to refer to the Tanakh , a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual antecedent of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament...
, but understood differently in the main Abrahamic religions
Abrahamic religions
Abrahamic religions are the monotheistic faiths emphasizing and tracing their common origin to Abraham or recognizing a spiritual tradition identified with him...
.
While the general concept of a "Spirit" that permeates the cosmos has been used in various religions (e.g. Brahman
Brahman
In Hinduism, Brahman is the one supreme, universal Spirit that is the origin and support of the phenomenal universe. Brahman is sometimes referred to as the Absolute or Godhead which is the Divine Ground of all being...
in Hinduism
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
and Tao
Tao
Dao or Tao is a Chinese word meaning 'way', 'path', 'route', or sometimes more loosely, 'doctrine' or 'principle'...
in Taoism
Taoism
Taoism refers to a philosophical or religious tradition in which the basic concept is to establish harmony with the Tao , which is the mechanism of everything that exists...
), the term Holy Spirit specifically refers to the beliefs held in the Abrahamic religions.
For the majority of Christians, the belief in the Holy Trinity implies the existence of three distinct Holy Persons: God the Father
God the Father
God the Father is a gendered title given to God in many monotheistic religions, particularly patriarchal, Abrahamic ones. In Judaism, God is called Father because he is the creator, life-giver, law-giver, and protector...
, God the Son
God the Son
God the Son is the second person of the Trinity in Christian theology. The doctrine of the Trinity identifies Jesus of Nazareth as God the Son, united in essence but distinct in person with regard to God the Father and God the Holy Spirit...
and God the Holy Spirit being One Eternal Triune God. This doctrine and designation, however, are not shared by all Christians denominations, or the other Abrahamic religions.
Christianity
For the majority of Christians, the Holy Spirit (prior English language usage: the Holy Ghost from Old English gast, “spirit”) is the third person of the Holy Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and is Almighty GodGod in Christianity
In Christianity, God is the eternal being that created and preserves the universe. God is believed by most Christians to be immanent , while others believe the plan of redemption show he will be immanent later...
. The Holy Spirit is seen by mainstream Christians as one Person of the Triune God, who revealed His Holy Name YHWH
Tetragrammaton
The term Tetragrammaton refers to the name of the God of Israel YHWH used in the Hebrew Bible.-Hebrew Bible:...
to his people Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, sent His Eternally Begotten Son Jesus to save them from God's wrath
Divine retribution
Divine retribution is supernatural punishment of a person, a group of people, or all humanity by a deity in response to some human action.Many cultures have a story about how a deity exacted punishment on previous inhabitants of their land, causing their doom.An example of divine retribution is the...
, and sent the Holy Spirit to sanctify and give life to his Church. The Triune God manifests as three Persons (Greek
Koine Greek
Koine Greek is the universal dialect of the Greek language spoken throughout post-Classical antiquity , developing from the Attic dialect, with admixture of elements especially from Ionic....
hypostases
Hypostasis (religion)
In Christian theology, a hypostasis or person is one of the three elements of the Holy Trinity.In Christian usage, the Greek word hypostasis means beneath-standing or underpinning and, by extension, the existence of some thing...
), in One Divine Being (Greek
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
: Ousia
Ousia
Ousia is the Ancient Greek noun formed on the feminine present participle of ; it is analogous to the English participle being, and the modern philosophy adjectival ontic...
), called the Godhead
Godhead (Christianity)
Godhead is a Middle English variant of the word godhood, and denotes the Divine Nature or Substance of the Christian God, or the Trinity. Within some traditions such as Mormonism, the term is used as a nontrinitarian substitute for the term Trinity, denoting the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit not as...
(from Old English: Godhood), the Divine Essence of God.
Judaism
The term "holy spirit" only occurs three times in the Hebrew BibleHebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible is a term used by biblical scholars outside of Judaism to refer to the Tanakh , a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual antecedent of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament...
