The particular difficulty in Eome was probably of Essene origrin, akin to that in Colossae (B. Weiss, Introd. to NT, Eng. tr., London, 1837-88, i. 330 ; Denney, loc. cit.). A. C. McGiffert {Apostolic Age, Edinburgh, 1S97, p. 368) contends that it was due to some form of Alexandrian Judaism. Certainly the difficulty is not occasioned by Pharisaic Legalists, as in Galatia.
3. Col 2^6 (in the AV iopri^s of this verse is translated ' holy day,' the only instance of the word in the EV of the NT). The argument is practically the same as in Ro 14^ ' Let no man judge j'ou on the basis of eating and drinking, or in the matter of a feast or a new moon or a Sabbath.' St. Paul means that such ground is inadequate for moral judgment of a man. ii> ijApei eopTTJs, ktX. cannot be translated ' in the partial observance of (Chrysos- tom). As regards the chai-acter of the movement which is opposed by St. Paul, and finds its ex- pression in the legal observance of holy days, it seems to have been a theosophy, consisting of a blend of Judaism with some form of syncretistic religion. It is impossible to identify the foreign element exclusively with Essenism or Mithraism. It is simply the product of that ' Hellenism ' which everywhere confronted the Christian missionary (cf. E. Bevan, Stoics and Sceptics, Oxford, 1913, ch. iii.). The 'days' were evidently connected with the worship of o-Totxeta or 'intermediate beings' (see above), whose functions were ' not only creative but also providential, in a sense, resembling those of the saints in Roman Catholicism ' (Mofl'att, LNT, Edinburgh, 1911, p. 152). One result seems to have been asceticism (22"*). The material was contrasted unfavourably with the spiritual, and the body was considered as the tomb of the soul (the ultimate issue of the aQfia <xr]fj.a of Plato). Moreover, this insistence on ' days ' carried with it an emphasis on individual speculative and mystical attainments which destroyed the universality of the gospel (S^').
The aim of this article has been to indicate the complexity of the movement in the Apostolic Church that issued in the gradual weaning of Christianity, as interpreted by St. Paul, and those who adhered to him, from the observance of Jewish holy days. jNIissionary activity made plain in experience that the multiplied observance of 'days, and months, and seasons, and years ' as legal enactments formed
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a congenial soil on which heathen conceptions of deity might take fresh root within the Christian Church. The missionary activity of the Christian Church to-day is also exercising a similar profound influence on Christian thought. No one ought to pretend that the discipline of the Church, so far as it is expressed in the weekly day of rest and worship, or in the observance of seasons or sacraments, is without significance for the Christian life. It directs attention to aspects of the Christian faith that would otherwise find no place in the mechanical routine of ordinary life ; yet not even the religious observance of the first day of the week ought to be regarded as legal or statutory. An act of faith was the source in which it originated, and its maintenance must be conducted in the free atmo- sphere of faith. Many things are yet to break forth upon the mind of the Church from the Word of God, and none are more significant than the principles relating to holy days that were brought into being through the contact of the apostolic faith with contemporary practice and thought. It is only by ' being fully assured in our own mind,' by contracting the habit of deciding for ourselves in such matters, and at the same time by having regard to the mind of Christ, as expressed in the constraint of Christian brotherhood, that true Christian freedom of conscience will be developed, and that fear, which so often manifests itself in scrupulosity, obscurantism, and legalism, will be cast out.
Literature. — Besides the works mentioned in the article reference may be made to J. B. Mozley, University Sermons, London, 1876, serm. ii. : ' The Pharisees ' ; F. W. Robertson, Sermons, 3rd ser., do. 1876, p. 246 ff. ; J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons (Selection, ed. Copeland', do. 1891), p. 189 ff. ; J. R. Seeley, Ecce Homo, do., ed. 1895, ch. xiii. ; Tracts for the Times, ii. (1834-35), do. 1840, no. 66 ; J. LL Davies, The Example of Christ, do. 1860, p. 350.
R. H. Strachan. HOLY OF HOLIES, HOLY PLACE See Taber-
NACLE, TeMPLK
HOLY SPIRIT.— The community brought to- gether by the disciples of Jesus was sustained by the conviction that it possessed the Spirit of God, and in that possession it saw the peculiar feature which distinguished its members alike from the Greeks and from the Jews. This is a fact of fundamental importance for the entire subsequent history of Christianity.
I. The presuppositions of the convic- tion. — 1. The Jewish doctrine of Scripture as the sole medium of the Spirit. — The term ' Holy Spirit,' B'npn nn, was coined by the theology of the Palestinian Synagogue. The adjunct 'holy' was rendered necessary by the fact that the word ' spirit ' was also applied to the force from which emanated man's inward life generally. The addi- tion of the adjective ' holy' signifies that the spirit so distinguished belongs to God. The phrase derives its content from what the prophets say regarding the nature of their prophetic experience, which they ascribe to their being moved by the Spirit of God. Hence the tradition of the Syna- gogue associates the conception with the writings by which the message of the prophet is mediated to the community. By the time the Church of the New Testament took its rise, the doctrine of In- spiration was already formulated as a dogma, and dominated the whole religious life of Judaism. The expression 'Holy Spirit,' in its connexion with the written word, was at once taken over by Christianity (Mk 1236, Mt 22«, Ac V^ 28^, He 3^ Q^ 1015, 1 Ti 318, 2 P 1-i). The absolute bondage of the Synagogue to the Scriptures had the result that the Holy Spirit was assigned only to the prophets of past times, and not to persons then living. As the community now possessed no prophets, but was