[B-Greek] Spirit or spirit

Polycarp66 at aol.com Polycarp66 at aol.com
Wed Feb 26 09:54:50 EST 2003


In a message dated 2/26/2003 9:30:16 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
andy.nwebube at nl.wanadoo.com writes:

> 9      But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that
> the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of
> Christ, he is none of his.
> 26    Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know
> not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh
> intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
> 27    And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the
> Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the
> will of God. 
> 
> In verse 9, I reckon that the spirit means the spirit of man, because it
> does not make sense that we walk in the Spirit of  God. If the
> comparison is with the flesh of man then it seems likely that it should
> mean mans spirit and not the Spirit of God.
> 
> Secondly, in verse 27, logically, the way it makes sense to me is as
> follows: 
> 
> "He who searches the heart of men, "then" knows the mind of the spirit
> of "men",
> (why/how?) Because the Spirit of God by our spirit (giving us
> utterances) makes intercession for..."
> 
> I checked myself and it turns out that the translations for the spirit
> of man is "pneumati" and the Spirit of God is "pneuma" or "pneumatov".
> Could anybody throw more light on this issue with the Greek translation.
> Especially with the verses I listed above. I know for a fact that in
> Galatians 5:16 although spirit was written as representing the Spirit of
> God, it means mans spirit.
> 
In v. 9 PNEUMATI is simply the dative form of PNEUMA.  It is not a different 
word having a different significance.  You state that in v. 9 you think that 
it is the spirit of man which is envisioned rather than the Spirit of God.  I 
don't think that from Paul's argument this is a tenable position.  I'll not 
deal with Gal 5.16 since I don't wish to get distracted from the issue at 
hand.  Paul argues in Rom 8.9 that if the Spirit of God dwells in a person 
then they are not "in the flesh" so what is being set forth is a contrast 
between being "in the flesh" (EN SARKI) and "in the Spirit" (EN PNEUMATI).

gfsomsel


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