. (Found once in Psalm 51:11 and twice in Isaiah 63:10,11) Although, the term "spirit" in the Hebrew Scriptures, in reference to "God's spirit", does occur more times. In Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
, God is One, the idea of God as a duality
Binitarianism
Binitarianism is a Christian theology of two personae, two individuals, or two aspects in one Godhead . Classically, binitarianism is understood as strict monotheism — that is, that God is an absolutely single being; and yet with binitarianism there is a "twoness" in God...
or trinity
Trinity
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons : the Father, the Son , and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial . Put another way, the three persons of the Trinity are of one being...
among gentiles may be Shituf
Shituf
is a term used in Jewish sources for the worship of the God of Israel in a manner which Judaism does not deem to be monotheistic. The term connotes a theology that is not outright polytheistic, but also should not be seen as purely monotheistic...
(or "not purely monotheistic"). The term Ruach HaKodesh
Ruach HaKodesh
The Hebrew language phrase ruach ha-kodesh is a term used in the Hebrew Bible and Jewish writings to refer to the Spirit of YHVH. The Hebrew term ruakh kodeshka , without the definite article, also occurs...
(Holy Spirit) is found frequently in Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
ic and Midrash
Midrash
The Hebrew term Midrash is a homiletic method of biblical exegesis. The term also refers to the whole compilation of homiletic teachings on the Bible....
ic literature. In some cases it signifies prophetic inspiration, while in others it is used as a hypostatization or a metonym for God. The Rabbinic “Holy Spirit,” has a certain degree of personification, but it remains, “a quality belonging to God, one of his attributes” and not, as in mainstream Christianity, representative of “any metaphysical divisions in the Godhead.”
In Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
, the references to The Spirit of God, Ruach HaKodesh
Ruach HaKodesh
The Hebrew language phrase ruach ha-kodesh is a term used in the Hebrew Bible and Jewish writings to refer to the Spirit of YHVH. The Hebrew term ruakh kodeshka , without the definite article, also occurs...
, The Holy Spirit of YHWH, abound, however it has rejected any idea of The Eternal God as being either Dual or Triune. The term ruach ha-kodesh (Hebrew: רוח הקודש, "holy spirit" also transliterated ruah ha-qodesh) occurs once in Psalm 51:11
Psalm 51
Psalm 51 , traditionally referred to as the Miserere, its Latin incipit, is one of the Penitential Psalms. It begins: Have mercy on me, O God....
and also twice in the Book of Isaiah
Book of Isaiah
The Book of Isaiah is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, preceding the books of Ezekiel, Jeremiah and the Book of the Twelve...
(Isaiah 63:10,11) Those are the only three times that the precise phrase "ruach hakodesh" is used in the Hebrew Scriptures
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible is a term used by biblical scholars outside of Judaism to refer to the Tanakh , a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual antecedent of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament...
, although the noun
Noun
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
ruach (רוח, literally "breath" or "wind") in various combinations, some referring to God's "spirit", is used often. The noun ruach, much like the English word breath, can mean either wind or some invisible moving force.
Islam
In IslamIslam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
, the Holy Spirit (Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
: الروح القدس al-Ruh al-Qudus, "the-Spirit the-Holy") is mentioned several times in the Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
, where it acts as an agent of divine action or communication. In Hadith
Hadith
The term Hadīth is used to denote a saying or an act or tacit approval or criticism ascribed either validly or invalidly to the Islamic prophet Muhammad....
it is commonly identified with the angel Gabriel
Gabriel
In Abrahamic religions, Gabriel is an Archangel who typically serves as a messenger to humans from God.He first appears in the Book of Daniel, delivering explanations of Daniel's visions. In the Gospel of Luke Gabriel foretells the births of both John the Baptist and of Jesus...
(Arabic Jibreel). The Spirit (الروح al-Ruh, without the adjective "holy") is also used as the creative spirit from God by which God enlivened Adam
Adam
Adam is a figure in the Book of Genesis. According to the creation myth of Abrahamic religions, he is the first human. In the Genesis creation narratives, he was created by Yahweh-Elohim , and the first woman, Eve was formed from his rib...
