THE OFFSPRING OF GOD: "THE BREATH OF LIFE"

"For in ["by"ⁱ] [God] we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring."ⁱⁱ

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Fashioned man was, by his existence, in immediate relationship with God, as deriving his life immediately from Him (Genesis 2:7); hence, man is called by the Holy Spirit via Paul (Acts 17:28) "the offspring of God", and in the gospel according to Luke it is said of the genealogy of the incarnated Jesus that He is "the [son] of Adam the [son] of God."ⁱⁱⁱ

THE INNER MAN

The Bible says that a person has an outward man (2 Corinthians 4:16) which is a body that decays but he also has an inner^iv man (Ephesians 3:16; Romans 7:22). This inner man is the part of man that can receive the riches of God's glory by His Holy Spirit. This inner man is referred to as one's heart^v in Ephesians 3:16-20. It is the source of all that the person believes, loves, understands, knows, or does unto God. As a man “thinks in his heart so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). "For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34). All a man's emotions, desires, appetites and intellect come from this "inner man."^vi This which exists within the body is called "spirit" (James 2:26). Psalm 104:29 states: “If you [Jehovah] take away their spirit [Hebrew, ru'ach; Greek, pneu'ma], they die and return to the dust.” James 2:26 noted that “the body without spirit [pneu'ma] is dead.” In these verses “spirit” refers to that which gives life to the outer man.

PROPOSITION:

"THE BREATH OF LIFE" IS MAN'S INNER MAN, HIS SPIRIT.

I will endeavor to prove this from the original languages, translated words, parallel passages and comparative verses.

God created man in the beginning (Genesis 1:26, 27). "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul" (Genesis 2:7). First, there's dust that's moulded^vii into man's body. This is the outer man, the body, that is subject to decay. Second, there is a giving of the "breath of life. " Man's "breath of life" was originally "blown" or God-breathed^viii into the nostrils of the fashioned outer man (Genesis 1:23; 2:7).

Paul, one of Jesus' apostles, names three aspects of man in his prayer for God to keep the "whole spirit and soul and body preserved blameless" (1 Thessalonians 5:23): (1) body (2) soul (3) spirit. When we go back to Genesis and read of the creation and making of man (Genesis 1 and 2) we also read of three aspects in the making of man as well (Genesis 2:7): (1) body, (2) "living soul", and (3) "breath of life." Is the "breath of life" of Genesis 2:7 one's "spirit"?

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

Cyril of Alexandria, the Patriarch of Alexandria from AD412 to AD444, deduced that the Genesis passage taught that "the Holy Spirit initially gave man life before he received his soul similar to the inspiring of the Scriptures which are God-breathed."^ix The text does give such a sequence. But Cyril explicitly identifies the 'breath of life' in Genesis 2:7 as the Holy Spirit Himself. "However, he is concerned that some might misunderstand the passage and assume that the Holy Spirit became Adam’s soul."^x Cyril was labeled a heretic by some during the heated controversies and power struggles of his time and his Genesis view was opposed by the accepted catechism of the time.

WAS CYRIL CORRECT ABOUT THE "BREATH" BEING SPIRIT?

SCIENCE'S BIOGENESIS LAW.

During the 1860's Louis Pasteur challenged the idea of spontaneous generation--the foundation of Darwin's evolutionary hypothesis on the origin of life. Pasteur should have put to rest the organic life-from-non-life idea, for he demonstrated the foundation for the law of biogenesis; i.e., "life only comes from life."^xi And therefore, following this rule, we submit that spirit comes from spirit. Did not the Holy Spirit confirm through the apostle that we are the offspring of God? And God is Spirit (John 4:24).

COMPARISONS.

God's Spirit* (^Greek:pneuma^{G4151 from G4154}) is identified in Genesis 1:2 as hovering over God's creation. The expression used in Genesis 2:7 for "breath of life" (^Greek:pnoē^{G4157 from G4154}) is of the same family of the original Greek words for "Spirit" in 1:2. Both breath and spirit are in man's nostrils or face (Job 27:3): "All the while my breath (^Greek:pnoē^G4157) is in me, and the *spirit (^Greek:pneuma^G4151) of God is in my nostrils.^xii"

Man's spirit is the only thing specifically mentioned as having being given to man by God and returning to Him (Ecclesiastes 12:7); not simply a "breath of oxygen."^xiii The "breath of life" of Genesis 2:7 is the only thing that's mentioned for God's giving to His fashioned man.

