Holy Spirit

VIEW:41 DATA:01-04-2020

HOLY SPIRIT.?The Christian doctrine of the Holy Spirit arises out of the experience of the Church, as it Interprets, and is itself interpreted by, the promise of the Comforter given by Jesus to His disciples (Joh_14:1-31; Joh_15:1-27; Joh_16:1-33). This appeal to experience follows the method adopted by St. Peter in his Pentecostal sermon (Act_2:33). The teaching may briefly be stated as follows: The Holy Spirit is God; a Person within the Godhead; the Third Person, the knowledge of whom depends on the revelation of the Father and the Son, from both of whom He proceeds. He was in the world, and spoke by the prophets before the Word became flesh, and was Himself the agent in that creative act. Through Him the atonement was consummated. He is the life-giving presence within the universal Church, the Divine agent in its sacramental and authoritative acts; communicating Himself as a presence and power to the individual Christian; mediating to him forgiveness and new birth; nourishing, increasing, and purifying his whole personality; knitting him into the fellowship of saints; and finally, through the resurrection of the body, bringing him to the fulness of eternal life. The purpose of this article is to justify this teaching from Scripture.
1. The promise of Christ.?It is unnecessary to discuss the historical character of the Last Discourses as presented in John, because the fact of the promise of the Spirit is sufficiently attested by St. Luke (Luk_24:49, Act_1:4-5; Act_1:8; Act_2:33), and its significance corroborated by the whole tenor of the NT. The specific promise of the Paraclete (Joh_14:16-17; Joh_14:26; Joh_15:26; Joh_16:7-15) must be read in view of the wider promise of the Abiding Presence, which is its background (Joh_14:2-3; Joh_14:18-23, Joh_15:4-11). The first truth to be grasped by the Christian disciple is that to see Jesus is to see the Father (Joh_14:9, cf. Joh_12:45), because the Son abides in the Father (Joh_12:10 f., Joh_17:21; Joh_17:23). Next he must realize the true meaning of the comfort and peace he has found in Christ as the way through which he attains his own true end, which is to come to the Father and abide in Him (Joh_14:6-9, Joh_17:21; cf. Heb_7:25; Heb_10:19-20). So the promise takes, first, the form of a disclosure. If Jesus is not only to embody God but to be the channel through which the faithful have communion with Him, He must Himself depart to prepare abiding-places in the Father?s house (Joh_14:2), that He may lift men to the sphere of His own eternal life, and that where He is they too may be (Joh_14:5, cf. Heb_12:26). It is necessary, therefore, not only that the disciple should behold Jesus (Joh_16:16-17; Joh_16:19) as the Apostles did with their eyes (1Jn_1:1, Joh_19:35) and as later believers do through the Apostolic word (Joh_17:20, Luk_1:2), but that he should abide in Him (Joh_15:4). Thus the purpose of the Incarnation is fulfilled in the linking up of the chain?the Father in the Son; the Son in the Father; the believer in the Son; mankind in God.
The method by which Jesus is to consummate this reconciling work is declared in the promise of the Paraclete. (For the question whether the word Parakl?tos is to be translated ?Comforter,? or ?Advocate,? see art. Advocate.) Having promised another ?Comforter,? the Lord proceeds to identify Him with the Spirit (Joh_14:17), which enables Him to give to the Person, of whom He speaks, the name of ?the Holy Spirit? (Joh_14:26, the Greek having the definite article before both ?Spirit? and ?Holy?). Only once in His previous teaching is He reported to have employed this title (Mar_3:29 ||). Mar_12:36; Mar_13:11 appear to supply other instances, but comparison should be made with the parallel passages in either case (Mat_22:43, Mat_10:20, Luk_21:15). And there is something abnormal in the warning concerning the unpardonable sin, being one of the hard sayings fully interpreted only in the light of subsequent events) cf. Mar_8:34, Joh_6:58). But ?Spirit? and ?Holy Spirit? occur as used by Christ in the Synoptics (Mat_12:28, Luk_11:13; Gr. no definite article) and in John (Luk_3:8). Too much cannot be made of this argument, as we are at best dealing with a Greek tr. of the words actually used by our Lord. But it remains true that in these cases a new and unexpected development is given to old ideas, as when Nicodemus fails to understand the spiritual birth (Joh_3:10), or disciples are scandalized by the spiritual food (Joh_6:60), yet both the terms used and the thoughts represented are familiar, and postulate a previous history of doctrine, the results of which ?a master in Israel? ought at least to have apprehended. The passage read by Jesus in the synagogue at Nazareth (Luk_4:18-19, Isa_61:1-2) forms a link between the Gospel and the OT in respect to the Spirit.