, and inspired the angels and the prophets. The belief in Trinity
Trinity
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons : the Father, the Son , and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial . Put another way, the three persons of the Trinity are of one being...
, as it is defined in the Qur'an, is explicitly forbidden by the Qur'an and called a grave sin. The same applies to any idea of the duality of God (Allah). Though grammatical gender
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
has no bearing on actual gender in non-personal nouns, the term holy spirit translates in and is used in the masculine form in all the Qur'an. In Arabic language
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
the word "Holy Spirit" does not translate as سكينة Sakinah used in a feminine term. The term sakinah means state of relaxation.
Bahá'í Faith
The Bahá'í FaithBahá'í Faith
The Bahá'í Faith is a monotheistic religion founded by Bahá'u'lláh in 19th-century Persia, emphasizing the spiritual unity of all humankind. There are an estimated five to six million Bahá'ís around the world in more than 200 countries and territories....
has the concept of the Most Great Spirit, seen as the bounty of God. It is usually used to describe the descent of the Spirit of God upon the messengers/prophets of God, which are known as Manifestations of God, and include among others Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
, Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
and Bahá'u'lláh
Bahá'u'lláh
Bahá'u'lláh , born ' , was the founder of the Bahá'í Faith. He claimed to be the prophetic fulfilment of Bábism, a 19th-century outgrowth of Shí‘ism, but in a broader sense claimed to be a messenger from God referring to the fulfilment of the eschatological expectations of Islam, Christianity, and...
. In Bahá'í belief the Holy Spirit is the conduit through which the wisdom of God becomes directly associated with his messenger, and it has been described variously in different religions such as the burning bush
Burning bush
The burning bush is an object described by the Book of Exodus as being located on Mount Sinai; according to the narrative, the bush was on fire, but was not consumed by the flames, hence the name...
to Moses, the sacred fire
Atar
Atar is the Zoroastrian concept of holy fire, sometimes described in abstract terms as "burning and unburning fire" or "visible and invisible fire" ....
to Zoroaster, the dove to Jesus, the angel Gabriel
Holy Spirit (Islam)
The Holy Spirit in Islam is mentioned several times in the Quran, and is interpreted by many muslims as referring to the angel Gabriel.-The Holy Spirit, al-Ruh al-Quds, in the Quran:...
to Muhammad, and the maid of heaven
Maid of Heaven
Maid of Heaven refers to a vision that Bahá’u’lláh, founder of the Bahá'í Faith had of a maiden from God, through whom he received his mission as a Messenger of God.In his Súriy-i-Haykal Bahá’u’lláh describes his vision as follows:...
to Bahá'u'lláh. The Bahá'í view rejects the idea that the Holy Spirit is a partner to God in the Godhead, but rather is the pure essence of God's attributes.
See also
- Baptism with the Holy SpiritBaptism with the Holy SpiritBaptism with the Holy Spirit in Christian theology is a term describing baptism in or with the Spirit of God...
- Cult of the Holy SpiritCult of the Holy SpiritThe Cult of the Holy Spirit is a religious sub-culture, inspired by Christian millenarian mystics, associated with Azorean Catholic identity, consisting of iconography, architecture, and religious practices that have continued in many communities of the archipelago as well as the broader...
- Gender of the Holy SpiritGender of the Holy SpiritThe gender of the Holy Spirit has been the object of some discussion in recent years, questioning whether the Holy Spirit should be referred to as "he", "she" or "it".-Grammatical considerations:...
- God in ChristianityGod in ChristianityIn Christianity, God is the eternal being that created and preserves the universe. God is believed by most Christians to be immanent , while others believe the plan of redemption show he will be immanent later...
- PneumatologyPneumatologyPneumatology is the study of spiritual beings and phenomena, especially the interactions between humans and God.Pneuma is Greek for "breath", which metaphorically describes a non-material being or influence....
- Spirit of GodSpirit of GodSpirit of God may refer to:* Holy Spirit, a general discussion** Holy Spirit *** Seven Spirits of God, Book of Revelation** Holy Spirit ** Holy Spirit ** Paraclete * Ahura Mazda...