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 A Genetic Study of the Spirit-Phenomena 
 in the New Testament 
 
 A DISSERTATION 
 
 SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY 
 
 OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND LITERATURE 
 
 IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF 
 
 DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 BY 
 
 ELMER HARRY ZAUGG 
 
 Private Edition, Distributed By 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LIBRARIES 
 
 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 
 
 1917 
 
/ 
 
 
 * 7 
 
 A Genetic Study of the Spirit-Phenomena 
 in the New Testament 
 
 A DISSERTATION 
 
 SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY 
 
 OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND LITERATURE 
 
 IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF 
 
 DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 BY 
 
 ELMER HARRY £AUGG 
 
 Private Edition, Distributed By 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LIBRARIES 
 
 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 
 
 1917 
 
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 15 
 
 -&* 
 
 7^ 
 
 GEORGE BANTA PUBLISHING COMPANV 
 MENASHA, WISCONSIN 
 
 Gilt 
 OCT 20 W 
 
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CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction 1 
 
 Chapter I 
 Ancient Belief in Spirits and Demons 3 
 
 Chapter II 
 Jewish Beliefs in Spirits and Demons 22 
 
 Chapter III 
 The Believer as Pneumatikos: The Gifts of the Spirit 41 
 
 Chapter IV 
 The Believer as Pneumatikos: Means of Acquiring the Spirit 81 
 
 Chapter V 
 The Believer as Pneumatikos: The Benefit of Spirit-Possession 100 
 
 Chapter VI 
 Jesus as Pneumatikos 117 
 
 Bibliography 138 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 The task which we have set before us is an attempt to interpret the 
 New Testament conceptions of spirits and the Spirit in the light of 
 the ideas currently held by the people outside Christian circles who 
 lived at the time when the New Testament books were written. This 
 subject has not yet received an adequate treatment from this viewpoint 
 in any separate work, though a number of recent scholars have done much 
 in works of a more general nature to give us material out of which a 
 genetic study of the spirit-phenomena in the New Testament can be 
 made. If any genetic study of the subject has been made at all, it has 
 usually confined itself to the establishing of the relations between the 
 Jewish and Christian conceptions of the Spirit, while the influence of the 
 Hellenistic and Oriental systems of religion and philosophy were entirely 
 overlooked. Even such excellent works as Volz's on the Jewish ideas 
 of the Spirit, Gunkel's on the ideas of the New Testament writers, and 
 Weinel's on the conceptions of the Christians of the sub-apostolic period 
 deal very slightly with this aspect of the subject. 1 They confine them- 
 selves chiefly to the testimony of the Jewish and Christian writings and 
 trace the development of spirit-conceptions within those prescribed 
 limits. But the work of such scholars as Reitzenstein, Pfleiderer, 
 Dieterich, Rohde, Cumont, Heitmuller, Bousset, et al., altho not dealing 
 with this subject in particular, has been the occasion of bringing into the 
 foreground the close connection of the New Testament writers not only 
 with Jewish thought but with the thought of the Hellenistic world as well. 
 It is highly desirable then that a genetic study of the New Testament 
 conceptions of spirits and the Spirit, such as would include the whole 
 background and thought-world of the New Testament writers, should be 
 made. For unless such a study be made, the meaning of the New 
 Testament idea of the Spirit as it existed in the minds of the writers 
 will never be rightly understood. And it might not be presumptuous 
 to say that unless the New Testament conceptions of the Spirit are 
 grasped a large part of this literature must remain a sadly misinterpreted, 
 if not a closed, book. 
 
 The assumption, of course, upon which we base our method of procedure 
 in this investigation is that religion is a matter of social growth and devel- 
 opment, not a matter of static quantities of doctrines and practices divine- 
 
 1 See bibliography at end of volume for the names of these works. 
 
Z A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 ly revealed to man once for all. And if man, as we believe, was one, if not 
 the, determining factor in this religious process and growth, then the most 
 natural way to deal with such a subject as the spirit-phenomena of the 
 New Testament — and we might well say the same with regard to the 
 study of any other New Testament conception — is, so far as we can, to 
 deal with the process of the development of spirit-ideas from a sociological 
 and psychological viewpoint and to point out their genetic relations with 
 the ideas of contemporary systems of thought. 
 
 Our first endeavor then is to find out how the belief in spirits and 
 demons arose in the primitive ages and how these primitive ideas were mod- 
 ified and developed in the thinking of the Graeco-Roman world. But 
 since Christianity arose on Jewish soil and at first was very little more 
 than a Jewish sect, it is necessary also to investigate the conceptions of 
 the Jews regarding spirits and demons, and particularly those of the Jews 
 of New Testament times. This gives us a background for the Christian 
 notions of the Spirit in the first few decades of the movement. But 
 when by the activity of Paul and other missionaries the movement 
 spread to Gentile soil, there naturally came a fusion of the Jewish ideas 
 heretofore held by the Christians and those which the Gentile Christians 
 brought over with them as a heritage from their past history. This 
 leads us to a discussion of the spirit-conceptions in which there is more 
 or less of a Hellenistic element, particularly the conceptions of the 
 Pauline letters and the fourth Gospel. In this discussion we are to 
 concern ourselves not only with the operations of the Spirit in the 
 believer, but with the ideas of the Spirit's relation to Jesus, for these 
 ideas, based on the identification which the Christians made of Jesus 
 with the heavenly being or Logos of Hellenistic thought, and conditioned 
 largely by the Christians' own experiences of the Spirit, evince the 
 fusion of various elements and can be only properly grasped when these 
 elements have been resolved into their constituent parts. 
 
 The author wishes to make grateful acknowledgment of the help re- 
 ceived in the preparation of this thesis from the professors of the New 
 Testament Department of the University of Chicago, and particularly 
 from Professor S. J. Case under whose direction and with the aid of 
 whose kind advice and suggestions the dissertation was written. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Ancient Belief in Spirits and Demons 
 The world of antiquity according to the conceptions of the people 
 then living was peopled by all kinds of spiritual beings and powers. The 
 earth upon which they stood and walked, the objects, whether animate 
 or inanimate, which went to make up their environment, the air which 
 they breathed, the heavens with their luminaries and starry hosts, were 
 all believed to be full of spirits. These spirits, ordinarily invisible, 
 yet made their presence and reality manifest through the exercise of 
 some inexplicable power, or through the expression of a unique mode 
 of activity in the objects which they were thought to inhabit. Seed 
 was sown in the soil, and some mysterious power in the earth caused 
 it to sprout and grow and bear fruit. 1 Plants and trees must have some 
 soul or spirit in them for they give signs of life and continue to do so 
 until, injured or cut down, they wither and die. 2 A large massive 
 rock or mountain creates a sense of awe in the breast of the savage 
 on-looker, and this sensation can have no other explanation than that 
 it arises from the influence of the spirit of the rock or mountain upon 
 his soul. In truth, the majestic Olympus was the very abode of the 
 great gods. 
 
 The action of water as noticed in the bubbling spring or in the restless 
 waves of the ocean or in the rushing flow of the mountain torrent, also 
 
 1 The ancient worship of Gaia (r^ ttcivtoov ixrjTrjp) was no doubt based on the belief 
 that the productive forces of nature were due to the agency of spiritual powers resident 
 in the earth. With the early Thracians Dionysos represented the power of life in 
 vegetation. See Case, Evolution of Early Christianity, ch. 9, but especially p. 298; 
 also Tylor, Primitive Culture, II, pp. 206 ff and 273. In fact, ancient Greek religion 
 consisted very largely of the worship of the forces of nature. In their spring festivals 
 the main idea and object of the worshippers was the placation of the spirits or ghosts 
 of the dead underworld, which they held responsible for the death of vegetable life 
 during winter, and which, they thought, would promote fertility if appeased by sacri- 
 fice (Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, p. 53 f.). 
 
 2 Notice the mention of tree-nymphs in Homer, Aphrod. 257. And Ovid is 
 doubtless not only reflecting the conceptions of his own age, but those of the ages 
 preceding, when he speaks of dryads, fauns, and satyrs living in the groves and forests 
 (Metam. VIII, 741). See also Cato, De Re Rustica, 139, and Pliny, XVII, 47. The 
 spirit-inspired oak at Dodona (Homer, Odyss. XIV, 327 and XIX, 296) is, of course, 
 an example merely of the belief in the special inspiration of a particular tree, and yet 
 
 i t represents the general conception which the ancients held as to spirits dwelling 
 n trees and groves. 
 
4 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 demands some mysterious indwelling spirit to account for its activity. 
 Nymphs made their home in the spring; Xanthos or Acheloos ruled in 
 the waters of the river; and Poseidon or some terrible monster of the 
 deep dwelt in the waves of the sea. How else could a shipwreck or 
 loss of life by drowning be explained except by assuming that the angry 
 demon of the deep drew his victim beneath the water? 3 
 
 Fire also was regarded as an element possessed of demonic power. 
 In Greece Hestia was the goddess of the hearth; and in Rome Vesta 
 was worshipped in a temple where fire was kept continually burning, 
 the goddess supposedly dwelling in the fire. The gods, Vulcan and 
 Hephaistos, were connected with subterranean volcanic fire. 
 
 Again the various activities of the air were supposed to have been 
 caused by the agency of spiritual beings. The Harpies were spirits of 
 the wind, 4 and they somehow were connected with the giving of life 
 not only to men but to animals and plants as well. 5 Rain and snow, 
 thunder and lightning, hail and storm, clouds and rainbow were all 
 ascribed to the activity of demonic powers that ruled and governed the 
 regions of the air. 
 
 And so it was with the movements of the heavenly bodies. The 
 sun, moon and stars were alive and animated by their special deities. 
 The worship of the Greek Apollo, the Egyptian Osiris, the Persian 
 Mithras, and the Syrian Elagabalus, all of them Sun-gods, indicates how 
 widespread was the idea of a spirit or god dwelling in the sun and guiding 
 it in its daily course. And the primitive conception of the moon and 
 stars was quite similar. 6 
 
 No one who studies the religious conceptions of primitive peoples 
 or of the races of the lower culture can fail to be impressed with the fact 
 
 3 Victims were regularly sacrificed to the sea until a late period in order to pla- 
 cate the power or powers supposed to dwell therein. Cicero says, "If Earth is a god- 
 dess, so also the Sea, whom thou saidst to be Neptune" (De Nat. Deo., Ill, 20). 
 
 4 Homer, H. XXIII, 192; Odyss. XX, 37 and 66. Also Vergil, Aen. I, 56. 
 
 6 The Athenians sacrificed to the Tritopatores, i. e. to the ghosts of ancestors or 
 the spirits of the winds, when they were about to marry (Suidas, s. v. Tritopatores). 
 Hippocrates (Geoponica, IX, 3) says the winds give life not only to plants but to 
 all things. And Vergil has a passage where the pregnancy of mares is ascribed to 
 the agency of winds (Georg. Ill, 274). See also on this point Harrison, op cit., pp. 
 178 ff. 
 
 6 Cumont, Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism, pp. 129 ff.; Astrology and 
 Religion among Greeks and Romans, p. 116. Murray (Four Stages of Greek religion 
 p. 126 ff.) discusses the worship of the seven planets in later antiquity as described 
 in the Hermetic, the Gnostic, and other ancient religious writings, a custom 
 that had its origin no doubt in quite early stages in the religious development of man. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 5 
 
 that they thought of themselves as being surrounded by a vast cloud of 
 witnesses, spiritual beings that were responsible for all the various 
 activities and forces of nature. 7 It was very much as Thales is reported 
 to have said, "All things are full of gods." 8 
 
 The question arises here as to where the primitive races derived 
 their belief in spirits. What was it that led them to give such an inter- 
 pretation — for in the last analysis the belief in spirits is nothing more 
 than an effort to explain causality in the world — to the natural pheno- 
 mena of the universe? In answering this question we are thrown back 
 upon another one which deals with primitive man's conception of him- 
 self. The law of psychology, which may well be termed universal, that 
 a man always interprets phenomena external to himself from a subjective 
 standpoint and in the light of his own experience, must have played a 
 fundamental part in the forming of primitive conceptions regarding the 
 outer world and the active forces of nature. What man thought of 
 himself, what he experienced in his contact with the forces of his environ- 
 ment, was the element that determined the direction and nature of the 
 explanation which he gave regarding the external conditions, events, 
 and vicissitudes of his life. If he thought of the earth, the air, the stars, 
 as embodiments or possessors of spiritual beings, it was because he first 
 thought of himself as having a spiritual being within him. So a fun- 
 damental inquiry to the understanding of the rise of the belief in spirits 
 in external nature is to find out how man came to believe that he had a 
 soul or spirit within himself. 
 
 The belief in souls arose no doubt from man's experience with such 
 states as sleep, dreams, death and sickness. He noticed that at certain 
 times his body or that of some other man was active and awake; at 
 other times it lay dormant and in a state of comparative lifelessness. 
 It was but natural that he, a savage, should ascribe the change thus 
 undergone in sleep to the departure of some entity from the body. 
 Again in the depths of night he had dreams in which he saw the form 
 of some distant friend or enemy, or in which he was conscious of himself 
 travelling or wandering in strange and remote places. He knew that 
 
 7 An abundant mass of material illustrating not only the ideas of the ancient 
 Greeks and Romans with regard to the belief in spirits dwelling and acting in nature, 
 but ideas quite similar to the above as held also by the people of the lower culture in 
 other lands of both ancient and modern times, may be found in such works as Frazer, 
 The Golden Bough, 1913-5; Gruppe, Griechische Mythologie und Religionsgeschichte, 
 1906; Farnell, Cults of the Greek States, 1896-1909; Tylor, Primitive Culture, 1891; 
 et al. See extended bibliography in Case, Ev. of Ear. Xty, p. 76 f. 
 
 8 Arist. De Anima, I, 5, 411 A. 
 
6 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 his friend or enemy could not possibly have been present in bodily form. 
 And upon waking suddenly from a dream he no doubt realized that his 
 own body was just where it had been before he had fallen asleep. He 
 concluded therefore that the form which he had seen was the phantom, 
 the Shattenseele, of his friend or enemy, and that he himself was pos- 
 sessed of a sort of second self, or soul, an entity quite distinct from his 
 physical organism and able to leave it at wall. 
 
 It was in a similar way that primitive man interpreted the phen- 
 omenon of death. When he saw his comrade's or his enemy's dead 
 body, he supposed that the being that had animated it had now deserted 
 it. The departure of the soul, which in sleep was merely temporary, 
 in death was regarded as permanent. Since death in its bodily mani- 
 festations functioned in practically the same way as sleep, it was simply 
 conceived of as a prolonged sleep. The analogy of the two phenomena 
 has so impressed itself upon the human mind that even today the two 
 words are often used synonymously, with however this difference in 
 usage that, whereas death is today often taken to mean the absence of 
 life as an abstract element or principle, in the mind of primitive man 
 it always connoted the departure of a being whose presence in the body 
 gave it life and animation. This being was thought of as residing 
 particularly in the blood or in the breath, for death was seen to take 
 place upon the loss of the one or at the cessation of the other. 
 
 Sickness was also conceived of as being due to the agency of spirits 
 or demons. The savage saw his body or the bodies of his comrades 
 waste away; 9 he was a witness of the convulsions, the distortions, the 
 ferocity, and the incoherent raving of the insane and epileptic. He 
 himself perhaps knew what it was to suffer from fever or some mental 
 disorder, and had a knowledge of how the delirious and frenzied acted. 
 He recognized that all these phenomena were abnormal and strange ; and 
 hence, just as he ascribed the normal conditions and acts to the soul 
 which ordinarily inhabited the body, he now was led to explain these 
 abnormal conditions on the ground of a strange spirit that had taken 
 possession of the body. 10 
 
 This is doubtless the way in which primitive man came to believe 
 in souls or spirits. Other elements and factors may have had a share 
 
 9 The vampire was regarded as a spirit, either the soul of a living or dead person, 
 which sucked the blood out of its victims (Tylor, Prim. Cult., II, 189). 
 
 10 Homer thinks of sick men as being tormented by demons, Odyss. V, 396; X, 64. 
 And the idea that lay back of the belief in the Keres was that these spiritual beings 
 were the cause for all the ills and diseases of this mortal life, Hesiod., Erg. 90. Even 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 7 
 
 in the process, such as, for example, the hearing of his voice in echo, 
 the sight of his form as reflected in water, the presence of his shadow, 
 the appearance of distant persons and objects when under the influence 
 of a trance or vision, and the mental excitement of some great emotion. 
 But these were perhaps no more than added proofs lending confirmation 
 to his belief that he was possessed of a soul or spirit, and that in addition 
 to this soul or Korperseele, which was the normal cause of his life, he 
 had a double or second self, a phantom, a Hauch- or Schattenseele. 
 Both of these entities were supposed to be able to leave the body, but 
 the latter's sphere of activity seems to have been limited to dream- 
 and vision-appearances only. 11 
 
 Now it is a feature common to the psychology of all primitive races 
 that no distinction is made between the subjective and objective, between 
 the imagined and the real. The man of the lower culture believes that 
 the human specters which he sees whether in dreams, delirium and 
 mental excitement, or merely in the exercise of his visual memory or 
 imagination, are objectively real. And hence, since he, arguing from 
 his own experience and from his conception of himself, is convinced 
 that other men and animate objects have souls and phantoms too, he 
 peoples the world about him with spirits and ghosts. Furthermore 
 since he sees the phantoms of his dead friends and enemies in his dreams 
 and visions, he infers that the ghosts or souls of the dead are still alive 
 and are able to wander back to the earth from the abode of the dead. 12 
 This belief of course added a multitude of spiritual beings to the milieu 
 of the savage, already so full of spirits. 
 
 blindness was caused in this way, Eur. Phoen. 950. For further discussion of the 
 Keres see Harrison, Proleg. to Study of Gr. Relig., ch. 5. They were germs or bacilli 
 conceived of as disease-spirits. On this subject consult also Wundt, Elemente der 
 Volkerpsychologie, p. 83, and Thompson, Devils, II, Tablet XI, line 1 ff., and II, 
 Tablet M, line 1 ff. 
 
 11 For further material on the subject of the rise of the belief in souls or spirits, 
 see Tylor, Prim. Cult., I, 423 ff.; Wundt, Elemente der Volkerpsychologie, pp. 203 ff.; 
 Toy, Introduction to the History of Religions, sees. 39-44; and Leuba, the Psycholog- 
 ical Origin and the Nature of Religion, ch. 3. For passages illustrative of the belief 
 in dream-souls, see Homer, II. XXIII, 59; Odyss. XI, 207, 222; Porphyr. De Antro 
 Nympharum; Vergil, Aen. II, 794; and Ovid, Fasti, V, 475. These references no 
 doubt reflect ideas much older than the time of their writers. 
 
 12 This belief in the return of spirits from the dead coupled with the thought that 
 their placation was necessary to ward off their harmful influence, was doubtless the 
 occasion for the rise of the cults of the dead which prevailed so widely in ancient 
 times, and have continued in some lands even to the present day, particularly in 
 Oriental countries. It was quite generally believed that if a ghost became hungry, or 
 
8 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 The evidence given by those who have studied primitive religions 
 seems sufficient to establish this as the way in which the belief in the 
 existence of spirits in external nature arose. As men's lives and actions 
 under normal circumstances were regarded as having been caused by 
 souls or spirits, either dwelling within or acting upon the human body, 
 so the cause for the various physical operations of the outer world was 
 traced to the same kind of soullike beings residing in or acting upon 
 the objects of nature. 13 
 
 The next step in the development of spirit-ideas was no doubt the 
 classification of spiritual beings into groups according to the analogy 
 of the classes in human society. The hero was one who had distinguished 
 himself in his earthly life because of some deed of prowess or some 
 signal act of service to his family, clan, or state. It was but natural 
 that since he had thus manifested his superiority over his fellow mortals 
 in this life, his ghost should be regarded as existing on a higher plane 
 than the ordinary in the abode of the dead. The same human analo- 
 gies played a part in the origin of primitive ideas regarding demons 
 and gods. The chief ruled over his tribe or clan; he had sons and daugh- 
 ters of his own; he was surrounded by his counsellors; his messengers 
 made known his will, and his soldiers fought his enemies. These human 
 relations were conceived of as continuing in the world of spirits, and 
 thus the idea of a god ruling over subordinate spirits or demons ori- 
 ginated. 14 In this way also were the beings of the invisible world, 
 as it were, classified and graded. 15 But of course there was no fast 
 
 if the body in which it had dwelt was not properly buried, or if due rites and sacri- 
 fices were not made in its honor, it would return to earth to afflict the living. The 
 Greek festival, Anthesteria, was devoted to this Manesworship, or Manism, as Wundt 
 calls it. And Ovid (Fasti, V, 443) mentions a rite belonging to the Roman Lemuria 
 festival in which the father of a family had to drive away the ancestral ghosts. li Shade 
 of my fathers, depart," he repeated nine times as a part of the ritual. Harrison, 
 op. cit. ch. 2. 
 
 13 The idea of spirits acting as personified causes in even inanimate objects is 
 illustrated by a custom described by Herodotus (I, 189; VII, 34) who says that a 
 court of justice was held at Prytaneum to judge any inanimate or irrational object, 
 such as an ox or a piece of stone, which had without any known human agency caused 
 the death of anyone. If found guilty, the object was cast outside the border. This 
 custom is also referred to in Porpyhry, De Abstinentia, II, 30, and Pausan. I. 28. 
 
 14 Men have always interpreted the Deity and the relations that exist between 
 the inhabitants of the spiritual world in accordance with the relations existing between 
 the members of the society in which they happen to live. In a monarchy God is a 
 king; in a democracy, a father and fellow-companion. 
 
 15 So far as the literary remains of human history inform us, Hesiod was doubt- 
 less the first to sketch this classification of spiritual beings. He mentions the four 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 9 
 
 line of demarcation between these various classes of spiritual beings. 16 
 Nor was it impossible for members of one class to rise or fall to a position 
 higher or lower than his own rank. The ghost of a hero could rise to 
 the rank of a god. 17 The demons were very desirous of being regarded 
 as deities and sought deification; 18 and in case a demon became so well 
 known as to receive a name he was classed as a god. 19 And among the 
 gods themselves there was often a shift of position and rank. 20 On 
 the other hand, evil spirits were sometimes thought of as heavenly 
 beings who had fallen from their high estate. 21 
 
 As for the constitution and form of a spiritual being, the primitive 
 conception of a ghost-soul was that it possessed the likeness of human 
 form and was in its constituency of a very fine substance, something 
 like air, wind, or fire. Primitive man also ascribed to many of the 
 demons, and to the gods in general, human shape and passions, as well 
 as the quality of ethereality or vaporous materiality. The Homeric 
 
 classes: gods, demons, heroes, and the souls of men. He evidently ranks demons 
 higher than heroes, and identifies them with the souls of those who lived in the Golden 
 Age of the past (Erg. 109, 122 ff., 159, 172, 251 ff.). For a discussion of the points of 
 differentiation made by primitive peoples between gods, demons, and heroes, see 
 Wundt, op. cit. pp. 348-369. He contends for the priority of the belief in magic and 
 spirits to that in gods, and cites instances of tribes living today who have not yet 
 arrived at the stage where gods form a part of their thought-world, though they have a 
 belief in supersensuous beings. He claims that a god was distinguished from a demon 
 or hero in three ways: (a) his place of abode was not the same; (b) his life was per- 
 fect and immortal, and wasiiot subject to sickness nor death; and (c) his personality, 
 though anthropomorphically conceived of, was yet superhuman. Demons and 
 heroes might have one or the other of these characteristics, but not all three combined. 
 
 16 See Rohde, Psyche, I, 96 ff. and 255 for statements regarding souls that become 
 demons and gods; also in the same work s. v. Damonen and Seelen. Josephus 
 reflects this primitive idea in Wars VI, 1, 5 (47). 
 
 17 Such was the case with Hercules and Asklepios, Harrison (Prolegomena, p. 341) 
 to the contrary. 
 
 18 Plutarch, though a late writer, is no doubt in accord with primitive concep- 
 tions when he says that demons, though not gods, desire to be called gods and to be 
 honored as such (Why the Oracles Cease, 20). Porphyry too tells how the demons 
 who wish to be gods long for the fumes of sacrifice by which their spiritual and bodily 
 substance is nourished, for the odor of blood and flesh is regarded as giving them 
 strength (De Abstinentia, II, 42). 
 
 19 See Foucart, Encyc. of Rel. and Eth., art., "Demons and Spirits (Egyptian)." 
 
 20 When the mystery-cults became flourishing, Demeter rose from the position 
 of an earth-goddess to that of an Olympian. And the same might be said of Dionysos 
 (Harrison, op. cit., p. 275; Eurip., Bacch., 416). 
 
 21 This is the conception particularly of the authors of Job and Ethiopic Enoch. 
 See Barton, Encyc. of Rel. and Eth., art., "Demons and Spirits (Hebrew)." 
 
10 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 gods and the Angel of Jehovah are examples of the anthropomorphic 
 ideas of the ancient Greeks and Hebrews. The spirits which were 
 supposed to reside in objects of nature were of course not thought of as 
 having human shape, but nevertheless they were generally regarded as 
 personal beings possessing the powers of intelligence and will. It is 
 not until man reaches the stages of the higher culture and of philosophical 
 speculation that he arrives at the idea of life, causality and spirit as 
 abstractions. 
 
 Now becuse the spirits and deities were thus anthropomorphically 
 and personally apprehended, they were also thought of as living in close 
 intercourse with mortal men. The souls of the dead supposedly hovered 
 about the tomb or place of burial, or were wont to return from the 
 underworld to seek embodiment, 22 to wreak vengeance upon some 
 previous enemy, or to appear to some friend or relative. Through the 
 festivals for the dead the association which the living enjoyed with the 
 dead before their departure from the earth was supposedly continued; 
 yet the souls of the dead were in the main regarded with terror by most 
 of the peoples of antiquity, and sacrifices were quite universally offered 
 to placate them. The dead were regarded as revealing the future through 
 dreams and visions, and the conception also prevailed that a man's 
 soul might in a dream or vision penetrate the underworld and thus gain 
 a knowledge of its secrets. 23 The spirits of heroes too were thought of as 
 being in close touch with the living. They were still active in rendering 
 service to those whom they had aided while alive or those who afterwards 
 became their worshippers. They were accustomed to appear to men 
 particularly at springs and wells, which were sacred to them. Asklepios 
 continued to heal by incubation those who came to his temple. 24 
 
 The demons also were in constant communication with the living. 
 They flitted about in the air and were continually striving to get pos- 
 session of some human body, or to inhabit some object of nature. In 
 general, we might say that there were two kinds of demons which were 
 supposed to take up their abode in men, viz., disease-spirits and oracle- 
 
 22 This idea formed the basis for the belief in the transmigration of the soul, so 
 prevalent in the religions of India and referred to so often in the works of Plato and 
 other Greek writers. See Diog. Laert., Empedocles, 12, where the claim of Pythago- 
 ras is made that he was the soul of Euphorbos, whom Menelaus slew at the seige of 
 Troy, in a new body. 
 
 23 Homer (Odyss. XI) describes the visit of Odysseus to the regions of the dead. 
 Later references to visions of the future world are found in Lucian, Philopseudes, 
 17-28; Plut., De Sera Numinis Vindicta, XXII; and Euseb., Praep. Evang. 11, 36. 
 
 24 Harrison, Proleg., pp. 341 ff. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 1 1 
 
 spirits. The former caused all the mental disorders and diseases of 
 life, and were to be exorcised. The latter caused dreams, visions, 
 and ecstasy, and were to be longed for. The former could be kept off 
 by the performance of ritual, the eating of certain strong herbs like 
 buckthorn, the sounding of brass, and the making of comic figures. 
 Care had to be taken particularly when food was eaten, for the demons 
 were apt to enter the body with the food, and especially when meat 
 was taken, because they were fond of it and were thought to be more 
 closely connected with a thing that once had had life and blood in it. 
 The oracle-spirits were induced to enter the body by means of fasting, 
 by the eating of laurel, by drinking wine, by partaking of certain drugs, 
 by the playing of musical instruments, etc. 
 
 The gods too were not conceived of as living at any remote distance 
 from mankind. 26 And so long as the deities were regarded as living 
 in close association with men, possession by a god meant practically 
 the same thing as possession by a demon; in practice at least the two 
 phenomena can scarcely be differentiated. The Delphian prophetess 
 chewed laurel leaves, 26 fasted, and inhaled the gases that issued from 
 the orifice in the ground, and thus became possessed of Apollo and 
 prophesied. 27 The worshipper of Dionysos used ivy, drank wine, and 
 ate the raw flesh of the sacred bull. In this way he became inspired 
 by the god. The result was a frenzy and an ecstasy that no doubt, 
 finds a close parallel in the mad ravings of the early Hebrew prophets. 28 
 
 It was in this way that the savage and barbarian held intercourse 
 with the invisible beings of the spiritual world. 
 
 But we should not fail to notice here also the prominent part which 
 the idea of mana, or spiritual force, played in the intercourse between 
 spirits and men. Codrington 29 defines mana thus: "It is a power or 
 influence, not physical, and in a way supernatural; but it shows itself 
 in physical force, or in any kind of power or excellence which a man 
 
 25 "The idea of a god far away in the sky is not easy for primitive man to grasp. 
 It is a subtle and rarefied idea, saturated with ages of philosophy and speculation" 
 (Murray, Four Stages of Greek Religion, p. 23). 
 
 26 Sophocles, frag. 811. 
 
 27 Chrysostom, Horn. XXIX, I Cor. 12:2, reflects no doubt the Christian version 
 of a primitive belief when he says that an evil spirit comes from beneath the Pythoness 
 as she sits on her tripod, enters her body, and fills her with madness. 
 
 28 1 Sam. 19:18-24. 
 
 29 Codrington, The Melanesians, p. 119 n. For further information on the sub- 
 ject of mana see Marett, Encyc. of Rel. and Eth., art., "Mana," and the bibliography 
 there given. 
 
12 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT -PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 possesses. This tnana is not fixed in anything, and can be conveyed in 
 almost anything; but spirits, whether disembodied souls or supernatural 
 beings, have it and can impart it; and it essentially belongs to personal 
 beings to originate it, though it may act through the medium of water, 
 or a stone, or a bone." This idea of tnana, which was originally no 
 doubt a term used only by the Pacific tribes, is practically to be identified 
 with a similar conception held as well by most savage races outside of 
 the Pacific group, for example, the orenda idea of the Iroquois, the 
 wakan of the Sioux, the manitu of the Algonquins, the hasina of the 
 Madagascar tribes, etc.; and hence may be regarded as a universal 
 feature of primitive belief . It was used to explain the forces that operate 
 in extraordinary ways, the striking shape of certain natural objects, 
 or the abnormal character and power of certain individuals. In other 
 words, it represents the power, might, or influence of the being or object 
 inhabited by a spirit. In a sense every man has mana, but the amount 
 which different individuals possess varies according to the power which 
 they can wield over other individuals. The medicine-man, the physi- 
 cian, the seer, the king, the priest, all had more mana than ordinary 
 men; and that explained their superhuman power. Furthermore mana 
 was unmoral, and could be used for either good or ill. It was therefore 
 thought advisable for an individual either to acquire enough of this 
 power to surpass that of the objects or persons he feared, or to win 
 the goodwill of the being who had it also. 
 
 The way in which this mana could be acquired was by coming in 
 contact with a person or object that possessed it to an extraordinary 
 degree. This contact could be effected in various ways: by looking 
 upon, or touching the person or object; by spitting on or speaking to 
 it; by using its hair, skin, or faeces; by pronouncing its name; by the 
 possession of its image, or some object that once belonged to it; by 
 the giving of presents, or the payment of money; or by simply eating 
 the object. 30 The possession of a tiger's whiskers was believed to give 
 a man possession of his mana. Achilles was fed on wild beasts' flesh, 
 with the thought that by doing this he would acquire their power. 
 The native Australians are said to eat the kidney-fat of a slain enemy 
 in order thus to add his strength to their own. It was also believed that 
 the performance of certain magical rites and initiatory ceremonies, the 
 visitation of a trance or dream, the forcible injection of magic crystals 
 or shell into the body would add to one's stock of power. Mana could 
 also be transmitted by inheritance; and this idea no doubt formed the 
 30 Halliday, Greek Divination, ch. 2, deals with this subject in greater detail. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT -PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 13 
 
 basis for the rise of prophetic guilds and of the notion of the lineal suc- 
 cession of kings. In Greek history we read of the mantis effecting 
 union with his god by eating laurel, by drinking divine water or the 
 blood of the sacred bull, or by allowing a snake to bite him. Taboos 
 arose chiefly because it was felt that ritual purity was necessary before 
 a man could with impunity approach a person or object possessing this 
 awe-inspiring and sacred power. If one wished to avert the evil influence 
 and activity of mana, he had either to overcome the person or object 
 possessing it by the exercise of his own mana, or to enlist the aid of some 
 other mana-possessed person, or object. This explains the prevalence 
 of sorcerers, magicians, charms and amulets among primitive peoples. 
 But as man was often unsuccessful in overcoming his ills and enemies 
 in this way, he resorted to the restrictions and prohibitions of the taboo- 
 system in order that this at times malevolent power might remain 
 quiescent and not come out into the open to do him hurt. 
 
 Thus we see that primitive man believed himself to be surrounded 
 by a host of spiritual beings and forces, which could take possession 
 of, or act upon, not only inanimate objects, but his own body as well. 
 When thus possessed or acted upon, he usually thought of himself as 
 being actuated or moved by a will or force not his own, his body becoming 
 for the time being a mere instrument of the spirit. The possibility 
 of a spiritual being, which was conceived of as being constituted of 
 very fine substance, entering and penetrating another material being 
 never disturbed his mind, for he believed in the penetrability of matter. 
 It was in this way that he explained both the normal and the abnormal 
 conditions of his body and mind. Furthermore, he was convinced that 
 his power, whether physical or mental, could be increased to superhuman 
 proportions by his coming into contact with a being which had super- 
 human power. This contact was effected either by his soul leaving his 
 body and entering the world of spirits, or by a spirit taking possession 
 of his body. It was for this reason that he employed various means and 
 agencies to induce dreams, visions and ecstatic conditions; it was in 
 this way that he could get the strength and power of the spirits. 
 
 Now when we come to New Testament times, or to what is known as 
 the Graeco-Roman period of history, we find that in general these prim- 
 itive ideas concerning spirits and demons persisted, though some of 
 their crudities, to be sure, had disappeared. But we notice that along 
 certain lines there was more or less of change and progress, due no doubt 
 to a variety of causes, among which we might mention the spread of 
 Greek culture as a result chiefly of Alexander's conquests, the introduc- 
 
14 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 tion into the West of various Oriental cults and ideas, the rise and con- 
 solidation of the Roman Empire, the spirit of cosmopolitanism and 
 individualism that arose largely as a result of the political conditions 
 of the times, and the unwonted activity and interest of philosophers 
 and learned men in the practical affairs of life. 
 
 Among the changes that took place in the beliefs of the people regard- 
 ing spirits and demons, we might point first of all to the tendency toward 
 a monotheistic conception of Deity. This tendency manifested itself, 
 it is true, even before the Graeco-Roman period, but it came to a climax, 
 as it were, during this time. Among the later Hebrews, who were greatly 
 influenced by the religious ideas of the Persians, monotheism developed 
 from the time of the exile. 31 And as Ahura Mazda in Persia, Ptah in 
 Egypt, 32 and Jehovah among the Jews became the one supreme Deity, 
 so in Greece and Rome Zeus and Jupiter became the aU-controlling 
 Ruler of the universe. There were no doubt various causes and elements 
 that played a part in this development, but perhaps the chief one was 
 the introduction into the Graeco-Roman world of Oriental thought, 
 which in the main was characterized by a monotheistic view of the 
 world. Nevertheless the tendency to model the heavenly pantheon 
 according to the pattern of social and political institutions, which in 
 this period were predominantly of a monarchical type, as the Imperial 
 regime in Rome shows; the effort of the philosophers to find in all the 
 universe a first cause, and to reduce the many to the one; the ascription 
 of all the various phenomena in the universe to the different activities 
 of one and the same spiritual agency; the tendency to think of the world 
 as being animated by one all-pervasive spirit as the body was animated 
 by one soul or spirit; all these too must have had an influence in fusing 
 into one common personality all the attributes of the great polytheistic 
 powers. 33 The result of this monotheistic development was on the one 
 hand to ascribe a large number of names to the Supreme Deity, 34 but 
 it also tended to increase the host of demons and other spiritual beings 
 of subordinate rank, for many of those beings formerly regarded as 
 
 31 This is especially to be noted in Deutero-Isaiah and the later prophets. 
 
 32 The London Inscriptions (especially Z59) given by Reitzenstein in Poimandres 
 p. 62 ff., show the tendency toward monotheism in Egypt. 
 
 33 References to the monotheistic views of the time may be found in Wessely, 
 Paris Magical Papyrus, V, 2838; Aeschylus, frag. 70 n; Cicero, Acad., II, 118; Seneca, 
 Nat. Ques., I, pref. 13; Lactantius, V, 238 (Rzach); Sibylline Oracles, V. 11 f.: Marcus 
 Aurelius, IV, 23; Reitzenstein, Poimandres, 39, 1; and Xorden, Agnostos Theos, pp. 
 240-250. 
 
 34 Ahura Mazda possesses 72 names. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 15 
 
 gods no longer were thought of as occupying a first place in the pantheon, 
 but as ranking with the demons. The contact of one cult with another 
 generally resulted in the devotees of the one calling the gods of the other 
 demons or evil spirits, 35 though the fusion of various cults, which was 
 one of the noteworthy features of the syncretistic movement of the age, 
 tended on the other hand to reduce their number by identifying the 
 gods and demons of the various systems. This tendency manifested 
 itself even among the Jewish people, as is evident from the statement 
 of Philo, in which he says that souls, demons, and angels differ only in 
 name but are in reality one. 36 
 
 The Graeco-Roman period was also a time when the grandeur and 
 the stability of the Roman State was impressing itself upon the minds of 
 the people. And especially after the establishment of the Empire did 
 they come to respect and honor the Emperor who stood, as it were, as 
 the living representative or embodiment of the Roman power, and who 
 in a sense was given credit for the benefactions and services which the 
 Roman State was rendering the world. As a result of this the worship 
 of heroes was greatly stimulated and Emperor-worship was soon estab- 
 lished as a state-cult, and became particularly active in the eastern pro- 
 vinces where the king from early ages had been regarded as of divine 
 descent. 
 