2. The Spirit in OT
(1) General. The OT never uses the phrase ?the Holy Spirit.? In two passages the epithet ?holy? is applied to the Spirit, but in each it is still further qualified by a possessive pronoun (Psa_51:11 ?thy,? Isa_63:10 ?his?). But the conception of the ?Spirit of God? is characteristic, being closely related to the Word (Schultz, OT Theol. il. 184). The distinction between them is that between the breath and the voice, the latter being the articulate expression of thought, the former the force by which the word is made living. The Spirit is the life of God, and, as such, is life-giving. The account of creation in Genesis puts us in possession of the root idea (Gen_1:2-3). ?It was no blind force inherent in nature which produced this beautiful world, but a divine Thinker? (Cheyne, OP, p. 322). The Spirit is the life of God communicated by a ?word? (cf. Psa_33:6; Psa_51:11; Psa_104:30; Psa_139:7). This creative principle, which animates the universe, finds a special sphere of activity in man (Gen_2:7, Job_27:3; Job_33:4), who by its operation becomes not only a living soul, but a rational being created in the image of God and reproducing the Divine life (Gen_1:27). Thus the Spirit is the source of the higher qualities which manhood develops?administrative capacity in Joseph (Gen_41:38), military genius in Joshua (Num_27:18), judicial powers in the seventy elders (Num_11:17), the craftsman?s art in Bezalel and Oholiab (Exo_31:2; Exo_31:6). So far there is nothing directly moral in its influence. But above all it is the Spirit that reproduces in man the moral character of God (Psa_51:11; Psa_143:10, Isa_30:1, Neh_9:20), though this aspect is by no means so clearly presented as might have been expected. Wickedness grieves His Spirit (Isa_63:10), which strives with the rebellious (Gen_6:3, Neh_9:30). This comprehensive dealing, affecting alike intellect, affections, and will, arises out of the central conception, stated in the Book of Wisdom, that God made man ?an image of his own proper being? (Wis_2:23).
(2) The Chosen Race. The epithet ?holy? as applied in the OT to the Spirit, though it may include positive righteousness and purity, arises in the first instance out of the negative meaning primarily attaching to holiness in Scripture; namely, separation to Him whose being is not compassed by human infirmity and mortal limitations. The Spirit, therefore, in its more general bearing, is the indwelling influence which consecrates all things to the fulfilment of the universal purpose. But Israel believed that God had a particular purpose, which would be accomplished through His presence in the Chosen Nation. A special consecration rested upon Jacob, in view of which the Gentiles might be regarded as aliens, sinners, who were outside the purpose (Gal_2:15, Eph_2:12; Eph_4:18). Thus the presence of God?s good or holy Spirit is the peculiar endowment of the Hebrew people (Neh_9:20, Isa_63:11), which becomes the organ of the Divine self-manifestation, the prophetic nation (Psa_105:15, cf. Isa_44:1 etc.). The term ?prophet? is also applied to those who were representative leaders?to Abraham (Gen_20:7), Moses (Deu_18:15), Miriam (Exo_15:20), Deborah (Jdg_4:4), and Samuel. The Spirit ?came upon? David not only as the psalmist (2Sa_23:2) but as the ideal king (1Sa_16:13). The instruments of God?s ?preferential action??Israel, and those who guided its destiny?became the channel of revelation, the ?mouth? (Exo_4:16) through which the message was delivered. More directly still, God ?spake by the mouth of his holy prophets? (Luk_1:70; cf. Isa_51:16, Jer_1:9), who hear the word at His mouth (Eze_3:17, 1Sa_3:11).
