An Unconventional God– Part Seven

Last updated on: November 17, 2020 at 1:50 am by Ben Witherington

An Unconventional God– Part Seven 2020-10-28T16:54:45-04:00 Ben Witherington

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

BEN: On p. 15 you stress that it is a myth that the Holy Spirit does not show up until Pentecost. You are absolutely right about that, as it’s hard not to notice the Spirit at work in the Gospels, including in the life of Jesus, and of course you are right as well that these folks including Jesus were all Jews. The rub comes if one equates the spirit of Elijah which Elisha asked a double portion of with the Holy Spirit. Yes, there was a long line of Jews who were inspired and empowered by the living and active spirit of God. I doubt however that the writers of the NT see this as identical with the third person of the Trinity. Why not? Because in the Gospel of John it is Jesus himself who will send the Advocate, the Counselor to his disciples and only when he ascends to heaven having completed his work on the cross and by the resurrection. So, yes Jesus is the locus of the Spirit, and the Spirit’s activity during his ministry, but no, the Holy Spirit who is the ‘agent’ of the Son, sent by the Son, is not the same thing as the empowerment and inspiration God’s spirit gave his OT people. In addition, in Luke 1.41-42 the Greek does not say Elizabeth is filled with ‘the’ Holy Spirit (following your point about the absence of the definite article, nor is the definite article mentioned in 1.34-35), it simply says she was filled with holy spirit and spoke—a way to talk about God inspiring her. Explain more fully why you read these texts differently.

JACK: This is a huge question, Ben, and well-asked. Let me try to take it apart and put it back together.

First, I agree that neither ruach nor pneuma has the same meaning in every context. Ruach alone occurs 389 times in the Old Testament. That is why I put my money on Isaiah 63 and Haggai 2, in which the spirit is understood as an agent (the word you use of the Spirit in the NT) of the exodus. These are the two pivotal texts in which, for lack of a better word, the Spirit is understood first as a person. Not a person of the Trinity, mind you. But a person. A personality. An agent of God. Isaiah 63, I believe, lies behind the temptation of Jesus, the blasphemy saying, and various other NT texts. The Holy Spirit before Christianity spells this out. So not every Old Testament text is of equal importance; some are more significant than others.

Second, just as you’ve done, I think it is impossible to stress enough that Jews in the era of Jesus claimed to experience the Spirit. The notion of “the absence of the Spirit,” which Gordon Fee unfortunately espoused in his magisterial God’s Empowering Presence is simply not right. The “intertestamental era” was not void of the Spirit. That is just not true. Many of my scholarly articles pummel this notion, not least “Did the Spirit Withdraw from Israel? An Evaluation of the Earliest Jewish Data,” in New Testament Studies. It is high time we put aside this failed conception of the withdrawal of the Spirit. You are not espousing this, I know, but it still lingers, like bad cheese in a fridge. Christians need to say no.

Third, this means the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was not a first action of God. Nowhere does Luke say this. It is a continuation of God’s work in Israel. Have you wondered what the followers of Jesus say when they are filled with the Spirit? The mighty acts of God. You know well, Ben, as well as anyone, that this is a shorthand phrase to describe the litany of God’s acts in Israel. Think of that! Inspired by the Spirit, they did what any good Jew would do: praise God for God’s splendid works throughout Israel’s history, culminating in Jesus—who is also part of Israel’s history! There is a lovely symbiosis at Pentecost between experience (the Spirit) and content (the praiseworthy acts of God).

Fourth, John’s Gospel is tricky. On the one hand, you have John 7:37-39, which says the Spirit was not yet given, and the promise of the Paraclete. This sounds like there was no Spirit prior to that time. On the other hand, the stories John tells about Jesus in John 3-4—Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman—make it pretty clear that Jesus promises them the Spirit before he died. I’ve worked hard in An Unconventional God to give a fair and faithful reading of this tension in the Gospel of John. This is a both-and situation rather than either-or. The Spirit was promised during the life of Jesus and also promised to become especially active, in specific ways, after his death. One does not cancel the other.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

November 16, 2020

An Unconventional God--- Part Six

Next Post

November 18, 2020 An Unconventional God-- Part Eight

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz