Keys to Research The Word of God interprets itself. To understand God's Word certain keys to research must be understood and applied when working the Word to avoid private interpretation and maintain the integrity of the original text. These studies are provided to outline some of the simple keys to understanding God's Word. Michael Cortright
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Keys to the Word's InterpretationTake a Quiz on this KEY Acts 2:4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, [holy spirit] and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. A great deal of confusion and misunderstanding of God's Word has come from a failure to make a distinction between God who is The Holy Spirit and the gift He gave to mankind on the day of Pentecost which is also called holy spirit. In the New Testament there are nine distinct usages of the word "spirit." These usages are explained and covered in Appendix II of Victor Paul Wierwille's Receiving the Holy Spirit Today, 7th ed. (New Knoxville, Ohio: American Christian Press, 1982). In English we can make a distinction between the Giver and His gift by the use of capital and lowercase letters. God is "The Holy Spirit." His gift to us is "holy spirit." When the Bible was put into English it was translated
from manuscripts called UNCIAL which were written in continuous capital
text such as FORGODSOLOVED; or the English was translated from CURSIVE
manuscripts which were continuous hand written script such as forgodsoloved
.
In the King James Version of the New Testament of the
Bible the word spirit is translated from the Greek word pneuma.
The word holy is translated from the Greek word hagion.
The translators presented these words as follows in the KJV:
John 4:24
Psalm 99:5
God is holy and God is spirit. This is the nature of God. In English when we are referring directly to God we would capitalize the words as proper nouns. God is "The Holy Spirit." When the Word of God refers to God directly as the source of supply - the giver, the words should be capitalized and translated Holy Spirit. Luke 1:35
John 3:6
God is The Spirit and that which He gives us
when we believe His Word as recorded in Romans 10:9-10 is also called spirit.
Since God is Holy and God is Spirit, when we are born again of God we receive
the nature of God: holy spirit and become His sons and daughters.
We do not receive God. We receive His gift which is holy spirit.
In most references in the New Testament God is referred to as God or the
Father and that which He gave us and we received is called holy spirit.
His gift of spirit to us makes us spiritual beings. Matthew 3:11 The article "the" does not appear in the original text and along with the capital letters changes the meaning of God's Word. Jesus Christ came to make sonship available. He came to make the gift of holy spirit available to all who would believe.
Acts 1:8a
Acts 2:4
I Corinthians 12:3 Each use of the word pneuma (spirit) must be carefully studied in its context in God's Word if we are to understand and rightly divide the difference between God: the Giver, and his gift of holy spirit which we received when we got born again. Volume 2 No. 1 URL http://www.cortright.org/key21.htm © Copyright February 1999 Michael Cortright |