 Another change that took place about this time was the develop- 
 ment of transcendental ideas. Where formerly most of the gods and 
 spirits were chthonian beings, or at least associated with men on the 
 earth, the abode of the deities, and in some cases even of the spirits of 
 the dead, was now transferred from the earth and underworld to the 
 skies. This was no doubt largely due to the influence of Oriental astrol- 
 ogy, which so strongly affected the West at this time. 37 A great gulf 
 came gradually to be fixed between the earth and heaven, between man 
 and his gods. And hence the need came to be felt for some being, 
 some mediating agent that could span this gulf and effect the 
 reunion of man and Deity. This union could not be achieved, it was 
 believed, unless some being with a knowledge of divine and heavenly 
 things would come down from heaven and give men a knowledge of a 
 safe way to heaven or to the sun, moon and stars which by very many 
 
 35 Many of the angels, saints and demons of Christian belief were deities in poly- 
 theistic systems. 
 
 38 De Gigantibus, IV. 
 
 37 Cumont in his two works cited above has done much to point out the influence 
 of Oriental astrology in the Graeco-Roman civilization. 
 
16 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 came to be regarded as the future abode of the soul, 38 or unless, accom- 
 panied by some demon, angel, or spirit, the soul could ascend to heaven. 39 
 The belief in guardian angels and demons became so prominent in this 
 period no doubt in part at least because there was a real need felt for an 
 external power not only to guide the soul aright in this life but to accom- 
 pany it in its upward flight after death. 
 
 But another influence came into the Graeco-Roman world along 
 with Oriental culture, which placed the emphasis upon a direct union 
 with the Deity. This was Oriental mysticism, and was represented 
 for the most part by the so-called mystery-religions. 40 It was no doubt 
 the individualistic tendencies of the period that called forth these relig- 
 ions and enabled them to gain such influence and currency among the 
 people. Men began to feel that they sustained a relation to the unseen 
 powers as individuals, not merely as members of a family, tribe, or 
 community. What they wanted was not so much political freedom as 
 personal salvation. In the presence of the gods and demons, and op- 
 pressed by the new demands that were being made upon their lives as 
 individuals in a great Empire, a sense of unworthiness, of utter failure, 
 of impurity took possession of the hearts of many, and both the religions 
 and philosophies of the time give evidence of efforts that were made to 
 minister to the needs of such people. Orphism, to cite one example, 
 was chiefly concerned with the problem of satisfying the peoples' yearning 
 after purity and after the power to overcome the evil forces that sur- 
 rounded them. And this was effected, so it was promised, by the 
 worshipper becoming united with the Deity. In fact it was a common 
 doctrine of all the mysteries that by the performance of certain purifi- 
 
 38 The Pythagoreans and the later Platonists in particular believed that the stars 
 and moon were the dwelling place of purified spirits (Rohde, Psyche, II, p. 443 n.4). 
 "We become as stars when anyone dies" (Arist., Pac, 831). 
 
 39 Porphyry (Stobaeus, Eclogues, II, 171) speaks of the soul going through the 
 seven spheres, the moon being the gateway for its descent, the sun for its ascent. 
 The so-called Mithrasliturgy of Dieterich is perhaps no more than a magical formula 
 by which the soul could be safely guided to the highest heavens (Cumont, Revue de 
 l'instruction publique en Belgique, XL VII, p. 1-10). On the notion of the soul's 
 ascent to heaven see Wendland, Die hellenistisch-romischer Kultur, esp. pp. 170-176). 
 
 40 These religions, with the exception of the Eleusinian which seems to have been 
 indigenous to Greece, and the Orphic which had perhaps a Thracian origin, entered 
 the Greek and Roman worlds from the sixth century B. C. onward. The worship 
 of the Phrygian Cybele entered Greece as early as the sixth century B. C. and was 
 granted official sanction in Italy in 204 B. C. Mithraism doubtless came later, but 
 must have been strong in Asia Minor as early as the first century A. D. For a de- 
 scription of these mystery-religions see Case, Ev. of Early Xty, ch. 9 where extended 
 bibliographies on the subject are also given. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 17 
 
 catory rites, by the enactment of a sacred drama, by the sight of certain 
 representations of the god, and by partaking of a certain kind of food 
 in which the power of the god was thought to reside, the devotee could 
 come into direct union with the Deity, indeed, could himself become 
 divine. In this way it was thought possible either for a god to become 
 incarnate in a man or for a man to become a god. This was especially 
 the case with the Dionysiac and Orphic cults. The worshippers of 
 Dionysos became Bacchoi, that is, Bacchus became incarnate in them. 41 
 The devotees of Osiris were taught that after death they became Osiris; 42 
 and Orphism declared that by partaking of an animal consecrated to 
 the god the worshipper could enter spiritually into the divine life and 
 be made one with the Deity. 43 The large number of papyri dealing with 
 this type of thought which have been discovered in recent years, leads 
 one to believe that this mysticism must have been very widespread in 
 New Testament times. 
 
 And there is one more characteristic of the age which perhaps effected 
 a greater change than any other in the belief respecting spirits and 
 demons, and that was the emphasis which was put upon ethical ideas 
 and moral conduct. It is this moral element that chiefly separates the 
 primitive type of religion from that of the higher culture: the religion 
 of the savage and barbarian is a crude childlike natural philosophy, 
 the religion of the higher type is one that deals with the law of right- 
 eousness and holiness, of trust and duty. So far as primitive ideas 
 regarding spirits were concerned, the ethical element was almost alto- 
 gether absent. Practically the only distinction that was made between 
 good and evil spirits was to ascribe that which secured personal advantage 
 or pleasure to a good spirit, and that which occasioned loss or pain to 
 an evil one. Even among the ancient Hebrews there was no application 
 of a moral standard to the acts of a spirit or of Jehovah. 44 But from 
 about the time of Isaiah and Plato onward a distinctive moral element 
 was introduced, and this continued until in the New Testament period 
 
 41 Arist., Eq., 408. 
 
 42 In the Egyptian Book of the Dead (125) this statement is addressed to the 
 worshipper of Osiris, "Happy and blessed one, thou shalt be god instead of mortal." 
 
 43 Pausanias (IX, 39, 7) refers to the belief that Hermes became incarnate in the 
 ministrants at the oracle of Trophonius and Lebadea. 
 
 44 Some of the acts of Samson which are ascribed to spiritual agency are not 
 specially noteworthy for their moral quality (Jud. 14:19 for example), and even Jehovah 
 is made responsible for the sending of false and evil spirits (I Sam. 16:14; I Kg. 22:19- 
 23; Amos. 3:6. 
 
18 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 the movement had attained an immense momentum. The philosophers 
 had practically become preachers of morality. The religions of the time 
 were placing emphasis more and more upon the inner life; in fact, to 
 such an extent did they stress a pure and holy character and type of 
 conduct that morbidness and priggishness often ensued. Especially 
 was this the case with Orphism. 
 
 Now this emphasis upon morality had a number of distinct effects 
 upon the belief in spirits and demons. On the one hand, there arose a 
 clearer differentiation between good and evil spirits, on the other hand, 
 and doubtless as a result of such a differentiation, a distinction came to 
 be made not only as to the place where the souls of the righteous and 
 wicked should live in the future, but also as to the nature of the reward 
 which they should there receive. The temper of the age was essentially 
 dualistic. The sense of sin, the dualistic conception of spirit and matter 
 which was developed largely as a result of the teachings of the Orphics 
 and Pythagoreans, as well as the influence of Oriental religions, led men 
 to divide the innumerable beings of the spirit world into two great 
 camps, the one composed of the forces of light and righteousness, the 
 other made up of the spirits and demons of darkness and sin. Where 
 monarchical institutions prevailed, these forces were thought of as being 
 led on the one hand by an Ahura Mazda or a Jehovah, and by an Ahriman 
 or Satan on the other. In countries like Greece where democratic ideas 
 predominated, these forces, at least the forces of evil, were never organ- 
 ized according to such a principle, but the people believed nevertheless 
 in these two classes of spirits the one opposed to the other. The Jews 
 sometimes distinguished the two classes by calling the one angels and 
 the other demons. Yet they also had the thought of evil or fallen 
 angels. 45 With the Greeks and Romans the word, demons, included 
 both classes. 46 
 
 As a consequence also of this differentiation of spiritual beings an 
 evil genius or demon as well as a good one came to be attached to individ- 
 uals. 47 Plutarch gives expression to such a belief when he has the 
 kakodaimon of Brutus say, "I am thine evil genius; we meet again at 
 
 45 1 En. 6:1-6; II Bar. 56:11-13. 
 
 46 Plutarch makes the statement (Why the Oracles Cease, 17) that Empedocles, 
 Plato, Xenocrates and Chrysippus affirm that there are bad demons as well as good 
 ones. However with the syncretic philosophers, especially the Neo-Platonists, the 
 words, angel and demon, were used synonymously, though they claimed that some 
 angels and demons were good but others were evil. Philo, De Gigan., 4. 
 
 47 Verg., Aen., VI, 743; Horace, Epis., II, 187; Valer. Max. 1, 7. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 19 
 
 Philippi. " 48 It was also felt that the fate of a man depended upon the 
 ability of his good demon to overcome the evil demons of his enemies. 
 Anthony was warned by an Egyptian sorcerer to keep far from the young 
 Octavius on the ground that his demon was in fear of that of the latter. 49 
 
 This dualistic conception of the world which seems to have been 
 so closely connected with the ethical movement of the time, was respon- 
 sible for another characteristic idea of the period, and that was the 
 divine or heavenly origin of the soul. This belief is reflected by Plu- 
 tarch when he speaks of the rational soul as being "plunged into the 
 body," 50 and where he describes the demons as living in the air and 
 says that some, not being able to contain themselves, "rove about 
 until they are entangled into mortal bodies." 51 Philo too is evidently 
 under the influence of the same type of thought. According to his 
 conception man is a composition of earthly substance and divine spirit. 
 Man's mind or rational soul comes from God's breath or inspiration; 
 it is a fragment of Deity; while his irrational soul, that is, the powers 
 of sensation, speech, and generation, comes from the rational part. But 
 he believes also that the air is full of souls and that some of these descend 
 into mortal bodies, while others become the Creator's servants. 52 The 
 body then came to be looked upon as a sort of prison for the soul, and 
 men felt that to obtain its release the attainment of a certain emotional 
 experience or a certain kind of divine knowledge was necessary. Religion 
 took an inward turn. Instead of men directing their attention to the 
 outer world or outward performance of rites they became introspective. 
 The people in general, of course, felt that the help of Deity — perhaps 
 in the form of a representative or mediator — was still needed to bring 
 this experience or gnosis. But inward purity and that of the individual 
 soul was emphasized as never before, while on the part of some teachers 
 there was a tendency to affirm even the possibility of obtaining salva- 
 tion without any external aid, the original endowment of the soul or a 
 good moral character being considered sufficient to save. 53 
 
 48 Brutus, 36. 
 
 49 Ovid, Trist., Ill, 33, 18; V, 5, 10; Horace, Epis., II, 1, 140; Odes, IV, 11, 7: 
 Appian, De Bellis Parth., 156; Tertul., Apol., 23; Censorin, De Die Natali, 3. 
 
 50 Discourse Concerning Soc. Demon, 22. 
 
 51 Why the Orac. Cease, 10. 
 
 52 De Opif. Mund., 131 (46); Leg. Alleg., I, 13; De Gigan., 2 and 3; De Somn., 
 I, 6; I, 22; and see also Plato, Cratylus, 400. 
 
 53 Heraclitus, frag. 119 (Diels) said, "Character is each man's divinity." Epi- 
 charmus, frag. 258 (Kaibel) asserts that man's inner self is his real divinity. Plato 
 in Timaeus 90A gives expression to the thought that God has given to each man the 
 
20 A STUDY OF THE SPIRTT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 This ethical movement also had the effect of separating the place 
 where the good spirits lived in the future from the place of the wicked. 54 
 At least this was true so far as the spirits of the dead were concerned. 
 The older belief regarding the abode of the dead was that it was in 
 the underworld or on the earth somewhere and was the home of the 
 undistinguished crowd. Both the righteous and the wicked were living 
 in it. Even as late as the easy-going and aristocratic Olympians the 
 idea of a place of punishment for the unjust is quite absent from the 
 thought of the people. But later the conceptions of the joys of Elysium 
 for the just and of fiery Tartarus for the wicked came to prevail. And 
 by the time of the New Testament period the idea of heaven as the abode 
 of the blessed and hell as the place of punishment for the wicked had 
 become quite widespread, though it must be admitted that by many the 
 underworld was still regarded as the proper abode of all the dead. 55 
 
 Along these various lines we see then wherein the people of the 
 Graeco-Roman period had advanced upon the primitive races in their 
 notions about spirits and demons. But we are not to think however 
 that the earlier conceptions had disappeared: many of them still per- 
 sisted; some of them were merely modified. The people of the Graeco- 
 Roman world still believed that diseases and mental disorders were 
 caused by the actions of demons. They still believed in oracle-spirits. 
 They still ascribed the operations of nature to the agency of spiritual 
 forces. They still held to the idea of the penetrability of matter and 
 never doubted the possibility of a spiritual being or substance taking 
 possession of a man's body. They still explained the strange and inex- 
 plicable phenomena of their experiences and environment as being due 
 
 rational faculty as a guiding genius. And in Theaetetus 176 and Laws 727 he claims 
 that a man can hold communion with Deity through moral action and life. Cf . also 
 the statement made by Marcus Aurelius(IT, 17): "What then is that which is able to 
 conduct a man? One thing and only one, philosophy. But this consists in keeping 
 the demon within a man free from violence and unharmed, superior to pains and 
 pleasures, doing nothing without a purpose," etc. And although Plutarch believed 
 in demons and seemingly in the need of help from without, he does insist upon the 
 necessity of a certain type of mind and a proper use of reason before the gods and 
 demons will help a man (Disc. Concern. Soc. Dem., 20 and 22). 
 
 54 Oriental dualistic and astrological notions doubtless played a prominent part 
 in the process too. 
 
 55 Plato (Rep., 363D and E) describes the Orphic Hades and says that the impious 
 and unjust were there all besmirched with mud and were obliged to perform the 
 fruitless task of attempting to carry water in a sieve. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 21 
 
 to the presence and activity of spirits. They still claimed that man 
 had a double self, or guardian demon. They still peopled the air and 
 elements, the heaven and the earth with a host of spiritual beings and 
 powers. In fact, one might almost call the New Testament period the 
 age of Demonology. 56 
 
 And the large place which this belief in spirits and demons occupied 
 in the thinking and life of the people of New Testament times should 
 not be regarded as a degeneration, as a backward step in the religious 
 progress of the race. In part it was called forth as a defence of mythology 
 and as an apologetic for religious practices and traditions that no longer 
 accorded with the standards of the new age. But a far more important 
 reason for the prominence of this feature of the Graeco-Roman thought- 
 world was the pragmatic interests which it served. It was used as a 
 means of establishing a connection between man and the Deity and of 
 furnishing spiritual support to thousands who because of a sense of their 
 own insufficiency and because of the weakening influence of the pes- 
 simistic view of life and the world which prevailed, felt the need of some 
 superhuman power to help them to overcome the evil forces, both imag- 
 ined and real, that they believed surrounded them. 57 That the writers 
 of the New Testament books shared in large part the thought of their 
 contemporaries with regard to this subject will be seen as we proceed 
 with our investigation. 
 
 56 See Gomperz, Greek Thinkers, ch. 1, sees. 5 & 6. It should be noted that 
 the Epicureans among the Greeks and the Sadducees among the Jews were almost 
 the only ones who had the courage, insight, or disposition to differ from the prevailing 
 opinion as to a belief in spirits. 
 
 57 See Dill, Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius, pp. 425 ff. 
 
22 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 Jewish Beliefs in Spirits and Demons 
 It is only partly true that the Jews were unique in their religious 
 development. It is true that the strong nationalistic sense which grew 
 up among them as early at least as the eighth century before Christ 
 led them to assume an exclusive attitude toward the peoples of other 
 races and lands. It is true that later as a result of their domination by 
 foreign powers their nationalistic aspirations and sentiments were either 
 intensified or else were compelled to take refuge in the thought of a 
 coming deliverer from heaven. In both cases the idea of Israel as 
 being God's chosen people dominated their thinking. It is true too 
 that when they began to think of their Scriptures as divinely inspired, 
 they would not feel any great need of adopting the religious ideas of 
 their neighbors, since God's revelation to them was sufficient in itself. 
 So both their national hopes and their conception of their sacred writings 
 tended, and have tended up to the present time, to keep the Jews separate 
 as a people from those among whom they live. And since therefore 
 their social and political history has not been exactly like that of other 
 peoples, their religious history naturally reveals certain points of unique- 
 ness. 
 
 But on the other hand we are not to think of their religious progress 
 in the main as exhibiting any very marked features of differentiation 
 from that of other ancient peoples. The study of comparative religions 
 is revealing the fact that the Hebrews went through quite a similar 
 process of development as that described in the previous chapter. It 
 is doubtful whether their isolation and exclusiveness was ever so rigid 
 that they were altogether a law unto themselves. It is difficult to 
 believe that a people politically dominated in turn by Assyrians, Baby- 
 lonians, Persians, Greeks, Egyptians, Syrians, and Romans, and in 
 large part scattered throughout the then known world could keep itself 
 aloof from all the influences of the culture and civilization that made 
 up their environment. The Sadducees and such men like Philo and 
 Josephus are proof sufficient to show that both the Palestinian Jews 
 and the Jews of the Dispersion were affected by the influence of the 
 Gentile world, the former, of course, not coming under the force of this 
 influence to as large a degree simply because the contact was not so 
 close. So while being willing to admit the uniqueness of some of the 
 Jewish religious conceptions and even their superiority over some of 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 23 
 
 those of the other ethnic religions of the time whether in the richness 
 of their ethical tones or in the loftiness of their God-ideas, we can not 
 help but feel that in many ways, especially in their notions of spirits, 
 the Jews were a part of the world in which they lived, and hence that 
 much that has been said and written about the Jewish religion has been 
 largely an ideal picture. The best in Jewish religion has generally been 
 contrasted with that which was the worst in contemporary systems and 
 cults. This method has served a good apologetic purpose. 
 
 We are here primarily concerned with the post-exilic spirit-concep- 
 tions of the Jews and particularly with their ideas at the time when 
 Christianity first began as a movement. For the pneumatic experiences 
 of the first Christians issued from life rather than from the reading of a 
 book, and hence must be connected up with the contemporary Jewish 
 thought-world rather than with the spirit-conceptions recorded in the 
 Old Testament. And yet for two reasons a word is in place here regarding 
 the Old Testament ideas of spirits, (1) because these ideas reveal the fact 
 that the Hebrews in the main followed the universal course of religious 
 development, and (2) because the early Christians did make use of the 
 Old Testament Scriptures and interpreted some of their experiences 
 in the light of what they learned there. The use of the prophecy of 
 Joel by Peter on the day of Pentecost is an illustration of the way in 
 which this method was used. 
 
 It is clear that in many ways the ancient Hebrews had the same 
 ideas of spirits and the same psychology as the other ancient peoples. 
 The soul was a spiritual being animating the body. 1 At death it departed 
 from the body and joined the other departed spirits. 2 Intercourse 
 between the dead and living was held to be possible. 3 A spirit could 
 inhabit an inanimate object. 4 Spirits were the cause of disease and 
 mental disorders. 5 Any occurrence or act of an awe-inspiring, unusual, 
 unexpected, or remarkable nature was ascribed to the influence of a 
 spirit. 6 The belief in oracle-spirits was particularly well-developed and 
 a large part of the spirit-phenomena of the Old Testament is concerned 
 
 1 Gen. 2:7. 
 
 2 Gen. 49:33 et al. It is doubtful whether the Jews ever thought of a spirit in 
 an incorporeal form of existence. Their belief in the resurrection of the body shows 
 that even in their later history they still clung to the corporeal idea of spirit. 
 
 3 1 Sam. 28:3-14. 
 
 4 Ex 7:8-13. 
 
 5 1 Sam. 16:14 ff. 
 
 6 Jud. 14:6; I Sam. 18:10 ff.; Amos. 3:8; Job 9:24. 
 
24 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 with the operations of the spirit of prophecy. Supernatural knowledge 
 was obtained either by a spirit descending into a man or by the soul 
 of man leaving his body and penetrating the spiritual world. 7 Com- 
 mencing with a belief in a plurality of divine beings, as the term Elohim 
 indicates, there grew up gradually a monotheistic conception of the Deity, 
 surrounded by groups of subordinate beings, cherubim, spirits, and 
 seraphim. 8 These subordinate beings acted as Jehovah's attendants 
 or as His messengers. Sometimes Jehovah came into direct intercourse 
 with men, but He also accomplished His purposes through His double 
 or Angel. 9 Possession of a spirit could be acquired by the playing of 
 musical instruments, 10 by dancing, by visiting lonely or holy places, 11 
 by lying or kneeling on the ground, 12 by offering sacrifice, 13 and by eating 
 an object in which a spirit was thought to reside. 14 A knowledge of 
 the Deity's will was sought by prayer, 15 by dreams, by Urim, and by 
 the aid of prophecy. 16 The nature of spirit was conceived of either 
 as a personalized being or as a fine substance. The idea of a personalized 
 being prevails where the activity of the spirit is thought of as transient 
 or occasional; the fluidum idea occurs where the operation of the spirit 
 is more permanent and abiding, or where it is brought into relation with 
 the cosmos. 17 The belief in the possibility of this spirit-substance 
 penetrating the body indicates that the Hebrews also had no difficulty 
 about the penetrability of matter. The power rather than the ethical 
 character of spirit-activity is emphasized; in fact, even to Jehovah is 
 
 7 IIKi. 19:7; Is. 6. 
 
 8 See Barton, Encyc. of Rel. and Eth., art., "Spirits and Demons (Hebrew)." 
 
 9 It should be noted that the prophets of the eighth and seventh centuries, par- 
 ticularly Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos and Hosea, are practically silent so far as the Spirit 
 of God is concerned. The reason for this is not well known but may perhaps be found 
 in the strong monotheistic tendencies of the times, which would react against the 
 hypostatization of a second divine Being, or in the aversion with which these prophets 
 with their loftier ideals viewed the ordinary prophets who ascribed their inspiration 
 to the operation of the Spirit. 
 
 10 1 Sam. 10:5; 16:14 ff.; II Ki. 3:15. 
 
 11 Num. 22:9, 20; II Sam. 7:4; Ex. 34:28; I Ki. 19:8 ff.; II Ki. 1:9. 
 
 12 Num. 24:4. 
 
 13 Num. 23. 
 
 14 Jer. 15:16; Ez. 2:9 ff. 
 15 1 Sam. 8:6 f.; Is. 21:6; Hab. 2:1. 
 16 1 Sam. 28:6. 
 
 17 Spirit as a personalized being: I Ki. 22:24; I Sam. 16:15; Jud. 9:23; 13:6; as 
 substance: Num. 11:17, 25; II Ki. 2:9, 15; Gen. 1:2. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 25 
 
 ascribed the sending of evil spirits. 18 If a man had spiritual power 
 or was possessed by a spirit, he could heal diseases, perform wonders, 
 raise the dead, foretell future events, and enter into ecstatic conditions. 
 And although a passage like Deut. 18:9 ff. would indicate that magic 
 and sorcery were put under the official ban, such a regulation in itself 
 presupposes the practice of the magic arts among the people. 19 
 
 It is not difficult to see in the face of these facts how closely the 
 Hebrews were related to primitive ideas on the subject of belief in spirits 
 and demons. If instead of emphasizing the points wherein the Jewish 
 ideas differ from those of other religious systems we should give due 
 consideration to the common elements between them, we would be 
 able to see that in the main the Jewish line of development was parallel 
 to that of other races. The question then arises whether this parallel 
 development continued in post-exilic and Graeco-Roman times. 
 
 We have already referred in the previous chapter to the growth of 
 the monotheistic idea among the Jews, a growth that seems to have 
 been a part of the general religious progress of the age. 20 If the Jews 
 were at all unique in the development of this conception, it was merely 
 a matter of priority in point of time; they no doubt antedated the Greeks 
 and peoples of the West in their monotheistic views, but this came 
 about chiefly as a result of the influence of the early monarchical ideas 
 of the Oriental States and perhaps of the Persian religion upon Judaism 
 in exilic times. There was also noticeable among the Jews a marked 
 tendency toward transcendentalism. The prophets preached the 
 holiness and majesty of Jehovah, — particularly was this the case with 
 Isaiah, — and this was at least one of the factors that led to such a separa- 
 tion of God from the world as to cause many to feel that intercourse 
 between God and man could only be established through some mediating 
 agent or being, such as the Spirit, the Wisdom of God, or the Messiah. 21 
 
 18 Even as late as the time of Job this matter had not been settled (Job 9:24). 
 In Is. 19:14; 29:10; and in I Ki. 22:20 ff. references to Jehovah's sending evil spirits 
 are made; but in Hos. 4:12; 5:4; and Zach. 13:2 Jehovah is put over against evil spir- 
 its while in Num. 5: 14, 20 an evil spirit is represented as acting on its own initiative. 
 Even in I Sam. 18:10 ff., if we compare vss. 10 and 12, we notice that there is an 
 antagonism between Jehovah and the "evil spirit from God." 
 
 19 See further on this subject Blau, Das altjudische Zauberwesen, where the magi- 
 cal practices of the Jews are dealt with in greater detail. 
 
 20 Cf. for example, Is. 45:6; 43:11, 12; 44:6. 
 
 21 Jehovah is the Most High and the Holy One of Israel (Is. 6:3; 43:15). His 
 glory is inconceivable (IV Ez. 8:21). In Apocalyptic literature His actions are gen- 
 erally represented as mediated through the agency of angels or the Spirit. Angels 
 
26 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 The Jews as a whole did not fully appreciate the services of the Roman 
 State; in fact for the most part they resented the Roman domination of 
 Palestine. But that element in their religious life which the State-cult 
 failed to furnish them was supplied by their Messianic hopes and ideals. 
 The individualistic tendencies of the period were also noticeably at 
 work among the Jewish people of the post-exilic period. Many came to 
 feel that before their national and Messianic hopes could be realized 
 the proper personal relation between God and the Jews had to be estab- 
 lished. There was a longing for personal salvation. Legalism became 
 so prominent at the time very largely as a result of this desire for 
 right relationship with the Deity. The preaching of John the Baptist 
 and the success that attended it is a further indication that such was 
 the situation. The ethical movement of the times made itself manifest 
 also among the Jews. The possession of the Spirit meant no longer mere 
 raving or the performance of some miraculous deed, but the preaching 
 of righteousness and the will of God. The Wisdom literature sprang up, 
 and more and more the emphasis came to be placed upon righteous living. 
 As a result good and evil spirits were more definitely differentiated 22 
 and the idea of future retribution assumed a constantly growing promi- 
 nence in the minds of the people. The dualistic world-view dominated 
 their thinking, and the Apocalyptic visions of the forces of God or the 
 Messiah on the one hand and the forces of Satan and his angels on the 
 other, struggling to gain the mastery of the world, show how this dualism 
 affected Jewish notions of the spirit-world. The syncretism of the 
 age and the influences of other cults upon Judaism had the effect of 
 increasing the number of angels and demons to such an extent that the 
 Jews on this point differed very little from their contemporaries. 23 The 
 
 have charge of the destinies of nations (Dan. 10:13). They are used to reveal what 
 is hidden and to instruct the Apocalyptic seers (Eth. En. 40:8; Test. Levi. 2:6; II 
 Bar. 54:5). See also the conception of Sirach regarding Wisdom, especially ch. 24. 
 
 22 The angels were in general good, the demons evil. The angels are either con- 
 ceived of as anthropomorphic (Eth. En. 67:8) or as composed of fiery substance (II 
 Bar. 21:6). They perform all kinds of helpful services (Test. XII passim.). A num- 
 ber of them receive names (Eth. En. 40:1-10; 20:1-8; and see Is. 63:9; Dan. 8:16 
 10:13). They become also the instruments of chastisement (II Bar. 7:1; 8:1), and 
 one stands out as the Angel of Death (II Bar. 21:23). The demons are under the 
 leadership of Satan (Eth. En. 69:4ff.). They are fallen angels (Eth. En. 6; 15:8-9) 
 and are responsible for the evil propensities and sins of men (Test. Reub. 2:1-3; 3:1-6; 
 Levi. 3:2), for all the troubles and afflictions of the world (Eth. En. 15:11), and for 
 tormenting the soul after it leaves the body (Test. Ash. 6:3). 
 
 23 Eth. En. 40:1 tells of a vision of "thousands of thousands and ten thousand 
 times ten thousand ... a multitude beyond number and reckoning who stood 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 27 
 
 reticence regarding the belief in spirits of nature which is noticeable in 
 the Old Testament literature begins to disappear and some at least of 
 the phenomena and forces of nature are attributed to spirit influence. 24 
 They came to believe also in angels that acted as guardians not only 
 over individuals but over the nations as well. 25 
 
 It seems to be clear then that the Jewish belief in spirits and demons 
 was quite similar to that of the surrounding nations. 
 
 It is necessary here to deal also with the expression, Spirit of God, 
 which occurs so frequently in Jewish literature, for the Jews believed 
 not only in spirits in general, but in a special Spirit that was somehow 
 closely related to Jehovah. Various explanations have been given as 
 to the origin of this Ruh and its relation to Jehovah, 26 but the simplest 
 theory is either to regard this Spirit as the double or phantom of Jehovah 
 or as an emanation of fine substance from His being. Such a theory at 
 least has the advantage of being in accord with what we know of the 
 primitive ideas of the soul and spiritual beings. When the Spirit of 
 Jehovah assumed human form, as he often did when a special revelation 
 was to be made, he was called the Angel of God or Jehovah. 27 The 
 instances where Jehovah takes of the Spirit that was upon Moses and 
 puts it on the seventy elders, 28 and where Elisha receives a double portion 
 from the Spirit of Elijah 29 are clear cases of the substantial conception 
 of the Spirit. 
 
 In early Hebrew history there does not seem to have been any uni- 
 fication of spirit-activities and phenomena; various operations which 
 later were ascribed to the agency of the Spirit were still attributed to 
 the activity of inferior spirits. Particularly was this the case with 
 
 before the Lord of Spirits." In this book God is called Lord of Spirits more than 
 100 times. In Ps. 106:37; Eth. En. 19:1; 99:7; II Bar. 4:7 we find instances where the 
 deities of heathen nations are considered as demons or evil spirits. 
 
 24 See Eth. En. 60:17-21. 
 
 25 Ps. 34:7; 91:11; Dan. 10:20. 
 
 26 Rees thinks that at first it was "an elementary form of independent personal- 
 ity, like a ghost of primitive animism, acting as the agent of Yahweh" (The Holy 
 Spirit, p. 18). Volz is of the opinion that it was a religious survival from the time when 
 the Hebrews were still polytheists and was at one time an independent divine 
 being but later became subordinated to Jehovah when the latter became the tribal 
 Deity (Der Geist Gottes, pp. 5 f., 22 f., 52 f., 62 f). Neither of these explanations 
 is entirely satisfactory. 
 
 "Gen. 16:7; 21:17; 22:11; 31:11. 
 28 Num. 11:25. 
 29 II Ki. 2:9, 15. 
 
28 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 such phenomena as outbursts of anger or other immoral tendencies, 
 which were ascribed to the agency of evil spirits. 30 But with the rise 
 of ethical and monotheistic ideas the operations regarded as Spirit- 
 phenomena due to Jehovah's activity were gradually unified, those 
 bearing the approval of the moral conscience of the time being attributed 
 either to Jehovah Himself, as was the case in the eighth and seventh 
 centuries, or to the Spirit of Jehovah, while those that offended the moral 
 sense were considered as due to the influence of evil spirits or demons. 
 In this way the Spirit became almost the exclusive agent of Jehovah's 
 activity. 31 
 
 The range of the activity of the Spirit grew with the moral and 
 mental development of the people. The activity of the Spirit which at 
 first manifested itself chiefly in strange and abnormal acts and phenomena, 
 such as Samson's deeds of prowess, was later under the varying social 
 and political circumstances of the people extended to cover the artist's 
 skill, the inspiration of the poet and reformer, and the future hope 
 of the nations. Then under the influence of the ethical movement it 
 was made to include even the moral and intellectual life of man. 32 It 
 becomes the Spirit of wisdom, understanding, righteousness, and pur- 
 ification. The idea of the Spirit develops from the emotional to the 
 intellectual, from the sudden, explosive, and external to the habitual, 
 normal and rational. Indeed we might here state the rule by which the 
 spirit-phenomena of every age have been judged as such, viz., whatever 
 is conceived of as supernatural is due to spirit-agency. And therefore 
 
 30 1 Sam. 18:10; I Ki. 22:19-22; Is. 29:10; Hos. 4:12; 5:4. 
 
 31 It should be noted here that according to the Hebrew idea the activity of the 
 Spirit of God was confined chiefly to the human soul and to the Jewish people. And 
 this may be one reason why prophecy was so highly prized by the Jews. The Spirit's 
 relation to nature is not dwelt upon to any extent, outside of its connection with crea- 
 tion (Gen. 1:2). It was chiefly among the extra-Palestinian Jews as Philo and Slav. 
 En. in particular attest, that the subject of the Spirit in its relation to the universe 
 attracted much attention. 
 
 32 We see this already in the Messianic conceptions of the greater prophets (Is. 
 11:2; 28:6). Ezekiel connects man's inner life with the Spirit (36:26-27 et al). And 
 the moral and intellectual activity of the Spirit in the heart of man is especially no- 
 ticeable in the Test. XII. Joseph was a good man because he had the Spirit in him 
 (Test. Sim. 44); the Spirit of understanding came upon Levi. (Test. Levi. 2:3); the 
 Spirit of truth testifies to all things (Test. Jud. 20:1, 5); if a man had the Spirit he was 
 clean in heart (Test. Benj. 8:2); the soul indeed was the Holy Spirit of God breathed 
 into man (Test. Naph. App. I, 10:9). The conception here is very close to an identi- 
 fication of the Spirit of God with the spirit of man and of the activity of the Spirit 
 with the moral and intellectual life (Test. Jud. 20). 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 29 
 
 what men regard as spirit-operations is conditioned by their world- view, 
 that is, by what they regard as belonging to the supernatural. 
 
 But whatever the Jews may or may not have regarded as due to the 
 activity of the Spirit, there can be no question but that they considered 
 prophecy as the chief gift of the Spirit. Of course, the priest, the king, 
 the hero, the sage, and even the scribe were also regarded as inspired 
 persons, but they do not figure so prominently in Jewish history as agents 
 of the Spirit as did the prophets. The latter were the most influential 
 leaders at least up to the close of the Old Testament Canon, and the use 
 which the New Testament writers made of the Old Testament prophe- 
 tical writings as well as the prominent place which the prophet held in 
 the early church shows the influence which the Old Testament prophets 
 exerted even in Christian circles. 
 
 A distinct development is also noticeable in the Jewish conception 
 of prophecy. At first it was very little more than emotionalism and 
 frenzy. But with the advance of ethical and spiritual conceptions the 
 gift was filled with a richer and loftier content; it became the means of 
 bringing to the people the revelation of God's will and of stimulating 
 not only a spirit of nationalism but a desire for a pure and righteous 
 life. The prophets became preachers, reformers, and statesmen. With 
 the closing of the Old Testament Canon and with the waning of national 
 hopes prophecy took another turn in its development. The former 
 made it difficult for a prophet to get a hearing for any book that he 
 might write, and that explains why the prophetical literature from the 
 time of the composition of Daniel is all pseudonymous. The latter 
 caused a pessimistic view of the world to arise and the prophets sought 
 refuge in Messianism, Apocalypticism, and individualism. 
 
 Under such circumstances it is no surprise that prophecy lost some 
 of its prestige and regard in the eyes of the people, and especially in 
 the estimation of those who placed their hope in the Law. But it is a 
 mistake to think as many have done and do even today that between 
 the Old and New Testaments prophecy ceased. 33 The composition of 
 such works as the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, Enoch, the 
 Apocalypse of Baruch and IV Ezra is literary proof that prophecy at 
 this time was not dead at least. 34 It need of course not be denied that 
 
 33 Gunkel, D. Wirkungen d. heil. Geistes, p. 50; Charles, Apocrypha and Pseud- 
 epigrapha of the O. T., II, pp. VIII, IX and 163; also his work, Religious Develop- 
 ment between the Old and New Testaments, esp. p. 15. Josephus (Apion, I, 8) says 
 that there was no exact succession of prophets since the time of Artaxerxes. 
 
 34 Rees, The Holy Spirit, pp. 31 f. 
 
30 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 prophecy was at a lower ebb and that the thoughts of the people were 
 to an extent directed rather to the past operations of the Spirit in the 
 prophets or to the future outpouring of the Spirit that would accompany 
 the establishment of the Messianic kingdom; and yet there was no time 
 when there were not prophets among the people with their inspired 
 message if the people had only been willing to recognize them. 
 
 In this way did the Spirit become a form of expressing the activity 
 of Jehovah. But there is another line of development in the later 
 period of Jewish history which has often been pointed out, and that 
 is the tendency to hypostatize the Spirit or a similar being, which was 
 regarded as a mediator between the world and a transcendent God. 
 Among the sages this being was called Wisdom and was practically 
 identified with the Spirit. Among the Hellenistic Jews the Logos was 
 the term sometimes employed to represent the idea. But it is rather 
 doubtful whether the Palestinian Jews ever went so far as to think 
 of the Spirit, Wisdom, or Word as more than a personification. It 
 is true that Sirach regarded Wisdom as a premundane being, 35 but his 
 language in general hardly goes farther than to personify this divine 
 attribute. It is in the extra-Palestinian Wisdom of Solomon and Philo 
 that the conception of Wisdom as a being possessing independent exis- 
 tence and power of self-initiative finds support, 36 but even here the 
 evidence is not conclusive, for Wisdom is so closely connected with God 
 that it can very readily be explained as His personal representative or 
 double, or as an emanation from Him, 37 the thought being quite similar 
 to that of the Spirit or of the Messiah. The Jews of this time were 
 perhaps too rigidly monotheistic to permit of a real duality in the heaven- 
 ly pantheon, though they may have come to conceive of the Spirit as a 
 being while of independent existence, yet of subordinate rank to Jehovah. 
 
 It is in place here to speak of the Jewish idea that prevailed in New 
 Testament times regarding the Spirit's relation to salvation. As is 
 very evident, the Jews were not mystics. Their conception of a holy 
 God prevented the thought of direct contact of Deity with man. God 
 could not Himself come down from heaven and become incarnate in man. 
 Hence the idea of incarnation is practically absent in their literature, 
 especially in that of the New Testament period. 38 Likewise their 
 
 ^Ecclus. 1:4; 24:9. 
 36 Wis. 9:1, 2, 10; cf. 18:15. 
 "Wis. 7:25, 26. 
 
