SPINNING.— The notices of spinning in the Bible are very meagre, being found only in Ex 35^- -° P ( nip 'spui.'and ni^? 'yarn') and Mttj-", Lk 12-'' (vtiOui'') ; but the art is implied in many other passages, such as where the curtains and hangings of the taber- nacle are mentioned ; and the various garments, the materials for which must have been spun. The description of the virtuous woman in Pr 31'""" includes it as one of her chief accomplishments (vv.'^-"); and the Heb. women were certainly skUled in working the spindle, as is evident from the articles which, ace. to P, they prepareil for the tabernacle (Ex So-'''-). They used a haiui-siiindle, such as was in use in Egypt, and sucli as the women of Syria and Palestine still emjiloy. This consisted of a whorl or hemispherical disc of wood, amber, or other material, for steadying the motion of the pin which passed througli the centre (Wilkin- son, Anc. Egyjj. i. 317, ed. 1878). The Egyp. sjiindle was over a foot long [ib. ii. 171, 172), and, tliougii generally of wood, was also made of rushes and palm-leaves. The distaff' w.is no doubt em- ployed, but the word so tr"* in Pr 31" means more properly the whorl, or the spindle itself. (See
Dl.STAIF).
In Egypt men as well as women engaged in spinning, but among the Hebrews women only are mentioned in this connexion. Tlie materials they used were wool and llax (l'r31'"), goats' hair (Ex 35-"), and possibly cotton, wliich was known in Egypt (Wilkinson, ii. l.')9). Even silk may have been used (cf. Ezk IC'"- '« and Pr 31--), as Kenrick (Phan. p. 246) says that raw silk was brought to Berytus and Tyre by the Persian lucrchants, but it was too rare to have been much emiiloyed. Raw silk is spun quite extensively at present by the Syrian women, and tliej' use the spindle to iill up leisure hours much as Western womcjii do the knitting-needle. H. Porter.
SPIRIT. — Besides its use for the Supreme Spirit, — the Spirit of God, the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Iloly Spirit, the Spirit ot truth, etc., — this word is occasionally used for the extreme opiiosite, as weuixa. Saiixoviou anaBiprov (Lk 4''). Then there is its secondary use for an influence, or power, as 'spirit of error' (1 Jn 4"), ' spirit of the worlil ' ( Eph 2^), ' of bond.ige ' and ' of sonship' (Ilo 8"), etc., yet often with a refer- ence to the spiritual personality controlling these influences. But the main use of it is ]isychologicaI, where it is immensely indebted to the Bible and to Christianity. Indc<'d it may be said to be an expression created by Cliristianity.
Two Heb. terms are tr. In EV '8|>irit.' I, nn, lit. "wind' (80 often in OT) ; used of the breath of life (rfia/i hayyim) whi(;h animates (io<i'8 creatures, (in »I'7 "lo (Iwth 1*; cf. with- math haijyim in 2^ (JJ) ; the medium of consciousDCSH, 1 S Sol-, .I(r 16'", Job 918 ; the seat ot emoUonn, 1 K 21», Is («-', I'r lr,i;i, Kzk 31*, Jos 2" (coumpe ; and so .'i'. I'r ISl* Is B7'i>) ; and of intelligence and will, Kzk 'M»'', Pr \lfii 21' 2412, Dt 2™, Job 209; of an inexplicable or unoontrollabto impulse, Nu 61-1- 30, Is 10'* 288 2010 87\ Hos 4ia 6'. When used with reference to God, riial^ is usedot the brooding (ncniD) and creative activity of His spirit (On 13, Ps 10430), which imparts itself to men with the result of capacitating them for the performance of extroordinarv deeds, Jf SW (Gideon) 14«^ 1« (Samson), and is specially noted as flttiug thf
612
SPIRIT
SPY
prophet* for their work. Is 4S^6 5921^ Hqs 9' (the prophet is the man of the siiirit"), Ezk 371 (and often). See, more fully, vol. ii. p. 402 S. ; and add Schultz, ii. 243 ff. (249 on distinction of rm and C£j); Wendt, Notioiiei camU et spiritug guomodo in VT adhibeanlur ; Brings, "The uses of nn in OT' In JBL,1901, p. 133 fl. (sjTiopsis of passages arranged and translated).
2. n:v'} is twice in EV (Job 26', Pr 20-'') tr. 'spirit.' Its lit. meaning is * breath.* See, also, under SorL.
The tXX and NT t.iCu* follows the usage of rtiah. In the two passages (Mt 142t>, Mk 6'^) where #a»Taw,u« occurs, the AV tr. ' spirit ' is replaced in RV by ' apparition.'
So far as it depends on physiological suggestion, in all the languages ' spirit ' is the same, — the inhaling of the ' breath,' and so ' wind,' and more remotely ' life,' and so is closely allied to ' soul ' (tl'i'X'n), which depends npon a similar physiological derivation. In one respect the two words soul and spirit ditl'er widely. jr»eC/xa is far less than ^vxri con- nected with the life of man in the Greek classics. irneviia is never used in classical psychology for one of the elements of man's inner life, whereas 'pvx'/i is invariably so used. Indeed it is one of the chief distinctions of biblical from all other psychology to give iryfOfui the supreme place as an element in the life of man. Only in the LXX and in the NT has iryeC^o the sense of a spiritual being, or refers to man in his higher inward aspects. Thus it is a good example of the language-building and enriching power of the Bible religion. The suggestion depends mainly upon two biblical ideas, viz. the attribution of spirit in man to Divine gift or creation (Ec 12'), and the parallel or analogy between 'spirit' in man, and the Divine Spirit (lCo'2", R08").