Dr Paul Allen

The Holy Spirit depicted as a dove, surrounded by angels, by Giaquinto, 1750s. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Most scholars take “spirit” in Isaiah 34:16 to mean breath, since it is parallel to “mouth.” Many today also find difficulty in rendering Genesis 1:2 as “Spirit.” The New English Bible , following some Jewish and most liberal scholars, reads, “The earth was without form and void, with darkness over the face of the abyss, and a mighty wind that swept over the surface of the waters,” possibly to keep the waters in check. Actually, the Hebrew word for spirit (ruach) like the Greek word (pneuma) can mean wind, breath, or spirit. It is used to represent a wide range of expressions in relation to nature, the life of animals and man, and God . Someone has figured up that there are at least thirty-three different shades of meaning that the word may have in different contexts.1 In Exodus 14:21, the word ruach is used of the strong east wind that kept blowing until the Israelites cou...

Image via Wikipedia “ And the Word became flesh, and  dwelt  among us… ” -  John 1:14  - We read that Jesus “dwelt” among us, and when we think of the idea of “dwelling” we just think of “hanging out.” John uses a peculiar word here. There are more common Greek words for “to dwell,” but he chooses  skēnoō . Now, the word  skēnē  in Greek means “tent,” and  skēnoō  is the verb form. So we could render it, “to pitch a tent.” John tells us that this Word became flesh and  pitched his tent  among us. That’s a weird way to talk, isn’t it? Especially since we don’t have any Scripture that tells us that Jesus actually pitched any literal tent during his time on Earth. Why say it this way? He’s got at least two other words that he could use here. But John uses this particular word because he wants his readers—who would be familiar with the history of Israel—to recall the  tabernacle , the tent of meeting ( Ex 27:21 ), where God met...