The Word "Spirit" and Its Range of Meanings

We are going to see in this study that the term "spirit" and its variants: "spiritual," "spiritualistic," "spiritualism," and "spiritualize," have multiple different uses. And this is of course not peculiar to the word "spirit," it's just the way that all words work. People use words in different ways and understanding an author's meaning is not always as simple as we might imagine. This is especially the case when dealing with a word with a long history and we're considering it's use in writings from different times. And what complicates things even more with the word "spirit" is that when we read it in the bible, it is actually a stand-in for a Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek word, and each of these words has its own range of meanings that isn't exactly the same as the range of meanings for the English word "spirit" nor are they the same as each other.

When you see the word "spirit" in the New Testament, it's usually a translation of the Greek word "pneuma" and when you see it in the Old Testament, it's a translation of the Hebrew word "ruach." Spiritus, pneuma, and ruach, all originally referred to breath and wind. But this similarity in basic meaning shouldn't be confused for an equivalence of meaning in every respect. Words often acquire new meanings through metaphorical uses, and different cultures use different metaphors. So in Hebrew, one metaphorical usage of ruach had to do with life, while in Greek, a metaphorical usage of pneuma had to do with the mind. As we discus, the word "spirit" is sometimes used to mean "non-physical" or "immaterial," although this usage came about around the 14th century - way after the time of Jesus and the writings of the Apostles.

We also take a look at the different ways the SDA pioneers used the word "spirit" and its variants, making special note that when they used the words "spiritualism" and "spiritualistic." to our knowledge, the early SDAs always used the word "spiritualism" to mean "immaterialism." And a "spiritualistic" idea to them was the same thing as an "immaterialistic" idea. They always used these terms to describe something they rejected. 

This will hopefully be a great help, not only when it comes to understanding the biblical authors, but when it comes to understanding the writings of Ellen White and the early SDAs as well. Misunderstanding an author's writings, especially an inspired author's writings, can result in huge amounts of harm, as the history of the dark ages more than demonstrates. So, let's be careful and be attentive readers.

 

For further study, see:

"Materialism: Our Forgotten Foundation," by Trent Wilde - 

http://www.bdsda.com/materialism-our-forgotten-foundation-2/

Sabbath School Q4 2022: On Death, Dying, and the Future Hope - Week 14, "A New Heaven and a New Earth"

A Branch Davidian Seventh-Day Adventist perspective on the Sabbath School lesson.

www.bdsda.com

Email us at bdsdalit@gmail.com for comments and literature requests.