CONFUSION FOR ERROR

Perhaps confusion of "breath of life" is from the witnessing of the natural birth of a baby's first breath which a doctor or midwife slaps the child and brings forth the cry that assures he's still living outside the womb.^xiv Plus the nostrils are specified as receivers; however, "nostril" is used in the Bible to represent particularly "the face, and occasionally a person" (Strong's). Its Greek counterpart means "the front (as being towards view), that is, the countenance, aspect, appearance, surface; by implication presence, person" (Strong's ). I submit that God did not make the man to breathe oxygen at this point but God gave the man a living spirit and that before he began to move.

LEXICONS, etc.:

Lexicographers translate both the Hebrew words nəšāmāh^H5397, "breath") of Genesis 2:7 and ruach^H7307 as meaning "spirit" :

1. STRONG'S נְשָׁמָה H5397 defines as "blast, breath, inspiration, soul, or spirit."

2. ISBE: "breath" can be from neshamah^H5397 (gentle), and of ruach^H7307 (blast)." "As applied to persons there is no very clear distinction between the words."

3. ANCIENT HEBREW LEXICON: "breath" can be translated as spirit.

4. BROWN-DRIVER-BRIGGS' HEBREW DEFINITIONS: H5397: breath [or] spirit.

5. GESENIUS' HEBREW-CHALDEE LEXICON neshamah^H5397 and ruach^H7307

a. ruach^H7307 [spirit] is translated "breath" of life in Genesis 6:17; 7:15 (KJV). "(1) spirit, breath... (a) breath of the mouth... (b) breath of the nostrils." [Although usually "spirit", it is sometimes translated as "breath". Hence, these words are interchangeable to the translators.]

b. A combination is used of H5397 and H7307 is translated into English KJV as "breath of life" (Genesis 7:22): "All in whose nostrils was the breath of life (neshamahH5397 ruwachH7307 chay), of all that was in the dry land, died."

"SPIRIT" IN GREEK IS either pneuma ^G4151 or pnoe ^G4157

Dictionary of Septuagint Words: Hebrew to Greek; Greek to Hebrew. The Greek choice for the Hebrew nəšāmāh^H5397 in the LXX is either pneuma ^G4151 or pnoe ^G4157 [the latter is the LXX's choice for O.T.'s Genesis 2:7-gw]. Both Greek words are derived from the same base word 'breeze'^G4154."

THE COMPANION BIBLE (E. M. BULLINGER). Jesus describes the Holy Spirit's work in the new birth in the NT as being like wind (John 3:8)?^xv His "baptism of the apostles" in Acts 2:2, is translated as "wind": "a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house." "wind" = blast. Gree: pnoe, from pneo, to breathe, or blow, whence pneuma. Used for the Holy Spirit in Acts 2:2 and man's spirit in Acts 17:25. In the OT LXX twenty-one times, of which fifteen are the rendering of the Hebrew neshamah ("breath", etc., see above).

"SPIRIT" IN GREEK AND HEBREW. Ecclesiastes 3:21 uses spirit (for the Hebrew ruwach^H7307 and its counterpart LXX pneuma^G4151) for both the spirit of man and the spirit of the beast. "And who has known the spirit of the sons of man, if it ascends itself upward? and the spirit of the beast if it goes down itself below into the earth? "

"Thus says God the LORD,
Who created the heavens and stretched them out,
Who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it,
Who gives breath* to the people on it,

*KJV: neshâmâh^H5397 or LXX(pnoē^G4157)

And spirit* to those who walk on it:"

*KJV: rûach ^H7307 or in LXX pneuma^G4151

CONCLUSION.

The "breath of life" is the living spirit within man. It cannot be handled nor seen as the body of flesh and bones can. Jesus said, "Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have" (Luke 24:39). Like a breeze of air has vitality, so God gave the invisible spirit to the body. Although the translations have given "breath of life" as the translation , the definitions of the Hebrew and the Greek words, the resulting translations, and comparative renditions support the meaning of "spirit of life"; i.e., the offspring of God.

GAYLON WEST

Throw Out The Lifeline