 38 The use of the adjective, holy, when reference was made to the Spirit was 
 simply a reflection of the growing consciousness of the holiness of God. When God 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 31 
 
 conception of the majesty of God, a conception so lofty as to make 
 merely the use of the name of God a dangerous thing, and their concep- 
 tion of the sinful nature of man prevented them from believing in the 
 deification of man. For a man to say that he was a god was to commit 
 blasphemy. This accounts for the fact that the idea of regeneration, 
 of being born a son of God, is not a part of the Jewish thought-world. 
 No, to the Jew salvation was the sustaining of proper covenant relations 
 with God, and it was only in this sense that they thought of themselves 
 as being the children or sons of God. If the nation as a whole kept its 
 covenant with Jehovah, he would send His representative to save it. 
 If the individual carried out the provisions of the Law, he would be 
 saved. But of course it came to be felt from the time of Jeremiah and 
 Ezekiel onward that the old external requirements of the covenant were 
 inadequate, and the establishing of a new covenant in the hearts of men 
 was necessary. 39 The one who would come to teach men the conditions 
 of this new covenant was a prophet like unto Moses or Elijah and he 
 would be equipped with the power of the Spirit of God; for this was to 
 be a covenant not of external rites but of the Spirit. This prophet was 
 to be the Savior because he would teach men what to do to be saved. 
 Men would repent and five in obedience to the will of God which would 
 be made known by this Spirit-endowed prophet. 40 They thus would 
 receive forgiveness of sins and be reinstated into proper covenant rela- 
 tions with the Deity. With the restoration of the nation to proper 
 relationship with Jehovah would come an outpouring of the Spirit on 
 all men. 41 In a word forgiveness expresses the Jewish idea of salvation, 
 and this forgiveness was granted to the individual not only because of 
 his own obedience to the Law and to the will of God, but also, and per- 
 haps chiefly, because of his connection with the Jewish nation. The 
 thought of a mystical union with the Deity is absent from the Jewish 
 conception of salvation. 
 
 We see then that although the Jews went through the various stages 
 of progress in respect to their belief in spirits that characterized the 
 other races and nations, they nevertheless as a result of certain peculia- 
 rities in their social and political history developed certain unique 
 
 came to be thought of as holy, it was natural that the Spirit who was His represen- 
 tative and was constituted of the same substance or Stoff should be called holy also. 
 
 39 Jer. 31:31-35; Ez. 36:26, 27; 11:19, 20 et al. 
 
 40 Mai. 4:5, 6. 
 
 41 Joel. 2:28 ff. 
 
32 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 features that to an extent marked them off from the other peoples. 
 These features, to name only the most important ones, were a loftier 
 and more transcendental conception of God, an emphasis upon conduct 
 rather than upon belief as a condition to the attaining of salvation, the 
 idea of forgiveness rather than regeneration as constituting the process of 
 salvation, the belief that a proper covenant relationship rather than 
 a mystical union with God effected salvation, their stress upon the 
 nationalistic idea of salvation and their use of the term Messiah to denote 
 the coming deliverer, the large role which the prophet occupied in their 
 scheme of salvation, and the belief in the resurrection of the body which 
 they based upon their corporeal conception of spirits. 
 
 It was in this kind of an atmosphere that John the Baptist and Jesus 
 were born and reared. Just what their beliefs regarding spirits and the 
 Spirit of God was, is rather difficult to say in view of the fact that our 
 sole sources of information, viz., the Gospel records, reflect the views 
 rather of their authors than those of the characters dealt with therein. 
 We can arrive only by way of inference at what they doubtless believed 
 regarding spiritual beings. John was regarded as a prophet by Jews 
 and Christians alike, 42 and doubtless felt the prophetic call himself. 
 If so, then he must have conceived of himself as having been inspired 
 by the Spirit of God. But he evidently did not preach anything regard- 
 ing the coming of the Spirit upon men. He preached the Jewish idea of 
 repentance and forgiveness of sins. He may even have prophesied the 
 coming of a Messiah from heaven; at least, if the statement that he 
 preached about the imminency of the Kingdom of God is at all his- 
 torical, 43 he doubtless presented the subject in accordance with current 
 Apocalyptic views. Whether John performed the rite of baptism because 
 he thought of water as having any spiritual potency within it is difficult 
 to say. It is true that water, and especially running water, was quite 
 generally conceived of as being inhabited by spirits, 44 and John too may 
 have had the same belief. It is to be noticed at least that John evi- 
 dently preferred running water in which to baptize. 
 
 What Jesus believed regarding spirits and the Spirit is equally dif- 
 ficult to tell. But he too must have regarded himself as a prophet 
 
 42 Matthew 14:5; 21:32; Luke 7:26. The Christians in order by way of contrast 
 to enhance the greatness of Jesus reckoned John, the official forerunner of Jesus, as 
 even more than a prophet. 
 
 43 Matthew 3:2; Mark 1:15. 
 
 44 Eth. En. 69 :22 mentions the spirit of water and perhaps indicates that the 
 Palestinian Jews of John's day had this conception of water. See also Didache, 7:2. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 33 
 
 endowed with the Spirit of God; his message was the prophet's message 
 of liberty, healing, and hope to the poor. 45 His sparing use of the term, 
 Holy Spirit, at least according to the records of the Synoptists, would 
 indicate that in his message he did not lay the stress upon an outpouring 
 of the Holy Spirit upon men; his message must have concerned itself 
 chiefly with the living of a righteous life and with the notion of a direct 
 fellowship with God. 46 The mention of the Holy Spirit in the Beelzebub 
 account shows simply that Jesus felt himself to be endowed with the 
 Spirit of God for the exorcising of demons and was unwilling that others 
 should ascribe his power to any wicked agency. 47 The ascription of 
 divine inspiration to David in the writing of the Psalms 48 accords with 
 the current Jewish conceptions of the inspiration of their Scriptures, 
 and may well be a saying of Jesus. The other references to the Holy 
 Spirit in the Synoptists 49 reflect no doubt the ideas of post-Pentecostal 
 days and can hardly be attributed to Jesus. 
 
 It is possible to attribute to Jesus a belief in the spiritual cause of 
 sickness. When he is said to have rebuked the fever of Peter's mother- 
 in-law, 50 it seems clear that he thought of the fever as a demon or spirit 
 dwelling within her. The rebuking of the wind and the sea in the story 
 of the storm on the lake is a similar case, with this difference however 
 that here he supposedly manifests a belief in wind and sea demons. 51 
 There can be little doubt but that he healed those who were epileptic, 
 insane, or troubled with other mental disorders. 52 And it is to be pre- 
 sumed that he was in accord with the psychology of the day in ascribing 
 
 45 Luke 4:18 ff.; 7:22. Cf. also 4:24. 
 
 46 The Sermon on the Mount might be cited in illustration of this point. Notice 
 that the Holy Spirit is not mentioned in it. 
 
 47 Mark 3:29; Matthew 12:28, 32; Luke 12:10; 11:20. 
 
 48 Mark 12:36; Matthew 22:43. 
 
 49 Luke 11:13; Mark 13:11; Matthew 10:19; Luke 12:11; Matthew 28:19; Luke 
 24; 48. The references to the Holy Spirit ascribed to Jesus in the fourth Gospel can 
 hardly be regarded as historical and hence do not come under consideration at this 
 point. 
 
 50 Luke 4:39; cf. Mark 1:29-31 and Matthew 8:14, 15. This however may be a 
 reflection of Greek ideas, for it is found only in Luke. And yet when we read a pas- 
 sage like Eth. En. 69:12, we have to admit that the notion that abnormal conditions 
 of the body were due to demonic influence was held by the Jews also. See also Luke 
 13:11, 12 where Jesus uses the word, "loosed," just as if the woman had been bound 
 by the spirit. Cf. vs. 16. 
 
 51 Mark 4:39; Matthew 8:26; Luke 8:24. Jewish belief in spirits dwelling in 
 water, wind, sea and other objects of nature may be found expressed in Eth. En. 60: 
 11 ff.; 6:20; 75:5; 15:10; but see esp. 60:16 and 69:22. 
 
 62 Mark 1:23-26, 27; 3:11; 5:2, 18; 6:7; 7:25 and paraUels in Matthew and Luke. 
 
34 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 such phenomena to the presence and activity of demons. We have no 
 right to read into Jesus' mind conceptions and explanations which we 
 hold today regarding these mental aberrations and claim that Jesus was 
 merely accommodating himself to the beliefs of the people of his time. 
 It is more than probable that he in many of these popular notions was 
 one with his contemporaries. 53 And he must have been quite sincere 
 when he addressed the demons which he thought had taken possession 
 of those afflicted with severe mental disorders. The temptation of Jesus 
 by Satan must have been a real experience to him, for according to 
 current notions Satan was regarded as the tempter of men. 54 The 
 conception of Satan as being the Prince of demons, and of Mammon as 
 being the demon of greed may also have been held by Jesus. 55 It is 
 likewise to be supposed that he believed in the existence of angels and 
 in their functions as guardians of men, as instruments of chastisement, 
 and as the ministers and messengers of God and the Messiah. 56 
 
 On these various points it is doubtless true that John and Jesus were 
 in accord with the Palestinian Jewish thought of their day. Their 
 notions of spirits and of the Spirit were no doubt very much like those of 
 their contemporaries. 
 
 There are some indications in Acts that Jewish ideas were prominent 
 among the first Christian group of believers, though it is difficult to say 
 whether these ideas were Palestinian or extra-Palestinian, for their 
 features are not sufficiently distinct to permit of a clear differentiation. 
 The use of the word, angel, and the prominent role the angels play in 
 the Acts' narratives are quite certainly Jewish features. 57 The con- 
 ception of the Spirit also shows some Jewish characteristics: the occa- 
 sional outpouring of the Spirit in order to equip the disciples for the 
 preaching of a prophetic message, 58 the sudden bearing away of Philip 
 by the Spirit, 59 which by the way shows a close resemblance to the way 
 in which the Spirit bare Jesus away to be tempted as well as to the 
 violent experiences of the Apocalyptists, the belief in the inspiration of 
 
 53 See Heitmiiller, Im Namen Jesu, p. 140 ff. for the belief of the Jews in demons 
 and their practice of exorcism. The words in Matthew 12:43-45 may quite well 
 have been uttered by Jesus. 
 
 54 This function of Satan is referred to as early as the time of Job. A later expres- 
 sion of it is found in Eth. En. 69 :4 ff. 
 
 65 Mark 3:22; Matthew 9:34; Luke 11:15; Matthew 6:24; Luke 16:13. 
 
 56 Matthew 13:39, 49; 16:27; 18:10; Luke 16:22. Also II Bar. 7:1; 8:1. 
 
 "Acts 5:19; 7:53; 8:26; 10:3; 12:7, 15 a al. 
 
 58 Acts 4:31; 6:10 et al. 
 
 89 Acts 8:38; cf Mark 1:12; Ez. 3:12; 8:3 a al. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 35 
 
 the Old Testament writers 60 all point to a Jewish origin. Paul's preach- 
 ing against the worship of images betrays his Jewish aversion to idolatry. 61 
 The representation, in the early chapters of Acts at least, that Jesus was 
 the Servant of God is surely a reference to the Servant of the Old Tes- 
 tament prophets; 62 and the statements that Jesus was a man approved of 
 God by mighty works and wonders, a prophet like unto Moses, anointed 
 with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and 
 healing the sick and demonized, doubtless are to be reckoned as repre- 
 sentative of the early Jewish Christian estimate of the personality of 
 Jesus. 63 These references are sufficient to show that the early Christians 
 so far as their belief in spirits was concerned were genetically related 
 to the Jews, and particularly to the Palestinian Jews. 
 
 When we turn to the extra-Palestinian or Hellenistic Jews who came 
 more under the influence of Greek and Gentile thought, we notice a 
 change in their ideas of the spirit world. These ideas we gather from the 
 writings of non-Palestinian Jews, such as the Sibylline Oracles (in part), 
 II, III, and IV Maccabees, Wisdom of Solomon, Slavonic Enoch, III 
 Baruch, and the works of Philo and Josephus. Those of particular worth 
 for the study of our subject are the Wisdom of Solomon, Slavonic Enoch, 
 III Baruch, and Philo. Of course, it is difficult always to tell very defi- 
 nitely just what non-Palestinian traits and conceptions are to be found 
 in these writings, and yet a few points of differentiation between Pales- 
 tinian and extra-Palestinian ideas can with fair assurance be made. 
 
 So far as the beliefs in angels and demons were concerned, the non- 
 Palestinians doubtless had a greater number of such beings in their 
 thought-world, and they were more prone to syncretize the Greek idea 
 of demon with the Jewish idea of angel. 64 The functions of angels were 
 enlarged in that they were made to be intercessors for men to God, 
 whereas in the earlier and more Palestinian thought, they were chiefly 
 messengers of God to men. 65 There seems to have been a disposition 
 
 60 Acts 4:25; 28:25. 
 
 61 Acts 17:29; 19:26. 
 
 62 Acts 3:13, 26; 4:27, 30; Is. 42:1; 52:13; 53:11. 
 
 63 Acts 2:22; 3:22; 10:38. 
 
 64 Philo, De Gigan. 4. In III Bar., chs. 12 and 13 where three classes of angels 
 are described as having charge of three classes of men, the conception is no doubt 
 peculiar to non-Palestinian Jews. 
 
 65 See Dan. 6:2; Test. Levi. 3:5 ff.; 5:6,7; Apoc. Moses 35:2; Adam and Eve 9:3; 
 Tob. 12:5; III Bar. 12:1. Cf. Heb. 1:14 and Rev. 8:3. In Tob. 3:16; 12:12 and III 
 Bar. 11:4 angels are regarded as the bearers of men's prayers to God. 
 
36 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 also to divide the upper regions into a tier of heavens. 66 Their concep- 
 tion of the inspiration of their Scriptures was not quite so fast and rigid; 
 at least, as the history of the Old Testament Apocrypha attests, they 
 continued to admit books into the Old Testament Canon long after the 
 Palestinian Jews had regarded the Canon as practically closed. Their 
 Messianism was not so nationalistic as that of the Jews of Palestine, 
 but concerned itself more with the salvation of the individual. The 
 sphere of the activity of the Spirit which according to the old Hebrew 
 idea was confined chiefly to the souls of men, was enlarged to include 
 all the activities of nature. 67 The Spirit assumes more of the aspect 
 of a cosmic principle, the principle of order in nature. 68 Again there is 
 a tendency to identify the Spirit with the reason in man and as such to 
 regard it as the universal endowment of mankind. 69 Likewise a dis- 
 position to hypostatize the Spirit manifests itself, and under the influence 
 of Greek and mystical thought it is identified with the Logos or Wisdom 
 and conceived of as the medium through which a transcendent God 
 reveals Himself to man's soul. 
 
 In order to make these points clearer we might deal in greater detail 
 with the conception of Philo and the author of Wisdom. Philo 70 was 
 one with the Jews of Palestine in believing that the Spirit was the cause 
 of ecstacy, prophecy, and inspiration, 71 and he himself claims to have 
 
 66 See Slav. En. where seven heavens are described and III Bar. where there are 
 only five. This was doubtless an idea that arose from contact with Babylonian, 
 Parsee, and Greek thought (Charles, Book of the Secrets of Enoch, pp. xxx-xlvii). 
 But the conception of a multifold heaven is also found in Palestinian thought. See 
 Test. Levi. 2:7-3:8 and Asc. of Is. 7-11. 
 
 67 With the exception of certain passages in Eth. En., IV Ez., and the story of 
 creation in Gen., it is difficult to find much in Palestinian Jewish literature on the 
 relation of the Spirit or spirits to nature. But in Slav. En. 11:4, 5; and III Bar. 8:4 
 the order of nature is given over to the charge of angels. 
 
 68 Notice the large element of cosmological speculation in Slav. En. And see 
 Philo., De Gigan. 6; Plant. Noe. 6; Ebriet. 27; Opif. Mund. 45. 
 
 69 Philo, Gigan. 5; Quis Rer. Div. 52; Quod det potiori, 22, et al. 
 
 70 For further study of Philo reference might be made to Drummond, Philo 
 Judaeus, 1888, and Brechier, Les idees philos. et relig. de Philon d'Alex., 1908. On 
 his views of the Logos see Volz, op. cit., p. 187 f., and Rees, op. cit., ch. 3. 
 
 71 Several significant passages on this point deserve quotation: "So long there- 
 fore as our mind still shines and hovers around, pouring as it were a noontide light 
 into the whole soul, we being masters of ourselves are not possessed by any extraneous 
 influence; but when it approaches its setting, then, as is natural, a trance which pro- 
 ceeds from inspiration, takes violent hold of us, and madness seizes upon us, for when 
 the divine light shines, the human fight sets, and when the divine light sets, this 
 other rises and shines; and this very frequently happens to the race of prophets; for 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 37 
 
 had pneumatic experiences; but he did not confine the activity of the 
 divine Spirit to this kind of phenomena; it had for him a broader and 
 more cosmic function. 72 He was also like them a believer in angels 
 and in their ability to assume human form; 73 but he believed also in 
 such Greek beings as the seminal Logoi of the Stoics, the powers of the 
 ethereal regions, and the archetypal ideas of Platonism. 74 He departed 
 most however from them in his doctrine of the Logos and it is with this 
 that we are here particularly concerned. 
 
 He calls the Logos the image of God, 75 the elder son or first-born, 76 
 the eternal Word, 77 the seal and interpreter of God, 78 the highpriest of 
 the universe, 79 the vicegerent of God, 80 the fountain or source of wisdom; 81 
 in fact in several places he even uses the title, Beds, or the adjective, 
 0elos, when speaking of the Logos, implying thereby that the Logos 
 was of the same quality or essence as God, not that he was necessarily 
 a person on an equality with Him. 82 The process of hypostatization 
 seems practically complete here. Furthermore the Lo gos was the agent 
 of God in creation, and constituted the pattern or archetype of all 
 created things. 83 He performed the function of delivering to men the 
 revelation of God. 84 The two main ideas of Philo th en with regard to 
 
 the mind that is in us is removed from its place at the arrival of the divine Spirit, 
 but is again restored to its previous habitation when that Spirit departs, for it is con- 
 trary to holy law for what is mortal to dwell with what is immortal" (Quis Rer. Div. 
 52, 53). ''Sometimes having come empty (i. e. to his work of composition) I suddenly 
 became full, ideas being invisibly showered upon me and planted from above, so that 
 by a divine possession I was filled with enthusiasm, and was absolutely ignorant of the 
 place, of those present, of myself, of what was said, of what was written; for I had a 
 stream of interpretation, an enjoyment of light, a most keen-sighted vision, a most 
 distinct view of the subjects treated, such as would be given through the eyes from 
 the clearest exhibition (of some object)" (Migrat. Abr. 7). 
 
 72 See passages cited under note 68. 
 
 73 De Abram. 22; De Gigan. 2. 
 
 74 Opif. Mund. 5, 6, 24: De Somn. I, 21. 
 
 75 Opif. Mund. 41; Monarch. 5; Confus. Ling. 20; Profug. 19; Somn. I, 41. 
 
 76 Quod Deus Immut. 6; Confus. Ling. 14, 28; Agric. Noe 12; Somn. I, 37. 
 
 77 Plant. Noe 5. 
 
 78 Plant. Noe 5; Leg. Alleg. 73. 
 
 79 Somn. I, 37; Profug. 20. 
 
 80 Agric. Noe 12; Somn. I, 39. 
 
 81 Profug. 18. 
 
 82 Leg. AUeg. 73; Somn. I, 39. 
 
 83 Leg. Alleg. 31; Migr. Abr. 1; Cherub. 35; Opif. Mund. 5, 6; et al. 
 84 Quis Rer. Div. 42, et al. 
 
38 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 the Logos were that he was the expression of God's activity in creation 
 and the rational principle in the universe and in man on the one hand, 
 and the Mediator between God and man and the agent of salvation on 
 the other. 
 
 Philo's conception is clearly syncretistic. He unites the Stoic doc- 
 trine of the Logos as the active or rational principle in the world with 
 the Platonic idea of the supersensual images and patterns of visible 
 things. He is doubtless influenced on the other hand by the Jewish 
 conception of Wisdom and of the Spirit as well as by the Oriental and 
 Gnostic notion of the Deity sending down to the earth His son or vice- 
 gerent in order to deliver and save men from contact with the world. 
 
 When we turn to the Wisdom of Solomon, we find that what we have 
 learned concerning Philo's doctrine of the Logos, could almost equally 
 well be said of Wisdom. Wisdom is the medium through which God 
 creates the world and reveals Himself. She emanates from God, is 
 immanent in the world, decides upon the destinies of the nations, and 
 becomes the moral and religious guide for men. 83 In fact, in one passage 
 the Logos and Wisdom are practically identified. 86 Perhaps the rational 
 element is not so prominent in Wisdom as in Philo's Logos, the Greek 
 influence not so strong, and the process of hypostatization not quite 
 so complete, and yet the remarkable similarity between the two con- 
 ceptions is very striking to say the least. 
 
 Nor are the conceptions of the Logos and of Wisdom in the minds 
 of these writers to be thought of as being essentially different from 
 that of the Spirit. So far as their essential constitution and their func- 
 tions are concerned, they are practically identical. And in their relation 
 to God and to the universe very little distinction can be drawn between 
 them. 87 The use of these three terms to denote practically the same 
 thing and to express practically the same thought is due perhaps to the 
 
 85 Wis. 9:9; 8:7, 8; 7:22, 24, et al. The passage in 7:25-27 is worth quoting here: 
 "For she is the breath of the power of God, and a pure effulgence of the glory of the 
 Almighty; therefore can nothing denied enter into her. For she is an effulgence from 
 everlasting light, and an unspotted mirror of the working of God, and an image of 
 His goodness. And in that she is one she hath power to do all things; and remaining 
 in herself, reneweth all things; and in all ages entering into Holy souls she maketh 
 them friends of God and prophets. " 
 
 86 Wis. 9:1, 2. 
 
 87 For references on the identification of the Spirit and Wisdom see Wis. 1:4-7; 
 7:7, 22, 23; 9:17; 12:1, 2; and Philo, Gigan. 5, 11; Quaes, in Gen. I, 90. For passages 
 showing the similarity between the Spirit and the Logos see Philo, Quod Det. Pot. 
 22, 23; Opif. Mund. 46; Leg. Alleg. I, 13; Plant. Noe 5; and Volz, op. cit.. p. 1S7. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 39 
 
 fact that the syncretistic elements in these writings were not consistently 
 coordinated as well as to the fact that an irenic purpose could thus be 
 served: the writers by using these terms and thought-forms could 
 make themselves better understood by the persons whom they addressed. 
 
 These concepts of the Logos, Wisdom and the Spirit served a practical 
 religious need for the people of that age. For the Hellenistic Jews, 
 and particularly for those of their number who were inclined toward 
 philosophical speculation they would serve the same purpose as the idea 
 of the Messiah served for those interested in Apocalypticism, at least 
 so far as the longing for individual redemption was concerned. And 
 among the Gentiles in general there was a widespread feeling that there 
 was need of a mediator between man and the Deity, a revealer of divine 
 gnosis, who should come down from heaven to release the imprisoned 
 soul and give it sufficient knowledge to enable it to return safely to 
 heaven, its original home. The legends in nearly all the Oriental religions 
 of gods or sons of gods who come down from heaven to earth to contend 
 with hostile beings or with the evil forces of nature in order to aid man 
 in his imprisoned condition confirm the truth of this statement. 
 
 Josephus, though a Hellenistic Jew, adds very little to our knowledge 
 of the conceptions which the Jews of the Dispersion held regarding 
 spirits. In the main he held to ideas that were also current in Palestine. 
 He believed in angels and identified the Angel of Jehovah with Jehovah 
 Himself. 88 He recommends exorcism of demons as a sanative measure 
 and describes how Solomon invented the science. 89 He regarded pro- 
 phecy as the gift of the Spirit and claims that this was one of the gifts 
 of the high-priest. 90 He interpreted his own statement made to Vespasian 
 when he surrendered to the Romans, viz., that Vespasian would become 
 Emperor of Rome, as a prophecy uttered in a state of ecstasy. 91 It 
 was at least the means of saving his life and might well be regarded as 
 an inspiration. He regarded the Old Testament books as divinely 
 inspired and the Law as having been delivered by angels. 92 But there 
 are several indications on the other hand that he was somewhat influenced 
 by Roman ideas and customs as well. When he has Aristobulus say 
 that his soul ought to die to appease the ghosts of his brother and mother 
 
 88 Ant. IV, 6, 2; V, 8, 3. 
 
 89 Ant. VIII, 2, 5; XIII, 16, 2; Wars VII, 6, 3; 9, 1. 
 
 90 Ant. IV, 6, 5; 8, 49; V, 8, 4; VI, 4, 1; 8, 2; VII, 4, 1, X, 11, 3; XIII, 10, 7; 
 Wars I, 2, 8; Apion I, 8. 
 
 91 Wars III, 8, 3; 8, 9. 
 
 92 Ant. XIII, 15, 3; Apion I, 8. 
 
40 
 
 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 whom he had murdered, 93 he doubtless shows an influence of the Roman 
 custom of manes- worship upon his mind. There is also a Roman touch 
 in the statement which he has Herod make regarding the good Genius 
 that was ever present at the elbow of his son Alexander. 94 In the speech 
 of Titus to his soldiers in which he says: "For who is there who does 
 not know, that those souls of virtuous men which are severed from their 
 fleshly bodies in battles by the sword, are received by the ether, that 
 purest of elements, and placed among the stars; that they become good 
 demons and propitious heroes, and show themselves as such to then- 
 posterity afterwards?" 95 we are unable to tell whether Josephus is 
 putting a speech into the mouth of Titus or whether the words were 
 actually uttered as stated. In any case it reveals Josephus' acquain- 
 tance with Greek and Roman conceptions. 
 
 These then are the main features that differentiate the Hellenistic 
 from the Palestinian Jews with respect to their belief in spirits: the 
 introduction of cosmological speculation into the Apocalyptic program 
 and the assigning of a cosmic function to the Spirit, a broader view of 
 the inspiration of the Scriptures, a more transcendent conception of 
 God and a more complete hypostatization of a mediating agent, a greater 
 emphasis upon the individualistic aspect of salvation, and the intro- 
 duction of a mystical element in the thought of man's relation to God. 
 There is an evident fusion and syncretizing of Jewish, Oriental, and 
 Greek thought. 
 
 We will see how these ideas affected the thought-world of the expand- 
 ing Christian movement as it entered the Hellenistic and Gentile worlds. 
 
 93 Ant. XIII, 11, 3; Wars I, 3, 6. 
 
 94 Ant. XVI, 7, 4. 
 96 Wars VI, 1, 5. 
 
 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 41 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 The Believer as Pneumatikos: The Gifts of the Spirit 
 
 The original disciples of Jesus were disheartened at his death, but 
 they nevertheless could not erase from their memories the deep impress 
 which his life and teachings had made upon their minds. They still in 
 imagination could see him as he preached and healed; and especially 
 at times when they met together, a small group of them, in some home 
 or by the seaside did they seem to feel his presence near them. At such 
 times they would doubtless recount some of the things they had seen 
 him do or heard him say. And this would bring into their minds in 
 still clearer and more vivid outlines the picture of him whom they had 
 come to trust and love. 
 
 Holding to the psychological notions that were current in their day, 
 they of course did not distinguish between the external and internal 
 reality of mental experiences, and interpreted these vivid impressions 
 of their departed teacher to be externally real. They furthermore 
 could not think of him as being really dead, for they believed as the 
 people of their time did, that the soul continued its existence in spiritual 
 form after death. Nor could they think of him as living in the under- 
 world, for these visions which they had had of him were proof of the 
 fact that Hades could not hold him and that he had actually risen from 
 the dead and was still in close fellowship with them. 1 
 
 When by the passing of time these mental impressions gradually 
 grew weaker and less distinct, and the visions of the risen Jesus con- 
 sequently became less frequent, the question as to where the risen Jesus 
 was must have offered itself to the minds of his followers. It was 
 natural that since they thought of Jesus as a prophet like unto Moses 
 and since they believed that not only Moses but such rare spirits as 
 Enoch and Elijah had gone directly to heaven, they should conceive of 
 the spirit of Jesus as having undergone a similar exaltation. The 
 resurrection of Jesus then came to be regarded as the first necessary 
 step to his exaltation to heaven. And this conception of Jesus must 
 have been one of the factors that changed the disciples from a band of 
 disheartened fishermen to a group of bold and enthusiastic preachers. 
 Perhaps already they felt because of this new hope born in them that a 
 
 1 See on the subject of the resurrection-appearances of Jesus Lake, The Histori- 
 cal Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, pp. 166-279. 
 
42 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 portion of the spirit of Jesus had descended upon them, as Elijah's 
 also had fallen upon Elisha in years gone by. 
 
 Now there must have taken place at an early stage 2 in the religious 
 development of the disciples the identification of this exalted Jesus 
 with the Apocalyptic Messiah who was to come from heaven to establish 
 his kingdom upon earth. Whether they during Jesus' life upon earth 
 came to regard him as the Messiah is open to question; but if they did, 
 they certainly did not apply the Apocalyptic conception of the Messiah 
 to him. And even now when they did come to identify the heavenly 
 Jesus and the Apocalyptic Messiah, they at first may still not have 
 regarded the earthly Jesus as having been the Messiah. The ascription 
 of Messiahship to his earthly career may have taken place later. But 
 however that may be, the fact that now they did think of him as the 
 heavenly Messiah soon to come on the clouds to establish his kingdom, 
 was an item of supreme significance to them. Imagine what new hope, 
 what new enthusiasm, what fervor and joy, what a sense of victory 
 must have possessed their hearts at the thought. This must have been 
 the stimulus for the outburst of all the emotional instincts of their 
 souls. 
 
 How did they explain this new and overpowering experience in their 
 hearts? They did it, of course, in the same way in which the people 
 of that age explained everything abnormal, strange and inexplicable, 
 that is, they attributed it to the Spirit of God. They felt that they 
 had come to the last days, when a new order was about to be established 
 upon the earth, and they doubtless called to mind the prophecy of 
 Joel that in the new age the Spirit would be poured out on all men. 
 Thus they identified their experience with the outpouring of the Spirit 
 which had been foretold of the Messianic age. And furthermore since 
 it was their thought of the heavenly Jesus that was the occasion for this 
 new emotional experience, they naturally felt that this Spirit came from 
 Jesus. 
 
 But this new conception of the heavenly Jesus stirred them also to 
 action. They had to prepare people for the coming of the Messiah and 
 they began to preach or prophecy concerning this coming event. It 
 was good news; it was gospel. The enthusiasm was infectious. Others 
 were stirred by their message and these too ascribed the unaccountably 
 
 2 This must have occurred before cir. 33-35 A. D., for when Paul was converted 
 this seems to have been the conception with which he started out on his Christian 
 career. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 43 
 
 joyous and abnormal condition of their mind to the operation of the 
 Spirit. Then in imitation of what they had seen their Master do they 
 began to heal the sick and to cast out demons. They knew that their 
 fellow-ccimtiymen used the names of great characters such as Abraham, 
 Jacob, Solomon, and Adam, or the names of angels such as Michael and 
 Gabriel, when they cast out demons, 3 for they thought that somehow 
 the power of the personality resided in the name of the person. So since 
 the disciples of Jesus had experienced the power of his personality while 
 he was on earth and believed him now to be an angelic being, they 
 used his name when they cast out demons and they found out that it 
 had a peculiar charm and power over the minds of these mentally 
 deranged people supposedly possessed by some demonic being. 
 
 Then persecution came because of their preaching and their exor- 
 cism and their agitation. But strange to say their hope of Jesus' com- 
 ing in the near future made them bold and they continued to preach in 
 the face of opposition. This boldness was something inexplicable and 
 strange to men of their education and social status, and it too was ascribed 
 to the influence of the Spirit. 
 
 This was no doubt the way in which the idea of the Spirit as being 
 the cause for the unexpected and extraordinary experiences of the 
 early group of Jewish Christians arose. And the things which they 
 regarded as Spirit-operations depended upon their experiences and on 
 what in these experiences they considered as being abnormal and super- 
 sensuous. We might say then that the first Christians regarded such 
 phenomena as visions, prophecy, healing, exorcism, and perhaps glos- 
 solalia 4 as activities of the Spirit. 
 
 When Christianity spread among the Hellenistic Jews and entered 
 the Gentile world, the preaching of the gospel stirred up a like enthu- 
 siasm and emotional experience in the souls of those who gave heed to 
 the message. This message concerned itself not only with the idea of 
 
 3 See Heitmiiller, Im Namen Jesu, pp. 176-182. 
 
 4 These phenomena and ecstatic conditions are all characteristic of Palestinian 
 Jewish life, though not confined to the Jews. There may be a question as to whether 
 glossolalia was found among the Jews, for the distinctive references in late Jewish 
 literature to this form of ecstatic utterance are not very numerous. It seems to con- 
 nect up more closely with the ravings of the earlier prophets. And yet there is enough 
 evidence to show that this peculiar practice prevailed, to an extent at least, among 
 the Jews of the Graeco-Roman period as well. Some of the clearest examples are 
 the ecstatic utterances of the daughters of Job (Test. Job, 48-50) and the experience 
 which Isaiah is said to have had at his martyrdom (Asc. of Is., 6:10-12). It might 
 be said that these do not represent real experiences but are mere literary fictions. That 
 
44 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 the Apocalyptic Messiah which would appeal of course to the Hellen- 
 istic Jews and even to many of the Gentiles who were looking and longing 
 for a Golden Age to come, but also with the idea of the lordship of 
 Jesus over all spiritual beings and forces and with the presentation 
 of his function as a dying and rising deity. Salvation was secured by 
 calling in the aid of the power resident in the name of this Lord of Spirits, 5 
 and immortality was to be gained by a union with the god who had 
 died but now was risen and alive. 6 The preaching of such a message 
 rilled the hearts of the believers with a new hope, a new sense of triumph, 
 and of course the emotional impulses thus aroused caused ecstatic 
 conditions to arise. Some were so overcome by their emotions as to 
 lose all control of their vocal organs, and all they could do was to give 
 vent to their feelings in a stream of incoherent and unintelligible utter- 
 ances and sounds. Others had visions and revelations in which they 
 believed themselves transported to heaven or heard strange voices from 
 the spiritual world. Some were more able to control their feelings and 
 retained possession of their rational faculties. These foretold the 
 future or brought a message of exhortation and consolation to the other 
 believers. Others again, believing that they had acquired a like power 
 as their Lord over spirits and demons, cast out the spirits which they 
 supposed had taken possession of the sick and demonized. Some 
 evinced an unwonted enthusiasm in works of charity and in this way 
 expressed what to them was a work of the Spirit. Others displayed 
 special ability and skill in interpreting what was in the mind of the 
 ecstatic who could not intelligibly express himself, or in discerning 
 whether the spirit supposedly inspiring the ecstatic was beneficial or 
 harmful to the Christian community. 
 
 So we might say that in general these emotional experiences of the 
 early Christians expressed themselves either in act or word, or in visions 
 and revelations. And they were of course, in accord with the belief s of the 
 age, ascribed to spiritual agency because of their abnormal nature. 
 
 may be true, and yet the authors of these works nevertheless thus betray an acquain- 
 tance with a practice that must have prevailed in their day. Other references may- 
 be found in Eth. En. 40; Jub. 12:17; IV Ez. 5:22; esp. 14:37 fL; Mar. of Is. 5:14. 
 So it is quite possible that the Palestinian Jewish Christians could have had an ex- 
 perience of this kind, even if the account in Acts 2 be tinged with the ideas of the 
 author and might therefore represent the Gentile rather than the Jewish conception 
 of the Spirit in the early Church. 
 
 5 Rom. 10:9; I Cor. 12:3. 
 
 e I Cor. 15:3,4, 22. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 45 
 
 There seems to have been a tendency on the part of some who, Gentiles 
 as they were, were not so rigidly monotheistic as the Jews, to ascribe 
 these various actions and experiences each to its own spirit or demon. 
 At least this is the tendency which Paul seems to be combating when he 
 insists in his Corinthian correspondence that all these various operations 
 and phenomena were the result of the activity of one and the same Spirit, 
 that is, the Spirit of Christ. 7 And it was doubtless due in large part 
 to the efforts of Jewish and Hellenistic missionaries among the Gentiles 
 that the spiritual activities of the Gentile Christian communities were 
 thus unified. 
 
 Our materials for discovering what the early Christians regarded 
 as operations of the Spirit are found chiefly in the Pauline letters, in 
 the Gospels, in the Acts, and in Revelation. These materials seem 
 to reveal rather a sharp distinction between the popular conceptions of 
 the Spirit's activity, which Paul and the primitive Christians held in 
 common, and the mystical and more speculative notions which mark 
 the departure of Paul from the popular ideas and are found mainly in the 
 Pauline and Johannine literature. 
 
 The list of activities belonging to the popular notions of the Spirit, 
 which we glean from the books of the New Testament, is rather a long 
 one though perhaps incomplete. Paul gives several lists in his letters, 
 and since they are not equally inclusive and do not coincide to any 
 considerable degree, we may infer that he does not mention all the opera- 
 tions of the Spirit which prevailed in the churches of his day. 8 By 
 combining the lists and deducting those offices and activities that may 
 be identified, we have left a fist of about ten which would in the main 
 cover the operations mentioned by Paul. They are: apostles, prophets, 
 teachers, miracles, healings, helps, governings, discerning of spirits, 
 speaking with tongues, and interpretation of tongues. So far as popular 
 ideas were concerned, we find both in the Pauline letters outside of 
 these lists and in the other New Testament books spirit-activities which 
 may be thought not to belong to any one of these ten kinds, such as, for 
 example, revelation through dreams and apparitions, the activities of 
 angels, the use of inspired Scripture, immunity from harm and danger, 
 the use of the curse or anathema, the belief in the heavenly and elemental 
 powers, etc., and yet these latter may in the main be coordinated with 
 the list of ten, and may be regarded as a part of the thought-world 
 
 7 1 Cor. 12:4ff. 
 
 8 See I Cor. 12:8-10; 12:28-30; Rom. 12:6-8; Eph. 4:11. 
 
46 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 and experience of the inspired leaders at least, if not of the believers in 
 general. 
 
 We notice that of the ten three represent church leaders while the 
 remaining seven are spirit-activities, not classes of inspired men. No 
 doubt the order in which both the leaders and the activities are given 
 represents the relative importance which Paul attached to these offices 
 and gifts, those mentioned first being regarded as the most important. 
 
