What is a spirit?

[SonOfNun]

I'm just wondering what a spirit was biblically. Of course God is a Spirit, we have a spirit, then there is the Holy Spirit which is God. So, what would be a "biblical dictionary" answer to my question? It seems like in the bible spirit is used in several different ways... like heart for us.

 

[Francine]

I'm just wondering what a spirit was biblically. Of course God is a Spirit, we have a spirit, then there is the Holy Spirit which is God. So, what would be a "biblical dictionary" answer to my question? It seems like in the bible spirit is used in several different ways... like heart for us.

Spirit means breath. A long time ago, people didn't know that a person's breath was simply moving air. They thought it was literally the force of life, especially when they saw how babies didn't breathe when they first came out of the womb. And they noticed that dead people no longer breathed. They thought their breath returned to God, who gave it. And men imagined an entire world of spirits who existed without bodies, unless these spirits managed to possess a body for a short time. Today we know that everything a person is or does is a function of their body.

 

[Katzpur]

Spirit means breath.

The Greek word "pneuma", which is translated in John 4:24 as "spirit," is translated differently elsewhere in the BIble. In Revelation 13:15 (KJV), we read that "And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast." This is one instance in which "pneuma" is translated as "life." I see the word "spirit" not so much as being the opposite of "matter," but as the essence of life.

 

[Starfish]

I'm just wondering what a spirit was biblically. Of course God is a Spirit, we have a spirit, then there is the Holy Spirit which is God. So, what would be a "biblical dictionary" answer to my question? It seems like in the bible spirit is used in several different ways... like heart for us.

My Bible happens to have a dictionary and here's what it says:

"The word spirit is used in several ways in the scriptures. Probably the basic use has to do with the conscious intelligent individual entity that had an existence previous to mortality. That is, all forms of living things--man, beast, and vegetation--existed as individual spirits, before any form of life existed upon the earth. The spirit is in the likeness of the physical body, as demonstrated in Gen. 2:5. Furthermore, all spirit is matter, but is more refined and pure than mortal element.
"Every person is literally a son or a daughter of God, having been born as a spirit to Heavenly parents, previous to being born to mortal parents on the earth (Heb. 12:9). Thus each one of us is a dual being: an immortal spirit body, clothed with a body of flesh and bone. As defined in scripture, the spirit and the body constitute the mortal soul (Gen. 2:7). A spirit can live independent of a body, but the body cannot live without the spirit (James 2:26). In the resurrection, the immortal spirit is reunited with the same body of flesh and bone it possessed as a mortal, with two major differences: The union will be permanent, and the body will not be subject to aging and death."

I realize many here will disagree with this, but I'm just sharing what I believe.

 

[Francine]

The Greek word "pneuma", which is translated in John 4:24 as "spirit," is translated differently elsewhere in the BIble. In Revelation 13:15 (KJV), we read that "And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast." This is one instance in which "pneuma" is translated as "life." I see the word "spirit" not so much as being the opposite of "matter," but as the essence of life.

Pneuma (πνευμ&#945 is Greek for breath. Pneumatikós means pertaining to air, breath or wind and that is why we have words like pneumonia for an infirmity of the lungs, and pneumatic pump for inflating bicycle tires. There is a division between the breath of life (spirit) and the human soul, and this division can be discerned by understanding the scriptures.

[FONT=&quot]“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Heb. 4:12).[/FONT]

 

[Scuba Pete]

I think that the academics are great, but they are truly missing the point.

I Corinthians 2:10 but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. 14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment:
16 "For who has known the mind of the Lord
that he may instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ. NIV

II Corinthians 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. NIV

The Spirit is all about us changing to be JUST LIKE GOD which is the very definition of growing in Grace.

 

[Willamena]

I find it more helpful to think of "spirit," rather than "a spirit." Spirit --as in, "the spirit of a thing," or "Spirit of God," or "spirit that moves me" --is the ideal form.

 

[Katzpur]

I find it more helpful to think of "spirit," rather than "a spirit." Spirit --as in, "the spirit of a thing," or "Spirit of God," or "spirit that moves me" --is the ideal form.

That's more along the lines that I was thinking.