by Jane Daniels

Created on: December 10, 2010

Would I consider the Holy Ghost to be a ghost as we recognize them? I guess that would depend on how you 'recognize' them.
What is a ghost anyway?

The word "ghost" comes from a German word, "geist" meaning "spirit".

The original languages of the Bible reveal something about the real meaning of this word, 'spirit'

The Greek pneu′ma (spirit) comes from pne′o, meaning “breathe or blow,” and the Hebrew ru′ach (spirit) is believed to come from a root having the same meaning.

The words 'pneumatic' or 'pneumonia' are derived from this Greek word for "air" or "wind".

In the Bible the word "spirit" has several different meanings; each use of the word refers to things that are invisible to human eyes and which give evidence of force in action. This invisible force is capable of producing effects that we can see...like wind in the trees or an electric current making an appliance work. We can't see the wind or the electricity but we can see or hear what it does.

The word "spirit" can mean the lifeforce in living creatures; one’s own spirit or inclination; spirit beings, (including God and his angelic creatures;) and God’s active force, or holy spirit spoken of in Genesis 1:1, (in the act of creation.)

It was not until the fourth century of the Common Era that the teaching of a trinity emerged and the holy spirit came to be viewed as a third 'person' of the “Godhead” (which then become official church dogma.) The Bible itself never refers to God as three persons in one being. (Deuteronomy 6:4)

God and his son have personal names to distinguish them, but the holy spirit is nameless.

We are told to take in knowledge of God and his Christ, but nowhere are we told to take in knowledge of the holy spirit. (John 17:3) It is said to impart knowledge to us.

Early church “fathers” did not teach about a 'holy ghost' either.
Justin Martyr (the second century C.E.) taught that the holy spirit was an 'influence or mode of operation of the Deity’, not the third person of a trinity. He also believed that the Father and son were separate entities.

Hippolytus (c 170 – c 236) likewise did not describe the holy spirit as a person. He "championed the Logos doctrine of the Greek Apologists, which distinguished the Father from the Logos ("Word") " and hence did not include the holy spirit as a third entity of a godhead. (Saint Hippolytus of Rome." Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. 15 Aug. 2010)

The Scriptures themselves

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