 The apostles stand first in the list and doubtless in the order of 
 importance. They were the pioneer organizers and missionaries of the 
 Church, who received their right and authority to be called apostles 
 at least in part by the fact that they had had visions of the Lord Jesus 
 and had the power of performing miracles. 9 Spiritual power was attri- 
 buted to them doubtless for two reasons: (1) in the first place they 
 preached a message which produced ecstatic conditions in their auditors, 
 and so the message and therefore the messengers must have been in- 
 spired; 10 (2) in the second place they were conceived of as having been 
 sent (airocjTeWeiv) by the Lord Jesus, even as he had been sent by the 
 Father. Of course he was the Spirit-filled messenger of the Deity, 11 
 and when he gave his disciples authority and power to go out and carry 
 on his work, this implied that he imparted unto them this same Spirit- 
 power which he himself had possessed. 12 The fact that they were able 
 to heal the sick, cast out demons, confound their enemies, and perform 
 deeds even greater than those that were wrought by Jesus, was a sign 
 that they had this power. 13 
 
 It is thought by some that Paul in his list of spiritual gifts given 
 in I Cor. 12:8-10, in which he omits direct mention of apostles, prophets 
 and teachers, and seems to substitute in their place the phrases, "the 
 word of wisdom," "the word of knowledge," and "faith," thus wishes to 
 designate the spiritual endowment or function of each of these three 
 classes of leaders; but this can hardly be his intention, for he must 
 have thought of all these three classes of workers as possessing these 
 gifts in varying degrees, and he surely could not have conceived of them 
 whether collectively or individually as the exclusive possession of any 
 single one of these classes. Paul as an apostle would have resented any 
 implication that he did not, for example, possess the word of gnosis or 
 
 9 1 Cor. 9:1; II Cor. 12:12; I Thes. 1:5; Rom. 15:8; I Cor. 2:4; Acts 1:21 ff. 
 
 "Gal. 3:2, 5. 
 
 "Matthew 10:1; Heb. 3:1; John 17:18. 
 
 12 Mark 6:7, 30; Luke 9:10. 
 
 13 John 14:12 et al. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 47 
 
 intuitive knowledge as well as the word of <ro<pia or knowledge derived 
 from discursive thought and reflection, 14 or that he did not have the 
 power of faith to perform miraculous deeds. The inspired character 
 of the apostle, the feature that distinguished him from the other Christian 
 leaders, lay in the fact that he was the delegated messenger from some 
 spiritual being or authority and that by his message he was the instru- 
 ment of first arousing his hearers to ecstatic conditions, not in his pos- 
 session of acxpLa rather than yv&ais or 7tiotis. 15 
 
 Whether Jesus called his disciples apostles can not be definitely 
 determined; if he did not do so, they must have been called by that 
 title very soon after his death. The inactivity of the disciples for a 
 time after his death, though attributed no doubt at a later time to the 
 instructions which they had supposedly received from Jesus himself, 
 was due to their lack of a feeling of responsibility as apostles or mes- 
 sengers. If they had been called apostles by Jesus, they certainly 
 did not act when Jesus died as if they felt an apostolic call. It is more 
 likely that the name came to be attached to them after they began to 
 feel the call to preach the gospel and especially after they began to go 
 forth to Antioch and the Gentile world for the purpose of religious 
 propaganda. But at any rate the idea of an apostle or prophet as being 
 the messenger of God was familiar to both Jew and Greek, and could 
 have arisen either in the Palestinian or in the Gentile Church. 
 
 The translators of the Old Testament used the word apostle where 
 Abijah is represented as being a messenger to Jeroboam 16 and where 
 Isaiah speaks of messengers who were to be sent to Jerusalem from 
 Ethiopia. 17 The word in the sense of a messenger was in use in Greece 
 as early as Herodotus. 18 There is a passage in Epictetus which perhaps 
 
 14 This is the distinction which Schmiedel makes between yvuxris and <ro<pla (Encyc. 
 Bib., Art., "Spiritual Gifts," sec. 6.) 
 
 15 It is clear from Paul's own account of his pneumatic experiences that he could 
 have been classed as a prophet and a tongue-speaker as well as an apostle, for he had 
 visions and revelations and enjoyed the ecstatic experience of glossolalia (II Cor. 
 12:1; I Cor. 14:14, 15, 18). Hence it is a mistake to think that one can ascribe cer- 
 tain gifts of the Spirit to a definite class of believers or divide the believers into defi- 
 nite classes according to the kind of gift or gifts which they possess. At any rate 
 the mention of prophecy in I Cor. 12:10 would preclude the possibility of identi- 
 fying prophecy with the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, or faith, given in the 
 immediately preceding context. 
 
 16 IKi. 14:6. 
 17 Is. 18:1, 2, 7. 
 18 Hdt. I, 21; V, 38. 
 
48 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 throws as much light as any upon the question as to what the Greeks 
 and Romans would have conceived a Christian apostle to be. 19 In this 
 he speaks of the Cynic preacher as the messenger of Zeus come to inform 
 men of their wandering from the right way and of their vain efforts 
 to find happiness in any but the Cynic type of life. Apollonius of 
 Tyana who went from city to city preaching and instructing the people, 
 and who when in Rome visited temple after temple exciting a religious 
 revival, might be pointed out as an example as to what conceptions the 
 Gentiles would have of an apostle. 20 From the large number of Cynic 
 and Stoic preachers who lived and labored in that age we can imagine 
 that the sight of a Christian preacher or apostle coming to a city or 
 marketplace and delivering his message would have been a familiar 
 one to most of the people. The degree of inspiration attributed to him 
 and to his message would in a general way correspond to the amount 
 of enthusiasm which he could stir up in his hearers and to the kind and 
 number of miraculous deeds and signs which he could perform. 21 And 
 his message would receive a welcome reception to a large extent in pro- 
 portion to the kind and nature of spiritual manifestations that attended 
 its delivery. 22 
 
 In both Jewish and Gentile life the prophet occupied a prominent 
 place. In chapter two we noticed what an important role the prophet 
 played among the Jews. And the same might be said with regard to the 
 Gentiles. We know how popular the Greek oracles, such as those at 
 Delphi and Dodona, were in ancient times. The Apollo cult in parti- 
 cular was largely built up around the idea of prophecy. We know what 
 an influence the soothsayers and astrologers wielded not only over the 
 
 19 Epict., Diss., Ill, 22, sec. 23. 
 
 20 Philostr., Apoll. Tyan., IV, 41. 
 
 21 In Acts 14:12 Barnabas and Paul are called gods because they could heal a 
 crippled man; and when they call Paul Hermes because he was the chief speaker, 
 they reflect the Greek idea of a divine and inspired messenger. Paul and Barnabas 
 refuse to accept the ovation not because they did not think of themselves as divine 
 messengers or apostles, but because their Jewish aversion to the thought of the deifi- 
 cation of man prevented them from doing so. Paul perhaps refers to this incident in 
 Gal. 4:14; at least this passage indicates what conception the Galatians had of the 
 apostle. 
 
 22 The word, apostle, as has often been pointed out, is used in the New Testament 
 in a narrower and a broader sense. The distinction perhaps rests upon the idea that 
 the original group of disciples and those who had direct visions of the Lord Jesus were 
 more fully equipped with spiritual power than those who, though going by the name 
 of apostle and acting as messengers of God, were somewhat farther removed from the 
 source of this power. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 49 
 
 popular mind but in government and literary circles as well; and we 
 are aware of the large use the Greek generals and the Roman Emperors 
 and officials made of men possessed of the gift of divination, especially 
 in the conduct of their military expeditions. 23 
 
 The ecstatic condition necessary for the exercise of the prophetic 
 gift, though excited very often by external means, was generally regarded 
 as being brought on by the action of a demon or god who took possession 
 of the prophet. The Pythia of course was supposed to be possessed by 
 Apollo. 24 The demon of Socrates, according to Plutarch, 25 brought 
 visions to guide the philosopher in his actions, and going before him 
 shed a light upon hidden and obscure matters which could not be dis- 
 covered by unassisted human understanding. This demon was not a 
 divine apparition but a voice; it was Deity speaking to the soul of the 
 philosopher. Plutarch is quite firmly convinced that the demons are 
 responsible for the oracles, 26 and even where he admits that the exhala- 
 tions of certain fumes from the earth cause ecstatic conditions, he asserts 
 that the demons have charge of these exhalations. 27 The Deity uses 
 the human soul as His instrument as the human soul uses the body; 
 and this is the cause of prophecy. 28 He thinks of prophecy as the 
 excitation of an inferior soul by the understanding of a superior nature 
 and of a more divine soul, the action resembling the way in which speech 
 influences and arouses another person. 29 It should be noted however 
 that Plutarch did not regard prophecy as a universal gift, but claimed 
 that it was limited to those who had the proper qualifications for under- 
 standing the instructions of the demons, such as genteel breeding, a 
 philosophical education, a governable and obedient temper, a quiet and 
 sedate mind, etc. 30 In some of these ideas Plutarch doubtless represents 
 the philosophical point of view and yet if he, a philosopher, thought 
 
 23 If Plutarch may be believed, we may see from a statement which he makes 
 in his Sentiments Concerning Nature, V, 1, that practically all the philosophers with 
 the exception of Xenophanes and Epicurus believed in the art of divination. He says 
 that Plato and the Stoics regarded divination as a divine enthusiasm, and that the 
 prophetic faculty was an inspiration or an illapse of divine knowledge into man. Pro- 
 phecy was possible because the soul was of divine constitution. He also states that 
 Pythagoras, Aristotle and Dicaearchus admitted certain forms of divination. 
 
 24 See Rohde, Psyche, II, pp. 60-1. 
 
 25 Disc. Cone. Soc. Dem., 10. 
 
 26 Why the Orac. Cease, 15 & 38. 
 
 27 Op. tit., 40 & 48. 
 2 *Op.ciL, 21. 
 
 29 Dis. Cone. Soc. Dem., 20. 
 M Op.cit., 21&22. 
 
50 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 so much of the oracles and of the inspiration of the prophets, how much 
 more must the common people have been interested in this element in 
 their lives and environment. 
 
 Apollonius of Tyana furnishes us with as good an example as any 
 that we can find of what the ancients conceived of as a prophet. He 
 was able as the result of divine inspiration to foretell future events such 
 as the rebellion of Vindex against Nero, the death of Titus, catastrophes 
 such as shipwrecks, etc. He had the power of the seer, for it is reported 
 that while at Ephesus he saw the death of Domitian at Rome. He 
 was also possessed of supernatural knowledge, for he is said to have 
 been able to understand all the languages of men and beasts and to 
 read the secret thoughts of men's hearts. The power to perform mir- 
 acles was also claimed for him by his followers. 31 Of course much of 
 this information is the accretion of a tradition which grew up after 
 Apollonius' death, and yet the picture which we here have of him repre- 
 sents what the people of that day thought of a prophet. 
 
 Now both Jews and Gentiles who became Christians brought these 
 ideas and conceptions of the prophet with them into the Christian circle. 
 They believed that either the Spirit of Jesus or the Lord Jesus himself 
 would possess them and would enable them to foretell the future and 
 to acquire a knowledge of the mysteries of God. Hence it is that in the 
 early Christian communities a class of inspired persons called prophets 
 arose. These were doubtless found in the Palestinian Christian group 
 as well as in the Gentile churches. The four virgin daughters of Philip 
 are represented in Acts as being prophetesses, 32 and the activities of a 
 certain prophet Agabus are mentioned twice. 33 We are also told that 
 there were prophets and teachers in the church at Antioch among whom 
 Barnabas and Saul, and later also Judas and Silas, were numbered. 34 
 In the Pauline churches the prophet evidently occupied a place next 
 to the apostle in importance. When Matthew was written a reward 
 was attached to the reception of the prophet's person and message. 35 
 The book of Revelation, as well as the Apocalyptic passages in the Gos- 
 pels and in Paul, indicates that the Apocalyptic form of prophecy was 
 
 31 See Philostratos' Life of Apollonius. 
 
 32 Acts 21:9. 
 
 33 Acts 11:27 ff.; 21:10 ff. 
 
 34 Acts 13:1 ff.; 15:32: In 27:10 etal. Paul is represented as being able to foretell 
 the future. 
 
 35 Matthew 10:41. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 51 
 
 quite prevalent in the churches of the first century. 36 And the Didache 
 shows that prophets were still active in the Church near the middle of 
 the second century, though the anxiety of the author that the prophets 
 be properly cared for would perhaps be an indication that they were 
 beginning to suffer from neglect. 37 
 
 The prophet differed from the apostle in that he was no doubt a 
 localized as well as an itinerant worker. He was at times a local preacher ; 
 yet not a formal officer of the church. He spoke when he felt moved 
 by the Spirit. In fact, it is quite probable that all the believers in the 
 early Christian communities were given more or less to prophesying, 
 and prophecy must have been practically a universal feature of primitive 
 church life. 38 
 
 The function of the prophet was the imparting of divine knowledge 
 presumably obtained through contact with the Deity or with His Spirit, 
 that is, through revelation not through the exercise of the normal rational 
 faculties. To get this knowledge either the soul of the prophet was 
 elevated to heavenly regions, or else the Deity or His Spirit came down 
 and took possession of the prophet's body. 39 This knowledge consisted 
 chiefly of things unseen and hence was concerned in the main with the 
 future and with the hidden purposes of God. Agabus foretold the 
 famine in Judaea as well as the sufferings of Paul in Jerusalem. 40 Paul 
 was able to forecast the final history of the Jewish people as well as the 
 end of the age. 41 In fact, the whole Apocalyptic movement in the early 
 Church was little more than a prophecy concerning the coming of the 
 Messiah, the establishing of His kingdom, and the catastrophic events 
 
 36 In I Cor. 14:30, 31 Paul practically identifies prophecy and revelation. 
 
 37 Did. 12:1,3,6,7. 
 
 38 The application which Peter is said to have made of the passage from Joel 
 2 :28 ff . to the Pentecostal experience seems to point to a universal practice on the 
 part of the early believers; and the statements which Paul makes in such passages 
 as I Cor. 14:5, 31 almost lead one to believe that prophecy was a universal gift among 
 the Corinthian believers. And yet verses like I Cor. 12:10 and 14:29 clearly show that 
 some of the members were accustomed to prophesy while others possessed gifts of a 
 different nature. 
 
 39 In the Hermetic Corpus we find two types of revelation: in the one case a god 
 or demigod like Hermes, Asklepios, or Thot reveals what he has seen or has had com- 
 municated to him by the Supreme Deity or Father, in the other case a man or pro- 
 phet reveals what he has found out either through a god dwelling in him called down 
 by prayer or through his ascent to heaven with the help of the Deity. See further 
 Reitzenstein, Poimandres, p. 178. 
 
 40 Actsli:28;21:10ff. 
 
 41 Rom. 11:25 ff.; I Cor. 15:23 fif., 51&.; etal. 
 
52 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 that should precede and attend it. But the prophet also spoke of the 
 mysteries of God and of men; to him was revealed the wisdom of God 
 which had been hid from ages past, and he could read the secrets of 
 men's hearts. 42 The Christians in particular regarded the mystery 
 of Jesus' death and resurrection as well as the growing tradition con- 
 cerning his earthly career as having been revealed through the agency 
 of the Spirit, 43 but these elements in the early Christian message may 
 have belonged rather to the function of the apostle than to that of the 
 prophet. According to Acts the chief function of the prophet seems to 
 have been to foretell the future. With Paul the final object of prophecy 
 was to edify and comfort the community of believers as well as to convert 
 sinners to repentance. 44 It is not hard to imagine how a message which 
 proclaimed the speedy coming of the Deliverer and the assurance of 
 immortal life to the believer would not only stir up the emotions of the 
 Christian group in general, but would encourage and console those in 
 particular who were tired of this world, perhaps were suffering persecu- 
 tion, and were longing for a life of bliss in the future. 
 
 When we turn to the psychology of the prophetic experience we 
 enter the realm of trance conditions brought on by some strong emotional 
 excitation. But it is difficult to tell just how much of the normal con- 
 sciousness of the prophet was subdued or overcome. Sometimes the 
 prophet remained in control of his will; at other times he was unconscious 
 of what he was saying or doing. So there must have been varying 
 degrees of emotional excitation and reaction within the limits of those 
 phenomena ascribed to the prophetic experience. The Christians 
 believed that the highpriest Caiaphas had prophetic power in that he 
 foretold the death of Jesus, not merely because he as highpriest was 
 supposed to have the gift of prophecy, 45 but because he uttered a state- 
 ment, the correct import of which he did not know, and hence was 
 unconscious of what he was saying. 46 When the Christian preachers 
 were brought before their persecutors, they were not to use their rational 
 faculties; the Spirit would speak for them through their lips; they were 
 to be passive. 47 In the case of Paul the emotional stimulus was so 
 strong and the power of imagination so vivid that when he had his 
 
 42 1 Cor. 2; 14:24 ff.; John 4:18; et at. 
 43 1 Cor. 2:2, 4; John 14:26; 16:13. 
 44 1 Cor. 14:3, 25. 
 
 45 Jos., Ant., VII, 4, 1; XIII, 10, 7; Wars, I, 2, 8. 
 
 46 John 11:51. 
 
 47 Mark 13:11; Luke 12:12: cf. Luke 21:15. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 53 
 
 visions he was unconscious of the presence of his body. 48 The Apocalyp- 
 tist believed that his soul was caught up into heaven while his body 
 lay lifeless until the soul returned, 49 or that what he heard was revealed 
 to him by an angel; 50 what he wrote was superhuman knowledge and 
 could not have been derived from his own powers of mind. And as a 
 rule it was thought that the prophet was used by the Spirit merely as 
 an instrument through which a divine message might be revealed. The 
 thoughts and words of the prophet were really not his own but those 
 of the Spirit which had taken temporary possession of him. 
 
 However we are not to think that the prophet always lost control 
 of all his faculties. He still retained the power of memory for he could 
 remember his vision or revelation sufficiently well to be able to tell 
 it to others or to write it down in a book. 51 He still retained control 
 of his vocal organs, for what he said was in intelligible language, and 
 he himself understood what he was saying. 52 Furthermore, the prophet 
 was not so completely under the control of the Spirit that he could not 
 refrain from giving his message, for the "spirits of the prophets are 
 subject to the prophets, " 53 which is perhaps only another way of saying 
 that the prophets were able to check and govern their impulses and 
 emotions. 54 
 
 48 II Cor. 12:2, 3. In the Hermetic Corpus, X, 4, we are told that when knowl- 
 edge and visions of divine light are attained, the bodily senses are inoperative. The 
 initiate is oblivious of all bodily perceptions and movements. The soul is drawn 
 out of the body and transformed into obala. 
 
 49 Rev. 1:17; 4:2; et al. 
 
 60 Rev. 1:1; 22:8. Cf. the vision of Timarchus in Plut., Dis. Cone. Soc. Dem., 
 21 & 22. 
 
 51 Acts 10:30; Rev. 1:19. See also IV Ez. 14:38 ff. There were doubtless cases 
 however where the seer lost consciousness and forgot the content of his vision. 
 
 52 1 Cor. 14:1 ff. See also Chrysostom. Horn. XXIX on I Cor. 12:2, where he 
 distinguishes between the soothsayer and prophet by saying that the former was 
 possessed by a demon and like a madman was beside himself, while the latter with 
 sober mind spoke knowing what he said. 
 
 53 1 Cor. 14:32. 
 
 54 The expressions, "to be filled with the Spirit" (Luke 1:15, 41; Acts 2:4; 4: 8) 
 and "to be full of the Spirit" (Luke 4:1; Acts 6:3, 5; 7:55) were used no doubt to 
 describe an experience when a man had lost his normal consciousness, that is, his body 
 had been preempted of his "I " or self and had become filled with Spirit-fluidum. The 
 application of the word, irvevfxaTLKoi, to a certain class of believers (Rom. 15:27; I Cor. 
 2:15; 14:37; Gal. 6:1) and the idea of "dividing the Spirit" (Heb. 2:4) would indicate 
 not that some of the believers were regarded as lacking altogether the possession of 
 the Spirit but that there were grades of Spirit-filled Christians. According to the 
 popular conception then, the ecstatic condition in which the subject lost most con- 
 
54 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 The teacher was also a prominent figure in the Graeco-Roman world. 
 Sometimes he was an itinerant preacher, but oftentimes he settled down 
 in a place and, gathering a band of students together, established a 
 school. 55 Quite frequently he resorted to the written page and 
 endeavored to teach the public through his literary activity. One need 
 only point to the large number of teachers of philosophy, especially 
 Stoics, Cynics, and Sophists, who went about from place to place lec- 
 turing and preaching, or establishing schools and writing books, in order 
 to realize what a great interest was taken at that time in instruction. 
 Many of these teachers of course were simply aiming to tickle the ears 
 or fancy of the people so as to gain a livelihood, but it can not be denied 
 that some of them were imbued with a deep sense of responsibility to 
 bring a moral and religious message to their age. Such for example 
 were the Cynics, Demonax and Dion Chrysostom, and the Stoics, 
 Seneca and Epictetus. They were more preachers than philosophers. 56 
 They dealt, of course, with the usual problems of philosophy, such as 
 ontology, cosmology, and epistemology; but they placed by far the 
 greater emphasis upon ethics and upon man's relations to the Deity. 
 
 Among the Jews too the teacher played a prominent role. The 
 Wisdom movement was essentially a teaching movement. And the 
 sage was thought to possess the Spirit. 57 Philo as we have seen was 
 conscious of divine inspiration. Teaching was no doubt the main func- 
 tion also of the Rabbis. And they too, contrary to our conception of 
 them as being dry legalists and given merely to the letter of the Law, 
 were at least in many cases regarded by the Jews as inspired persons. 
 Hillel, Simeon ben Jochai, Eleasar and Jochanan ben Sakkai were sup- 
 posed to have been possessed by the Spirit of God. And Rabbis like 
 Ben Asai, Ben Soma, Acher, and Akiba are even said to have had Apo- 
 calyptic visions in which their souls were taken up into the heavens. 58 
 
 Teachers appear also in the early Christian communities alongside 
 the prophets. They were doubtless to be found in both the Palestinian 
 
 trol of his will and consciousness was the most spiritual; and this may explain why 
 tongue-speaking was so popular in the Corinthian Church. Paul's idea of what 
 constituted a Spirit-filled man differed somewhat from the popular notion, as we shall 
 see, and that is why he placed prophecy above tongues. 
 
 55 The school of Tyrannus (Acts 19:9) was doubtless one of this sort. 
 
 66 See Dill, Rom. Soc. in Time of Nero, Bk. 3, ch. 2. 
 
 "Wis. 9:17. 
 
 68 See Volz, Der Geist Gottes, pp. 99 ff. and 115 ff., and the authorities cited there. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 55 
 
 and Gentile churches. They appear at Antioch, 59 in the Pauline 
 churches, 60 and among the readers of the epistle of James. 61 What 
 their function was is not stated but may in part be inferred from the 
 current notions of the office of the teacher. 62 They doubtless taught 
 the gospel and its ethics, and imparted knowledge concerning the words 
 and deeds of Jesus. They may also have dealt with the interpretation 
 of the Old Testament prophecies and ma} 7 have tried to prove the Mes- 
 siahship of Jesus in this way. As the sages and scribes of the Jews 
 had to do with the conduct of the people and the interpretation of their 
 Scriptures, so this must have been the function of the Christian teachers. 
 Since they had no Scriptures of their own but continued to use the 
 Jewish Scriptures, it was natural that they should endeavor to interpret 
 the latter in the light of their new belief in Jesus' Messiahship. Their 
 message appealed more to the rational faculties than the message of 
 the prophets, and they were no doubt regarded as less inspirational 
 than the latter. Whether we possess the names of any teachers referred 
 to in the New Testament is difficult to say; Apollos answers more nearly 
 to the conception of a teacher than any other New Testament character. 63 
 The two books of Hebrews and James represent doubtless the work of 
 Christian teachers. 
 
 The early Christians lived in a time when the people, as we have 
 seen, had a dualistic view of the world and peopled the world about them 
 with all kinds of spirits, demons, and spiritual powers. These demons 
 under the leadership of Satan were antagonistic to God, angels and 
 
 59 Acts 13:1. 
 
 60 1 Cor. 12:28; Rom. 12:7; Eph. 4:11. 
 
 61 Jas. 3:1. The author is here advising against too many becoming teachers 
 for there was danger that they would be unable to practise what they taught and would 
 subject themselves by their inconsistency to judgment. Nevertheless the passage 
 implies that in the circle addressed teaching was very popular. The situation seems 
 to have been just the opposite from that depicted in Heb. 5:11 ff. 
 
 62 The passage in Heb. 5:11 ff. may not refer to teachers as a class of leaders in 
 the Church, but uses the word teacher in more of a generic and didactic sense. The 
 author is endeavoring to stir up his readers to assume a greater responsibility in in- 
 structing others. And yet the passage perhaps indicates what the office of the teach- 
 er was. He was to instruct the babes, those who were dull of hearing and had not 
 the experience of the word of righteousness, in the rudiments or first principles of 
 God's oracles, and interpret them so as to enable the pupils to discern between good 
 and evil. His concern thus was a matter of ethics. 
 
 63 Acts 18:24 ff., especially vs. 25. The reference to prophrets and teachers in 
 the Antiochian church gives names but does not designate what ones are prophets 
 and what ones are teachers (Acts 13:1). 
 
56 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 man, and were responsible for all that was evil and injurious to the 
 best interests of mankind. They believed that these evil spirits were 
 the cause of disease, insanity, and mental and nervous disorders. They 
 were constantly hovering around and endeavoring to inhabit some 
 human body, and man was helpless in warding them off unless he pos- 
 sessed the power or name of some stronger spirit or Deity. It was 
 with such an attitude of mind toward the spiritual world that the people 
 of the first century A. D. whether Jew or Gentile joined the Christian 
 movement; and bringing these ideas with them, it is quite natural 
 that when they became Christians they should resort to exorcism and 
 establish that as a part of the cult practices. They believed that Jesus 
 had become Lord of the heavenly world and was master of the spiritual 
 forces there. If, as we are told, he cast out demons while on earth, 
 that was an indication that even during his earthly career he had had 
 the mastery over them. Now since the disciples believed that by the 
 use of the name of the Deity they could overcome the demons, and 
 especially since they as a result of their ecstatic experiences believed 
 that they were possessed of the Spirit and power of the heavenly Lord 
 Jesus, they began to cast out demons and to heal diseases. The claims 
 which they made of possessing this power, and the enthusiasm which 
 filled their lives in the first glow of their new faith inspired confidence 
 in the insane and nervously disordered who were supposedly possessed 
 of demons, and their minds and bodies were restored to normal condi- 
 tions. 64 
 
 But the early Christians did not believe that the activity of evil 
 spirits was confined simply to diseases and mental disorders. They 
 felt that the demons and especially Satan, their Prince, were active in 
 their opposition to the Christian movement and that this opposition 
 took in the main the form of leading the Christians into temptation, 
 
 64 It should be noted that not much is said about exorcism in the New Testament 
 books themselves. Outside of the Marcan narrative and several references in Acts 
 (5:16; 16:18; 19:12) very little mention is made of casting out demons. Paul is re- 
 markably silent on the subject of exorcism in his letters. The word, "miracles." 
 in I Cor. 12:10, 28 doubtless includes the idea of exorcism, especially since it stands 
 in juxtaposition with "healings, " a distinction which Mark also makes; yet it might 
 also include such practices as the raising of the dead or the contravening of the powers 
 of nature. It should be noticed also that the Fourth Gospel fails to give a single 
 instance of Jesus' healing a demonized person. But in spite of this silence we are 
 justified, on the ground of what little evidence we do find in the New Testament 
 and especially on the ground of the extensive practice of exorcism in the Church of the 
 second century as indicated in the Christian literature of the time, in concluding that the 
 practice was more or less general among the Christians even in the first century. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 57 
 
 of causing false teachers to arise, and of arousing in men and rulers a 
 spirit of persecution against the Christians. 65 Satan not only tempted 
 Jesus but he desired to lead Peter astray. 66 They that sin or give way 
 to temptation are regarded as children of the devil. 67 Satan filled 
 Ananias' heart to do wrong. 68 Christians were to protect themselves 
 from the wily attempts of the devil to lead them into error and sin; 
 in fact, according to Paul's notion the real struggle of a Christian to 
 remain loyal in faith and to keep from sin was not with his earthly 
 enemies but with the spiritual forces of the heavenly places, the prin- 
 cipalities, the powers, the world-rulers of this darkness, the spiritual 
 hosts of wickedness. 69 It was Mammon that was enticing people to 
 avarice, and the demons were at work tempting the Christians, that is, 
 the Gentile Christians, to eat meat that had been sacrificed to them. 70 
 It was in this way that the Christians explained the cause for any of 
 their number falling away from or below the standards of the cult. Of 
 course, they were confident that the power of God in them was able to 
 overcome all temptation, 71 yet it was necessary for them to be constantly 
 on the watch lest these demonic forces lead them into sin. 72 
 
 The same explanation was given to the rise of false teaching. Sor- 
 cery and exorcism unless practised by Christians was wrong and was 
 the work of Satan, a method by which he was deceiving the world. 73 
 Satan was responsible for the tares and he was the father of lies. 74 False 
 apostles were the ministers of Satan and like him tried to fly under 
 false colors. 75 Those Docetic teachers who denied the humanity of 
 
 65 See especially Weinel, Die Wirkungen des Geistes u.s.w., pp. 4 ff. 
 
 66 Mark 1:13; Luke 22:31. 
 67 1 John 3:8. 
 
 68 Acts 5:3. 
 69 Eph. 6:10 ff. 
 
 70 Rev. 2:14, 20; I Cor. 10:20; Acts 15:20; Matthew 6:24. 
 
 71 1 Cor. 10:13; I John 5:18, 19. See further on Satan as tempter I Thes. 3:5; 
 I Cor. 7:5; I Tim. 5:14, 15; I Pet. 5:8. 
 
 72 Mark 14:38. 
 
 73 Acts 13:10; Rev. 9:21; 13:14; 18:23. The narrative in Acts 19:13 ff. was intro- 
 duced to show the danger resulting from the use of the name of Jesus except by his 
 own followers. Mark 9:38 and Luke 9:49 give an instance in which a man, not a 
 follower of Jesus, was casting out demons in his name. This may be regarded as an 
 exceptional case only in the sense that the New Testament writers mention no other. 
 Matthew conspicuously omits it. It is probable that others used the name of Jesus 
 in exorcising demons, but the Christians endeavored of course to prohibit the prac- 
 tice and to limit it to the members of the cult. 
 
 74 Matthew 13:39; John 8:44. 
 76 II Cor. 11:14, 15. 
 
58 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 Christ were anti-Christs and were under the influence of the Deceiver. 76 
 As a rule all heterodoxy or teaching that was thought to endanger 
 the best interests of the cult was attributed to Satanic origin. 77 
 
 And of course the forces that opposed the Christians and caused 
 the members of the cult to suffer were inspired by demonic power. 
 Jesus' death in the first instance was due to the work of Satan in Judas' 
 heart. 78 And when once the death of Jesus came to be recognized as 
 a necessary part of the Messianic program, the mere suggestion that he 
 should not have given himself up to death was Satanic. 79 The Jews 
 who opposed the movement supposedly from the beginning were regarded 
 in the Johannine circle as the children of the devil. 80 The world whose 
 Prince was Satan hated the followers of Jesus and persecuted them. 81 
 Satan hindered Paul in his work of Christian propaganda. 82 The 
 sufferings of the Christians whom the author of I Peter addressed were 
 ascribed to the agency of the devil. 83 The whole message of the book 
 of Revelation is directed toward comforting and encouraging Christian 
 communities who were being persecuted by the Roman authorities, 
 and it is noteworthy how the author conceives of the Beast or Roman 
 State as being under the influence of the dragon or Satan, and of Babylon 
 or Rome as being the habitation of demons. 84 In the author's mind the 
 Christian program involved the conflict of two opposing spiritual king- 
 doms, on the one side Jesus the Lord of lords with his hosts of angels, 
 on the other Satan with his hosts of demons, the conflict of course to 
 issue triumphantly for the former. 
 
 When one then considers the large place which the demons occupied 
 in the thought-world of the early Christians, one can realize what impor- 
 tance they would attach to the practice of exorcism. It was in the use 
 of this art that they showed not only that they had power to heal the sick 
 and the demonized, but that they could overcome all the demonic forces 
 which opposed them and caused them to suffer. Even if they were 
 not yet completely triumphant over their enemies, the time would soon 
 
 76 II John 7 & 8. 
 
 77 1 Tim. 4:1, 2; II Tim. 2:26; Jas. 3:15; I John 2:22; Rev. 2:9, 13, 14, 24. 
 
 78 John 6:70; 13:2, 27. 
 
 "Mark 8:33; Matthew 16:23. 
 
 80 John 8:44. 
 
 81 John 14:30; 15:18-25; 17:14. 
 82 IThes. 2:18. 
 
 83 1 Pet. 5:8, 9. In II Cor. 12:7; Rev. 2:10 the suffering ascribed to Satanic 
 origin is thought of as serving ultimately a good purpose. 
 84 Rev. 13:1 ff .; 18:2. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 59 
 
 come when by the help of the spiritual hosts of heaven they would win 
 the victory. 85 
 
 When Paul speaks of miracles as one of the gifts of the Spirit, he 
 doubtless has in mind this power of casting out demons; or at least in 
 his opinion this practice constituted one of the main elements of the 
 evepyriiJLaTa dwapeuv. With reference to the healings which Paul places 
 next on his list of gifts it should merely be noted that they were of the 
 same general nature as the dwafieis, and were a part of the life and prac- 
 tices of that age. The Jewish Christians were acquainted with the 
 healing practices of their prophets, and the Gentile Christians were 
 familiar with the healing cults of Greece such as the cults of Asklepios 
 and Dionysos, and with the popular practice of incubation. Some 
 of their philosophers also were reported to have had the gift of healing 
 the sick and of raising the dead, as for instance the life of Apollonius 
 of Tyana indicates. Kings too were commonly thought to possess 
 healing virtues. 86 Brought up in the midst of such a thought- world, 
 what else could we have expected the early Christians to do, particularly 
 in view of the fact that their new emotional experiences led them to 
 believe that they possessed the power of Deity, except to practise the 
 art of healing? 
 
 The helps to which Paul refers in his Corinthian list of gifts should 
 doubtless be interpreted as referring to the charitable work of the be- 
 lievers. At least the avTLXrj/juf/eLs of I Cor. 12:28 should, it seems, be 
 identified with the work of the 6 fxeradidovs of Rom. 12:8. If this is the 
 case, then the question arises as to why the work of charity was num- 
 
 85 Although Minucius Felix comes a little later than the New Testament period, 
 his statement in Octavius, ch. 27, in a way sums up the early Christian idea with 
 respect to demons, and is worth quoting at length: "Thus these impure spirits or 
 demons, as shown by the magi, by the philosophers and by Plato, are concealed . . . 
 in statues and images, and by their afflatus obtain the authority as of a present deity 
 when at times they inspire priests, inhabit temples, occasionally animate the filaments 
 of entrails, govern the flight of birds, guide the falling of lots, give oracles enveloped 
 in many falsehoods, . . . also creeping secretly into (men's) bodies as thin spirits 
 they feign diseases, terrify minds, distort limbs, in order to compel men to their wor- 
 ship; so that fattening on the steam of altars or their offered victims from the flocks, 
 they may seem to have cured the ailments which they had constrained. And there 
 are the madmen whom ye see rush forth into public places; and the very priests with- 
 out the temple thus go mad, thus rave, thus whirl about, ... All these things most of 
 you know, how the very demons confess of themselves so often as they are expelled 
 by us from the patients' bodies with torments of words and fires of prayer. Saturn 
 himself, and Serapis, and Jupiter (the Christians regarded the deities of other cults 
 as demons) and whatsoever demons ye worship, overcome by pain, declare what they 
 
60 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 bered among the gifts of the Spirit. The answer lies partly in the high 
 estimation which was put upon almsgiving particularly by the Jews, 
 and partly in the experience of the Christians themselves. The book 
 of Tobit, to cite only one example, shows what value the Jews of the 
 Graeco-Roman period attached to almsgiving. It ranked with prayer 
 as a means of communion with the Deity. Now when the Christian 
 movement began with its Apocalyptic message of the near approach of 
 the Kingdom and with its message of brotherly love, there seems to have 
 been stirred up an unwonted activity in works of charity. There was 
 little need to keep possession of property in view of the imminent expec- 
 tation of the Parousia; it was better to lay up treasures in heaven by 
 giving the property to the poor. 87 The love of the brethren too must 
 have acted as a powerful influence in the direction of the unselfish dis- 
 tribution of goods. Doubtless the author of Acts was correct when 
 he wrote that "not one of them said that aught of the things which he 
 possessed was his own." 88 It is interesting to note in this connection 
 that the sin of Ananias and Sapphira in withholding a part of the property 
 which they supposedly had devoted to the Christian cause was a sin 
 against the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was evidently connected 
 with this charity movement. 89 In the Pauline churches too appeals 
 must have been made for an expression of almsgiving. We know of 
 one that Paul made himself to the Galatian, Macedonian, and Achaian 
 churches, 90 and he doubtless received in the main a hearty response. 
 
 are; nor surely do they lie concerning their iniquity, above all when several of you 
 are present. Believe these witnesses who confess the truth of themselves, that they 
 are demons. For adjured by the true and only God they shudder reluctant in the 
 wretched bodies, and either issue forth at once or vanish gradually according as the 
 faith of the patient aids or the grace of the curer favors." 
 
 86 Pausanias, Periegesis, II, 26 f., tells of the miracles of Asklepios. And there 
 is a very interesting case of the cure of a young man by Asklepios recorded in the Oxyrr. 
 Pap., 1381, just recently published by Grenfell and Hunt. For the cures wrought by 
 Apollonius see his life by Philostratos. Suetonius, Vesp., 7, gives instances of Ves- 
 pasian's healing the sick in the temple of Serapis at Alexandria. It might be noted 
 also that Serapis was the Egyptian god of healing. In Lucian, Philopseudes, ch. 11, 
 a case of miraculous healing occurs. On this subject see further Bousset, Kyrios 
 Christos, pp. 72 ff., and Weinreich, Antike Heilungswunder. 
 
 87 Matthew 6:4, 19 ff.; Acts 2:45. 
 
 88 Acts 4:32. 
 
 89 Acts 5:1 ff. The selection of men who were full of the Spirit to carry on the 
 distribution of the charity funds among the Hellenistic Christians in Jerusalem would 
 tend to show the same connection (Acts 6:1-6). 
 
 90 Rom. 15:25 ff.; I Cor. 16:1 ff.; II Cor. 8 & 9. The house of Stephanas (I Cor. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 61 
 
 The amount collected was at least sufficient for him to make a trip 
 to Jerusalem at the risk of his life. The deep concern and anxiety which 
 he evidently felt for uniting the Jewish and Gentile churches and the 
 adoption of alms as a method of strengthening this union indicate the 
 value which he attached to this form of Christian activity. 
 
