13. The NT books which were written under Pauline influence scarcely call for independent consideration. Hebrews has one reference (2^) and perhaps a second (6'') to the ' gifts ' of the Spirit, the first alluding to them as God's testimony to Christ ; elsewhere it refers to the Spirit only as the speaker in the OT (3' Q» 10'=). In 1 P P the striking expression if a.yiaa-p.(fi TrveifxaTOi, standing as it does between the 'foreknowledge of God the Father' and 'obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ,' is, no doubt, to be rendered, as in 2 Th 2'^ ' in a consecration wrought by the Spirit ' ; it is in this that God's eternal purpose of redemption is realized. Probably in both places (1 P P, 2 Th 2'^) there is an allusion to baptism. In 1 Pt 1" the idea that the Spirit in the OT (?) prophets was Christ's Spirit must be connected with the belief in the pre-existence of Christ ; in 1'= the Holy Spirit sent from heaven is the power which attends the Christian evangelist and makes his words effective. This idea, of course, pervades the NT, and goes back to such words of Jesus as Mk 13", Lk 24*8t._ .The Spirit of glory and of God ' in 1 P 41'' recalls St. Paul's conception of the Spirit as the earnest of immortality ; it is the spirit of the glory to bo revealed because it opens men's eyes to the reality of it (1 Co 2, Eph 1'"-), and ensures their entrance into it (2 Co 5'). In 2 Ti l'< it is the indwelling Holy Spirit which enables one to guard the Christian deposit — a Christian inference from 1 Co 2''-, Jn 18^'. In Tit 3= the thought of 1 P l'-, 2 Th 2'^, is more articu- lately expressed: side by side with 'the laver of regeneration ' we have ' renewal wrought by the Holy Spirit.' There is nothing more here than a fulfilment of the Baptist's words—' He shall baptize you with holy spirit' (Mk 1").
H. The Johannine books cover all the literary forms known to the NT,— Gospel, Epistle, Apoca- lypse,— and the Spirit is prominent in all. To understand them it is necessary to remember that all the experience of the Pauline churches lies
740
HOLT SPIEIT
HOLY SPIRIT
behind them, and that the circumstances in which they originated have exercised a decided influence on their presentation of tlie facts and ideas with which tliey deal.
(a) To begin with tlie Apocalyjjse, the writer speaks foiu- times of being, or being carried oil', if irvivtiaTi. (V 4- 17' 21'"), an expression w^hich, whether it is literary artifice or a description of remembered experience, suggests the condition of prophetic ecstasy in which he saw his visions. If St. Paul had spoken of the Spirit in that con- nexion, we should have referred for interpretation to 2 Co 12'"'-. The .seven spirits before God's throne, whatever their connexion in the history of religion with the seven Amshaspands of Persia, are not numerically seven. In the Apocalypse tliey are treated as a unity ; they are the Spirit of God in the completeness of its powers (1* 3' 4^ 5'') ; and when Christ is spoken of as futvincf tlie seven spirits of God, the meaning is the same as when we read in the Gospel (3") that God does not give the Spirit by measure to Him. This close con- nexion of Jesus with the Spirit (He first receives and then bestows it) is strikingly brought out in the Epistles to the Seven Churches. In all of them it is the Risen Christ who speaks ; but at the end of each we read : ' He that liath an ear, let him liear wliat the Spirit saith to the Churches ' (2"- "• 17. 29 36. 13. 22) In st_ Paul's phrase, here too ' the Lord is the Spirit.' It is no other than Christ who speaks through the inspired prophet. And al- though if TTveiiLaTi. probably means ' in an ecstasy,' it must be noted that there is nothing inarticulate or unbalanced about these searching letters. They are terrible in their cabu as in their passion. Cf. tlie utterance of the Spirit in 14'*. In 11" and 13'' we are really on OT ground, and the Spirit is not specifically Christian, but, as in OT passim, the principle of life. But the most striking utterance on the Spirit is 19'" ij yap ^laprvpla 'IritroS icrnv rb Tveviu!. TTJs Trpo^T/Tfias. This means that the Spirit, which, as we have already seen, is possessed by Jesus and bestowed by Hiiu, has also Him as its object. In all the prophets — in all inspired men — what it does is to bear a testimony to Him. All the prophets, who are prophets simply through having the Spirit, are witnesses to Jesus. This agrees not only >vith the Gospel (15^" 16'^), but with such other words of Jesus as Ac 1".
(i) Proceeding to the Gospel of John, we find, as in the Synoptics, that the Spirit is first mentioned in connexion with the baptism of Jesus. ' I have seen,' says the Baptist, ' the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and it abode upon him. And I did not know hira, but he who sent me to baptize in water, the same said unto me. On whom- soever thou seest the Spirit descending and abiding on him, tlie same is he who baptizeth in holy spirit. And I have seen and borne witness that this is the Son of God' (P-"-)- What strikes us here is the assumption that every reader wiU know what is meant by ' the Spirit' or by ' holy spirit.' The Gospel is meant for Christians to whom the Spirit is an experience, an experience which they owe to Jesus (for it is He who baptizes wAtXx holy spirit) ; an experience, however, which Jesus in His turn had had (He had been baptized with holy spirit).