(3) Prophecy. This brings us to the yet more definite sphere of the Spirit?s action in the OT. ?It appears to the earlier ages mainly as the spirit of prophecy? (Schultz). Among the later Jews also the Holy Spirit was equivalent to the spirit of prophecy (Cheyne). From Samuel onwards prophecy takes its place alongside the monarchy as an organized function of the national life. From the visions of seers (1Sa_9:9, 2Sa_24:11, 2Ch_9:29) and the ecstatic utterance of the earlier nebi?im (1Sa_10:6-10; 1Sa_19:23-24, 2Ki_3:15; cf. Num_11:25) to the finished literature of Isaiah and Jeremiah, revelation is essentially a direct and living communication of the Spirit to the individual prophet (Deu_34:10, Amo_3:8, Mic_3:8). Though the Spirit is still an influence rather than a personality, yet as we rise to the higher plane of prophecy, where the essential thought is that of God working, speaking, manifesting Himself personally, we approach the NT revelation. ?The Lord God hath sent me, and his spirit? (Isa_48:16, cf. Mat_10:20).
(4) The Spirit and Messiah. The point of contact between the OT and NT is the expectation of a special outpouring of the Spirit in connexion with the establishment of Messiah?s Kingdom (Eze_39:29, Joe_2:28-29, Zec_12:10; cf. Is 35, Jer_31:7-9). This was to distribute itself over the whole nation, which was no longer to be by representation from among its members the prophetic medium of Jehovah?s messages, but universally the organ of the Spirit. The diffusion of the gift to ?all flesh? corresponds with that extension of the Kingdom to include all nations in the people of God which is characteristic of later Hebrew prophecy (
Isa_56:7 etc., Psa_87:1-7, Luk_2:32). But it is on Messiah Himself that the Spirit is to rest in its fulness (Isa_11:1-5). Its presence is His anointing (Isa_61:1). This is the connexion in which the relation of the Spirit to the manifestation of righteousness is most clearly shown (Isa_11:5, Psa_45:4-7). So when Jesus of Nazareth begins His work as the Anointed One of Hebrew expectation, there lights upon Him what to the outward eye appears as a dove (Mar_1:10 ||), emblem of that brooding presence (cf. Gen_1:2) which was to find its home in the Messiah (Joh_1:33 ?abiding?); in the power of which He was to ?fulfil all righteousness? (Mat_3:15); to be driven into the wilderness for His fight with temptation (Mat_4:1); to return to His ministry in Galilee (Luk_4:14); to work as by the finger of God (Luk_11:20, cf. ||); and to accomplish His destiny in making the Atonement (Heb_9:14).

3. Theology of the Holy Spirit.?These two elements, namely, the promise of a Paraclete to the disciples, based on their experience of Himself, and the identification of that Paraclete with the Spirit of God, based on the older revelation, combine to produce that language in which Jesus expressed the Divine Personality of the Holy Spirit, and upon which the Christian theology of the subject is founded. When first the Holy Spirit is mentioned, Jesus says ?whom the Father will send in my name? (Joh_14:26). At the next stage of the revelation of the Comforter, it is ?whom I will send unto you from the Father? (Joh_15:26). Then it is the Spirit Himself coming (Joh_16:7; Joh_16:13), guiding (Joh_16:18), declaring truth (Joh_16:13), and glorifying the Son (Joh_16:14).