 Now knowing that the ancients always ascribed anything extra- 
 ordinary or unusual to spiritual agencies, we can readily see how the 
 unwonted sharing of property in the Palestinian churches and the perhaps 
 unprecedented spectacle of Gentiles giving alms to the Jews would 
 impress the minds of the Christians as being a work of the Spirit of God. 
 Furthermore, Paul regarded giving as a grace, a grace which he claimed 
 Jesus also possessed, 91 and as a means of stimulating the spiritual life 
 of the recipients and of uniting the giver and the beneficiary more 
 closely together. 92 It was for these reasons that helps were reckoned 
 among the gifts of the Spirit by the early Christians. 93 
 
 What Paul meant by the gift of governings (/cu/Sepi^o-eis) is not 
 denned by him, but we may infer that it has the same significance as 
 the 6 irpdlcTaixwos mentioned in the letter to the Romans. 94 One should 
 however be careful not to confound the idea of governing which Paul 
 has in mind here with the work of political rulers, for according to the 
 conceptions of the Christians the gifts of the Spirit were confined to 
 members of the cult and could hardly be regarded as the possession of 
 civil rulers. Governings, or "he that ruleth" then must refer to officers 
 in the Church, not to officers in the State. 
 
 It is not difficult to see how the exigencies of the cult and the example 
 which the Christians had set before them of the apx^vvdyooyou of the Jew- 
 ish synagogues and pagan cults 95 would cause officials of this kind to 
 become a part of the new religion. Just as in the synagogue the need 
 was felt for some one to keep order, to conduct the public worship or 
 to find some one to conduct it, and to care for the synagogue building, 
 
 16:15, 16) seem to have been members of the Corinthian church who possessed the 
 spiritual gift of helps. 
 
 91 II Cor. 8:7-9. 
 
 92 II Cor. 9:12 ff. 
 
 93 The author of I Peter evidently regarded hospitality as a gift of the Spirit 
 and the helps might very well have included this grace (4:9, 10). 
 
 94 1 Cor. 12:28; Rom. 12:8. 
 
 95 It should be noticed that according to Eus., H. E., 7, 10,4, the word, apx^vva- 
 yuyos, was used in connection with the worship of pagan cults. However it is more 
 likely that the priests or the magistrates were the real ruling body in the pagan systems. 
 
62 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 so it became necessary in the Christian communities especially after 
 they separated from the Jewish congregations to have a similar official 
 in each local group of believers. He directed the affairs of the wor- 
 shipping congregation, 96 arranged for the place and time of meetings, 
 perhaps conducted at times the public worship, but evidently did not 
 do the preaching and exhorting, for that must have been the task of the 
 prophets and teachers. In the Corinthian church the officer in charge 
 doubtless was unable to preserve proper order in the face of the 
 spontaneity in which the worship was carried on. And it was against 
 this disorder that Paul directed his instructions in the twelfth to the 
 fourteenth chapters of our I Corinthians. 
 
 It may at first sight not be very clear why an office of this kind should 
 have been numbered among the spiritual gifts, and yet the reason may 
 not be very difficult to find. It seems evident that although the ruler of the 
 Christian group may not have been chosen by formal appointment, he 
 must have been selected by general agreement at least on account of 
 special administrative ability, of the possession of which he had given 
 some evidence. This may very well have been an innate faculty, but 
 to the people of that day the mere fact that he possessed a talent which 
 was unusual and not the common possession of the whole group would 
 mean that this special gift was due to the presence and working of the 
 Spirit. When we further take into account the fact that the success 
 of the Christian movement in its early stages was to no inconsiderable 
 extent due to the wisdom with which the leaders conducted the business 
 of the Church, we may realize that the tendency would surely be to reckon 
 a talent of this kind, which worked for the best interests of the cult 
 among the activities of the Spirit. 97 
 
 With the rise of the ethical movement and the consequent classifica- 
 tion of spirits into two groups: good and evil ones, it became necessary 
 for the people of the Graeco-Roman period to be able to differentiate 
 between the two classes. If a man had a bad " genius" as well as a good 
 one in attendance upon him at all times, it was quite important that he 
 should be able to tell which one of the two was speaking to him. The 
 matter was no doubt solved either on the grounds of expediency or 
 according to the standards of the moral conscience, and in case of doubt 
 the decision was often made by the consulting of some oracle, for after 
 all a matter involving the judging of spirits could be determined only by 
 
 96 Kvfiepvrjais originally meant the piloting of a ship. 
 
 97 The v-K-qpkrai must have been regarded also as persons possessed of the Spirit .. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 63 
 
 those who were familiar with spirits and were demon-possessed. The 
 spiritual alone were able to judge spiritual things. 
 
 Among the Jews the discerning of spirits was connected chiefly 
 with the prophetic message. The question for decision was whether the 
 prophet was telling the truth, and the answer was not always forthcom- 
 ing. In fact it sometimes remained undetermined until the course of 
 events had proved whether or not the prophet had spoken aright. The 
 criterion by which the prophet was judged was usually a national or 
 patriotic one, the question as to the truth or falsity of his message 
 depending upon its being for the best interests or for the disadvantage 
 of the Jewish people. And of course if his message proved to be disas- 
 trous to the nation he was possessed by a false or lying spirit. Later when 
 personal moral purity was stressed, the criterion was based on moral 
 grounds, and whatever worked for the injury and moral defilement of 
 men was judged to be due to the agency of evil spirits, and vice versa. 
 
 When the Christian movement began, the need for the discerning 
 of good and evil spirits soon made itself felt. It made itself felt just 
 as soon as the believers became conscious of spiritual endowment and 
 ascribed their utterances to the agency of the Spirit of God. 98 The 
 matter of deciding whether a man was possessed by an evil or a good 
 spirit was not an easy task, for the outward manifestations of their 
 operations were quite alike." It required more than human power and 
 insight to differentiate, and hence the one who had this power was 
 considered as being possessed by the Spirit. And this doubtless explains 
 why Paul places the discerning of spirits in his list of gifts. 100 
 
 The Christians seem to have had several criteria by which they 
 could test the spirits. The test of power was no doubt applied in some 
 Christian communities perhaps at a very early stage of the movement, 
 
 (Acts 13:5). Mark, Timothy, Titus, and a group of similar workers would represent 
 this class. And a large part of their work was doubtless the directing of the adminis- 
 trative affairs of the movement. Nevertheless the u^per^s can scarcely be identi- 
 fied with the 6 ■wpo'LcrTanevos, for the former was an itinerant officer and directed affairs 
 according to the will of a superior authority, while the latter was local and must have 
 had greater freedom of action and privilege of self-initiative. 
 
 98 The author of Acts starts the Christian movement with the preaching of a 
 sermon by Peter at Pentecost, in which he gives his interpretation as to the nature 
 of the spirit that possessed the believers on that occasion. 
 
 99 See Gunkel, Die Wirkungen u.s.w., pp. 35 fL, for a presentation of the simi- 
 larities between the workings of the demons and those of the Spirit of God. 
 
 100 Cf. I Cor. 2:6-16 where Paul expresses the idea that spiritual things can only 
 be judged by those who have the Spirit of God. 
 
64 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 and the one who could cast out demons had the Spirit of God. 101 It 
 was thought too that the demons could be recognized by their unclean 
 nature, their connection with sorrow and sickness, and their working 
 of injury to men. 102 Paul claimed that if a man anathematized Jesus, 
 that was a sign that he was possessed of an evil spirit; but if on the other 
 hand he acknowledged the lordship of Jesus, this fact would indicate 
 his possession of the Holy Spirit. 103 The attitude which a man took 
 toward the personality of Jesus became also the test in other circles. 
 According to Mark acknowledgment of the fact that Jesus was possessed 
 of the Holy Spirit and not by a demon separated the Christians from 
 the Jews. 104 The use of the name of Jesus in the performance of miracles 
 may have been a criterion in some places, perhaps among Jewish Chris- 
 tians. 105 The Johannine test was the acknowledgment either of the 
 divine sonship of Jesus or of the reality of his human body. 106 But 
 in truth none of these criteria was absolute and adequate, for false 
 teachers and prophets arose who claimed allegiance to Christ and made 
 use of the name of Jesus. 107 The real test of a Spirit-filled man was 
 whether his life and utterances were making for the best interests of 
 the cult and whether his character and conduct were in accord with 
 the Christian moral ideals. "By their fruits shall ye know them. " 108 
 
 101 II Thes. 2:8; Mark 6:6; Acts 5:16. 
 
 102 Matthew 15:22; 17:15; Luke 6:18; Acts 10:38. 
 
 103 1 Cor. 12:3. It might be noted in this connection that Paul went beyond 
 this popular standard and insisted also that a man's life or character was the test 
 by which his possession of the Spirit could be determined (Gal. 5:16fL). This test 
 is also found in Hermas, Mand., 11, and Did. 11:8. One might also say that the idea 
 of some of the Greek philosophers, particularly of Plutarch, that the demons would not 
 take up their abode in a man's soul unless he had certain moral and intellectual quali- 
 fications, resembles this Pauline test of character. 
 
 104 Mark 3:24 ff. The importance which was attached to the discerning of spirits 
 by the Marcan circle of Christians may be seen in the fact that a failure to recognize 
 the good spirit in Jesus was thought to involve a man in an eternal and unpardonable 
 sin. 
 
 105 Matthew 7:15, 22; 24:24. 
 "» I John 2:18 ff.; 4:1, 2. 
 
 107 II Cor. 11:13, 14; I Tim. 4:1; Rev. 2:20; II Pet. 2:1; Matthew 7:15, 22. 
 
 108 Notice Gunkel's statement regarding the early Christian conception of the oper- 
 ations of the Spirit: "The operations of the Spirit are those mysterious and powerful 
 operations in the realm of human life which stand in some relation to the life of the 
 Christian community, which work no harm to men, which occur often by an express 
 naming of God's or Christ's name, and in all cases befall only such men as are not 
 unworthy of union with God" (Die Wirkungen u.s.w., p. 43). According to this 
 view the operations of the Spirit were limited to men of certain moral and religious 
 qualifications. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 65 
 
 Of course, one has to admit that in the case of the glossolalia in the 
 Corinthian church the activity of the Spirit was judged not from its 
 ethical content but from its emotional stimulation and satisfaction. 
 But as a rule throughout the New Testament there is more or less of a 
 moral element attached to the activity of the Spirit in the Christian 
 community. This is the case even in Acts where the powerful and 
 mysterious and emotional aspects of the Spirit stand out so prominently. 109 
 
 The discerner of spirits must then have been quite an important 
 functionary in the primitive Church. The oft-repeated injunction that 
 false prophets and teachers be rejected is an indication of the signifi- 
 cance that was attached to the ability to tell whether the teachers and 
 prophets of the Church were under the inspiration of a good or evil 
 spirit. The discerner of spirits may in a sense be regarded as the first 
 of the race of inquisitors that have been guarding the orthodoxy of the 
 Church from the beginning of her history to the present day. 
 
 We have already referred to the gift of tongues among the Jews and 
 Jewish Christians, 110 and this must have been a characteristic feature 
 of the life of the early Gentile Christians as well. In the Gentile 
 churches it had its roots in the practices of some of the Greek pagan 
 cults of which the Christians had doubtless formerly been devotees. 
 The raving and shrieking with which the Pythia uttered her oracles 
 was widely known, 111 and Greek literature is abundant in its references 
 to the Bacchic frenzy of the Dionysos worshipper. 112 The names, 
 Bacchos and Iacchos, by which Dionysos was frequently called, are 
 thought to have had their origin in the unintelligible ecstatic utterances 
 of the devotees while they were in a state of frenzy; 113 they were either 
 cries used to stir up emotion, or were themselves the expression of such 
 intense emotion that articulate speech was impossible. Our word, 
 hallelujah, perhaps had a similar origin. 
 
 In early times these frenzied states were brought on by some external 
 means such as the eating of drugs or herbs, the inhaling of gases, and 
 
 109 Acts 2:43-47; 5:1 ff.; 15:9; et al. 
 
 110 See p. 43, n. 4 above. 
 
 111 Paus. IV, 27, 2; Xen., Mem., I, 1, 9. 
 
 112 See for example Plutarch, Why the Orac. Cease, 14, where he rather unsym- 
 pathetically describes the mad ravings, the yells, the loud din, the tossing of the neck 
 to and fro, which accompanied on Orphic festival. Rohde, Psyche, II, pp. 11-21, 
 gives further refeiences on the Dionysiac ecstasy. 
 
 113 See Harrison, Prolegomena, p. 414. 
 
66 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 the drinking of wine. But in New Testament times the ecstasy was 
 often produced through some emotional excitement, such as when by 
 the performance of some ritual the devotee came to have a sense of union 
 with the Deity. The new emotion which so overpowered him as to 
 make him resemble a mad man, was interpreted to mean that the Deity 
 had taken possession of him. There was a new entity in him which 
 had not been there before. 
 
 Now when the Gentiles with such a background became Christians, 
 heard the Christian message of union with Christ and hope of immortal- 
 ity, and partook of the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist, a like 
 raving and ecstasy seized them; and in the intensity of their emotions 
 they gave vent also to inarticulate cries and yells. These must have 
 brought them a great deal of relief and satisfaction, but because of their 
 unintelligibility were of no benefit to any one but to those who indulged. 
 And of course since this surging up and outburst of emotion was so 
 unusual and abnormal, it was traced to a supernatural and superhuman 
 cause. It was due to the presence of the god Christ or of his Spirit in 
 their hearts and was hence to be regarded as a gift of the Spirit. 
 
 The psychology of glossolalia differs very little from that of prophecy. 
 The main difference is that in the former the emotion is stronger and 
 the normal consciousness is more completely subdued. 114 In prophecy 
 the vocal organs are under control but in glossolalia the speech-centers 
 are so excited as to make the utterance nothing but a succession of 
 inarticulate sounds. The bodily movements that accompanied the 
 speech were such as to suggest to the uninitiated that the subject was 
 either mad or intoxicated. 115 The impression which the ecstatic himself 
 received of his experience was that his self or ego had become supplanted 
 by a spiritual entity that entered his body in its stead. The under- 
 standing or vovs was regarded as absent. 116 A statement made by Philo 
 illustrates this point: "If a yearning come upon thee to participate in 
 divine blessedness . . . escape from thyself and go out of thyself in a 
 
 114 The close relation between prophecy and the Dionysiac ecstasy may be in- 
 ferred from a statement in Euripides (Bacch., 298 ff.): 
 
 "A prophet is this god (Dionysos) for Bacchic rage 
 And madness hold large gift of prohecy; 
 And when the god in power enters the body, 
 He makes the frantic tell what is to be. " 
 
 115 1 Cor. 14:23; Acts 2:15. 
 
 116 1 Cor. 14:13, 14. 
 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 67 
 
 Bacchic frenzy, divinely inspired like those who are possessed and filled 
 with Korybantic delirium. " 117 
 
 The speaking with tongues seems to have been the favorite gift 
 among the Corinthian believers, and so far as Paul's own personal 
 preference and satisfaction was concerned he esteemed this gift very 
 highly himself, 118 in several passages going so far as practically to identify 
 glossolalia with irvevfiaTLKa. 119 According to popular notions this was 
 evidently the most characteristic gift of the Spirit, doubtless because 
 of its strikingly abnormal features. But after all it was not of very great 
 value to the propagation and upbuilding of the cult and Paul makes an 
 effort to regulate its excesses and places a greater stress upon the purpose- 
 ful and intelligible message of the prophet. This may have been the 
 reason for his placing tongues near the end of his list of gifts. Partly 
 perhaps through Paul's influence and partly because of its highly emo- 
 tional features this practice soon fell into disuse and disappeared almost 
 entirely in the course of the second century. 120 
 
 It became necessary, in view of the fact that the speaking in tongues 
 was unintelligible, that the utterances be interpreted if others wished 
 to know their meaning. And this too was regarded as a gift of the Spirit, 
 for it was impossible for any but a Spirit-possessed man to understand 
 and judge spiritual things, and this was a task that required more than 
 human knowledge. This power of interpretation was a rare gift and 
 
 117 Quis Rer. Div. Her., 69. 
 
 118 1 Cor. 14:18; II Thes. 2:2. In the latter passage Paul doubtless refers to 
 his use of tongues in the Thessalonian church. 
 
 119 1 Cor. 14:1, 37. But in I Cor. 2:15; 3:1 he uses TrvevixariKos in a more general 
 sense. 
 
 120 The Montanists seem to have revived the practice. Iienaeus (Haer. V, 6, 1) 
 knows of the custom in the Church but perhaps only as a matter of past history. 
 It is thought that since the author of Acts confuses the glossolalia with speaking in 
 foreign languages (2:6), the practice had disappeared by his time, but the fact that 
 in other places he records the phenomenon in the usual way (10:46; 19:6) would indi- 
 cate that he knew what the practice was, though it may have been also merely from 
 literary sources. The change in the Pentecostal tongue-speaking was made not 
 because of the author's ignorance but because he wanted to make the Pentecostal 
 experience analogous to the occasion of the giving of the Law at Sinai when, according 
 to a midrash (Philo, De Decal., 11; Sep ten., 22), all the nations of the world heard 
 God's voice in their own language. The reference to tongues in Mark 16:17 would 
 point to the fact that this gift was still in use in the Church when the Marcan appen- 
 dix was added. For descriptions of glossolalia see Lake, Earlier Epis. of Paul, pp. 242 
 ff.; Weinel, Die Wirkungen u.s.w., pp. 72 ff.; and Mosiman, Das Zungenreden. 
 Reasons for regarding the Pentecostal experience as glossolalia will be found in Schmie- 
 del, Encyc. Bib., Art., "Spiritual Gifts," sees. 9 and 10. 
 
68 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 had to have a spiritual cause to account for its existence. How this 
 interpretation was done we do not know. In some instances the tongue- 
 speaker became his own interpreter, 121 just as the Apocalyptic seer 
 related or wrote down his visions after he had recovered from his ecstatic 
 state. But in other cases there were men who interpreted the utterances 
 of others, 122 and it is difficult to understand how this could have been 
 done unless there were in use certain formulae and codes of ejaculations 
 known to certain members of the group, or unless the interpreter could 
 by sympathetic telepathy read the emotions and thoughts of the tongue- 
 speaker from the gestures and sounds which he made. It is possible 
 that the interpreter himself was a tongue-speaker and could tell from 
 experience what the utterances of his fellow-ecstatic signified. 
 
 The above phenomena were the chief ones that characterized the 
 pneumatic life of the early Christian groups of believers, and they must 
 have been a common feature of the religious activities and practices in 
 the various communities where the new religion had taken root. They 
 were a part not only of the experience of the Gentile believers among 
 whom they must have been particularly prevalent, but of the Jewish 
 Christians as well, and especially of the Hellenistic Christians who were 
 more or less acquainted and in touch with Gentile notions of spirits and 
 demons. And they likewise constituted a feature in the life not only 
 of the Pauline churches but so far as we know of all the other Christian 
 circles and groups. And since, as we have seen, they contain so many 
 elements derived from or similar to the ordinary notions of Spirit- 
 activity, they have been commonly termed the popular conceptions of 
 the Spirit, as distinguished from the mystical and more speculative ideas 
 such as we find in the Pauline and Johannine writings. 
 
 Paul had a prominent mystical strain in his character. This was 
 due in part no doubt to his native or innate temper of mind, but in 
 part also, and perhaps chiefly, to his training and environment. For 
 the Jews as a rule were not mystics, and Paul must have acquired his 
 mystical tendencies more from his Gentile contacts than from heredity. 
 As a young man he lived in the midst of a civilization that was shot 
 through with ideas and beliefs concerning the mystical union of man with 
 the Deity. Cilicia was located just between Phrygia, the center of the 
 Cybele-Attis cult, and Syria, the home of the worship of Adonis; and 
 the influence of these cults must have been felt in Tarsus in his day. 
 The worship of Mithras, according to Plutarch, was in Tarsus as early 
 
 121 1 Cor. 14:13. 
 
 122 1 Cor. 12:10: 14:26. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 69 
 
 as 63 B. C. 123 And Paul may very well have become acquainted even 
 in his youth with the type of thought represented in the so-called " Mith- 
 rasliturgy " and the Hermetic Corpus, writings which were highly mystical 
 and saturated with the ideas of rebirth and deification. 124 It was no 
 doubt this Oriental mysticism that formed the background for his 
 peculiar conception of the indwelling Spirit. 125 
 
 But whatever conception we may have as to the relation of this 
 background to Paul's notion of the Spirit, we dare not forget that the 
 immediate source of his idea of the Spirit comes from his Christian 
 experience. The real roots of his conception are to be found in his own 
 experience; the terminology by which he interpreted and expressed this 
 experience to others was derived from the usages of the day, terms of 
 expression with which not only his readers but he himself must have 
 been familiar. And it is to be presumed that since he did not define 
 these terms to his readers, he must have expected them to convey to 
 their minds the same ideas and connotations as they conveyed to his. 
 Hence he would not think of his experience as being essentially different 
 from that of his readers, or different from experiences with which his 
 readers at least were acquainted. It is evident that when he uses such 
 terms as "new creature, " " to be in the Spirit, " etc., he takes for granted 
 that his readers understand without explanation what these terms 
 signify. Since they were chiefly Gentiles to whom he wrote, and would 
 put into these terms such connotations as were currently held, there is 
 therefore no reason for thinking that Paul used them with a sense that 
 differed very much from current usage among the Gentiles. 126 
 
 We should deal here with the experience which lay at the bottom 
 of Paul's idea of the indwelling Spirit. His consciousness of the presence 
 of the Spirit in his life began of course with his Christian life. And 
 
 123 Plut., Pompey, 24. 
 
 124 See Dieterich, Mithrasliturgie, esp. p. 14 f.; and Reitzenstein, Poimandres, 
 pp. 15 ff. 
 
 125 Of course it should be stated that this view has not yet received universal 
 acceptance, as can be seen for instance in the discussion which Schweitzer gives of 
 the subject in his Paul and His Interpreters, ch. 7. See also on this subject Bousset, 
 Kyrios Christos, pp. 148 ff. 
 
 126 It is contended by some scholars that Paul's mysticism differed from the cur- 
 rent mystical notions especially on two points: (1) his mysticism is a Christ-mysticism, 
 not a God-mysticism, and (2) the idea of rebirth is almost absent in his writings. See 
 especially Schweitzer, op. cit. As for these distinctions we might suggest that perhaps 
 Paul's Jewish aversion to deification led him to modify his mysticism somewhat and 
 to hesitate in using the word, rebirth or regeneration; and yet no matter whether his 
 mysticism contemplated only a union with a heavenly being instead of with God 
 
70 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 his Christian life began with an experience of such a nature as to make 
 him feel that a great inner transformation and change had taken place. 
 In fact, it was a change that transformed him from a persecutor of the 
 Christians to an advocate of their contentions. 127 The hate which he 
 had had toward them was now replaced by love for them and loyalty 
 to the Lord whom they served and whom he had persecuted. This 
 change was so marked, it was something so inexplicable and so contrary 
 to normal and natural processes, that it could have none but a super- 
 natural origin and cause. At once Paul felt that a new entity had come 
 into his life and an old entity had gone out. What was it? Doubtless 
 Paul immediately thought of a spiritual being as the only agent who 
 could effect such a change of character, and since the result of the change 
 was the establishing in his heart of a favorable disposition toward the 
 Christians and their Lord, he must have identified at once this spirit 
 with the Spirit of Christ, the heavenly being whom the Christians 
 regarded as Lord of spirits. "It is no longer I that live, but Christ 
 liveth in me." 128 
 
 It should be noted also that this change which had come into Paul's 
 life was a permanent one. He did not love the Christians one day and 
 hate them the next. Neither was his sense of loyalty and devotion to 
 his heavenly Lord a spasmodic affair. So also his attitude toward sin 
 and unrighteousness had become one of permanent hostility, and he 
 was conscious of an abiding power in his life that aided and strengthened 
 his will in the doing of good. It was this experience of Paul's that led 
 him to conceive of the Spirit, which was the cause of this change, as 
 an abiding and permanent influence in his life, and hence in the life of 
 every believer. According to the popular conceptions of the Spirit, 
 its operation was confined to special occasions as when the believers 
 were stirred by some great emotional excitement, 129 or when they were 
 called upon to preach or proclaim the will of God, 130 or when they had 
 to bear testimony to their faith in the face of persecution, 131 or when 
 
 Himself, the difference is essentially a very slight one, the idea of a mystical union 
 being at any rate present in his mind; and no matter whether he failed to use the 
 word regeneration, there is fundamentally very little difference between the idea of 
 being born again, and of becoming a new creature. 
 
 127 Gal. 1 .23. 
 
 128 Gal. 2:20. 
 
 129 Acts 2:1 ff.; I Cor. 14:2, 14; et al. 
 
 130 Acts 4:31. 
 
 131 Mark 13:11; Acts 4:8 ff. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 71 
 
 they prophesied and saw visions and revelations, 132 or when they were 
 called upon to undertake new work or to make a departure in the plans 
 of their work. 133 The Spirit, it was thought, was active mainly at 
 times of high emotional tension, at times of crises in the lives of individ- 
 uals or in the work of the Church, and at times when special divine 
 guidance was needed by the leaders in the promulgation of the new 
 religion. The operation of the Spirit was occasional and temporary 
 because the experiences which they ascribed to pneumatic influence 
 were also of that character. But Paul, while recognizing these special 
 and occasional activities of the Spirit because he too had times of special 
 elation and ecstasy, nevertheless considered the Spirit as an abiding 
 and permanent factor in his own and every believer's life simply because 
 he regarded the permanent transformation of character that attended 
 the believer's entrance upon and walk in the Christian life as the work 
 of the Spirit also. And this conception arose out of his own experience. 
 
 And it is also out of his experience that his ethical conception of the 
 Spirit grew. When once he had confessed faith in Jesus as a heavenly 
 being, Lord of spirits and master of all the evil forces to which men 
 were subjected, and had a consciousness as the result of the change in 
 his life of the presence of the Spirit of this heavenly being in his heart, 
 a great sense of victory over sin and evil must have come to him. Sin 
 previously had dominated his being, leading him to do what he felt 
 he should not, and preventing him from doing what he should. 134 But 
 now he felt that he was freed from this bondage by the Spirit that dwelt 
 within him and he was able by the help of this new increment in his 
 life to conquer the evil propensities of his mortal body. 135 Such a vic- 
 tory over sin and fear and the lusts of the flesh was a miraculous event, 
 something inexplicable from a human standpoint, something that 
 could only be explained by postulating the agency and activity of Deity. 
 Paul had indeed made strenuous efforts to lead a righteous life before 
 he became a Christian but he had failed. The present victory was 
 due not to his normal human powers but to the work of the Spirit of the 
 Lord Jesus in him. And it was for this reason that Paul ascribed all 
 that was good in him to the Spirit. Since he had a piece of the Deity in 
 him, so to speak, dominating his will and controlling his actions, his 
 conduct could be none other than the result of the Spirit's working in 
 
 132 Acts 11:28; II Cor. 12:1; Rev. 4:2. 
 
 133 Acts 10:19; 13:2; 16:6 ff. 
 
 134 Rom. 7:15 ff. 
 
 135 Rom. 8; Gal. 5:16 ff. 
 
72 A STUDY Or THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 him. All the graces and virtues and actions of life he therefore reckoned 
 among the products of this spiritual indwelling. "But the fruit of the 
 Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 
 meekness, self-control." 136 It was this ethicizing of the conception 
 of the Spirit which we owe particularly to the work of Paul, and it 
 doubtless grew out of his experience as a Christian. 
 
 But this is not the last word to be said with regard to Paul's con- 
 ception of the Spirit. He used terms in speaking of the Spirit and 
 of his experience which were not in common use among the Jews and 
 these should here receive some consideration. 
 
 He first of all describes his conversion as a revelation of God's Son 
 in or to him. 137 Paul's idea of revelation may perhaps be gleaned from 
 the description of his experience in II Cor. 12:1 ff. Of course, it is 
 clear that the Jews were familiar with the ordinary form of revelation 
 in which either an angel or spirit came down from heaven or the soul ascend- 
 ed to heaven, but they seem to have lacked the idea of a transformation 
 of character taking place through a revelation. They ordinarily thought 
 of revelation simply as a means of obtaining supernatural knowledge. But 
 with Paul the idea of a change of life seems to be present in his notion 
 of revelation. And this reminds one at once of the description given 
 of the transformation of Thot in a Hermetic docu ment of about the first 
 century A. D., in which Hermes tells Thot, his son, of his own regenera- 
 tion by a divine revelation to his heart; he had had an inner immaterial 
 vision and had passed through his own body into an immortal body. 
 As he relates his experience to his son, the latter's body too is transformed 
 and he is set free from the twelve evil propensities. Furthermore he 
 is able by divine energy to have spiritual visions and he feels himself 
 to be in harmony with all the elements. Hermes then teaches him a 
 hymn of praise, in which he was to say: "My spirit is illumined. . . . 
 To Thee, O God, author of my new creation, I, Thot, offer spiritual 
 sacrifices. O God and Father, thou art the Lord; thou are the Spirit 
 (vovs). Accept from me the spiritual things which thou desirest. '' 13s 
 Here we have a striking example of a rebirth, a transformation of char- 
 acter through revelation, in which the subject is freed from the evil 
 
 136 Gal. 5:22 ff. 
 
 137 Gal. 1:16. 
 
 138 See Reitzenstein, Poim., pp. 339-48; Die Hellen. Myster., p. 33; and Jacoby, 
 Die Antik. Myster., pp. 33, 34. Note also the instance given by Reitzenstein 
 (Die Hellen. Myster., p. 141) of the alchemist Zosimus who was renewed by a priest 
 in his vision, so that he became irvevna. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 73 
 
 propensities of the flesh; and the similarity of this conception to Paul's 
 experience no one could very well be so bold as to deny, though there 
 may be no direct relation between the two. 
 
 Again Paul uses such expressions as to be in Christ, to be in the 
 Spirit, Christ in us, or the Spirit in us, to describe what he regards as 
 the Christians' experience. These terms are practically synonymous, 
 the ones in which the name of Christ is used having perhaps a less 
 abstract but a more personal content than those in which the Spirit 
 is mentioned. In all of them the idea of a union or fusion of the human 
 and divine is present, and Paul here evinces a mysticism that separates 
 him from his Jewish contemporaries and indicates an acquaintance 
 with a type of thought that was widely current in his day outside of 
 Jewish circles. It was the type of thought represented by the mystery 
 religions and the Hermetic cults, and its chief elements were the ideas 
 of union with the Deity, or deification, and of the hope of immortality. 
 The usual term employed to express the union with the Deity was 
 evdeos, and to become evdeos was to attain immortality. 139 The wor- 
 shippers of Dionysos were thought to enter into union with the god, 140 
 and the Orphic worshippers believed that they actually became gods. 
 Deification was promised to the devotee of Osiris in this way: "Happy 
 and blessed one, thou shalt be god instead of mortal." 141 We might 
 also quote the Hermetic Corpus in illustration of this same thought: 
 "This is the blessed end for those who have attained knowledge, to be 
 deified. " 142 The well-known experience of Lucius, recorded by Apuleius, 
 is of a similar character; his mystic initiation brings to him an assurance 
 of union with Isis, causing his heart to go out in a prayer of great beauty 
 and devotion. 143 The worshipper of Attis who emasculated himself 
 thought that thereby he became Attis and would rise with the god from 
 the dead. 
 
 It is in the fight of these ideas that one has to interpret Paul's use 
 of the terms, to be in Christ and to be in the Spirit. Of course, Paul 
 
 139 Soph., Oed. Col., 607. 
 
 140 Aeschines, Soc, 2, 23: al /3d/cxai orav tvdeoi yevuvrai; Plato, Phaed., 253A; 
 evdeoi. Xanfiavovai. to. edrj /cat to. €TriTr]8evfxaTa (rod deov) Kadocxov 8vvar6v deov avdpomco 
 (xeTaaxecvL. See also Aristot., Prob., 30, 2:evdeoi navreis; and Plut, Plac. Phil., 5, 1, 1: 
 IxavTLKi] Kara to evdeov oirep earw evQeaariKov. 
 
 141 Egyptian Book of the Dead, 125. See also Harrison, Prolegomena, pp. 556, 
 660 ff. 
 
 142 1, sec. 26. 
 
 143 Apuleius, Metamor., XI, 23-25. 
 
74 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 never says outright that he is Christ, much less as a Jew would he claim 
 deification; yet there can be no doubt but that he approaches the con- 
 ceptions of the mysteries and believes that the Christian is mystically 
 united with his Lord. It is a matter of conviction with Paul that as a 
 result of his faith in Christ he is united with him and a new element or 
 increment of a divine nature has been added to his personality. He 
 is now no ordinary man, a \pvxwbs with only a living soul within him; 
 he has in addition a Trvedfia, an entity which has come to him from with- 
 out and which has become the dominating principle of his life. He is 
 now a irvevnariKos, and he lives on a higher plane and in a less material 
 atmosphere than the one who has only a ipvxv- In reality he believed 
 that it was Christ himself who now dwelt in his body and spoke through 
 him. 144 The difference between this conception and that of evdeos is 
 certainly not very great. 
 
 Again Paul uses the idea of sonship to designate the change that 
 had come into his life. And although he does not use the word rebirth 
 or regeneration, the expressions, "sons of God" and "children of God," 
 signify practically that very thing. 145 And this idea too is not a Jewish 
 conception, 146 but a notion that prevailed among the mystical cults. 
 The Jews had the idea of becoming like a child, 147 but this was quite a 
 different thing from the mystical notion of a spiritual lebirth. Among 
 the Attis and Mithras worshippers this conception was particularly 
 emphasized. The blood baptism in the Taurobolium was believed 
 so to purify the worshipper that he was reborn; his old life was buried, 
 as it were, and he was raised to a newness of life. 148 And various Roman 
 
 144 Gal. 2:20; II Cor. 13:3. 
 
 145 Rom. 8:14, 16; Gal. 3:23 ff; 4:6. 
 
 146 It might be objected that Paul does not have in mind a rebirth but simply 
 sonship by adoption. And it is true that this is the terminology used by him in both 
 the passages quoted above (Rom. 8:14, 16; Gal. 3:23 ff.; 4:6), and one might well 
 think that he is heie dealing with an idea familiar to Jews as well as to Gentiles. He 
 is evidently thinking of the man who does not have the Spirit as a slave who is under 
 bondage to sin and fear, but who by the attainment of the Spirit gains freedom and 
 adoption as God's child. But when we inquire as to how Paul thought that this 
 freedom from sin and fear was obtained, we realize that here he departs from the 
 Jewish conception. It is by a process of dying with Christ and being raised again 
 unto newness of life in his resurrection. It is this which delivers a man from bondage 
 and wins him his sonship (Rom. 6:1-11; 7:7 ff.; 8:1-17; Gal. 3:26, 27). This is the 
 mystical element in the idea of sonship that unites Paul with the Gentile thought- 
 world and compels the conclusion that his conception of sonship differed very little 
 from the idea of regeneration. 
 
 14T Matthew 18:3 ff.; Mark 10:15; Luke 18:17. 
 
 148 Prudentius, Peristeph., X, 1011 ff.; Cumont, Orien. Rel., pp. 58 ff. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 75 
 
 inscriptions of the Cybele and Mithras cults describe the "baptized" 
 as in aeternum renatus. m In Apuleius we find the same notion ascribed 
 to the Isis cult: "For," says the highpriest of the Isis cult, "the portals 
 of the nether world and the guardianship of salvation are placed in the 
 hand of the goddess and the initiation itself is solemnized as the symbol 
 of a voluntary death and a salvation given in answer to prayer, for the 
 goddess is wont to choose such as, having fulfilled a course of life, stand 
 at the very threshold of the departing light, to whom nevertheless the 
 great mysteries of religion can be safely entrusted; and after they have 
 been by her providence in a sense born again, she places them again on 
 the course of a new life in salvation. " 150 In the so-called Mithrasliturgy 
 the idea of rebirth occurs quite frequently. A significant passage is: 
 "If it seems good to you," — the worshipper is addressing the Deity, — 
 "permit me, now held down by my lower nature, to be reborn to immor- 
 tality, . . . that I may become mentally reborn, that I may become 
 initiated, that the Holy Spirit may breathe in me." 151 
 
 Examples like the above might be multiplied, but these are sufficient 
 to show that in certain circles at least the idea of a rebirth, of becoming 
 a new creature, by union with Deity was very familiar in Paul's day. 
 The belief centered in the idea that a man by symbolically passing 
 through the dying and rising experiences of the Deity to whom he was 
 united, was refashioned and became a creature of immortality. It 
 seems clear that when Paul writes to the Romans that "as Christ was 
 raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might 
 walk in newness of life, for if we have become united with Him in the 
 likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection," 
 etc., 152 he is approaching very nearly the idea of a spiritual regeneration 
 or rebirth unto immortality, which was such a prominent belief in the 
 mystic cults. And here again we would not claim for Paul a direct 
 dependence upon the literature cited above, nor can the opposite of 
 course, viz., the derivation of the idea of rebirth in the mystery cults 
 from Paul, be proved. What we do have to admit however is that Paul 
 in giving expression to his experience used the terms that were current 
 
 149 Dill, Rom. Soc, p. 547, n. 4. 
 
 150 Metamor., XI, 21. 
 
 151 Dieterich, Mithrasliturgie, p. 4. A noteworthy passage also occurs on p. 14. 
 Reitzenstein, Die Hellen. Myster., pp. 113, 114, gives another instance where the 
 idea of regeneration is present. 
 
 152 Rom. 6:1-11. 
 
76 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 in his day and were generally employed to describe an experience such 
 as he had. 
 
 It might also be pointed out that in Paul's use of the term, "a new 
 creature, " he is expressing an idea that approaches the notion of a rebirth. 
 At least we are safe in saying that the conception of a transformation 
 of being and character is present in the expression. 153 But perhaps 
 we should rather regard this term as synonymous with the expression, 
 "the new man," and if so, then its relation to the imagery of a heavenly 
 garment clothing the believer is closer than to the idea of rebirth. For 
 Paul speaks of putting on Christ, or putting on the new man as if the 
 believer could clothe himself in this spiritual garb, 154 or as if he could 
 put on the image of the Lord Jesus. 155 This figure of speech reminds 
 one of the masks of the god which the devotees of the Mithras cult wore 
 over their faces, thinking that thus they could be identified with the 
 Deity and become united with him. The kings and priests of Egypt, 
 we are told, wore beast masks when they sacrificed. 156 This in fact was 
 a custom among most of the primitive cults, though by the time of Paul 
 it had become more or less spiritualized. 157 The idea of the righteous, 
 who are to be raised from the dead and clothed with garments of glory, 
 . is found in Jewish literature, 158 and this notion corresponds to the idea, 
 which Cumont points out as a feature of the Oriental religions, of heavenly 
 garments which purified souls receive in their ascent to heaven. 159 But 
 Paul was thinking of the present mortal state when he spoke of putting 
 on the new man, and so had perhaps a transformation of the body in 
 mind when he used the expression. The body was in many circles 
 regarded as a garment for the soul, and with Paul the old man was 
 identified with the body of flesh. 160 The man who had the Spirit had a 
 
 153 II Cor. 5:15-17 clearly indicates such a change, and the transformation takes 
 place through a mystical union with Christ. Cf. also Gal. 6:15; Eph. 2:1-10; 4:24; 
 Col. 3:10. This union was also the cause for the effecting of a change in the Jews and 
 Gentiles so that they now are no longer two bodies but one (Eph. 2:15). And Paul 
 conceives of the bond between Christ and the Church as being quite similar to a 
 mystical union (I Cor. 10:16; Col. 1:18, 24; 2:19). 
 
