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HOLY SPIRIT
HOLY SPIRIT
wXiipovntvof aoipl^f Kal X'^P'S Ofou ^v i-r* airrS ; cf. v."^). But ia or about Ilia tliirtieth year {^y . . uxrtl iTO>v T^iditovTa) a stage was readied when a new illapse of the Spirit on tlie Second Adam became necessary. The first had sanctilied His liuinanitVi the second was to consecrate His ollicial life. It tame in connexion witli the baptism of John. Witl; the majority of the religious Israelites of His generation, Jesus went to be baptized. As He rose from the Jordan, the sij^n was given by which (he liaptist knew Him to be the Messiah (Jn 1^') ; John saw the Spirit descend in the form of a dove niul rest upon Him. Mr. V. C. Conybeare (£w)»«i7or, IV. ix. p. 455) cites I'hilo to show that the dove was the accepted symbol in Alexandrian thouglit of the divine reason or wisdom, and concludes tliat the evanKcIists have converted a metaphor into a fact. But the evangelists — the Synoptists in any case — were strangers to Alexandrian sym- boli-sm, and they limit themselves to what tliey believed to be matters of fact. In this case the fact depends on the eye-witness of the Baptist, attested by his disciple, St. John. The evangelists, however, guard against the impression that the Spirit assumed a material form (Mt lio-fJ irepio-Tepdi-, Jlk, Lk, Jn u5 IT.) ; even St. Luke's <ru^ar(\(p iloti. does not involve tliis inference. The appearance, wliether real or subjective, w.as doubtless symboli- cal, but the symbol rests on the OT. It carries our tlioughts bac1v to the birdlike motion attributed to the Sj)irit in Gn 1'. At the baptism of Jesus the S[)irit of God brooded a second time over the waters, to vivify a new creation by resting on the new Ile.ad of mankind. If the sj'mbolism of the dove is to be pressed, it may be taken to indicate the character of the Lord s ministry and of the kingdom of heaven (Mt 10'").
The illapse at the baptism was regarded by the first generation as the anointing of the Christ (Ac 10^ fx_pi<Tev airrbv 6 6cd^ TTfeu/xart ayltffKal Si'cd^et). In the historical books of the OT ri'i:7ri, LXX 6 xP^aTbi, is the title of the priest (Lv 4^- »• '« 6"), and the king (1 S 12' etc.), who were admitted to their respective offices by the ceremony of unction. In the Psalms and Prophets the title is specially given to the Davidic King (Ps 2^ 17" 19' etc. ), or to a king raised up by God for a certain work (Is 45' t(^ xP'^'V /iov Ki'tptfi), or to Israel regarded as the servant of the Lord, or to a prophet who speaks in His name (Is 61'). But when the form of the Second David took shape in the inspired thought of the Prophet and the expectations of the Jewish people, it was to tlie future kin" of Israel that the name was usually applied. The Psalms of Solomon already speak of 'the Lord Christ' (IT** IS"'-, see Ryle and James, note on 17^), and the Gospels show that at the time of the advent the Christ was expected both by Jews {e.g. Jn 1™) and Samaritans (Jn 4-'). iThe Jemsh Messiah, how- ever, was chiefly the anointed king ; the conception of Messiah as the Propliet was less distinct, and that of a Christ-Priest {IcpeOs i xp^arbi, Lv 4°- '° 6--) entirely wanting, until it presented itself to the ■writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews (St.inton, Jrwi.ih and Chrktian Messiah, p. 293 ii'.). Yet the Church has rightly seen that the work to which the Messiah was anointed was sacerdotal and prophetic R,s well as regal. The baptism, with the descent of the Spirit, was the consecration of Jesus to the Messianic office in all tlie fulness of its functions and powers. Some of the Fathers find the moment of the Messianic unction in tlie miraculous Concep- tion (so Gregory of Nazianzus expounds Ps 45', and Bee Aug. De Tnn. xv. 46, cited by Mason, Baptism and Confirmation, p. 94), liut the earlier inter- pretation fixes upon the Baptism : see Iren. III. IX. 3, ' Verbum Dei . . qui est Jesus . . qui et ■ssumpsit camem et nnctus est a Patre Spiritu,
Jesus Christus factus est'; cf. Jerome on Is 81.* The Gnostic schools exaggerated the importance of the Baptism, confusing the descending Spirit with the pre-existent Christ and ignoring the mir- aculous Conception. But if the Incarnate life began with theover8ha<lo\ving of Mary, the official Messianic life dates from the Baptism (cf. Pearson, art. ii.). (7) From that moment Jesus began His Christ- work (Lk3^i?>''I.dpx4M"''>s), and in the oldest record of tlie ministry it is regarded as the apxh evaYte\Uv (Mk 1'"). Henceforth His life is full of the manifested workings of the Spirit, in whose energy the evangelists find the source of the teaching, miracles, and entire ministry of the Christ (Alk l'^, Lk 4'- », Mt 12'», Ac 1-). 'Some of the.se revealed relations between the Holy Spirit and the ministrj- of Christ are of special interest. Immediately after the baptism the Spirit impelled Him to meet the Tempter in the wilderness (Mt, avTjxBfi vtr6 toD wvevpLaroi ; Mk, t6 irveOfxa aCrdy iKfiiWei). The conquest of evil being at once the first responsiliility of the Second Adam, and the first step in the redemption of the race, it was the first work of the Spirit in the Christ. The Spirit of God in man was shown to be the power by wliich the spirit of evil is to be overcome : ' e\ery victory won is 'His alone.' To the lloly Spirit also our Lord attributes His power to cast out unclean spu'its from the possessed (Mt 12-"). We may extend the saying to His other miracles (cf. Jn 14'" 6 d^ 7raW)p iy ipLol fxivwy [i.e. by the Spirit] TToici t4 (pya avrov). When in the 5th cent. Nestorius unduly pressed this point, Cyril of Alex- andria guarded the doctrine 01 the Incarnation by insisting that the Spirit by which Christ wrought was His own, and not an imparted power, foreign to His personal life (Annth. 9). Nevertheless, the truth remains that the Spirit, who is one with the Son in the Divine Unity, was imparted to His humanity, and strengthened it with supercatural power, 'rhe same is true of Christ's teaching ; the Lord Himself ascribes it to the anointing Spirit (Lk 4'"-)- As the supreme prophet He spoke in the power of the Spirit, not at intervals as other propliets, but whenever He opened His lips to teach. Yet behind the human faculties which were guided by the Spirit, was the eternal Word in personal fellowship with the Father; His form u hi IS not that of the old prophets, 'Thussaith the Lord,' but one which expressed personal authority ' Verily I say unto you.'