(1) He is from the Father. The revelation of Jesus Christ is primarily a showing of the Father (Joh_14:8-9). The principle of Jehovah?s life thus becomes in the NT the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father (Joh_15:26). This relation is consistently preserved even when the Spirit is represented as Christ?s own gift (Joh_16:15). Just as the Son is spoken of as God only in relation to the Father, and as subordinate to, in the sense of deriving His being from, Him, so there is no independent existence or even revelation of the Spirit. The technical term ?proceeding,? as adopted in the creeds, is taken from Joh_15:26, which, while it refers immediately to the coming of the Spirit into the world, is seen, when the proportions of Scripture are considered, to follow a natural order inherent in the Divine Being (cf. Rev_22:1). Already in His teaching the Lord had spoken of the ?Spirit of your Father (Mat_10:20). And the special relation of the Spirit to the Father is prominent in St. Paul. By the Spirit God raised up Jesus and will quicken men?s mortal bodies (Rom_8:11). in the Spirit the disciple is justified (1Co_6:11) and enabled to realize his redeemed sonship and address God as Father (Rom_8:14-16, Eph_2:18). His relation to God (i.e. the Father) is further asserted in many places (e.g. 1Co_2:10-12, 2Co_1:22; 2Co_5:5, Eph_4:30).
(2) This is, however, not inconsistent with, but rather results in, a dependence upon the Son (Joh_15:26; Joh_16:15; cf. Joh_15:15) which enables the Spirit to become the organ, whereby is applied to mankind the redemptive efficacy of the Incarnate Life (Joh_14:17-18; Joh_14:21; Joh_14:23; Joh_14:26, Joh_16:13-14). Jesus speaks of the Spirit as His own gift (Joh_15:26). As Christ came in the Father?s name, so will the Spirit come in Christ?s name (Joh_14:26, cf. Joh_5:43). His office is to be the witness and interpreter of Christ (Joh_15:26, Joh_16:14). The testimony of the disciples is to reflect this witness (Joh_15:27). The dependence of the Spirit on the Son, both in His eternal being and in His incarnate life, is fully horne out by the language of the NT generally. He is the Spirit of God?s Son (Gal_4:6), of the Lord [Jesus] (2Co_3:17), of Jesus (Act_16:7 RV), of Jesus Christ (Php_1:19), of Christ (Rom_8:9, 1Pe_1:11). It is to disciples only that the promise is made (Joh_14:17; Joh_17:9; Joh_17:20-21), and the experience of Pentecost corresponds with it (Act_2:1-4), the extension of the gift being offered to those only who by baptism are joined to the community (Act_2:38).
(3) The operations of the Spirit thus bestowed are all personal in character. He teaches (Joh_14:26), witnesses (Joh_15:26), guides and foretells (Joh_16:13), and glorifies the Son (Joh_16:14). So in the Acts He forbids (Act_16:7), appoints (Act_13:2), decides (Act_15:28). To Him the lie of Ananias is told (Act_5:3). And the testimony of the Epistles coincides (1Co_2:10; 1Co_3:16; 1Co_6:19, Rom_8:1-39 passim, etc.). The fellowship of the Holy Spirit is parallel with the grace of Christ and the love of God in 2Co_13:14. To the world His presence is not power, but condemnation. He is to convict the world (Joh_16:8) by carrying on in the life and work of the Church the testimony of Jesus (Joh_15:26-27, 1Co_12:3, 1Jn_5:7, Rev_19:10), in whom the prince of this world is judged (Joh_12:31; Joh_14:30). The witness, the power, and the victory of Christ are transferred to the society of His disciples through the Spirit.
4. Work of the Spirit in the Church
(1) While anticipated by His work in the world (Psa_139:7, Wis_1:7) and foreshadowed by His special relations with Israel, the presence of the Spirit is yet so far a new experience for Christians that St. John, speaking of the age before Pentecost, can say that ?the Spirit was not yet [given]? (Joh_7:39 RV). As from the point of view of the Chosen Race, those without were ?sinners of the Gentiles? (Gal_2:15), ?without God in the world? (Eph_2:12), so the world outside Christ is a stranger to the Spirit. This is made clear by the facts of Pentecost. The experience of the descent, attested, to those who were the subjects of Divine favour, by the wind and fiery tongues (Act_2:2), was granted only to the Apostles and their companions in the upper chamber (Act_2:1, cf. Act_1:13-14). The phenomena which followed (Act_2:6) were interpreted by those outside, who had heard without understanding the rushing sound, either as a mysterious gift of power (Act_2:12) or as the effect of wine (Act_2:13).