 154 Rom. 13:14; Gal. 3:27; Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10, 12. Cf. also II Cor. 5:11 ff. 
 
 155 Notice the use of "image" in I Cor. 15:49. Cf. Rom. 8:29 and Col. 3:10. 
 
 156 Lang, Myth, Ritual, and Religion, II, 130, 284, and Moret, Caractere reli- 
 gieux de la monarchic Egyptienne. 
 
 157 Wundt, Elem. d. Volkerpsych., pp. 260 ff. On the use of masks by the Greeks 
 for scaring away the Keres, see Harrison, Prolegomena, p. 188. 
 
 158 Eth. En. 62:15. 
 
 159 Les Religions Orientales, pp. 235 f., 391. 
 
 160 Eph. 4:22. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 77 
 
 germ within him that would transmute the essence of his o-co/ia xpuxwov, 
 or old man, and change it into a cco/za irvevfiaTLKop. This process was 
 begun in this life but would be completed at the resurrection. The 
 inner man, the eauOev avdpooiros, was the nucleus which was to be clothed 
 over by the acofxa irvevixariKov}^ Putting on the new man or putting on 
 Christ implied therefore a change not only of the inner man, but of the 
 body as well; it meant the clothing of the inner man with a spiritual 
 body. 162 And this change it should be noticed meant to Paul practically 
 the same thing as the acquiring of divine sonship. 163 
 
 As for Paul's ethical view of the Spirit it might be said that he here 
 also shows that he was a man of his time, for as we have already observed, 
 the time was characterized by a great ethical movement, and the ethic- 
 izing of the conception of the Spirit was taking place among both Jews 
 and Greeks. The ordinary Jewish conception of the Spirit placed stress 
 upon its spectacular manifestations of power, and yet their idea of the 
 Spirit that should possess the Messiah was one of ethical content. 164 
 The Stoic ethics too indicates how the whole moral life was connected 
 with the Spirit. The whole inner life of man was regarded as being 
 divine. And by some Stoics the demons came to be thought of not as 
 external powers, but as a kind of ideal personality dwelling permanently 
 within the soul. 165 The use of the word, oaios to describe the initiated 
 in the mysteries must have meant more than merely the proper per- 
 formance of a ritual; it surely had some ethical significance. 166 It is 
 natural that since there was an ethicizing of the conception of Deity 
 and of spiritual beings, the emphasis should come to be placed more upon 
 the moral quality of Deity and Spirit than upon their power. And it is 
 just on this point that Paul shows that he is in advance of the popular 
 ideas of his day, for although he does not discard the idea of power, he 
 does place stress upon the Spirit's activity in the moral life. 
 
 161 See Reitzenstein, Die Hellen. Myster., pp. 177-8 for similar ideas among the 
 mysteries. With them this change of body for spirit of course involved the idea of 
 a transmutation of essence. 
 
 162 Cf. Phil. 3:21; Rom. 8:23; I Cor. 15:44; II Cor. 4:16; 5:4, 5. 
 
 163 Cf. Gal. 3:26 and 3:27. 
 
 164 Is. 11:1-5; Eth. En. 62:2. 
 
 165 Mar. Aur., V, 10, 27; VII, 17; Epic, I, 14, sec. 12. On the relation between 
 Stoicism and Paul see Pfleiderer, Prim. Xty, Vol. I, ch. 3. On the ethical character 
 and influence of the Greek religion see the estimate given by Farnell in his Higher 
 Aspects of Greek Religion, Lect. 6. 
 
 iM Wobbermin, Religionsgeschichtliche Studien, pp. 36 ff . 
 
78 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 Now if in his popular conceptions of the Spirit Paul was at one with 
 the notions of the Christians of the early Church and manifested a 
 relationship both with Jewish and Gentile thought, in his mystical 
 conception of the Spirit, and therefore in his notion of the Spirit as a 
 permanent and moral influence in life he differed from the primitive 
 Christian ideas and allied himself more with the thought-world of the 
 Oriental religions, or of those Hellenists who had come under the influence 
 of this mysticism. 167 Of course, this conception had its roots in his 
 experience, but the only way in which he could interpret this experience 
 was in the psychological thought-forms which were used in his day and 
 which he had learned in his training and travel. 
 
 The Johannine conception of the Spirit's activity in the believer was 
 in many ways similar to that of Paul's. Its operation was confined to 
 the Christian group of believers, 168 and it formed the mystical bond 
 between them and the Deity. The possession of the Spirit was con- 
 ceived of as a permanent and abiding entity dwelling in the soul, and 
 its ethical significance was put in the foreground. If a man did not 
 love his brethren and was not obedient to the will of God, he lacked 
 the union with the Logos or with God which the Spirit effected. In 
 general the idea of the Spirit as the power of Christ active in the Christian 
 life and pervading it throughout is as much a Johannine as a Pauline 
 notion. But on the other hand there is also a difference between their 
 conceptions. Paul's experience of the Spirit is still largely emotional; 
 in John the intellectual is more prominent. In Paul the idea of power 
 still lingers; in John the idea of knowledge is uppermost. 169 In Paul 
 the notion of rebirth, though present, is yet not definitely expressed; 
 in John the term is openly used and the idea is a constant theme. 170 
 In general we see in John an advance toward the realm of speculation 
 and metaphysics. 
 
 According to John the Spirit was an effluence from the heavenly 
 Christ, or his representative upon earth, sent after he had left the world 
 to continue the work which he had begun. He was to be the teacher of 
 
 167 On the influence of the mysteries on Paul see Gardner, Religious Experience 
 of St. Paul, chs. 4 & 5. See also the bibliography given by Schweitzer in his Paul 
 and His Interpreters at the beginning of ch. 7. 
 
 168 John 14:15 f. 
 
 169 The fact that John fails to mention a single case of demon-exorcism is signifi- 
 cant in this connection. 
 
 170 A summary of the similarities and divergences between the Pauline and 
 Johannine conceptions will be found in Bousset, Kyrios Christos, pp. 217 ff. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 79 
 
 the disciples, bringing to their remembrance the things which Jesus 
 had said and done while upon earth, 171 guiding them into all truth, 172 
 and perfecting in them the divine knowledge which the Logos had come 
 into the world to reveal. The Spirit would be active as a witness, 
 doubtless using the disciples as his instruments, and would justify the 
 life of Jesus before the world against all unbelief and opposition. 173 
 He would furthermore aid the disciples by becoming a comforter to them 
 in time of persecution, or at times when the bearing of testimony was 
 difficult. 174 He is spoken of in personal terms, such words as teaching, 
 witnessing, convincing, guiding, hearing, judging, etc., being employed; 
 and one is led to believe that the author had a more hypostatized con- 
 ception of the Spirit than Paul. Yet one could hardly say that John 
 believed in a Trinity. The Spirit is thought of as being like a wind, or 
 a breath, or an influence. 175 He is either an emanation of divine sub- 
 stance from the risen Christ or his double. He has come from heaven 
 to direct the activity and knowledge of the Christian cult in the place 
 of the departed Logos. 
 
 How the Spirit was obtained according to the conception of John 
 will be dealt with later on. As for the genetic relations of the Johannine 
 conceptions, suffice it to say here that they like Paul's find their method 
 of expression in the mysticism of the age, and their variations from 
 Paul's notions are due chiefly to the difference in the time and place 
 in which the authors lived. 
 
 As for the conceptions of the Spirit in the less important books of 
 the New Testament, there is nothing very distinctive. It might be 
 noted that I Peter reveals perhaps some Pauline influence. The Spirit 
 is conceived of as sanctifying power and as a permanent possession. 176 
 And this is likewise the conception of the author of Hebrews, for when 
 he speaks of the new covenant of grace written on the hearts of men, 177 
 he has in mind a permanent spiritual state. And when he refers to the 
 
 171 John 14:26. This was doubtless the way in which the author of the fourth Gos- 
 pel explained or authorized the growing tradition of the Church regarding Jesus' life. 
 
 172 John 16:13; 14:17; 15:26. 
 
 173 John 16:8-11. 
 
 174 John 15:26,27. 
 
 175 John 3:8; 20:22. 
 
 176 1 Pet. 1:2; 3:15; 4:14. 
 177 Heb. 10:15 ff. 
 
80 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 possibility of a man losing possession of the Spirit, he implies by this 
 very admission that ordinarily this possession was of a permanent 
 nature. 178 
 
 178 Heb. 6:4-6. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 81 
 
 CHAPTER 4 
 
 THE BELIEVER AS PNEUMATIKOS: MEANS OF ACQUIRING 
 
 THE SPIRIT 
 
 We have already noticed that among primitive peoples certain external 
 forms of emotional stimulation were used to produce the physical con- 
 ditions which were thought to reveal the presence and activity of a spirit 
 or demon, such as, for example, the performance of certain dances or 
 bodily movements, the eating and drinking of certain drugs, the coming 
 into contact with a person or thing that was spirit-possessed, etc. Cer- 
 tain cases in which the abnormal features of the phenomena were due 
 to defective physical and mental conditions such as sickness and in- 
 sanity, of course, did not need any external stimulus. And the same 
 might be said with regard to the possession of dream spirits, though it 
 came to be the custom to regard sleeping in a temple, particularly in 
 the temple of a healing-god, as being especially conducive to the 
 production of dreams. But so far as the acquiring of oracular spirits 
 was concerned, the application of some external stimulus was quite 
 early conceived of as being a necessity. 
 
 Among the Jews the inspiration or raving of the early prophets was 
 brought on chiefly through bodily movements or playing of musical in- 
 struments. 1 Among the Greeks it was aroused by the eating of drugs 
 and herbs and by the inhalation of gases. The Dionysiac worshipper 
 ate the raw flesh of the bull that was offered as a victim of sacrifice, and 
 thus became inspired. The devotee of the mysteries went through 
 the performance of certain ritual acts: the baptism or lustration of the 
 body, the sacrifice of a pig, the sight of a sacred drama in which the myth 
 of the cult was either pictorially represented or acted out on the stage, 
 and the participation in a sacred meal. 2 
 
 This was perhaps the state of affairs when the ethical movement 
 arose, and placing the stress upon the inner life became the means 
 whereby not merely the external observance of a rite, but the produc- 
 tion of a certain emotional and intellectual frame of mind, or the posses- 
 sion of certain moral and mental qualifications, came to be thought 
 of as necessary if one wished to enter into relation with a spirit or god. 
 
 n Sam 10:5 ff.; II Sam 6:16, 21. 
 
 2 See bibliography on the mystery cults, or religions of redemption as they are 
 sometimes called, in Case, Evolution of Early Xty, p. 287, n. 1. 
 
82 A STUDY OF THE SPIB IT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 Isaiah considered himself unfit to be a prophet because of his "unclean 
 lips." 3 The mysteries refused to admit persons who were openly im- 
 moral. 4 Plutarch believed that the demons held communion with or 
 took possession of only such as were cultured. 5 According to the Her- 
 metic Corpus the inspired state was secured through divine knowledge 
 or revelation, that is, by the speaking of a message or word to the one 
 seeking inspiration or union with the Deity. 6 This same idea pre- 
 vailed also among the Jews, for the acquiring of Wisdom or the Spirit 
 was a result of a knowledge of the divine Word. 7 
 
 When the Christian movement began, the preaching of the Gospel 
 or the revelation of the good news of the coming Messiah, must have 
 been the chief means of producing ecstatic and pneumatic conditions. 
 It was a part of primitive belief that the uttered word of an inspired 
 person had peculiar power. The word of the mantis had the power of 
 bringing to fulfillment the prophecies which he uttered regarding the 
 future. 8 A word from the lips of Jesus was sufficient to heal the sick. 
 And the words of a prophet had the power of influencing others and effect- 
 ing a change in their lives. 9 It was by the hearing of faith, that is, 
 by the preaching of the word that the Galatians had received their 
 first taste of spiritual endowment.- 10 The book of Acts also gives re- 
 peated instances of ecstatic conditions following the preaching of the 
 Christian message, but it should be noted that in only one case is the 
 possession of the Spirit represented as taking place before the rite of 
 baptism was performed. 11 The Gnostics seem to have been especially 
 familiar with the idea of inspiration through a divine message or word; 
 Hermes was called the Word of God and could, as we have seen, inspire 
 
 3 Is. 6:5. 
 
 4 The Emperor Nero was one who was evidently regarded as morally unfit to belong 
 to the Eleusinian mysteries (Suet. Nero, 34). 
 
 5 Disc. Con. Soc. Dem., 21 & 22. 
 
 6 The case of Thot cited above (ch. 3, p. 72) is an instance in which the inspired 
 state is produced by the relation of another's spiritual experience. 
 
 7 See citations above in ch. 2, n. 87. 
 
 8 Halliday, Gr. Divin., ch. 4. Cf. also Martyrdom of Polycarp, 16. 
 
 9 1 Cor. 14:3, 25, 30 f. 
 
 10 Gal. 3:2. Cf. also Rom. 10:14, 17; Eph. 1:13; I Cor. 2:4, 5; 4:15; and I Thess. 2:13 
 
 "Acts 10:44; 11:15. This was however no doubt specially designed by the 
 author of Acts in order to show that the testimony of the Spirit was necessary to get 
 Peter and the Jewish church to sanction the Gentile mission. Of course, Peter would 
 not baptize a Gentile before he had evidence that the latter was worthy of Spirit- 
 possession. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 83 
 
 others by his utterances. 12 So when John represents the words of 
 Jesus as being spirit and life, he is giving expression to a thought that 
 was current in circles such as the Gnostics, 13 and a thought that reveals 
 an independence from sacramental means in obtaining possession of the 
 Spirit that must have characterized certain groups of believers after 
 speculation began to supplant ritual. 
 
 It is difficult to tell just how early the Christians made use of sacra- 
 ments as an instrument in the production of ecstatic states. Heitmuller 
 is of the opinion that Christian baptism had its roots in the popular 
 Jewish customs of washings and purifications, in the baptism of prose- 
 lytes, and in the practice of John the Baptist and his followers, and that 
 it arose as a cult practice very early in the history of the Christian move- 
 ment, perhaps immediately after the death of Jesus. 14 The Lord's 
 Supper and the laying on of hands too may very well have been observed 
 from the beginning of the movement. These observances then must have 
 been a part of the practices of the earliest group of Jewish Christians, but 
 it is doubtful whether they attained any marked sacramental character 
 until they were adopted by the Gentile Christians among whom they 
 acquired a more sacramental and mystical significance. 
 
 Among the Jewish Christians baptism was doubtless used as a form 
 of initiation into the cult, bat it was more than a mere form. It con- 
 sisted evidently of two acts: the lustration of the body and the naming 
 of the name of Jesus over the initiate, and both of these ritual acts 
 had more than a symbolic significance. The water used in immersion 
 was regarded as possessing peculiar divine power, and hence could drive 
 away the demons or evil spirits who were responsible for sins. 15 Es- 
 pecially did living or running water possess such strength or virtue. So 
 it was thought that when a man was baptized, these demonic forces 
 were driven away and he became spiritually clean; in other words, his 
 
 12 Justin, ApoL, I, 22. 
 
 13 John 6:63. The preaching of Jesus is said to have had cleansing and sancti- 
 fying power (John 15:3; 17:17). 
 
 14 Heitmuller, Taufe u. Abendmal im Urchristentum, pp. 5 ff. 
 
 15 It should be remarked here that the Jews like the Gentiles regarded sins as 
 the work of evil spirits. Already in O. T. times the demonic cause of sin is affirmed 
 as we see from such passages as Hos. 4:12; 5:4; Num. 5:14, 30; I Ki. 22:20 ff.; Zach. 
 13:2; Is. 29:10; 19:14, where adultery, jealousy, lying, uncleanness, lethargy, and 
 blindness are ascribed to such an origin. The case of Naaman is an illustration of 
 the Jewish conception of the divine potency of water (II Ki. 5:1 ff.). For Gentile 
 ideas regarding this same belief see Halliday, Gr. Divin., ch. 7. 
 
84 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 sins were washed away. 16 The uncleanness and impurity which had 
 accrued through contact with evil demons was thus gotten rid of, fel- 
 lowship with God was re-established, and forgiveness of sin was obtained. 
 
 But the baptismal rite also included the use of the name of Jesus. 17 
 And this practice had its roots too in primitive thought, for it was quite 
 generally believed that if a man used the name of a deity, he could not 
 only acquire power over the deity himself, but could exercise the divine 
 power, which the possession and use of the deity's name secured him, 
 over other human and spiritual beings. The use of the name of Jesus 
 in baptism had then an exorcising function, and supposedly effected 
 the driving of evil spirits either out of the water that was used for bap- 
 tizing, or more probably out of the initiate who was being baptized. 
 Baptism thus gave the initiate protection and salvation from the domi- 
 nance of Satan and the demons over his life. 18 
 
 In the Gentile churches the rite of baptism must have meant also 
 more than a mere form of initiation. And in addition to the Jewish 
 conception of the rite, which the Gentile Christians no doubt adopted, 
 a mystical element entered into the practice which tended to make the 
 rite more sacramental. 19 This element doubtless came in as an influence 
 from the mystery religions, in which rites of purification by water or 
 blood were quite common. The object of these rites was not simply to 
 remove ceremonial impurity, but to create a powerful emotional impres- 
 sion upon the initiate, and to serve as a symbolic representation of the 
 dying and rising experiences of the deity, enabling men who by baptism 
 became partakers of the deity's experiences to share in his immortal life. 
 So these sacred ablutions became the means not only of getting rid of 
 the baleful influence of demons, but of imparting new life. In the initia- 
 tory ceremonies of the mysteries of Eleusis, Isis, and Mithras, the bap- 
 tism not only washed away sin, but served as a symbol of the resur- 
 rection and wrought a process of regeneration in the soul of the initiate. 20 
 The result of this rite was a new birth. The initiate passed symboli- 
 cally into the land of death and returned a new creature to the light. 21 
 In the so-called Mithrasliturgy is the significant passage: "Hail, to 
 
 16 See Clem. Horn., XI, 22 ff. 
 
 17 Acts 2:38 et at. 
 
 18 On this interpretation of baptism in the early Christian community see Heit- 
 miiller, op. cit., pp. 10 ff. 
 
 19 See particularly Tertullian, De Baptismo, ch. 5, and Pfleiderer, Early Christian 
 Conception of Christ, pp. 117 ff. 
 
 20 Tertullian, op. cit.; and De Praescrip. Haer., ch. 40. 
 21 Apuleius, Metam. XI, 21, 23. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 85 
 
 Thee, Lord of Water, Founder of the Earth, Ruler of the Spirit! Born 
 again I expire, in that I am being exalted, and as I am exalted I die; 
 born with the birth which begets life I am delivered to death and go 
 the way, as thou hast instituted, as thou hast ordained and constituted 
 the sacrament." 22 And the blood-baptism of the Attis and Mithras 
 cults symbolized this same process of death and resurrection to newness 
 of life. In all of these cults, however, it should be remembered that it 
 was not baptism as such that imparted a renewed life, but the union with 
 the deity which the worshipper sustained and in virtue of which he 
 derived the right and privilege of participating in the deity's experience 
 and life. Baptism was merely a means of effecting a union with the 
 deity. 
 
 When we turn to Paul's conception of baptism, we find that he 
 approaches this mystical and sacramental idea. In I Cor. 6:11 he says: 
 "And such were some of you; but ye were washed, but ye were sanctified, 
 but ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the 
 Spirit of our God. " And what he here says of the sanctification of the 
 individual, he also says in Eph. 5:26 of the Church as a whole: "And 
 (Christ) gave himself up for it (the Church) that he might sanctify it, 
 having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word." In both 
 of these passages baptism is regarded as effecting a mystical purification, 
 though in the latter the preaching of the Christian message is connected 
 with baptism. Again, the reference which Paul makes to baptism in 
 Rom. 6:lff. is stated in terms familiar to the mysteries and is saturated 
 with the idea of a participation on the part of the initiate in the death 
 and resurrection of the dying and rising god, Christ. Baptism was like 
 a burial in which the body of sin or the old man was put away by the 
 immersion in water, while the rising out of the water was like a resur- 
 rection to new life. 23 Sin, in the mind of Paul, especially according 
 to the sixth to the eighth chapters of Romans, was conceived of as a 
 personal being inhabiting the human body and holding men in subjec- 
 tion and bondage to itself. 24 The presence of this being in the body 
 resulted in sickness and death. 25 But by baptism this element in a 
 man's natural constitution was killed and a new element was added to 
 
 22 Dieterich, Eine Mithrasliturgie, pp. 14, 166. 
 
 23 Cf. also Col. 2:12. 
 
 24 See especially Rom. 6:7, 16-23; 7:8 ff.; 8:3. Also Gal. 3:22; and Rom. 3:9. 
 For a discussion of this subject see Dibelius, Die Geisterwelt im Glauben des Paulus, 
 pp. 120 ff . 
 
 25 1 Cor. 11:30; Rom. 6:23 et al. 
 
86 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 his life whereby he was made alive. This element was the heavenly 
 being Christ, or his Spirit. 26 
 
 Doubt has been expressed as to whether Paul really believed that 
 an external rite such as baptism could effect an inner change. It must 
 be admitted that faith was to Paul the necessary condition of salvation, 
 and that according to his opinion revelation could be obtained directly 
 from God. And it seems that his view of baptism was in flat contradic- 
 tion to his attitude toward the Jewish ceremonial law. If there is really 
 a contradiction here, 27 we can do no more than simply to acknowledge it; 
 Paul was too practical a man to be consistent in all points. But we 
 should also remember that Paul was living in a time of transition, when 
 Christianity was passing over from Judaism to the Greek world; and it 
 should naturally be expected that if he himself was not a sacramentarian, 
 he at least must have been affected by the magical and sacramental ideas 
 of the people to whom he ministered. 28 
 
 After the time of Paul, as the Greek fondness for sacraments made 
 itself felt in the Christian cult, the sacramental idea of baptism con- 
 tinued to develop. The author of the Pastorals conceives of baptism 
 as the washing of regeneration. 29 And even the "spiritualizing" author 
 of the fourth Gospel regards both the water and the Spirit as agents 
 in the new birth. 30 The early non-canonical Christian literature also 
 
 26 Rom. 6:11; I Cor. 12:13. The latter passage is claimed by Kennedy (St' 
 Paid and the Mystery-religions, p. 239) to be the only one in which Paul brings the 
 gift of the Spirit into close connection with baptism, and he infers from this fact that 
 Paul did not regard baptism as being "the actual vehicle by which salvation was con- 
 veyed to the Christian." All that needs be said in answer to such an opinion is that 
 the argument from silence is a very precarious one, and that here we have to do with 
 ideas, not with the mere use or non-use of a word. If Paul does not mention the Spirit 
 whenever he speaks of baptism, he nevertheless always refers to a spiritual change 
 that attended the baptismal rite. Lake suggests that the reason why Paul said so 
 little about the Spirit in connection with baptism was because the acquiring of the 
 Spirit as a result of baptism was taken for granted and did not need special mention 
 (Earlier Epis. of Paul, p. 385 f.). 
 
 27 See Holtzmann, N. T. Theologie, 2nd edit., II, p. 198. 
 
 28 That Paul was at one with his day in the beb'ef in the magical effect of 
 bapcism is seen in his acceptance of the practice of baptizing for the dead (I Cor. 
 15:29). This was no doubt a rite supposed to work saving power upon some dead 
 relative or friend who had not been baptized before death; and it may have had its 
 origin in the Orphic ritual, for "deliverance and purification of living and dead" 
 was promised in the Dionysiac initiation. See Plato, Rep., II, 364; and Rohde, 
 Psyche, p. 420 f. 
 
 29 Tit. 3:5. 
 
 30 Jn. 3:5. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 87 
 
 reveals the important bearing which baptism was thought to have upon 
 the life of the Spirit. The author of the Didache believes that running 
 water should be used in baptism. 31 Tertullian too is a believer in the 
 magical power of water, as may be seen from the following statement: 
 "With the increase of the grace of God water also acquired more power; 
 that which once healed ills of the body now restores the soul; and that 
 which worked temporal good now renews to eternal life. " 32 The author 
 of Barnabas is clearly of the opinion that baptism results in the driving 
 out of the evil spirits in a man's heart, for before he becomes a Chris- 
 tian, his body is a house of demons. 33 And Hermas evaluates baptism 
 so highly as to build his whole ecclesiastical tower upon its waters. 34 
 
 We see then that baptism early became connected with the gift of 
 the Spirit. The emotional experience resulting from the observance of 
 the rite was ascribed to the presence of a spiritual being. The coming 
 of the Spirit upon Jesus at his baptism, as Mark conceives it, was the ac- 
 quisition on his part of a new divine element or increment in his life. 
 The change which came into the believer's life at baptism was also 
 thought to have been effected by some spiritual agency. It was not 
 simply the application of water or the use of the name of Jesus that 
 brought about this change; it was the presence of some spiritual force 
 in the water and name that accomplished the feat. Hence it was not only 
 the Spirit which a man obtained at baptism, but the Spirit himself was 
 the power that made baptism effective. 
 
 The Lord's Supper too, early came to be considered as a means of 
 inducing and stimulating pneumatic conditions. Among the original 
 Jewish Christian group, it was evidently observed simply as a memorial 
 feast, perhaps in imitation of the meals which Jesus had often eaten 
 with his disciples. It is probable that when they thus ate together, they 
 may have thought that Jesus himself was present with them as an unseen 
 guest. At least it is natural that at such times their memories of him 
 should have been very vividly aroused, and a consciousness of his pre- 
 sence in their midst would in such a case have been presupposed. 
 Whether, however, their communion with him on such occasions was 
 
 31 Did. 7:2. 
 
 32 De Baptismo, ch. 5; Clem. Horn., XI, 22 ff. 
 
 33 Barn. 16. It might however with reason be objected that the author regards 
 faith in Jesus' name as the power that drives out these demons, but it is nevertheless 
 to be inferred that this exorcism, according to the opinion of the writer, took place 
 at Baptism. 
 
 34 Sim. 9:16. Cf. also Mand. 4:3. 
 
S3 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 conceived of as being anything more than a matter of social fellow- 
 ship is rather doubtful, though they may have been familiar with the 
 ancient idea that the eating of sacred food placed a man in mystical 
 communion with the deity to whom the food was consecrated. 35 But 
 this latter was more of a Gentile than a Jewish conception, and must 
 have influenced the Christian thought of the Eucharist chiefly after 
 the movement had spread into the Gentile world. It is noticeable that 
 Paul occupies a middle position between the Jewish and Gentile con- 
 ceptions. On the one hand he recommends to the Corinthian Chris- 
 tians the observance of the Lord's Supper as a memorial feast, 36 while 
 on the other hand he believes that the rite was a sacrament binding the 
 participant with a mystic bond to his Lord. 37 
 
 The possibility of a man entering into mystic union with the Deity 
 through the partaking of food sacrificed to Him was an idea that had 
 its roots in primitive beliefs, and was widely current in New Testament 
 times. In the cult of Dionysos the flesh of a bull sacrificed to the god 
 was torn with the teeth and eaten raw, the participant thinking that 
 thus he obtained the divine life resident in the victim. 38 The Attis 
 worshipper partook of some food from a drum and of some drink from 
 a cymbal; 39 and that this was a sacred meal may be inferred from the 
 description which Firmicus Maternus gives of the rite, especially in the 
 passage where he exhorts the Attis devotee to become a partaker of the 
 Christians' sacred meal: " Wretched one! Thou hast eaten poison and 
 drunk of the cup of death. Meat of another kind it is that confers life 
 and salvation, that restores the fainting, that calls back the wanderers, 
 that raises the fallen, that grants to the dying the sign of endless immor- 
 tality; seek the bread and cup of Christ, that you may fill your human 
 nature with substance that is immortal. " The worship of Mithras also 
 included participation in a sacred meal. 40 And we might say that in 
 general all food offered as a sacrifice to the gods was thought to possess 
 a divine potency or strength which could be appropriated by the simple 
 act of partaking of it. 41 This belief was the cause for the difficulty 
 
 35 Robertson Smith, Relig. of the Semites, pp. 239 ff . 
 36 1 Cor. 11:24, 25. 
 37 1 Cor. 10:14 ff. 
 
 38 Clement, Protrep., I, 12, 17 f.; Arnobius, Adv. Nat., V, 19; Frazer, The Golden 
 Bough, II, 165; Rohde, Psyche, pp. 301 ff. 
 
 39 Firmicus Maternus, De Errore Profan. Relig., ch. 18. 
 
 40 Justin, Apol. I, 66; Tertullian, De Praescrip. Haer., 40. 
 
 41 On ancient beliefs regarding the eating of a deity see Gruppe, Griech. Mytholo- 
 gie, p. 734; Dieterich, Eine Mithrasliturgie, p. 100; and Wendland, Hellen. Romiscfa. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 89 
 
 and contention that arose in the Corinthian church regarding the eating 
 of meats that had thus been sacrificed, the strong or irveviiaTiKoi, holding 
 that since idols were nothing but matter and the creation of men's hands, 
 the eating of meat sacrificed to them was a matter of indifference, the 
 weak still holding to the belief that such meat had a spiritual potency 
 of an evil nature. 42 
 
 When these Gentiles became Christians, they applied these notions 
 regarding the eating of sacred food to the common meal of the Chris- 
 tian cult, and made a sacrament out of it. And it is in the light of 
 these ideas that one has to interpret the institution of the Lord's Supper 
 as it was practised in the Gentile churches. The bread and wine of 
 which they partook were regarded as surcharged with the potency of 
 the Spirit of Jesus, and they believed that by partaking of these elements 
 they received a new increment of divine substance in them that united 
 them with the heavenly and risen Christ and gave them an assurance of 
 immortality. Even the circle of readers to which the fourth Gospel 
 was addressed was doubtless familiar with this mystical conception of 
 sacred meals, for the use of such expressions by the author as "to eat 
 the flesh" and " drink the blood of the Son of Man" would certainly point 
 in that direction. 43 Of course, the author of this Gospel did not believe 
 in the crass sacramental use of the Lord's Supper which later came to 
 prevail in the Church, for he did not intend these expressions to be 
 interpreted in a literal and physical sense. That is clear from his state- 
 ment in 6:62, 63 where he says: "What then if ye should behold the 
 Son of Man ascending where he was before? It is the spirit that giveth 
 life; the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I have spoken unto you 
 are spirit and are life." His idea plainly is that when the believer 
 receives the elements of the Lord's Supper, he does not partake of the 
 physical body and blood of the earthly Jesus, but of the spiritual body 
 of the heavenly Christ. The fourth Gospel then may also be cited in 
 
 Kultur, p. 127. The belief that by eating an inspired book one could gain possession 
 of the Spirit belongs to this same category. See Ez. 3:2 ff. Jer. 15:16; and Rev. 
 10:8-10. In IV Ez. 14:38 we have an example of inspiration following the drinking 
 of fire-like water. This as well as the wine in the Eucharist finds a parallel in the 
 wine which the Dionysiac worshipper drank to bring on an ecstatic condition (Dio- 
 dorus, IV, 3). 
 
 42 1 Cor. chs. 8-10. See Jubilees 12 for a late Jewish view as to the absence of 
 spirits or demons in idols. 
 
 «Jn. 6:51-59. 
 
90 A STUDY OY THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 affirmation of the contention that the Lord's Supper as a rite was effica- 
 cious in maintaining the mystical union of the believer with his Lord. 44 
 The laying on of hands was also regarded by the early Christians as 
 a means of obtaining the Spirit; in this way spiritual power could be 
 transferred from one person to another. This was the method Jesus is 
 said to have employed quite often in his healing of the sick. 45 His way 
 of imparting a divine blessing to children was also of this nature, 46 
 the idea being that by the placing of his hands upon their heads some 
 spiritual power or substance would pass from him to them. The book 
 of Acts gives a number of instances in which the Holy Spirit came upon 
 those on whose heads the apostles and other Christian leaders placed 
 their hands, 47 and it seems to have been a form of imparting the Spirit 
 particularly to those who were being set aside for some special task and 
 needed an unusual endowment of the Spirit. 48 Paul is significantly reti- 
 cent on the subject, and it is suggested that the reason for this was the 
 fact that this rite did not easily admit of a mystical interpretation. 49 
 Since Paul does not mention the laying on of hands in his letters, he may 
 not have observed this custom of the early Church and the statement in 
 Acts 19 :6 would then be a misrepresentation. That the rite became more 
 popular after the time of Paul is perhaps indicated in the prominence 
 which it occupies in the Pastoral letters. 50 But to the author of Hebrews 
 it was one of the rudiments of the Christian faith and was something 
 beyond which he wanted his readers to go. 51 
 
 44 The prifxara of vs. 63 is sometimes regarded as indicating that Jn. broke away 
 from all ritual and believed that union with Christ could be attained merely through 
 the reception of Jesus' divine message from heaven. But the context, especially 
 vss. 60-62 favors the opinion that p^jiara refers to the immediately preceding discourse 
 on the Eucharist. 
 
 45 Mark 6:5; 8:23, 25; Luke 4:40; 23:11. The disciples later also healed in this way 
 (Acts 9:12-17; 28:8). 
 
 46 Mark, 10:16. 
 
 47 Acts 8:17 ff.; 9:17; 19:6. The inability to impart the Holy Spirit which the 
 author of Acts implicitly ascribes to Philip is doubtless unhistorical. The author 
 is an ecclesiastic and endeavors to make Jerusalem the source of spiritual power. It 
 was necessary for Peter and John to go down to Samaria to impart the Spirit because 
 the author of Acts regarded the church at Jerusalem as the true and only source from 
 which the stream of spiritual life should flow. Philip as a pneumatikos certainly 
 should have had the power of imparting the Spirit as well as the leaders at Jerusalem. 
 
 48 Acts 6:6; 13:3. 
 
 49 Gardner, The Relig. Exper. of St. Paul, p. 103. 
 50 1 Tim. 4:14; 5:22; II Tim. 1:6. 
 
 51 Heb. 6:2. The case of the heavenly Christ laying his hand on the head of the 
 Apocalyptist (Rev. 1:17) should be noticed in this connection. A similar instance 
 occurs in Harpocration, 137, 7. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 91 
 
 The origin of the custom may well have been Jewish. It was a 
 practice among the Hebrew people employed especially when they desired 
 to set aside a person or group of persons for some specific task that 
 was thought to require more equipment than the normal faculties of 
 the human soul could furnish. 52 But it had its roots in the common 
 primitive belief that spiritual energy could be transmitted from one 
 person to another through contact. It was simply the practice of sym- 
 pathetic magic. 
 
 A similar practice was the anointing of the head with oil. This 
 was a custom that was in considerable vogue among the Jews and was 
 employed by them especially when a man was appointed to a specific 
 office. But in the New Testament it appears to have been used chiefly 
 in the healing of the sick, the oil being regarded as possessing some 
 power to drive away the demon of disease. 53 
 
 Prayer too was considered a means of producing pneumatic states. 
 And this was an idea common to both Jews and Greeks. 54 The author 
 of Acts represents the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost as having been 
 preceded by a season of prayer on the part of the disciples. 55 Prayer 
 to him was the means of obtaining a knowledge of the divine will. 56 
 The Spirit came to the Samaritans only after the apostles had prayed 
 and had laid their hands on them; 57 and Peter obtained his visions on 
 the housetop as he was in the act of prayer. 58 Prayer was commonly 
 offered when men were set apart for some special work and needed 
 
 52 Num. 8:10; 27:18; Deut. 34:9. 
 
 53 Mark 6:13; Jas. 5:14. It should be noticed with reference to the latter passage 
 that the name of Jesus was also used in connection with the anointing as ic was in 
 the rite of baptism. The scanty reference to this practice in the New Testament 
 would indicate that it was perhaps not extensively observed by the Christians. 
 
 54 See for example I Sam. 8:6 f.; Is. 21:6; Hab. 2:1; Judith 11:17; and Jub. 12 
 for the Jewish conception of obtaining visions or a knowledge of God's will through 
 prayer. And it was believed by the Greeks, especially by the Gnostics, that if a man 
 could not have visions in which his soul ascended to heaven, he could by prayer call 
 down the deity or his Spirit to take possession of him (Reitzenstein, Poimandres, 
 p. 178). The prayer to Hermes found in Kenyon, Gr. Papy., I, p. 116, is based on 
 such a belief: "Come to me, O Heimes, cos ra /3pk<pr) els rds KcuAtas t&v yvvain&v." 
 
 55 Acts 1:14. 
 
 56 Acts 1:24. 
 "Acts 8:15. 
 68 Acts 10:9. 
 
92 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 spiritual equipment. 59 Moreover the power needed to exorcise demons 
 was obtained through prayer. 60 With Paul prayer was not only a means 
 of obtaining the Spirit; it was in itself a Spirit-operation. 61 The great 
 longing and desire for the yet unattained, which Paul had in his heart, 
 he ascribed to the agency of the Spirit and believed that the Spirit was 
 active in aiding a man to pray aright. 62 According to his opinion there 
 were evidently two kinds of prayer, distinguished by the degree of 
 their inspiration: (1) the prayer that was offered under such intense 
 emotion that the human consciousness was lost, — this he calls praying 
 in the spirit; and (2) the prayer in which a man still retained the power 
 of understanding. 63 James believed that prayer had healing power 
 and that the prayer of a righteous man had special potency. 64 
 
 In ancient times fasting was frequently associated with prayer 65 
 and was considered also as a method of securing spiritual power. The 
 reason why fasting was connected with pneumatic conditions was the 
 effect which it had upon the physical organism, as well as the sense of 
 morbid exaltation which it thereby produced and which rendered the 
 seeing of spectral beings, from which power or spiritual knowledge could 
 be gained, more facile. The importance which was attached to fasting 
 as a religious act by the Jews is well known. 66 But fasting as a means of 
 bringing on pneumatic states was also practised by the Gentiles and 
 was regarded as one of the strongest means of disturbing the normal 
 functions of the mind and producing ecstatic visions. The Pythia 
 among other things practised fasting for the sake of obtaining inspira- 
 tion; 67 and Galen says that the dreams produced by fasting were clearer 
 than any others. 68 
 
 Among the Christians fasting was indulged in, at least according 
 to Acts, when some great task was about to be undertaken or some new 
 plan was to be inaugurated. Special divine power and guidance was 
 
 59 Acts 6:6; 13:3; 14:23. 
 
 60 Mark 9:29; Matthew 17:21. 
 
 61 Rom. 8:15, 16. 
 
 62 Rom. 8:26 f. 
 
 63 1 Cor. 14:15. See also Eph. 6:18 and Jude 20 for references to the former of 
 these two kinds of prayer. 
 M Jas. 5:15. 16. 
 
