Words the Bible translates as spirit
English uses one word here. The Bible uses 4 words, and they do not mean the same thing. Each is listed with what it actually means, most frequent first.
- pneumaπνεῦμαthe human spirit: a person's own inner life, the breath of life in them and the self that thinks, feels, and turns toward God
+3 more meanings
- moving air: wind, or the breath that comes from a living body
- a spirit-being other than God: an unclean or evil spirit, or another non-bodily creature such as an angel or a ghost
- the Spirit of God: God's own active presence and power, given to and at work in his people, and increasingly portrayed as a distinct personal agent
- ru'aḥרוּחַthe unseen moving power felt in wind and breath: the air that blows, the breath that gives life, the inner drive of a person, and the empowering presence of God.
- neshamahנְשָׁמָהbreath: the air a living body draws in and out, understood as God's own breath given on loan, whose presence is life and whose departure is death
- ru'aḥרוּחַthe unseen power that moves: the wind outside a person, and inside a person the spirit that carries insight, ability, and temper.
Keep looking
Every English meaning beginning with S is on its letter page, and the whole index starts at Browse.