Abstract
Copious citations of the Old Testament (OT) by the New Testament (NT) writers confirm the continuity of the divine revelation in both parts of the sacred scripture and at the same time underscore the newness of the NT. This is evident in the theological development of the reality of the ‘spirit of the Lord’ from the OT to the NT. In this article the writer traces the development of this biblical concept from its occurrence in the context of Isaiah 61:1–2 to the use of this text in a programmatic passage of Luke 4:18–19. The aim of the research is to shed light on the concept and nature of the spirit of the Lord in its context in Isaiah and the use of this by a NT writer. Both texts are carefully compared, using a literary approach, with the intention to discover how the NT writer used this concept in his presentation of the person and mission of Jesus as a charismatic figure and the anointed of the Lord.
Highlights
The multifaceted feature of the onomatopoetic Hebrew term rûaḥ, which occurs a good number of times (378 times in Hebrew and 11 times in Aramaic of the Book of Daniel) in most books of the Old Testament (OT), necessitates diligent study of the context in which it is used
Rûaḥ in our text connotes ‘spirit’ and is further qualified in the phrase ‘the spirit of the Lord God’, which is a hapax legomenon in the Hebrew Bible
Concealed in the multivalent meaning of the Hebrew word rûaḥ is the mystery of God
Summary
The multifaceted feature of the onomatopoetic Hebrew term rûaḥ, which occurs a good number of times (378 times in Hebrew and 11 times in Aramaic of the Book of Daniel) in most books of the Old Testament (OT), necessitates diligent study of the context in which it is used. Its meanings include ‘wind’, ‘breath’, ‘spirit’, ‘life’ (Tengström 2004) and a host of phrases that bear their respective nuances. Rûaḥ in our text connotes ‘spirit’ and is further qualified in the phrase ‘the spirit of the Lord God’, which is a hapax legomenon in the Hebrew Bible. This means that the phrase ‘the spirit of the Lord God’ (rûaḥ ’ădōnāy YAHWEH) occurs only here in Isaiah 61:1. The usual expression is either ‘the spirit of the Lord’ or ‘the spirit of God’. The rarity of the combination in our text could have informed the variant readings of the ancient versions in retaining ‘the spirit of the Lord’
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