Spirit: 5 definitions

Introduction:

Spirit means something in Christianity. If you want to know the exact meaning, history, etymology or translation of this term then check out the descriptions on this page. On this page you will also find search and cross-referencing tools.

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In Christianity

General definition (in Christianity)

Source: archive.org: Easton's Bible Dictionary

Spirit definition and references: (Heb. ruah; Gr. pneuma), properly wind or breath. In 2 Thessalonians 2:8 it means “breath,” and in Ecclesiastes 8:8 the vital principle in man. It also denotes the rational, immortal soul by which man is distinguished (Acts 7:59; 1 Corinthians 5:5; 6:20; 7:34), and the soul in its separate state (Hebrews 12:23), and hence also an apparition (Job 4:15; Luke 24:37, 39), an angel (Hebrews 1:14), and a demon (Luke 4:36; 10:20). This word is used also metaphorically as denoting a tendency (Zechariah 12:10; Luke 13:11).

In Romans 1:4, 1 Tim. 3:16, 2 Corinthians 3:17, 1 Pet. 3:18, it designates the divine nature.

Source: archive.org: Nave's Topical Bible

Spirit definition and references: –Called “the inner man,” Romans 7:22; Ephesians 3:16
–See Angels
–See Demons
–See Holy Spirit
–See Man, A Spirit
–See Satan

Source: archive.org: Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature

Spirit refers to:—Spirit and Holy Spirit. The leading significations of the original words thus rendered may be classed under the following heads:—

The primary sense of the term is wind. 'He that formeth the mountains and createth the wind'. 'The wind bloweth where it listeth'. This is the ground idea of the term 'spirit'—air—ether—air refined, sublimated, or vitalized: hence it denotes—

Breath, as of the mouth. 'At the blast of the breath of his nostrils are they consumed'. 'The Lord shall consume that wicked me with the breath of his mouth'.

The vital principle which resides in and animates the body.

In close connection with this use of the word is another—

In which it has the sense of apparition—specter.

The soul—the rational immortal principle, by which man is distinguished from the brute creation.

The race of superhuman created intelligences.

The term is applied to the Deity, as the sole, absolute, and uncreated Spirit. 'God is a Spirit.' This, as a predicate, belongs to the divine nature, irrespective of the distinction of persons in that nature.

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Source: archive.org: Fausset's Bible Dictionary

Spirit refers to:—

Hebrew ruach , Greek pneuma . Man in his normal integrity ("whole," holokleeron , complete in all its parts, 1 Thessalonians 5:23) consists of "spirit, soul, and body." The spirit links man with higher intelligences, and is that highest part receptive of the quickening Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 15:47). The soul (Hebrew nephesh , Greek psuchee ) is intermediate between body and spirit; it is the sphere of the will and affections.

In the unspiritual, the spirit is so sunk under the animal soul (which it ought to keep under) that such are "animal" ("seasonal," having merely the body of organized matter and the soul, the immaterial animating essence), "having not the spirit" (Judges 1:19; James 3:15; 1 Corinthians 2:14; 1 Corinthians 15:44-48; John 3:6). The unbeliever shall rise with an animal (soul-animated) body, but not, like the believer, with a spiritual (spirit-endued) body like Christ's (Romans 8:11).

The soul is the seat of the appetites, the desires, the will; hunger, thirst, sorrow, joy; love, hope, fear, etc.; so that nephesh is the man himself, and is used for person, self, creature, any: a virtual contradiction of materialism, implying that the unseen soul rather than the seen body is the man. "Man was made" not a living body but "a living soul." "The blood, the life," links together body and soul (Leviticus 17:11).

Source: archive.org: Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

Spirit refers to:—The term is applied to God as defining His nature generally ( John 4:24 ), and also as describing one element in that nature, His self-consciousness ( 1 Corinthians 2:11 ). It expresses not only God’s immateriality, but also His transcendence of limitations of time and space. In the phrases ‘Spirit of God,’ the ‘Spirit of the Lord,’ the ‘Spirit of Jesus Christ,’ the ‘Holy Spirit,’ the ‘Spirit of Truth,’ the third Person in the Godhead is described (see Holy Spirit). The term is applied to personal powers of evil other than man ( Matthew 10:1; Matthew 12:45 , Luke 4:33; Luk 7:21 , 1 Timothy 4:1; cf. Ephesians 6:12 ), as well as personal powers of good ( Hebrews 1:14 ), and to human beings after death, either damned ( 1 Peter 3:19 ) or blessed ( Hebrews 12:23 ). It is used also as personifying an influence ( 1 John 4:6 , Ephesians 2:2 , Romans 8:15 ). Its most distinctive use is in the psychology of the Christian life. The contrast between ‘soul’and ‘spirit,’ and between ‘ flesh’ and ‘spirit,’ has already been noted in the articles on these terms. While soul and spirit are not to be regarded as separate faculties, yet ‘spirit’ expresses the direct dependence of the life in man on God, first in creation ( Genesis 2:7 ), but especially, according to the Pauline doctrine, in regeneration.

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