Whether the tongues were foreign languages, as the narrative of Acts taken by itself would suggest (Act_2:6), must, in the light of 1Co_14:1-19, where the gift is some form of ecstatic speech needing the correlative gift of interpretation, he regarded as at least doubtful; see also Act_10:46; Act_11:15. But that it enabled those who were not Palestinian Jews (Act_11:8-11) to realize ?the mighty works of God? (Act_11:11) is certain. The importance attached to it in the Apostolic Church was due, perhaps, to the peculiar novelty of the sign as understood to have been foretold by Christ Himself (Mar_16:17), more certainly to the fact that it was a manifestation characteristic of the Christian community. See, further, Tongues, Gift of.
Though, by the time that St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, prophecy was already attaining higher importance as a more useful and therefore greater gift (1Co_12:28-31; 1Co_14:1), the memory of the Impression created at Pentecost, as of the arrival in the world of a new and unparalleled power, united to the spiritual exaltation felt by the possessor of the gift, was still living in the Church. Nor can the Pentecostal preaching of St. Peter, with its offer of the Holy Spirit to those that repented and were baptized (Act_2:38), be regarded otherwise than as evidence, alike in the Apostles and in those who were ?added to them? (Act_2:47), that they were dealing with a new experience. That this was a transfer of the Spirit which dwelt in Christ from His baptism (Mar_1:10||), carrying with it the fulness of the Incarnate Life (Joh_1:16, Eph_3:14-19; Eph_4:13), was attested by the miracles wrought in His name (Act_3:6-7; Act_4:30 etc.), the works which He had done and which His disciples were also to do (Joh_14:12), bearing witness to a unity of power.
(2) The Incarnation. That the presence of the Holy Spirit was not only a new experience for themselves, but also, as dwelling in the Incarnate Son, a new factor in the world?s history, was recognized by the primitive Christians in proportion as they apprehended the Apostolic conception of the Person of Christ. One of the earliest facts in Christian history that demands explanation is the separation from the Apostolic body of the Jewish party in the Church, which, after the fall of Jerusalem, hardened into the Ebionite sects. The difference lies in the perception by the former of that new element in the humanity of Jesus which is prominent in the Christology of the Pauline Epistles (Rom_1:4; Rom_5:12-21, 1Co_15:20-28, 2Co_8:9, Gal_4:4, Php_2:5-11, Col_2:9).
It is all but certain that this language depends upon the acceptance of the Virgin Birth, which the sects above mentioned, because they had no use for it, tended to deny. The Apostles were enabled through a knowledge of this mystery to recognize Jesus as the second Adam, the quickening spirit, the beginning of the new creation of God (Rev_3:14; cf. Rev_21:5-6). If the narrative of the Annunciation in Luke (Luk_1:35) be compared with the Prologue of John (Rev_1:1-18) and with the account of Creation in Gen_1:1-31, the full import of this statement becomes apparent. The Spirit overshadows Mary as He brooded upon the face of the waters. The manifestation of the Messiah was, therefore, no mere outpouring of the spirit of prophecy even in measure hitherto unequalled, but God visiting and redeeming His people through the incarnation of His image (Heb_1:1-3, Col_1:15).
St. Paul?s protest, therefore, against Judaic Christianity, which, in spite of temporary misgivings on the part of St. Peter and St. James (Gal_2:11-12), received the assent of the Apostolic witnesses, resulted from a true interpretation of his experience of that Holy Spirit into which he had been baptized (Act_9:17-18). The Gentiles, apart from circumcision (Gal_5:2, cf. Act_15:1-41), were capable of the Holy Spirit as well as the Jews, by the enlargement of human nature through union with God in Christ, and by that alone (
Gal_4:5-6; Gal_6:15, 2Co_3:17-18; cf. Rom_8:29, 1Co_15:49). Thus, though the Apostolic preaching was the witness to Jesus and the Resurrection, beginning from the baptism of John (Act_1:21-22), the Apostolic record is necessarily carried back to the narratives of the Infancy. The ministry of reconciliation, though fulfilled in the power of the baptismal Spirit (Luk_4:14), depended for its range on the capacity of the vessel already fashioned by the same Spirit (Luk_1:35) for His habitation?God was in Christ (2Co_5:19).
