The Holy Spirit and Pneuma (spirit, breath, wind)

Our modern Bibles (New Testament) translate the Koine Greek word “Pneuma” into three different English words… “spirit”, “wind” or “breath” The original writers of the New Testament just used the word “Pneuma”

For instance today we read John 3:5-10,

“Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

However the original text would read like this,

“Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the pneuma. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the pneuma gives birth to pneuma. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The pneuma blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the pneuma.”

So why would the original writers not differentiate between “spirit”, “wind” and “breath”?

Here’s my answer and it seems obvious… they thought they were all the same thing.

They thought the wind was the breath of God. The thought the new born babe breathing his first breath was God putting spirit and life into the babe.

The archaic mind did not understand meteorology and certainly did not understand human physiology. God communicated to them in language they could understand. It was not his purpose to teach weather patterns and oxygenation of blood.

It is important to the Bible student of today because sometimes translators get it wrong. They do like all humans have their predjudices. It’s also important to understand the Holy Scriptures through the lens of ancient and semi ancient peoples.

When we read spirit, breath or wind we should be thinking pneuma.

By the way the element Oxygen was not discovered until 1774 and the exchange of Oxygen from the lungs into the blood about 1780.