 65 Cf. Matthew 17:21; Luke 2:37; Acts 13:3; 14:23. See also IV Ez. 5:13; 9:24 f. 
 
 66 See Dan. 10:2 flf.; II Bar. 12:5; 43:3. In IV Ez. 5:20 and 6:31, 35 we find in- 
 stances of the prophet fasting before his ecstasy came upon him. 
 
 67 Paus. I, 34; Philos., Life of Apollon. Tyan., 1. 
 
 68 Comment, on Hippocrates, 1. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 93 
 
 felt to be necessary for its proper execution. 69 Paul rarely refers to 
 fasting, and when he does, he perhaps does not attach any spiritual 
 significance to it, but uses the word rather in the sense of ordinary 
 hunger and thirst. 70 At any rate fasting does not seem to figure very 
 largely in his thinking. But when Mark wrote his Gospel, he felt the 
 need of explaining why the Christians who originally did not fast, had 
 adopted the custom. 71 And Matthew prefaces the active ministry of 
 Jesus with a fast of forty days and regards this as a part of Jesus' pneu- 
 matic training for his life-work. 72 His instructions in the Sermon on 
 the Mount regarding the proper method of fasting presupposes the 
 observance of the custom in the Church when he wrote his Gospel. 73 
 
 While fasting was a sad and self-abnegating method of obtaining 
 spiritual power, a more joyful means of producing ecstatic conditions 
 was found in music. Jesus and his disciples sang a hymn just before 
 they went out to Gethsemane, on which occasion Jesus was in special 
 need of divine power. 74 It was evidently the custom among the Corin- 
 thian Christians to engage in singing, Paul no doubt being a partici- 
 pator. 75 And he urges the Ephesians and Colossians to arouse them- 
 selves to ecstatic activities and fill themselves with divine Spirit by 
 singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. 76 The singing of hymns must 
 have been quite a general practice with the early Christians, as may be 
 judged from the number of hymns that were already embodied in the 
 New Testament books. 77 
 
 The reason why music was connected with spirit-operations was 
 the effect which it had upon the emotions. When the Christians sang 
 
 69 Acts 13:2,3; 14:23. 
 
 70 II Cor. 6:5; 11:27. Cf. I Cor. 4:11. The "fastings often" which Paul men- 
 tions may refer to occasions when he lacked the means to provide himself with suf- 
 ficient food, rather than that he indulged in fasting as a religious act. The reference 
 to the Fast in Acts 27:9 would point merely to Paul's acquaintance with this Jewish 
 custom, not necessarily to his observance of it. 
 
 71 Mark 2:18-20. 
 
 72 Matthew 4:2. 
 
 73 Matthew 6:16 ff. 
 
 74 Mark 14:26. 
 
 75 1 Cor. 14:15, 26. In vs. 15 Paul makes it clear that singing was an operation 
 of the Spirit, and it is to be inferred that this singing like tongues and the praying 
 in the spirit was unintelligible. See Acts 16:25 for another reference to Paul's engag- 
 ing in singing. 
 
 76 Eph. 5:18 f.; Col. 3:16. That singing and music produced pneumatic states 
 is here clearly asserted. 
 
 77 The book of Revelation is especially rich in these Christian songs, some of 
 
94 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 their hymns, their emotions were mightily stirred both on account of 
 the sounds produced and because of the tone of victory which the words 
 embodied; and they, of course, could not explain such a feeling within 
 them except on the grounds of spiritual agency. In this they were in 
 accord with the beliefs of their time. The Jews believed that music 
 inspired their prophets, 78 and that it could drive out evil spirits from men, 
 as was the case, for example, with the casting out of Saul's evil spirit 
 through David's musical skill. 79 The Greeks had a similar concep- 
 tion and music formed a prominent part in the practices especially 
 in the Orphic and Apollo cults. The music of the former they regarded 
 as more ecstatic than that of the latter, for the Apolline music was more 
 sober and did not affect the emotions so strongly; 80 and yet both were 
 considered as possessing divine power. In the popular mind musical 
 sounds were the voice of spirits or demons. Even Pythagoras is said 
 once to have remarked that "the sound indeed which is given by striking 
 brass is the voice of a certain demon contained therein." 81 Heirs of 
 such notions, it is easy to see why the early Christians should have 
 reckoned singing as a means of acquiring possession of the Spirit. 
 
 The means of Spirit-possession thus far discussed have been con- 
 cerned with appeals to the senses of touch, taste, and hearing. But 
 the ancients also made appeals to the sense of sight. Moses lifted up 
 the serpent in the wilderness and those who looked upon it lived. 82 The 
 mysteries had as a part of their initiatory ceremony the kiroTTeia which 
 consisted of the pictorial representation of scenes connected with the 
 myth of the cult. The initiate who looked upon these sacred scenes 
 was illumined and became identified with the deity. And perhaps in con- 
 nection with this vision sacred exhortations explaining the mystic actions 
 of the god were pronounced. In the Pseudo-Apuleian Asklepios we 
 find a statement like this: "We rejoice that while in our bodies thou 
 didst deify us by the sight of thyself. " 83 It is thought too that some of 
 
 which are found in 4:11; 5:9 ff.; 11:17 f.; 12:10-12; 19:1-8. The infancy narratives of 
 Luke contain several that were ascribed to the authorship of Mary, Zacharias, and 
 Simeon. I Tim. 3:16 and II Tim. 2:11 ff. may also have been songs that were used 
 by the Christians. 
 
 78 1 Sam. 10:5; II Ki. 3:15. 
 
 79 1 Sam. 16:23. 
 
 80 See Farnell, Higher Aspects of Gr. Relig., p. 118. 
 
 81 Porphyry, Life of Pythagoras. 
 
 82 Num. 21:9. 
 
 83 Reitzenstein, Archiv. f. Religionswissenschaft, 1914, pp. 393-7. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 95 
 
 the mysteries employed bright lights in order to produce a powerful 
 emotional impression upon the initiates; and this may be what Lucius 
 refers to when he says: "At midnight I beheld the sun radiating white 
 light." 84 
 
 The Christians evidently also appealed to the sense of sight, but 
 merely in a figurative sense. In their case it was not an exhibition of 
 material objects or scenes, but an appeal to the historical imagination 
 stated in terms of the eTOTrrela. Paul reminds the Galatians that he 
 had placarded (irpoeypa<pri) the crucified Christ before their eyes. 85 
 The passages in John in which Jesus is represented as saying that he 
 would be "lifted up," of course, refer to his crucifixion; and yet the idea 
 of illumination and salvation by sight is here present. Jesus, the Light 
 of the world, was lifted up on the cross; those who look upon that cross 
 shall become sons of light. 86 The author of I Peter recommends the 
 sight of good conduct in Christians as a means of converting the unbe- 
 lieving. 87 And the author of II Peter represents the chief of the apostles 
 as an €tottt]s of the majesty of Christ which manifested itself at the 
 transfiguration. 88 It seems clear then that the Christians described 
 certain features of the life of Christ in such a vivid way that they figura- 
 tively presented them to their hearers' sight. The result, of course, 
 was an emotional experience, which because of its intensity, was as 
 usual ascribed to the work of the Spirit. 89 
 
 Finally, faith was reckoned as a means of bringing on ecstatic con- 
 ditions. It was felt that a man had to have a proper disposition or soul 
 before he could enter into communion with the deity, and faith repre- 
 sented that attitude of receptivity and sense of trust and dependence 
 
 84 Apuleius, Metam., XI, 23. 
 
 85 Gal. 3:1. 
 
 86 John 3:14; 8:28; 12:32 ff. Notice in particular how the discourse in 12:32ff. 
 turns to the subject of light. Cf. II Cor. 4:4, 6; Heb. 6:4; 10:32. It is also note- 
 worthy how the author of Acts connects Paul's conversion with a vision of a bright 
 light. 
 
 87 1 Pet. 2:12; 3:2. The significant point to be noticed here is the use of the 
 word, kiroTTTevoi. 
 
 88 II Pet. 1:16 ff. 
 
 89 Whether visions in the technical sense were a means of producing ecstatic 
 conditions is rather doubtful. They were rather the result of spirit-possession. Yet 
 the longing for the vision-experience and the expectancy which a belief in visions 
 wrought in a man's soul would tend to bring on a state of ecstatic vision. Men gen- 
 erally find that for which they are looking and hoping, especially when it belongs to 
 the spiritual or immaterial universe. 
 
96 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 which were requisite before the deity or his Spirit would take up his 
 abode in the soul. The Jews made faith practically synonymous with 
 faithfulness, 90 and believed that the faithful observance of the law 
 brought man into proper relation with God. The Greeks however had 
 rather the idea that a man could become united with the deity through 
 sympathy of spirit, and they made faith an abiding disposition of the 
 soul that brought it into harmony with the deity. 91 
 
 With the Christians faith was a necessary condition to the recep- 
 tion of the Spirit. Only believers could obtain possession of the Spirit. 
 But various Christian groups evidently differed somewhat in then- 
 idea as to the inevitability of the possession of the Spirit following upon 
 a profession of faith. According to the popular conceptions, as repre- 
 sented for example in Acts, 92 a man might become a believer and yet 
 not be seized by the Spirit. Since the activity of the Spirit was con- 
 fined to certain spectacular phenomena that manifested themselves only 
 on special occasions or in certain individuals, the gift of the Spirit was 
 in this sense not the universal possession of all believers. The repre- 
 sentation in the Gospels accords in the main with this view of the mat- 
 ter. The disciples are described as believing in Jesus long before his 
 death, and yet with the exception of several special occasions as when 
 Jesus sent them out to preach and heal, or when Peter made his con- 
 fession, 93 they seemingly did not have possession of the Spirit. Luke 
 is particularly specific on this point. 94 And even the Gospel of John 
 defers the acquiring of the Spirit on the part of the disciples until after 
 the glorification of Jesus. 95 
 
 With Paul faith was not merely a profession of belief in the identi- 
 fication of Jesus with the Apocalyptic Messiah; it meant also a belief 
 in the death of Jesus on the cross, his resurrection from the dead, and 
 his exaltation to heaven. It was by virtue of these experiences of Jesus 
 that the power of his name became established and acquired a potency 
 that far surpassed the strength of any other being in the universe, 
 spiritual or otherwise. 96 It was by faith that a man became mystically 
 united with this dying and rising deity and acquired possession of the 
 
 90 See e. g. Hab. 2:4. 
 
 91 See Farnell, Higher Aspects of Gr. Relig., pp. 142 ff. with the authorities cited 
 there. 
 
 92 Notice how faith and the Spirit are brought together in Acts 6:5; 11:24. 
 
 93 Mark 6:7 ff.; Matthew 16:17. 
 
 94 Luke 24:49. 
 
 95 John 7:39. 
 
 98 Rom. 10: 8 ff.; I Cor. 15:1 ff.; Phil. 2:9-11. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 97 
 
 power of his name. It was thus that a man obtained the indwelling 
 Christ, 97 and was justified in the sight of God. 98 Such a conception 
 of faith is an indication that on this point also Paul allied himself more 
 closely with Hellenistic mysticism than with his Jewish antecedents. 99 
 And holding such a notion, it is natural that he should regard the Spirit 
 as the universal possession of believers. Everyone who received the 
 message of faith which he preached regarding the crucified and risen 
 Lord Jesus, would receive the Spirit, Gentiles as well as Jews. 100 The 
 gift of the Spirit came in response to the believer's faith. It was when 
 men through faith became sons of God that He sent His Spirit into 
 their hearts. 101 
 
 Since faith occupied such a central and prominent place in Paul's 
 thinking, one is led to think that sacraments would have a correspond- 
 ingly subordinate place in his view of the spiritual life. And evidence 
 might be pointed out that he did place but little confidence in the efficacy 
 of any external rite. One can even go so far as to say that had it 
 not been for the efficacy which he believed faith in the power of Jesus' 
 name had in the baptismal rite, he would doubtless not have considered 
 baptism as of any greater value than circumcision. Yet he did evi- 
 dently believe that the sacraments served a practical purpose and that 
 they did have the power, of course as a result of the believer's faith, 
 but also as a result of the divine potency in the water and name used 
 in baptism and in the elements used in the Eucharist, to stir up the 
 emotions and hence to produce ecstatic conditions. In spite of the 
 fact that he believed that without faith no external ceremony would 
 avail, there is after all no real contradiction between his use of the sacra- 
 ments and his doctrine of faith. Faith, as we have just pointed out, 
 was the attitude of soul which a man of necessity had to take toward the 
 dying and rising deity, Christ, before the Spirit would enter his body, 
 but this did not preclude the belief in the possibility of inducing the 
 Spirit by the use of external means to enter a man when once he believed. 
 We make a mistake when we think that Paul believed that the Spirit 
 could be obtained in only one way. The large number of means referred 
 to above which the Christians employed to induce and stimulate Spirit- 
 
 97 Eph. 3:17. 
 
 98 Rom. 5:1; Gal. 2:15 ft.; et al. 
 
 99 See especially Bousset, Relig. des Jud., pp. 235 ff. and 514 ff.; and Kyrios Chris- 
 tos, pp. 174-180. In the latter reference a large number of parallels in Greek, Neo- 
 Platonic and Hermetic literature to Paul's conception of faith will be found. 
 
 100 Gal. 3:2, 14; Rom. 3:22. 
 
 101 Gal. 4:6; cf. Rom. 8:14 ff. 
 
98 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 activities is an indication that they thought that a man could obtain the 
 Spirit in various ways. Of course, the man had to be a believer, and 
 according to Paul he could doubtless acquire possession of the Spirit 
 simply through faith without any external stimulus. And yet this would 
 not necessarily prevent Paul from believing that external stimulation 
 such as the rites of baptism and the Lord's Supper as well as the preach- 
 ing of the gospel could really aid a man in his spiritual life. Since faith 
 was so fundamental, he of course stressed the idea of the necessity of 
 faith, especially when his Judaistic enemies compelled him to do so; 
 but he may nevertheless at the same time have believed in the effica- 
 cious influence of external means in the development of the Christian 
 life. 
 
 The prominence which faith occupies in the religious notions of 
 the Johannine literature is one of the outstanding features of these 
 books. Faith is regarded here as in the Pauline literature as the pre- 
 condition of receiving the blessings of the Spirit. If a man believes 
 in the Christ, the embodied Logos, he obtains eternal life. And this 
 life comes by the possession of the Spirit, for the Spirit is the life-pro- 
 ducer. 102 Again faith unites the believer in a mystic union with the 
 Father or the Son; 103 and when a man thus has the Father or Son, he 
 receives a spiritual entity within him 104 that produces new life and works 
 a regenerating process in his soul. 105 
 
 How faith produced ecstatic states is not difficult to understand. 
 When a man professed his conviction that Jesus, the Lord of spirits, 
 could drive out and overcome the demons within him, there must have 
 come to him an overpowering sense of victory and joy. Or when he 
 became convinced that he was united to the dying and rising deity, 
 Christ, such a faith must have appealed equally as much to his emo- 
 tions. Or again when through the preaching of the gospel a man believed 
 that he had obtained a vision of the glory of God and a knowledge of 
 the way to heaven, the intellectual "emotion" thus produced must have 
 been extraordinary. What more natural than that faith should come 
 to be regarded as the cause of these phenomena, inexplicable on any 
 other grounds than that of spiritual agency. 
 
 102 John 6:63. 
 
 103 1 John 4:15; 5:10 ff. 
 
 104 Notice that according to the Johannine conception God is conceived of as a 
 being of spiritual substance (John 4:24). 
 
 105 Eternal life as the result of faith is a constant theme of the Gospel. See John 
 3:15, 16, 36; 6:47; 20:31 el al. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 99 
 
 In Rom. 10:13-15 we have a hint as to the method used by Paul 
 and perhaps by the other Christian leaders for the stimulation of spiritual 
 activities. If we read the questions in the reverse order from that in 
 which they are given, we get the method of their procedure. First comes 
 the apostle, the one who is sent, with his message. His preaching is heard 
 and the people give heed to his words. This leads to faith in the hea- 
 venly Christ, and as the result of this faith the power in the name of 
 this heavenly Lord is appealed to as an aid in overcoming the evil forces 
 in the world. This name is called upon in baptism, in prayer, in singing, 
 and in other rites and practices of the cult, and the believer obtains a 
 new power or entity in his life that frees him from the sin and fear and 
 evil powers that had enslaved him. This was doubtless the procedure 
 and these the means whereby a Christian of the first century obtained 
 possession of the Spirit and was saved. 
 
100 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 The Believer as Pneumatikos: The Benefit of Spirit-Possession 
 
 This chapter has to do with the conception which the early Christians 
 held as to what they received when they obtained possession of the 
 Spirit. We have already in the preceding two chapters incidentally 
 referred to the results of Spirit-endowment, but here it is necessary to 
 deal with the matter in greater detail. And the distinction should 
 be made that we are concerned not with the forms of Spirit-activity, 
 which were dealt with in chapter three, but with the benefit or benefits 
 which the Christians believed accrued to them by virtue of their posses- 
 sion of the Spirit. 
 
 It is at once noticeable that the various writers of the New Testa- 
 ment books have somewhat different ideas as to what the Christians 
 gained by Spirit-possession. And this divergence of view, as was also 
 the variation in their opinion as to what constituted a Spirit-opera- 
 tion, 1 was due partly to a difference in innate temperament, partly to 
 a difference in their present pneumatic experiences, and partly to a 
 difference in their past religious training. Their present religious 
 experiences they interpreted in the light of the impression which the 
 Christian message and cult-practices made upon their emotions and 
 in the light of what they believed to be the content or end of salvation. 
 The appeal which the Christian faith and practice made upon the 
 believer depended somewhat upon his emotional temperament; while 
 the idea which he had of the content of salvation was derived from the 
 religious notions of his age and constituted a part of his past religious 
 inheritance and training. This will perhaps become clearer as we 
 proceed with our investigation. 
 
 We have noticed 2 that when the first group of Jesus' followers came 
 to believe in his resurrection and in his lordship over the evil forces of 
 the spiritual world which that involved, and identified the risen Jesus 
 with the heavenly or Apocalyptic Messiah, ecstatic conditions arose 
 among them; and these pneumatic experiences were interpreted in the 
 light of the notions which they held as to the pouring out of the Spirit 
 at the coming of the Messianic age. 3 They believed that the Spirit of 
 
 1 See ch. 3, p. 68 ff. 
 
 2 Ch. 3, p. 41 ff. 
 
 3 See especially Joel 2:28 ff.; Zech. 12:10; and Text. Jud. 24. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 101 
 
 God which the Messiah himself possessed was now sent down by him to 
 them, and that it came not only as an aid in preparing them for the 
 coming of the Messiah, but as a help in their inducing others to pre- 
 pare for this to them imminent event. In other words they were 
 beginning to enjoy the blessings of the Messianic age; 4 the power of 
 performing miracles, the preaching of an inspired message, the prophe- 
 sying of the future establishment of the Kingdom of God, the dreaming 
 of dreams, the seeing of visions, the speaking in tongues, in fact, all 
 the various ecstatic activities that arose among them were a sign that 
 the promise of the Spirit which had been made by the prophets of old, 
 especially by Joel, was being fulfilled. The first benefit then which the 
 early Christians felt that they were receiving as pneumatikoi was that 
 they were now, at least by anticipation, members of the Messianic 
 kingdom. 5 
 
 But in becoming members of the Kingdom they believed that they 
 first had to sustain a proper relation to God. One could not enter the 
 Kingdom so long as his sins were unforgiven and the law was not pro- 
 perly observed; indeed the Messiah would not come until men had thus 
 prepared the way for him. Forgiveness of sins could be obtained by 
 repentance, by being baptized in the name of Jesus, and by receiving 
 the gift of the Spirit. 6 The one who had the Spirit of Christ had the 
 power which resided in his name, and could thus secure a blotting out 
 of his sins. The Spirit aided in the keeping of the law and in the stimu- 
 lating of pious conduct. The fear of God took possession of their 
 hearts, and some, at least, of the Jewish Christians were as zealous in 
 the observance of the temple ritual as the strictest Pharisee. 7 The 
 Spirit then became a factor in the obtaining of a forgiveness of sins and 
 in the keeping of the law. 
 
 The Spirit also aided the early Christians in their endeavors to pre- 
 pare others for the coming of the Messiah. Their inspired message 
 
 4 See Weinel, Die Wirkungen u. s. w., pp. 42 ff. 
 
 5 The value which they placed upon this membership may be seen in the state- 
 ment in Matthew which ranks the one who occupies a very hum, 'e position in the 
 Kingdom higher than John the Baptist who was the greatest of thos-. utside of the 
 Kingdom. The reason for this was simply that the one in the Kingdom tu the Spirit 
 which John and his followers lacked. See Matthew 11:11; Mark 1:8; Matt,,, v 3:11; 
 Luke 3:16; John 1:26, 33; Acts 19:1-7. Evidently John's movement lacked the power 
 of stirring the emotions to the point where the effects came to be regarded as Spirit- 
 activities. 
 
 6 Acts 2:38; 3:19-20. 
 
 7 See Acts 2:43, 46; 3:1 ff.; 15:24; Gal. 2:12. Cf. also Eth. En. 49:3 f.; 61:11; 
 Ps. Sol. 17:42, where the Spirit and a virtuous life are conjoined. 
 
102 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 led men to repent of their sins and to desire baptism. They were given 
 wisdom, courage and power by the Spirit for the planning and prosecu- 
 tion of the work which was still to be done before the Messiah would 
 come. 8 Their performance of miracles caused many to glorify God and 
 their power of exorcising demons in particular demonstrated that the 
 power of the Lord of spirits was residing in them, and that he who had 
 this power was safe from the demons and evil forces about him. 
 
 So the benefits derived by the early Jewish Christians from the 
 endowment of the Holy Spirit, according to their viewpoint, consisted 
 of certain ecstatic experiences, from which they judged themselves to 
 have become members of the Messianic kingdom and to have obtained 
 forgiveness of sins for themselves, and power and guidance to lead others 
 into the Kingdom. And it should be noticed that their idea as to what 
 benefits they derived from the possession of the Spirit depended, of course 
 in the first place upon the nature of their own ecstatic experiences, but 
 also on the other hand upon their conception of the spiritual endowment 
 of the Messiah in particular, and of their prophets in general. The 
 Messiah, they thought, was endowed with the spirit of wisdom and 
 might, of knowledge and the fear of Jehovah. 9 He possessed the spiritual 
 equipment for preaching glad tidings of deliverance, and performing 
 miraculous deeds. 10 He sat upon a throne as the Lord of spirits and 
 was anointed with the spirit of righteousness. 11 The prophet, they 
 believed, had the privilege of entering ecstatic states in which he saw 
 visions, heard the voice of angels, received messages from God, and 
 felt as if his soul had been transported to heaven. 12 
 
 When the Christians became convinced of their own spiritual 
 endowment and came to believe that the Spirit which was in them was of 
 the same nature and substance as the Spirit that possessed the Messiah, — 
 for since it came from the heavenly Messiah, it must of necessity be 
 the same as his in substance, — then, of course, they could do naught 
 but ascribe the same kind of results and benefits to the Spirit working 
 
 8 Acts 1:8; 4:8, 31; 9:31; 13:24; 15:28; 16:6, 7 et al. Cf. I Cor. 2:7-10; 12:28. 
 According to the representation in Acts, one might almost call the Spirit the guardian 
 angel of the Church, a notion that corresponds to the Roman idea of the genius pub- 
 licus. See also Rev. 1:20; 3:7 et al. 
 
 9 Is. 11:2. 
 
 10 Is. 35:5 f.; 61:1 ff.; Matthew 11:5; Luke 4:18 ff. 
 u Eth. En. 62:2. 
 
 12 See in particular the experiences of Ezekiel mentioned in his prophecies: 2:2; 
 3:12; 11:1 et al, as well as those referred to in the Apocalypses of Enoch, Baruch, and 
 Ezra 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 103 
 
 in them as they supposed were issuing from the Messiah. They too had 
 wisdom and power in the performance of their duties as members of the 
 Messianic Kingdom; they too had the fear of Jehovah in their hearts 
 and the desire to lead a pious life; they too had power over spirits and 
 demons; they too had a consciousness that their call was one of preach- 
 ing the gospel, performing miracles, and prophesying. And in a similar 
 way they felt that since the Messianic age would be one in which pro- 
 phecy would play a great part, 13 they would also be partakers of the 
 benefits which were currently ascribed to the ecstatic experiences of 
 the prophet. 14 Thus we see how the construction which the early 
 Christians put upon their spiritual endowment depended very largely 
 upon their conception of the heavenly Messiah and of the prophetic 
 office, which they had formed as a result of their religious heritage and 
 training. 
 
 When we turn to a consideration of what the Gentile Christians 
 regarded as the benefit of their Spirit-endowment, we have to deal 
 first of all with Paul's idea of the matter, for he stands at the turning- 
 point, as it were, where the Jewish idea of salvation was being trans- 
 planted by the Gentile conception. 
 
 Paul's Christian life began with an ecstatic experience in which, 
 according to Acts, he had a vision of the heavenly Christ. 15 This vision 
 must have been the result of his contact with the Christians whom 
 he had been persecuting. What the processes were by which his soul 
 
 13 Acts 2:16 ft. 
 
 14 The chief benefit to the prophet of his pneumatic experiences was the attain- 
 ment of divine knowledge or revelation. For revelation through vision see Acts 
 7:55; 9:1, 10, 12 (cf. 2:17); 10:3, 9; 11:5, 12; 16:9; 18:9; 22:17; 23:11; 27:23; Mark 
 9:2 ff.; Luke 24:31; 24:37, 39; Heb. 11:27; Rev. 1:12 ff.; et al. For revelation through 
 angels see Matthew 1:20, 24; 2:13, 19; Luke 1:11; 1:13, 26; 2:9; John 12:29; Acts 
 7:53; 8:26; 10:3; 12:8; 23:9; 27:23; Gal. 3:19; Heb. 2:2; Rev. 1:1; 2:1; et al. For the 
 transport of the soul to heaven, see II Cor. 12:2; Rev. 4:1 ff.; Matthew 4:1; Acts 
 8:39: and cf. I Cor. 5:3; II Cor. 5:6; Heb. 11:5. For revelation through dreams see 
 Matthew 1:20, 24; 2:12, 13, 19, 22; 27:19. For revelation through the eating of a 
 book see Rev. 10:9 ff. For revelation through the prophetically inspired Jewish 
 Scriptures consult Matthew 2:5, 15, 17, 23; Luke 18:31; Acts 1:16; 4:24; Rom. 16:25; 
 II Tim. 3:16; I Pet. 1:11; Heb. 3:7; 10:15. The New Testament writers with the 
 exception of the Apocalyptist (cf. Rev. 22:6, 16) did not regard their writings as in- 
 spired, though they must have considered them to be helpful for the readers to whom 
 they were addressed (see John 20:31; Col. 4:16; and II Pet. 3:15 ff. where some of 
 the New Testament books, especially the Pauline letters, were already regarded as 
 Scripture). 
 
 15 Acts9:lff.;22:3ff.;26:2ff. 
 
104 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 in his relations with the Christians became stirred to the point of ecstasy 
 we do not know, but at least he must in some way have come to the place 
 where he was willing to admit that the identification of Jesus with the 
 heavenly Messiah which the Christians had already made, was a matter 
 of certitude, and that he was therefore bound to acknowledge this heav- 
 enly being as his Lord. And this involved of course a belief in the 
 death, resurrection and exaltation of Jesus. This acknowledgment on 
 his part was doubtless the cause for the emotional experience in which 
 he is said to have had a vision of Jesus in heaven, or in which, to quote 
 his own words, "God called me through his grace to reveal his Son 
 in me." 16 
 
 It was on this occasion that Paul felt that a new power had entered 
 his life. Especially when he was baptized did he feel a new emotion 
 and elation in his soul. He now became a pneumatic person. Like 
 the Jewish Christians whose circle he joined, he began to preach, to 
 prophesy, to speak with tongues, to have ecstatic visions, to exorcise 
 demons, etc. 17 He believed too that these pneumatic experiences were 
 somehow connected with his faith in his heavenly Lord, and hence he 
 ascribed them to the influence of the Spirit which the heavenly Christ 
 sent into his heart and which was in fact the Spirit of this very being 
 himself. 18 
 
 When Paul came to believe that he had some of the spiritual sub- 
 stance of the heavenly Lord in him, he as a result was convinced that 
 he had power over every opposing spiritual being in the universe. As 
 we have seen, 19 he believed that in virtue of his possession of the Spirit 
 he Was united in a mystic bond with this exalted Lord and hence could 
 claim the same power that his Lord possessed. Since Christ had over- 
 come death and the powers of the underworld, he too had no need to 
 fear these; 20 since Christ was the Lord of spirits, he could through his 
 
 16 Gal. 1:16. Cf. I Cor. 12:3. In this vision we are not necessarily to think that 
 Paul saw anything objectively real. It was an inner experience which he had and 
 which the author of Acts interprets as an external reality, in accordance with the 
 custom of the ancients who did not distinguish between the objective and subjective. 
 We might add also that the interpretation which Paul put upon this experience was 
 doubtless affected and tinctured by the Apocalyptic ideas regarding the Messiah which 
 prevailed among some of the Jews of his day and with which he must have become 
 familiar perhaps even before he met any Christians. 
 
 17 Acts 9:20 ff.; Gal. 1:16; I Cor. 2:4; 13:2; 14:18; II Cor. 12:1 ff.; I Cor. 15:8; 
 II Cor. 12:12; Rom. 15:19; I Thess. 1:5. 
 
 18 1 Cor. 12:3; II Cor. 3:17. 
 
 19 Ch. 3, p. 73 and ch. 4, pp. 85 f. and 87 f. 
 
 20 Rom. chs. 6-8; I Cor. 15:50-53. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 105 
 
 power subdue the demonic forces of sin and disease; 21 since Christ was 
 the vicegerent of God in Heaven, he was safe from the elemental spir- 
 its, 22 the principalities and powers of the air, and the hordes of evil 
 spirits in heavenly places. 23 
 
 It is clear that Paul regarded the possession of the Spirit of Christ 
 both as a present advantage and as a future benefit. Of course he 
 regarded his ecstatic experiences and his power over evil spirits as pres- 
 ent advantages, but he did not stop at these popular ideas. The change 
 which had come into his whole life, he attributed also to the work of 
 the Spirit. He was now already in this life a new creature; 24 he was 
 wearing the Spirit of Christ like a garment. 25 He was a new man. New 
 life had come into his being; 26 at baptism he had been raised to newness 
 of life. 27 In other words his whole inner life had been changed; he had 
 made an abrupt break with the past history of his life. Whereas he 
 had been dead because of sin, he was now alive; whereas he had been 
 a slave to the law and to fear, he was now a freedman; 28 whereas he 
 
 21 Rom. 6:1-11; I Cor. 12:9b; 11:30; cf. Rom. 8:2. Notice that in I Cor. 11:30 
 Paul connects sickness with a lack of union with Christ, which is brought about if a 
 man fails to observe the Lord's Supper properly. 
 
 22 The aroLxeia (Gal. 4:3, 9; Col. 2:8, 20) were the demonic beings that resided in 
 the elements of the world and were thought to bind men under a fatalistic law of 
 necessity from which they could not free themselves without the aid of divine power 
 or knowledge. On this subject see Case, Evol. of Ear. Xty, pp. 244 f. and the au- 
 thorities cited there. Diels, Elementum, is especially worthy of mention. 
 
 23 Eph. 1:21; 2:2; 6:10ff.; Rom. 8:38, 39; and cf. Slav. En. 20; Eth. En. 61:10; 
 Test. Levi, 3. The heavenly bodies were deified and were quite generally regarded 
 as holding men in a sort of bondage and as endangering the safe passage of the soul 
 to its abode in heaven. For an idea as to what it must have meant for a man of Paul's 
 day to have the power of conquering the evil forces and beings with which he thought 
 he was surrounded, read Plutarch's essay on Superstition. 
 
 24 II Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15. 
 
 25 Eph. 4:24. 
 
 26 Rom. 8:11, 13. 
 
 "Rom. 6:4, 5; Col. 2:11, 12. 
 
 28 Gal. 5:1, 18; II Cor. 3:17. Paul's emphasis upon the freedom of the Spirit- 
 endowed man involved him in the charge of antinomianism, a charge that was doubt- 
 less supported by the licentious conduct of some members of the cult who by their 
 release from old social sanctions and restraints lost their self-control. Paul deals with 
 this charge in Rom. 6 and Gal. 5. His idea is that a man who has the Spirit can not 
 sin, for his mind is the mind of the Spirit which is holy. The flesh and sin have no 
 more power over him since he has this new divine increment in his soul controlling 
 all his actions. The Spirit works like an inner law; the believer's self or ego is sub- 
 ject to it and acts according to its dictates (Gal. 5:18; Rom. 7:6; 8:2). The same idea 
 occurs in I John 3 :6. 
 
106 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 had been a child of bondage, he was now a son in God's household; 29 
 and whereas in his former life, living under the domination of the flesh, 
 his life had issued in naught but impurities, excesses, and hatred of 
 his fellowmen, he now was living an unselfish and virtuous life. 30 It 
 was nothing else than Christ driving sin and Satan out of his heart and 
 taking up his abode therein. 31 
 
 But this inner change and transformation of life and this union 
 with Christ could not be maintained without a struggle on man's part. 
 It meant a severe battle with Satan and his hosts of demons. It was a 
 contest against the chthonian, the earthly, the heavenly principalities 
 and powers who were always trying to get possession of a man's heart 
 or do him injury, and to sever his connection with Christ. 32 A man had 
 to use all the weapons, spiritual weapons of course, which he possibly 
 could, if he hoped to gain the victory. And notice that one of the chief 
 weapons was the sword of the Spirit. 33 It seems then that Paul did 
 not think that a man should hold his human powers completely in 
 abeyance; he was to put forth his utmost energy in opposing the evil 
 forces around him. And yet he was thoroughly convinced that it was 
 the divine power or entity in the Christian that after all gained the 
 victory for him. Without this divine insert a man's own powers would 
 be unavailing. 
 
 But Paul did not only believe that the endowment of the Spirit 
 procured the believer present advantages; he held that the future had 
 promise of far more glorious things. The present power and possession 
 
 29 Rom. 8:16; Gal. 4:6. 
 
 30 Gal. 5:16-25. Paul perhaps never went so far as the Greeks who deified some 
 of the emotions and virtues such as shame, pity, fear, love, wisdom, etc. (Paus. I, 
 17, 1; Plut. Cleom., 9). But he did regard the virtues as due to spiritual agency. 
 This appears, besides the passage just cited, especially in I Cor. 4:10 and Gal. 6:1 
 where he speaks of the "spirit of gentleness. " 
 
 31 The idea of a god becoming incarnate in his worshippers, which Paul certainly 
 approaches, is illustrated by the reference in Pausanias (IX, 39, 7) to the ministrants 
 at the oracle of Trophonius at Lebadea in whom Hermes supposedly took his abode. 
 And the same can be said with regard to the Bacchic mystae (Arist.. Eq. 408;. Fur- 
 thermore, according to the thought of the day, it was felt that no good spirit could 
 dwell with an evil spirit in the same body at the same time (Philo, Quis Rer. Div. 53; 
 Hermas, Mand. 5, 1 & 2; 10, 2; 12, 5), and if a man could command the power of a 
 good spirit that was stronger than the evil spirit within him, the latter would be dis- 
 placed. 
 
 32 Eph. 6:10 ff.; Rom. 8:38, 39. 
 33 Eph. 6:17. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 107 
 
 of the Spirit was merely an "earnest" of what the future had in store. 34 
 The present life in Christ was simply a foretaste of the glorious life 
 to come. There were still too many opposing forces both within and 
 without a man to permit the life here in this world to be free from imper- 
 fections and limitations. But the union with Christ in the Spirit not 
 only gave assurance of a safe passage into the next world, for by the 
 resurrection of Christ death had been conquered; 35 it also ensured a 
 state of blessed immortality in the future. The believer's resurrection 
 was assured by virtue of Christ's rising from the dead, 36 and eternal 
 life was the reward of the one who in the present life cultivated the 
 Spirit. 37 The future life would furthermore be one of close fellowship 
 and communion with Christ in heaven, 38 the union begun on earth 
 finding its full fruition there. Paul's Jewish connections manifest 
 themselves in his idea of the future corporeal existence of the soul, for 
 the Jews were unable to think of the soul as existing without the body. 
 So Paul believed that in the future world a man would have a spiritual 
 and immortal body that would accord with the changed circumstances 
 and conditions of the future life and would yet furnish a fit embodiment 
 for the soul. 39 
 
 The chief advance which Paul made upon the Jewish Christians' 
 conception of the benefit received from Spirit-endowment was his idea of 
 the mystic union with the heavenly Christ which he believed the possession 
 of the Spirit effected. This union brought the believer salvation, which 
 consisted in being born again to divine sonship, in the securing of power over 
 demons, and in the attainment of a life of blessed immortality. 40 With 
 Paul salvation was not merely membership in the Messianic kingdom 
 or a proper external convenantal relationship with God; it was the inner 
 transformation of body and soul which came as the result of the posses- 
 sion of a new divine increment in his life. It was not only a national 
 
 34 II Cor. 1:22; 5:5; Eph. 1:14; Rom. 8:23. 
 
 35 Rom. 6:8 ff.; I Cor. 15:57. 
 
 36 1 Cor. 15:20 ff. One is here reminded of a certain Egyptian text: "As surely 
 as Osiris lives so surely shall his disciple" (Cumont. Relig. orientales dans l'fimp. 
 Romain, p. 121), which means that the union with the deity made the devotee a 
 partaker of the immortal life of the god. 
 
 "Gal. 6:8. 
 
 38 Phil. 1:23. 
 
 39 1 Cor. 15:35 ff.; Phil. 3:21. 
 
 40 Gunkel is of the opinion that Paul's idea of the possession of the Spirit included 
 three main advantages: (1) a new state of existence; (2) ethical strength; and (3) 
 the charismata (Die Wirkungen u.s.w., pp. 84-9). 
 
