From: Peter Phillips (p.m.phillips@cliff.shef.ac.uk)
Date: Mon Dec 01 1997 - 16:09:35 EST
Thanks to Rolf for feeding yet more tidbits of information - its like being
a shark in an aquarium - my diet and so my reaction is dictated by that
which is outside my grasp!!!
Rolf points to a few occurences of PNEUMA with adjectives in Luke - look at
just some of these fellow b-greekers!
Luke 13:11 GUNH PNEUMA EXOUSA ASQENEIAS
Luke 4:33 ANQRWPOS EXWN PNEUMA DAIMONIOU AKAQARTOU
Luke 7:21 EQERAPEUSEN ... PNEUMATWN PONHRWN
Luke 8:2 GUNAIKES ... HSAN TEQERAPEUMENAI APO PNEUMATWN PONERWN...
Luke 8:29 PARHGGEILEN GAR TWI PNEUMATI TWI AKAQARTWI
Clearly the first two examples provide something of a similar picture to
our Luke 2:25 situation - an anarthrous use of PNEUMA linked to a
descriptive adjective and focussing attention upon the state of the subject
being considered - the woman who was unwell in her spirit (or 'with a
spirit of unwellness'); a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon (!!!
can you have clean demons?). You can see why Godet was arguing for PNEUMA
as influence rather than Spirit in some of these instances. PNEUMA
certainly is not being used as a word which = Holy Spirit. Therefore we
would need to read Luke 2:25 in the way I suggested at the start of this
thread - Simeon was "a man who had a spirit, a holy one, upon him" i.e.
this was a holy man. We later see that this holy man was in touch
with/taught by the Holy Spirit but it is interesting that the phrase is
totally different in this second use in Luke 2:26 - TOU PNEUMATOS TOU AGIOU
- and that the reference to the Spirit is different again in verse 27 - he
came to the temple EN TWI PNEUMATI.
There seems nothing wrong here with interpreting the three different PNEUMA
occurrences as different ideas. The first refers to Simeon's character -
he was a holy man. The second refers to his connection with the Holy
Spirit - he has been warned/instructed by the Holy Spirit that he will not
die until he has seen the Messiah. Thirdly the reference is to his
attitude as he enters the temple which allows him to be open to the
Spirit's prompting about the true identity of Jesus - he had his spiritual
ears open, as it were.
Any comments or are you all bored with this by now?
Pete Phillips
Cliff College
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