Pneuma

The term pneuma is frequently translated as “spirit” in the nt, but it literally means “wind” or “breath.” The features of the “wind” such as invisibility, unpredictability, and uncontrollable power are appropriately applied, in a metaphorical sense, to incorporeal supernatural beings and the immaterial “breath” that signified the essence of life. For example, Jesus describes the unpredictability and imperceptibility of the Holy Pneuma (John 3:8) and the violent, controlling power of an evil pneuma (Luke 9:42). Consequently, in addition to denoting “wind” and “breath, the term pneuma is used in Scripture to designate “spirit”—any non-material being or the power associated with that being. It can refer to various types of incorporeal beings: a ghost (Luke 24:37, 39), a good pneuma (Acts 23:8) or one that is evil (Matt 8:16).

The term pneuma is often specifically designated as “holy” and taken to refer to the Holy Spirit, the third member of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit is the unseen manifestation of divine power, responsible for the conception of Jesus (Matt 1:18) and empowering Jesus’ earthly ministry (Luke 4:1).

Pneuma can describe an outside power that comes on a person and controls him, often suddenly (Acts 1:8), such as the pneuma given as a gift of God, enabling the apostles to speak in other languages (Acts 2:4). The controlling power of an evil pneuma is illustrated in Luke 2:42, where it says that a spirit seized a child, tortured him severely and threw him into convulsions, causing him to foam at the mouth.

Pneuma is also employed in Scripture to denote the dominate disposition or impulse of a person. Thus, Paul speaks of a gentle pneuma that should be characteristic of one who approaches a brother or sister in the faith who has sinned (Gal 6:1). Paul also exhorts the Corinthian believers that their entire being, body and pneuma, physical and emotional must be preserved undefiled (2 Cor 7:1). The pneuma was associated with specific emotions such as happiness (Luke 1:47) or distress (John 13:21; Acts 17:16).

The immaterial, invisible part of person that survives death, the life principle in a person, is also described in the Bible as pneuma. An example of this use of the word is present in narrative describing the return to life of Jairus’ daughter of whom it is said that her pneuma came back (Luke 8:55). That the pneuma departs at death (Matt 27:50) is stressed as the dying Stephen prays for the Lord Jesus to receive his spirit (Acts 7:59).

The book of Revelation provides an example of pneuma, which represents “breath” (Rev 11:11). In this passage, God’s life-giving breath or pneuma entered into the two dead witnesses and brought them back to life.

David Seal