(3) Union with Christ. What, therefore, the Apostolic community claimed to possess was not merely the aptitude for inspiration, as when the Spirit spoke in old times by the mouth of the prophets, but union with the life and personality of their Master (Joh_17:23), through the fellowship of a Spirit (2Co_13:14, Php_2:1) which was His (Php_1:19). The Acts is the record of the Spirit?s expanding activity in the organic and growing life of the Christian Church. The ?things concerning the kingdom? (Php_1:3), of which Christ spoke before His Ascension, are summed up in the witness to be given ?unto the uttermost part of the earth? (Php_1:8) and in the promise of power (Php_1:8). The events subsequently recorded are a series of discoveries as to the potentialities of this new life. The Epistles set before us, not systematically, but as occasion serves, the principles of the Spirit?s action in this progressive experience, corporate and individual.
(4) Spiritual gifts. The NT teaching with regard to spiritual gifts (wh. see) springs out of the conception of the Church as the mystical body of Christ (Eph_1:22; Eph_2:16-20; Eph_4:16, 1Co_12:12). The Holy Spirit is the living principle distributed throughout the body (1Co_12:13, Eph_2:18; Eph_4:4). The point of supreme importance to the Christian is to have the inward response of the Spirit to the Lordship of Christ (1Co_12:3). This life is universally manifested in love (ch. 13), to strive after which is ever the ?more excellent way? (1Co_12:31). But, though bestowed on all Christians alike, it is distributed to each ?according to the measure of the gift of Christ? (Eph_4:7). The principle of proportion is observed by Him who has ?tempered the body together? (1Co_12:24). The same gifts or manifestations of the Spirit are not, therefore, to be expected in all believers or in all ages. They are given that the whole body may profit (1Co_12:7). They are correlative to the part which each has to fulfil in the organic structure of the whole (1Co_12:14-20, Eph_4:16). The desire for them, though not discouraged (1Co_12:31; 1Co_14:1), must be regulated by consideration of the needs of the Church (1Co_14:12) and the opportunities of service (Rom_12:1-6, cf. 1Pe_5:5). ?Each ?gifted? individual becomes himself a gift? (Gore).
Nowhere do we find any attempt to make a complete enumeration of spiritual gifts. In Eph_4:11, where the completion of the structure of Christ?s body is the main thought (Eph_4:12), four classes of ministerial function are named. In Rom_12:6-8, where a just estimate of the individual?s capacity for service is prominent, the list is promiscuous, exceptional gifts like prophecy, ministerial functions like teaching, and ordinary graces like liberality, being mentioned indifferently. Local circumstances confine the lists of 1Co_12:8-10; 1Co_12:28 to the ?greater gifts? (1Co_12:31), those granted for more conspicuous service, most of which are tokens of God?s exceptional activity. The object of the Apostle in this catalogue is to show that tongues are by no means first in importance. ?Faith? in 1Co_12:9 is not to be confused with the primary virtue of 1Co_13:13, but is interpreted by 1Co_13:2 (cf. Mat_17:20).
(5) Inspiration. It is in this connexion that inspiration as applied to the Bible must be brought into relation with the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. No theory, as applying to the whole Canon, is in the nature of the case to be expected in the NT itself. But prophecy is one of the gifts of the Spirit (1Co_12:10; 1Co_12:28), and it is clear that the prophets were recognized as a distinct order in the Apostolic Church (Act_11:27; Act_13:1; Act_21:10; cf. 1Ti_1:18; 1Ti_4:14), though there was nothing professional in this ministry (Act_19:6; Act_21:9). The type was undoubtedly that of the OT prophets (see above), and a distinct link with the ancient line is found in St. Peter?s reference to the words of Joel as fulfilled at Pentecost (Act_2:16-18). Agabus prophesies by the Spirit (Act_11:28). He adopts the method of signs (Act_21:11) and the phrase ?Thus saith the Holy Spirit? (cf. OT ?Thus saith the Lord?). Here, then, we have a gift that was conceived as perpetuating the mouthpiece whereby the will of God was revealed to the fathers (H Act_1:1). The inspiration of the OT Scriptures as understood in the 1st cent. of the Christian era was undoubtedly regarded as an extension of the prophetic gift. They were the oracles of God (Act_7:38, Rom_3:2, Heb_5:12), and as such ?the sacred writings? (2Ti_3:15), profitable because inbreathed by God for spiritual ends (2Ti_3:16). The connexion with prophecy is explicitly drawn out in 2Pe_1:20-21, the same Epistle showing the process by which the writings of Apostles were already beginning to take similar rank (2Pe_3:15-16, cf. Eph_3:5). That the Bible is either verbally accurate or inerrant is no more a legitimate deduction from this principle than is ecclesiastical infallibility from that of the Abiding Presence in the Church. In either case the method of the Spirit?s activity must be judged by experience. Nor, in face of the express declaration of St. Paul, that ?the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets? (1Co_14:32), may we tolerate any theory which impairs the freedom of human personality.
