[B-Greek] Spirit or spirit
Eric Weiss
eweiss at gte.net
Wed Feb 26 11:46:23 EST 2003
In a message dated 2/26/2003 10:16:35 AM Eastern Standard Time,
andy at ipbackbone.co.uk writes:
> Thanks for the response, what will you say about the verse below:
>
> Rom 8:10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin;
but
> the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
>
> I think that word Spirit here, refers to the spirit of man. Because it
> would not make sense to say "the Spirit of God is life because of
> righteousness". The Spirit of God is God in Himself because of who He
> is. The spirit of man is life (made alive) because of righteousness is
> more appropriate.
>
> Now it has being represented as Spirit instead of spirit. This is
> similar to the initial issue I brought up. All I need is a clear
> indication of when it should be Spirit and not spirit and visa versa.
Both the New American Standard Bible and the New International Version
consider the "spirit" in 8:10 to be man's spirit, because they do not
capitalize it, whereas they do capitalize Spirit in 8:11. In fact, the
NIV translates the phrase in 8:10 as "yet YOUR spirit is alive because
of righteousness." The Amplified Bible also puts "spirit" in lower case
in 8:10, as does the Rheims New Testament and the New American Bible
(which also has "spirit" in lower case in 8:2). The New Revised Standard
Version uses an upper-case "Spirit," but has a footnote stating "Or
spirit". The NET Bible uses "Spirit" ("the Spirit is your life") and
surprisingly doesn't even have a translator's note suggesting the
alternative "spirit."
Thus, there is apparently (or should I say "obviously") disagreement
among translators re: some of these verses in Romans 8 as to when
"spirit" refers to God's Spirit or man's spirit. The problem is that the
same word PNEUMA (in its various forms) is used for both, so one must
use context, grammar and theology to determine which is meant in each
occurrence.
- - -
Eric Weiss
http://home1.gte.net/vzn05pnm/index.htm
S.D.G.
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