[B-Greek] Spirit or spirit

andy nwebube andy at ipbackbone.co.uk
Wed Feb 26 12:02:53 EST 2003


What do you think of Mathew Henry's interpretation of this verse?
(source: Matthew Henry Commentary on the Bible). The interesting part is
in the second paragraph  

"Romans 8:26-27 Though the infirmities of Christians are many and great,
so that they would be overpowered if left to themselves, yet the Holy
Spirit supports them. The Spirit, as an enlightening Spirit, teaches us
what to pray for; as a sanctifying Spirit, works and stirs up praying
graces; as a comforting Spirit, silences our fears, and helps us over
all discouragements. The Holy Spirit is the spring of all desires toward
God, which are often more than words can utter." 

"The Spirit who searches the hearts, can perceive the mind and will of
the "spirit", the renewed mind, and advocates his cause. The "Spirit"
makes intercession to God, and the enemy prevails not."

He says that the Spirit in this case is the spirit of man, and not of
God 

Regards,
Andy

> -----Original Message-----
> From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:b-greek-
> bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Eric Weiss
> Sent: 26 February 2003 16:46
> To: Biblical Greek
> Subject: [B-Greek] Spirit or spirit
> 
> 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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