(6) The laying on of hands in the ministration of the Spirit seems to have been adopted by a spontaneous impulse in the primitive community, and to have become immediately an established ordinance. The place accorded to the practice in Heb_6:2, as belonging to the alphabet of gospel knowledge, attests the importance attached to it. Like baptism, its roots are in the OT, where it is found as an act of dedication (Num_8:9-10; Num_8:12; Num_27:18-23; see Schultz, OT Theol. i. 391) or benediction (Gen_48:14-15). Christ uses it in blessing the children (Mar_10:16). The Apostles adopt it as the sign, joined with prayer, for the anointing of the Holy Spirit, by which they effected consecration to an office or function (Act_6:6; cf. 1Ti_4:14; 1Ti_5:22 (? see below), 2Ti_1:6), or conferred blessing on the baptized (Act_8:14-24; Act_19:5-6). The offer of money to Peter at Samaria (Act_8:18) shows that the rite might be, and in this case was, followed by exceptional manifestations, like those which appeared at Pentecost; and that the fallacy which awakened Simon?s covetousness was the identification of the gift with these effects. Though associated with the bestowal of the Spirit, the laying on of hands has not yet been reduced to a technical rite in a crystallized ecclesiastical system. Ananias uses it in the recovery of Saul?s sight (Act_9:12; Act_9:17); the Antiochene Church, not probably in ordaining Barnabas and Saul, but in sending them forth to a particular mission (Act_13:3). In Mar_16:18 and Act_28:8 it is a symbol of healing (cf. Mar_1:41; Mar_5:23; Mar_6:5; Mar_8:23, Rev_1:17, also Jas_5:14-15); in 1Ti_5:22 not improbably of absolution (see Hort, Ecclesia, p. 214). According to 2Ti_1:6, it was used by St. Paul in conveying spiritual authority to his representative at Ephesus; or, if the reference be the same as in 1Ti_4:14, in the ordination of Timothy to a ministerial function. The symbolism is natural and expressive, and its employment by the Christian Church was immediately justified in experience (e.g. Act_19:6). Its connexion with the bestowal of specific gifts, like healing, or of official authority, like that of the Seven (Act_6:6), is easily recognized.
A more difficult question to determine is its precise relation to baptism, where the purpose of the ministration is general. The Holy Spirit is offered by St. Peter to such as repent and are baptized (Act_2:38, cf. 1Co_12:13); while of those whom Philip had baptized at Samaria (Act_8:12) it is expressly asserted that He had ?fallen upon none of them? (Act_8:16). It may have been that the experience of the Apostles, as empowered first by the risen Christ (Joh_20:22), and then by the Pentecostal descent (Act_2:4), led them to distinguish stages in the reception of the Spirit, and that the apparent discrepancy would be removed by a fuller knowledge of the facts. But this uncertainty does not invalidate the positive evidence which connects the ministration of the Spirit with either ordinance. See also Laying on of Hands.
J. G. Simpson.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909

Holy Spirit
SEE SPIRIT, WORK OF THE; SEE HOLY GHOST; SEE PARACLETE; SEE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT.

CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.

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