108 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 salvation through the mediation of a Messiah, but an individual redemp- 
 tion through union with a dying and rising deity. It need no more 
 than be pointed out that this conception of salvation agrees with that 
 promised by the mystery cults and shows how Paul's idea of the con- 
 tent of salvation was related to his contact with the Gentile thought- 
 world. 41 
 
 The Synoptic writers have little to say about the benefits to the 
 believer of Spirit-possession; they are chiefly concerned with the per- 
 son and work of the historical earthly Jesus. But we may infer from 
 the few references to the operations of the Spirit that they in general 
 regard the endowment of the Spirit as having a value for the accom- 
 plishment of two particular ends. First of all, the believer is empowered 
 by the possession of the Spirit to cast out demons, to heal the sick and to 
 preach the gospel. 42 It is Mark who emphasizes especially the power 
 of the disciples over demons, and this element in Mark seems to have 
 passed over into the Gospels of Matthew and Luke when they used Mark 
 as one of their literary sources. Matthew seems to stress rather the equip- 
 ment of the disciples for their work as witnesses and preachers of the 
 gospel, and Luke follows him in this aspect of Spirit-endowment. 43 In 
 the second place, the Spirit would be a help to the disciples in time of 
 persecution. If in the prosecution of their Christian work and propa- 
 ganda they were arrested and brought before the rulers for judgment, 
 the Spirit would be their prompter and would help them in making 
 their defence. He would give them courage and power not to deny 
 their faith in Christ. 44 The Synoptists also give an account of certain 
 vision-experiences which the disciples had of the risen Jesus, but although 
 these experiences doubtless formed the starting-point for their belief in 
 their spiritual endowment, they yet do not ascribe them to the activity 
 of the Spirit, no doubt because they believed that the Spirit came only 
 after the ascension of Jesus. 
 
 41 See Hermetic Corpus, I, 26; Reitzenstein, DieHellen. Myster. Relig., pp. 113-i. 
 Also Case, Evol. of Ear. Xty, ch. 9, where the idea of the attainment of immortality 
 through enlightenment and union with the deity as held by the so-called religions of 
 redemption is presented. An extended and valuable bibliography on this subject 
 will also be found in the footnotes to the chapter. It might be noted however that 
 immortality was also a part of the thought-world of late Judaism, but this may have 
 been due to HelLnistic influences (Wis. 2:22, 23; 3:4, 14, 15; 5:15 ff; 8:13, 17). 
 
 42 Mark 6:7 ff.; cf. Luke 10:17-20. 
 
 43 See especially Matthew 23:19, 20; Luke 24: 47-49. 
 
 "Mark 13:11; Luke 12:12; cf. Luke 21:15. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 109 
 
 It should be noticed in passing that the idea of the Synoptists too 
 as to what benefit the disciples derived from Spirit-possession arose from 
 their experiences or from the conceptions which prevailed in the Church 
 of their day regarding the kind of help which they thought they needed 
 from the Spirit. When these Gospels were written, it is evident that 
 the exorcism of demons, the healing of the sick, and the preaching of 
 the gospel were the main activities of the Christians. And they were 
 meeting with opposition and hostility in their efforts to propagate 
 their cult teachings and practices. It was along these lines that the 
 Spirit-activities manifested themselves, and it was also for these pur- 
 poses that the need of the Spirit's help was felt. They got the kind 
 of help that they were looking and hoping for. 
 
 The author of Acts continues the same thought of the benefit of 
 the Spirit which he presented in his Gospel. The Spirit benefited the 
 Christians in that it gave them power to perform miracles, to see 
 visions, and to prophesy. But the advantage of having the Spirit lay 
 chiefly in the help it gave to the Christians in their missionary work. 
 It filled them with unlooked-for boldness and courage in the preaching 
 of the gospel; it acted as a speaker in time of their defence before rulers; 
 it guided them in their plans of work and was the evidence for the sanc- 
 tion of the Gentile mission. 45 The enthusiasm and joy which charac- 
 terized the early Church and which doubtless formed one of the chief 
 reasons why the disciples came to think of themselves as spiritually 
 endowed, were attributed to the Spirit. 46 The Spirit then was chiefly 
 valuable for the help it afforded the furtherance of the cult; and this, 
 namely, the spread of Christianity from the Jewish to the Gentile world 
 and its expansion from a national to a universal type of religion, was 
 what the author wanted to depict. This expansive movement was of 
 such an extraordinary nature that it could not be accounted for except 
 on the basis of the guidance and cooperation of the Spirit. 
 
 The author in a negative way shows that the possession of the Spirit 
 did not bring any material or financial reward. The Spirit was worth 
 more than silver or gold, yet could not be obtained by lucre. 47 It 
 furthermore was opposed to covetousness; 48 in fact it made men depre- 
 
 45 Acts 4:31; 4:8; 15:28; 16:6, 7; 13:44; 11:15 ff. The Holy Spirit was regarded as 
 especially active in the choice of leaders (13:2; 20:28). 
 
 46 Acts 2:46; 5:41; 8:8. In this the author of Acts follows Paul who also connects 
 joy with spiritual endowment (Rom. 14:17; Gal. 5:22; I Thess. 1:6). See also John 
 15:11; 16:20 ff. 
 
 47 Acts 3:6; 8:19 ff. 
 48 Acts5:lff. 
 
110 A STUDY OF THE SPIE IT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 date the value of the things they possessed. 49 One wonders whether 
 the author was not endeavoring to answer the charge that was perhaps 
 brought against the Christian teachers and leaders of his day, namely, 
 that like the Cynic and Stoic teachers they were seeking remuneration 
 for their inspired services. 50 
 
 The author of Hebrews pictures the present advantages of the Spirit 
 partly in terms of the popular conceptions 51 and partly in terms of an 
 abiding relationship with God. 52 Pauline influence or resemblance 
 is seen in the author's belief that ordinarily the possession of the Spirit 
 was permanent and that the present endowment of the Spirit was merely 
 a foretaste of the future life. 53 As a rule the author states the benefits 
 of Spirit-possession in the terminology of the old Jewish dispensation. 
 A new convenant was established between God and the believer, a 
 covenant of grace, written not on tablets of stone but on the hearts and 
 minds of men; and by virtue of this covenant the believer had free and 
 direct access to the throne of God. 54 The Spirit was the medium through 
 which this covenant was revealed. 55 As for the future the author held 
 out to the believer the idea of a Sabbath rest or of an eternal inheri- 
 tance, which was the Jewish way of expressing the conception of eternal 
 life. 56 And yet the notion of the Spirit as being the revealer of divine 
 truth, and of the believer as being illumined by the Spirit, 57 evinces an 
 acquaintance on the part of the author with Gentile thought, and par- 
 ticularly with that of the Gnostic type. 
 
 In Revelation the author, of course, so far as his own Spirit-en- 
 dowment was concerned, believed that the power of ecstatic vision and 
 of prophecy was the chief benefit. The Spirit was speaking through 
 him and thus revealing the divine will. 57 * He was equipped in this 
 way to be a witness of Jesus: "The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of 
 
 49 Acts 4:32. 
 
 50 Paul evidently was trying to avoid having this charge brought up against 
 him (II Cor. 11:7 ff. I Cor. 9:18 ff.), and this was doubtless the reason why he refused 
 to take support from his churches, preferring to work for his own livelihood. 
 
 51 Heb. 2:4. 
 52 Heb. 10:15 ff. 
 53 Heb. 6:4-6. 
 M Heb. 10:19 ff. 
 65 Heb. 9:8; 10:15. 
 ^Heb. 4:9; 9:15. 
 "Heb. 6:4; 10:32. 
 
 5?a Rev. 1 .10; 2:7; 4:2; 21 :10. It should be noticed that the Apocalyptist receives 
 his knowledge or revelation by the ascent of his soul to heaven. This, of course, was 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 111 
 
 prophecy." 58 But so far as the benefits derived by the believer were 
 concerned, the author conceives of these as accruing chiefly to the 
 future life of the believer when he through obedience to the message 
 which the Spirit was revealing by the mouth of the Apocalyptist, 59 
 through his overcoming in this life the evil forces around him, 60 and 
 through his faithfulness amidst the corruption and persecution of this 
 world 61 should become a partaker of the blessings of the Messianic age. 
 The author could offer very little satisfaction and comfort to the believer 
 in this present world because he was writing at a time when the Chris- 
 tians were under severe persecution. The blessings which he denotes 
 are in part: partaking of the fruit of the tree of life; receiving the crown 
 of life; escape from the second death; eating hidden manna; the gift 
 of a new name; authority over the nations and the gift of the morning 
 star, Jesus; the privilege of being clothed in white garments, of having 
 one's name in the book of life and of having this name confessed by the 
 Son before the Father and his angels, of being made a pillar in the tem- 
 ple of God, of having the name of God, of the new Jerusalem, and of the 
 Son written upon him, of having fellowship with Christ, of reigning 
 with him on a throne, of drinking of the water of hfe, of being granted 
 divine sonship, and of entrance into the Holy City. 62 These blessings 
 accord with the author's notion of salvation, and evince not only an 
 acquaintance on his part with the Messianic ideas of the age, but an 
 influence particularly of astrological conceptions upon his thinking. 63 
 In the Johannine literature the stress is placed upon the intellectual 
 rather than the emotional values of Spirit-possession. The thing that 
 was of importance to the Johannine circle of Christians was not an 
 emotional experience, but the satisfaction of a thirst for divine knowl- 
 
 in general accord with Jewish Apocalyptic ideas. And yet, since in other ways the 
 author of Revelation shows the influence of astrological notions, it may very well be 
 that his ecstasy had some relation to the idea revealed in the Hermetic literature that 
 since none of the deified heavenly bodies could leave heaven, the soul had to go up 
 to heaven to receive divine knowledge (Hermes Trismegistos, X, 25; Reitzenstein, 
 Poimandres, p. 138). 
 68 Rev. 19:10. 
 
 59 Rev. 2:7 et al. 
 
 60 Rev. 2:17 etal. 
 
 61 Rev. 3:10 et al. 
 
 62 References to these benefits will be found in the following passages: Rev. 
 2:7, 10, 11; 20:6-14; 21:8; 2:17, 27, 28; 22:16; 3:5 (cf. Hermas, Sim. 9:13); 3:12, 20, 
 21; 20:4; 21:6, 7, 27. 
 
 63 See Boll, Aus der Offenbarung Johannis, pp. 2 ff . 
 
112 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 edge, a knowledge that would bring them truth, life, light and freedom. 
 The chief benefit of the Spirit was a gnosis, the possession of which 
 was considered necessary for salvation. 64 The Spirit is here conceived of 
 as the Spirit of truth, because he is the revealer of the true gnosis, 65 and 
 would guide the disciples into a right understanding of the significance of 
 Jesus' person and saving work. 66 The one who possessed this gnosis was 
 bound in a mystic union to the heavenly Christ and became as it were 
 the embodiment of this divine being. 67 But the Spirit is also the life- 
 giver, and hence the acquiring of eternal life, which according to John 
 begins here and now, is one of the benefits of the possession of the Spir- 
 it. 68 This life comes as a result of faith in the divine message revealed 
 by the Logos and means that those who receive this revelation are sons 
 of God, born of the Spirit to become, not slaves of darkness and ignorance, 
 but children of freedom and light. 69 And this sonship besides implying 
 the possession of freedom involves also the ethical attitude of love and 
 sympathy toward one's brethren. 70 Thus we see that such words as 
 knowledge, life, truth, freedom, love, represent what the Johannine 
 books regard as the benefits of Spirit-possession, at least in so far as 
 present salvation is concerned. 
 
 But the endowment of the Spirit also had a value, according to 
 John, for the work of Christian propaganda. It is the Spirit through 
 whom the believer will convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and of 
 judgment. 71 In time of trouble and persecution the Christians will have 
 in the Spirit a Comforter in their hearts and an Advocate before the 
 Father. 72 He would aid them in the bearing of their testimony and 
 would take the place of Jesus after his departure. 73 
 
 64 The mistake should not be made of tJiinking that gnosis meant to the people 
 of that age a body of knowledge derived from the exercise of the normal rational 
 faculties. Both the Gnostics and the Christians thought of gnosis as knowledge 
 that was revealed by a divine being from heaven. 
 
 65 John 14:17; 15:26; I John 4:6; 5:6. 
 
 66 John 16:13. 
 
 67 John 15:4; I John 2:14, 28. 
 
 68 John 4:14; 6:63. Cf. I Pet. 3:18. 
 
 69 John 6:33; 1:13; 8:35, 36, 47; 12:36. 
 
 70 John 13:34; I John 3:10; 4:7-5:3. 
 
 71 John 16:8. 
 
 72 John 16:32, 33; 14:16; I John 2:1. This idea is also found in Paul, it should 
 be noticed (Rom. 8:26-7). 
 
 73 John 15:26, 27; 16:7. The failure of the Messiah to appear upon the clouds 
 as the early Christians had expected, led to a spiritualizing of the Messianic concep- 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 113 
 
 As for future blessings accruing to Spirit-possession, the author 
 gives assurance to the believer of victory over death and of a firm hope 
 of immortality. 74 Jesus is the resurrection and the life, and the one 
 who is joined with him shall partake of his life. 75 The heavenly Christ 
 has gone on before to heaven, and the soul of the believer will ascend 
 to the mansions which the heavenly Christ has prepared, conducted 
 safely thither through the spheres by him or by the Spirit who is his 
 representative or proxy. 76 In heaven the believer will behold the glory 
 of Christ, thus continuing the enlightened state and the communion 
 with the Lord which he had enjoyed on earth. 77 
 
 Even a superficial investigation of these Johannine ideas reveals 
 the fact at once that there is a connection here with Gnostic notions. 
 The prominence given to such ideas as truth, sonship, light, a divinely 
 revealed gnosis, etc., and the conception of the soul's ascent to heaven 
 are clear indications that the writer was familiar with the Gnostic idea 
 of salvation. 78 
 
 A few general observations might be made here with reference to 
 the subject of this chapter: 
 
 1. In the first place, the early Christians' conception of the benefits 
 which they believed they received as a result of their Spirit-endowment 
 was conditioned by the nature of their emotional experiences and by 
 their ideas as to the content of salvation. If their emotional experiences 
 were sporadic, their idea of the benefit received from the Spirit would be 
 of a like character. If however they felt that a permanent change 
 had come into their lives, they would interpret the benefit of Spirit- 
 
 tion, and the author of John conceives of the Spirit as the representative of the Messiah 
 come to take his place. 
 
 74 John 11:23-26. 
 
 75 John 6:22-65; 15:1 ff 
 
 76 John 14:2,3. 
 
 77 John 17:24. 
 
 78 On Gnostic ideas see Case, Evol. of Ear. Xty, pp. 326 ff. and the authorities 
 cited there. Foucart, Encyc. of Relig. and Eth., art., "Demons and Spirits (Egyp- 
 tian), " describes the magical and other precautions which the Egyptians took in order 
 to secure the safe passage of the soul to the other world. Porphyry (Stobaeus, Eclo- 
 gues, II, p. 171) describes the soul's ascent through the seven spheres. Dieterich (Eine 
 Mithrasliturgie, p. 199) asserts that every philosopher and religious thinker in the 
 Greek world since Plato, who believed in the immortality of the soul, spoke of 
 the soul's ascent to heaven. See also his Abraxas, pp. 43 ff . on the 7 archons of the 
 Gnostic system. For the idea of the soul's ascent to heaven in the mysteries see 
 Wendland, Die hellenistisch-romisch. Kultur, pp. 170-6. 
 
114 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 possession likewise as something that was abiding and continuous. And 
 so it was with their ideas as to what constituted salvation. If they 
 were Jews and believed that salvation consisted in the forgiveness of 
 sins and membership in the Messianic kingdom, of course, they would 
 believe that that was what the endowment of the Spirit would secure 
 for them. But if they were Greeks and believed that an immortal 
 life of bliss through union with the deity constituted salvation, then to 
 their minds this would be the benefit derived from a possession of the 
 Spirit of the deity. Whenever pneumatic conditions arose, they be- 
 lieved that they thereby obtained salvation, and they got the kind of 
 salvation for which they were looking. 
 
 2. In the second place, the benefits which the Christians claimed 
 to have received from the Spirit were all in some way connected with 
 the heavenly Christ. 79 It was natural, since the ecstatic conditions 
 attributed to Spirit-activities usually followed upon a profession of 
 faith in the heavenly Lord Jesus and baptism in his name, that the bene- 
 fits thought to be derived from these activities should be ascribed to 
 the power of the heavenly Christ, who however because of his exalted 
 position could act and work in the world only through his Spirit or 
 double. 80 And hence when these ecstatic conditions arose, the Chris- 
 tians interpreted their origin and cause to be due to the presence of some 
 of Christ's spirit-substance in them or to the influence of his personal 
 Spirit upon them. 81 They thought that a new element had been added to 
 
 79 Christ is represented as possessing the Spirit and dispensing it (Acts 2:33; 
 14:3; Rev. 1:1, John 20:22; Tit. 3:6; Gal. 4:6; Rom. 8:9; I Cor. 2:16; 12:3). He is 
 for Faul the source of his spiritual endowment (I Cor. 1:24; 3:5; II Cor. 12:1; 13:3, 4; 
 Gal. 1:1; Rom. 15:18 f.), and of the strength of his moral life and conduct (I Cor. 
 1:9; Rom. 12:5; Col. 3:11). 
 
 80 It might be objected with a show of reason that some of the benefits discussed 
 above were thought to have been derived directly from Christ; the Spirit had nothing 
 to do with them. But when we take into account the ideas which were current at 
 the time regarding doubles, and the loose way in which the writers of the New Testa- 
 ment often speak of Christ and the Spirit, seemingly at times making no distinctions 
 between them, in fact, practically identifying them (II Cor. 3:17, 18; John 14:18; 
 16:16; I Cor. 15:45; Ign. Mag. 15; Herm. Sim. 9, 1) and often ascribing the same func- 
 tions to both (I Cor. 6:11; Rom. 8:10, 11), we are justified in holding that as a rule 
 the activities ascribed to Christ may without any misrepresentation of the writer's 
 thought be attributed to his Spirit as well. We might even go a step further and say 
 that perhaps these activities should be regarded as due to the agency of the Spirit. 
 
 81 It is doubtful whether the Spirit is ever conceived of by the New Testament 
 writers in a purely abstract way. The people of that age with the exception perhaps 
 of some philosophers always thought of spirit as being composed of a very fine grade 
 of matter , stuff or Uuidum, something resembling the constituency of fire, air or wind . 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPJRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 115 
 
 their lives; there was an insert of divine substance or of a divine per- 
 sonalized spirit into their beings. 82 This substance or spirit came 
 from the heavenly body of Christ and became a supplement to the 
 natural powers of the believer, aiding him to attain salvation. The 
 
 This was dearly the belief of the Stoics, who claimed that the soul differed from the 
 deity not in essence, but merely in the degree of the fineness of the matter from which 
 they were composed (Cic, Tusc. Disp., I, 43, 18; Apul., De Deo Socr., 11, 144; Plut., 
 Why the Orac. Cease, 13). Philo believed that spirit was like air flowing upon the 
 earth (De Gigan., 5). For the Jewish view of spirit as fliddum see Volz, Der Geist 
 Gottes, passim. That the New Testament writers thought of the Spirit as consisting 
 of fine matter is seen in the terms: "dividing of tongues" (Acts 2:3), baptism "with 
 fire" (Matthew 3:11), "breathing on of the Spirit" (John 20:22), "pouring forth of 
 the Spirit" (Acts 2:33), "to be filled with the Spirit" (Acts 4:8), etc., which they em- 
 ployed in speaking of the impartation of the Spirit. It is also seen in the custom of 
 the laying on of hands (Acts 8:17-19; 9:17), in the conception underlying the trans- 
 figuration of Christ (Luke 9:27; cf. 13:23; 21:27; 22:16, 18, 30; Matthew 13:43; 20:21), 
 and in the belief in the objective reality of apparitions and vision-appearances. Paul's 
 idea of the future glorious body is no doubt that of a body composed of a very fine 
 grade of matter (I Cor. 15:44). A passage bearing on this early Christian idea of 
 spirit is found in Theophilus, Ad Autol., II, 13, where he says: "The Spirit is fine, 
 and the water is fine, so that the Spirit may nourish the water and the water, pene- 
 trating everywhere along with thy Spirit, may nourish creation." See also on this 
 subject Gunkel, Die Wirkungen u.s.w., pp. 43-9. 
 
 The Spirit however was also thought of in terms of personality, as is clear from the 
 attribution to the Spirit of such functions as teaching, guiding, interceding, groaning, 
 witnessing, convincing, judging, etc. (See also Matthew 4:1). This personal idea of 
 the Spirit is especially prominent in the Pauline and Johannine books, but even here 
 a materialistic conception of the Spirit may not altogether be absent. The thought 
 of a personal spirit as being constituted of a fine substance was not foreign to the 
 thought of their day. Even the passage in Luke 24:39 may indicate no more than 
 that the risen body of Jesus was regarded as composed of a finer substance than that 
 of an ordinary human body of flesh and bones. In this connection one should be 
 careful not to confuse the Spirit with angels, for the Spirit is never identified with an 
 angel in the New Testament. There is in the New Testament no one angel of God; 
 there are man}'- angels who act as his, or the Messiah's ministering servants and even 
 perform some of the functions of the Spirit. But the Spirit and angels a<:e regarded 
 as different beings. 
 
 &2 It is easy enough, granting the penetrability of one material substance by 
 another, which was the view held by the people of New Testament times, to under- 
 stand what was meant by them when they said that they were possessed by the Spirit, 
 or that the Spirit was in them. But the term, to be in the Spirit, seems to have a 
 different connotation. A probable explanation of the meaning of this phrase is that 
 the spiritual substance or personal spirit is thought of as being of too great a quan- 
 tity or size to admit of its entering completely into the body of a human being; hence 
 the thought is that part of it at least simply remains outside and around the body, 
 and the body is, as it were, clothed, immersed, or submerged in the divine substance. 
 
116 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 Christians were dualists in their world-view, and differed especially 
 from the Stoics in their conception as to the need of a divine insert 
 from without in addition to a man's natural faculties of mind for the 
 attainment of salvation. The Stoics believed that a man could obtain 
 salvation by the cultivating and perfecting of the innate powers of his 
 soul, which were essentially divine. 83 But the thing that secured sal- 
 vation according to the Christian view was the presence of this divine 
 element in their souls, namely, the Spirit of Christ. And it is for this 
 reason that Christianity is to be classed with the religions of redemption. 
 
 3. And finally, the endowment of the Spirit had a value for the 
 cult as well as for the individual believer. One might say that the success 
 of Christianity in the first century depended very largely upon its 
 pneumatic activities and advantages. There was such an enthusiasm 
 and joy, such a confidence in their power over sin and death, such an 
 assurance of salvation among the Christians, that no rival religion 
 could compete with them. They could meet the competition of the Jew 
 by claiming that it was the endowment of the Spirit, which came as 
 a result of faith, not the keeping of the law, that constituted and brought 
 salvation. And as for the Gentile, the emotional experiences which 
 they interpreted as the work of the Spirit, the mystic union of the 
 believer with Christ through the possession of his Spirit, and the pro- 
 mise of eternal fife, all of which the Christians claimed they obtained 
 as a result of their faith in the heavenly Christ, could satisfy his re- 
 ligious need as well as the practices and teachings of any of the other 
 religions and cults of the day. In fact, Christianity could outdo its 
 competitors because it united in itself so many elements of strength, — 
 the chief one of which was doubtless the endowment of the Spirit, — 
 and because it could appeal to a real historical personage who had 
 exemplified in his career the life of the Spirit. Whereas many of the 
 cults of the day could resort merely to abstract notions and principles, 
 the Christians appealed to a concrete historical personality as the one 
 who had through his possession of the Spirit brought salvation to the 
 world and had by virtue of his greatness and power and exemplary life 
 been exalted to a place next the Supreme Deity himself. It is with the 
 conception of the Christians regarding the Spirit-endowment of this 
 individual that we have next to do. 
 
 83 See Case, Evol. of Ear. Xty, pp. 343 f . 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 117 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 Jesus as Pneumatikos 
 
 For the first group of Jesus' followers, who early had come to iden- 
 tify him with the Apocalyptic Messiah, the earthly career of Jesus did 
 not seem to possess any supreme significance. They were interested 
 chiefly in the heavenly Christ from whom they believed that they were 
 receiving their present spiritual endowment and through whom they 
 hoped to receive their future salvation. Of course, they always con- 
 ceived of Jesus and the heavenly Christ as the same person; yet the 
 unique importance which the latter had, as they thought, in their attain- 
 ment of salvation, and the centering of their hopes upon the future, the 
 near future indeed, as the time for the estabb'shment of the Messianic 
 kingdom and for their deliverance from sin and Satan, almost com- 
 pletely overshadowed their interest in the earthly life of Jesus. The 
 almost negligible use which Paul made of the traditions concerning 
 the words and deeds of Jesus indicates that in his time, at least in the 
 circles which he served, the emphasis was not upon Jesus' earthly activ- 
 ity. With him the death, resurrection and exhaltation of Jesus alone were 
 of chief importance. 
 
 However, various forces and influences were brought to bear upon 
 the Christians that made them pay greater attention to Jesus' earthly 
 life. 1 The Jewish interest in preserving the words of a great teacher, 
 the deep impress which the fife and personality of Jesus had made upon 
 his immediate followers, the need of the Christian organization for an 
 authoritative body of teachings of its own, the miracle-loving disposi- 
 tion of the people of that age, all tended to stimulate a greater interest 
 in the teachings and deeds of Jesus. But there was one influence in 
 particular which because of its relevance to our subject should be men- 
 tioned here, and that was the need which the Christians felt of recon- 
 ciling the picture which they had drawn of the heavenly Christ with the 
 actual life of simplicity and humble service which Jesus had led while 
 upon earth. They were brought face to face with the task of showing that 
 already in his earthly career Jesus had given evidence of his Messianic 
 power and divine personality, and that his work and character while he 
 lived among men was in accord with their conception of the exalted 
 
 1 Cf. Case, Evol. of Ear. Xty, pp. 355 ff. 
 
118 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 Christ. And they had further to demonstrate the fact that the earthly 
 life of Jesus was of such a nature as to make him worthy of the office 
 either of the Messiah or of the Savior. To accomplish this feat they 
 of necessity had to read back into Jesus' earthly life the notions which 
 they had of the heavenly Lord Jesus. Hence it may be said that current 
 ideas regarding the Apocalyptic Messiah of the Jews and the savior- 
 gods of the Gentiles had much to do with their new portrait of the 
 earthly life and character of Jesus. 
 
 We might with propriety call this process in the evolution of early 
 Christian thought the myth-stage, for it must have taken place after 
 the first spontaneous ebullition of joy and enthusiasm had somewhat 
 cooled down and the Christians had begun to reflect upon the meaning 
 of Jesus' life, and hence to form the myth of the cult. Paul's seeming 
 lack of interest in Jesus' earthly career may have been due, at least 
 in part, to the fact that he was still living in the time when the Chris- 
 tian life was the life of the Spirit; the period of reflection had not yet 
 fully come. 2 
 
 Two considerations should further be made with regard to the rea- 
 son why the early Christians interpreted the earthly life of Jesus in 
 just the way they did. (1) In the first place their Spirit-endowment 
 entered in as a determining factor in their idea of the earthly Jesus. 
 Since they believed that the Spirit which was active in them had come 
 from the heavenly Christ, and identified this heavenly Christ with 
 Jesus, they of course thought that the Spirit that worked in Jesus was 
 the same that was working in them. Hence they concluded that the 
 spiritual gifts and activities of Jesus while upon earth corresponded with 
 those that prevailed in the churches of their day. If in any church or 
 Christian community the spiritual gift of exorcism, for example, was 
 prevalent, it was natural for the members of that group to regard this 
 as one of the gifts that Jesus also had possessed. If the members were 
 given to prophecy, they would think of this as one of the activities 
 of Jesus, since he was possessed of the same Spirit as they. 3 What 
 the Spirit of Christ did in them they thought it did also in Jesus. 
 
 (2) Their thought of Jesus' earthly life was also conditioned by 
 their idea of salvation. Of course, they did not believe that Jesus 
 
 2 Notice that it is chiefly in the later letters of Paul that he refers to Jesus' earthly 
 life and sojourn (Phil. 2:5 ff.; Col. l:14ff.), but even here the emphasis is upon the 
 exalted Christ and his cosmic functions. 
 
 3 This does not mean that the Christians necessarily manufactured stories re- 
 garding the life of Jesus to correspond with what they judged from their pneumatic 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 119 
 
 needed salvation; that never once entered their minds. But their con- 
 ception of salvation did have an effect upon the emphasis which they 
 placed on the Messianic and redemptive significance of the earthly Jesus. 
 When at the beginning of the movement salvation was considered chiefly 
 as a matter of the future, the emphasis fell upon the Apocalyptic idea 
 of the heavenly Christ who would come as the future Messiah and 
 deliverer. But later when the Messiah delayed his coming and the idea 
 of a present salvation came to prevail, of course the stress was then 
 placed upon the earthly life and work of Jesus. The Christians were 
 not willing to be cheated out of salvation. So they advanced the claim 
 that Jesus had performed and completed his Messianic work while still 
 on earth. The revelation which he had brought was sufficient to save 
 now, especially in view of the fact that he had left his Spirit behind to 
 aid the believer in the attainment of this salvation. We will notice 
 as we proceed with our investigation that this was the problem that 
 particularly concerned the author of the fourth Gospel. 
 
 In this chapter we have to do with the Spirit-endowment of Jesus 
 while he was on earth. And we are concerned here primarily with the 
 interpretations which the authors of the New Testament books placed 
 upon his personality, not with the conception of Jesus himself nor that 
 of his contemporaries regarding his relation to the Spirit. For the 
 latter, in view of the fact that the writers of the Gospels assign state- 
 ments to Jesus and to the people around him which doubtless arose 
 as a result of the development of the Christian tradition and myth, 
 presents a problem so intricate and involved as to prevent a full dis- 
 cussion here. Suffice it to say, however, that there can be little reason 
 for doubting that Jesus was fully convinced of his own possession of 
 the Spirit. If the story of his first preaching at Nazareth 4 is at all 
 true to the facts, Jesus must at least have classed himself with the 
 prophets and must have felt the call by the Spirit of God to preach and 
 to heal as the seers of the Old Testament also had done. When he 
 is accused by the people for casting out demons by the power of Satan, 
 he resents the charge, and claims that he was inspired by a beneficent 
 
 experiences he must have done. That, of course, may have occurred. But it does 
 mean that the pneumatic experiences of the Christians had much to do with regard 
 to the kind of traditional material which they decided to choose and preserve, as well 
 as with the interpretation which they put upon it. 
 
 4 Luke 4:16-30. Since Luke here uses a source that is doubtless early and gives 
 a representation of Jesus that accords with the Jewish conception of a prophet, we 
 have no reason for supposing that the account is not true to the actual situation. 
 
120 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 spirit. 5 This too may indicate that he ascribed the power by which 
 he healed the sick and cast out demons to the presence of the Spirit 
 of God in him. 
 
 The estimate which Jesus' contemporaries placed upon his person 
 and work can scarcely be discovered from the Gospel narratives. His 
 relatives are represented as thinking that he was mad. 6 Herod is said 
 to have thought that he was the ghost or transmigrated soul of John the 
 Baptist; others thought that he was Elijah returned to earth, while still 
 others regarded him simply as a prophet. 7 But here again we are unable 
 to tell whether these ideas were really held by these contempora- 
 ries of Jesus or whether they were only the sentiments of Mark, ascribed 
 to the people either by him or by his source. Nevertheless one can 
 safely say that the impression of the personality of Jesus upon the 
 people about him must have been so striking that they would surely 
 have attributed the possession of the Spirit to him. In order to account 
 for the rise of the Christian movement and for its connection with the 
 name of Jesus, one can not avoid the necessity of postulating a deep 
 and abiding impression made by Jesus upon his followers. To make such 
 an impression required a forceful personality. And in those days the 
 possession of extraordinary powers and qualities was always ascribed 
 to spiritual or demonic agency. It may be taken for granted therefore 
 that both Jesus and his followers agreed in maintaining his possession 
 of the Spirit of God. 
 
 When we turn to the question as to what the early Christians > 
 and particularly the authors of our New Testament books, thought of 
 the spiritual power in Jesus' life, we feel surer of the results of our inves- 
 tigation, for this is a matter which at least some of the writers were 
 especially anxious to emphasize. 
 
 Beginning with Paul, we find that, as we have already intimated, 
 he was not concerned so much with the manifestation of the power of 
 the Spirit in the earthly career of Jesus as with the Messianic and re- 
 demptive functions of the heavenly Christ. The earthly Jesus, ac- 
 cording to Paul's way of thinking, was simply the incarnation of a 
 divine cosmic being. He was the manifestation in human form of an 
 
 5 Mark 3 :23-30. The statement that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is un- 
 pardonable may however be the reflection of a later age and may represent the idea of 
 Mark rather than that of Jesus. 
 
 6 Mark 3:21. The use of the word, e^earr], in this connection would point to 
 the idea of Spirit-possession. 
 
 7 Mark 6:14, 15. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 121 
 
 eternal Christ-spirit, who before his appearance upon earth lived in 
 heaven, perhaps next to God in rank. 8 This being was God's eUoov 
 and was the first to be born of all created things. That is, he was the 
 Son of God. 9 God then made use of him as his agent in the creation of 
 the world; and Paul asserts that not only all visible things were created 
 through him, but all the invisible powers of the heaven and earth as 
 well. 10 Of all the beings in heaven, on the earth, and in the underworld 
 he is pre-eminent, and he functions as the sustainer of the universe. 11 
 He not only stands closest to God in relative position but is nearest 
 to him in substance or form. 
 
 Although Paul nowhere calls this being the Logos, he might just as 
 well have used this term, for the functions of his cosmic being and those 
 of the Logos, as they were conceived of by the people of his day, were 
 to a large extent quite similar. However he prefers to use the terms, 
 image of God's substance, and Son of God. The reason for this prefer- 
 ence was doubtless because his Jewish conceptions still played a large 
 part in his thinking. Logos was a Greek and Gentile notion; Son of 
 God was a term understood by both Jews and Greeks. 12 And perhaps 
 Paul's belief that Spirit-endowment meant power rather than knowledge 
 made him reticent in the use of the word, Logos, which had such a close 
 relation with gnosis. Furthermore, the fact that authority rather than 
 divine nature was uppermost in Paul's thought of Christ would also have 
 an influence in determining his preference for the title, Son of God. 
 
 The earthly Jesus he then conceives of as the Son of God, because 
 a divine entity had come down from heaven and had become incarnate 
 in him. The body of the one chosen to be the embodiment of this 
 heavenly being was that of a descendant of the royal Davidic line and a 
 
 8 Phil. 2 :5 ff . The demons were regarded in Greek thought as desiring to become 
 gods. But Paul represents the pre-existent Christ-spirit as giving up his ambitious 
 desire for deification and coming down to the earth in obedience to his spirit of humility 
 and service. The attainment of a position or rank on an equality with the Supreme 
 Deity was in his grasp, but he preferred to serve rather than to be deified. 
 
 9 It should be remembered that, although Paul speaks of Christ as the second 
 or ideal man (I Cor. 15:45-47; Rom. 5:14), yet he never refers to him as the Son of 
 Man. The reason for this is that he, while recognizing the Davidic descent of Jesus 
 (Rom. 1:3; 9:5), nevertheless holds to the idea that the Messiah was a pre-existent 
 heavenly being. The physical descent of the Messiah was a matter of small moment. 
 He was the Apocalyptic, not the Davidic or national Messiah. 
 
 10 Col. 1:1-16. 
 
 11 Col. 1:17. 
 
 12 See Pneiderer, Ear. Xtian. Concep. of Xst, ch. 1, who shows what ideas pre- 
 vailed among both Jews and Greeks in New Testament times regarding divine Sonship. 
 
122 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 member of the chosen race of Israel. 13 His life upon earth was of signifi- 
 cance, in the first place, because it furnished an example of obedience, 
 humility and love; 14 in the second place and chiefly because his death, 
 resurrection and exaltation put him in the class of dying and rising gods 
 and made it possible for the believer to effect a union with the deity. 
 His earthly life of obedience and the holy type of character which he 
 manifested here was the proof that he was worthy to be exalted to divine 
 Sonship. 15 The descent of this heavenly being to earth was undertaken 
 primarily that by his death, resurrection and exaltation he might recon- 
 cile the world to God. 16 Paul's interest then in the earthly Jesus was 
 subsidiary to his interest in the heavenly Christ. And this was due 
 no doubt to his idea of salvation, which he regarded partly, if not chiefly, 
 as a matter of the future, and to his notion of the Spirit which he thought 
 came from the heavenly Christ. 
 
 When we inquire as to the reason why Paul applied such an inter- 
 pretation to the person and work of the earthly Jesus, we will doubt- 
 less find the proper solution in Paul's interpretation of his own pneu- 
 matic experiences. He believed that a divine being or spirit had come 
 down from heaven and had taken possession of his body. This divine 
 entity in him was the cause for certain ecstatic conditions which he 
 himself was experiencing, such as the seeing of visions, the speaking 
 with tongues, etc. ; but it was also responsible for a much more important 
 fact in his life, namely, the power of his moral life and conduct. The 
 fruit of this possession was love and gentleness and faithfulness to duty 
 and endurance in hardship. It was a permanent endowment and united 
 him in an unbroken bond with his heavenly Lord, a union that would 
 finally issue in his being taken up to heaven to live forever in joyful com- 
 munion with him. Now this is the experience which Paul also supposed 
 Jesus to have had while upon earth. He imagines him to have become 
 possessed by a divine being from heaven, the Christ-spirit, or the image 
 of God. This incarnation issued in a life of love, obedience, self-sacri- 
 fice and wisdom. This Spirit-endowment was, of course, a permanent 
 matter, the heavenly being residing continually in the body of Jesus. 
 After his death he was exalted to heaven and was now living there in 
 close fellowship with God. That Paul was influenced in these ideas by 
 the thought-world of his day goes without saying. We can see the re- 
 
 13 Rom. 1:3; 9:5. 
 
 14 Phil. 2:5 ff.; II Cor. 8:9. 
 
 15 Phil. 2:8. 9; Rom. 1:4. 
 
 16 Col. 1:20. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 123 
 
 semblances between his picture of Jesus and the notions which the Jews 
 had of the Apocalyptic Messiah and of Wisdom, and which the Greeks 
 had of the Son of God and of the Logos. But the influence of these ideas 
 upon his interpretation of the historical Jesus was doubtless indirect. 
 They bore a direct influence first of all upon the interpretation which 
 he put on his pneumatic experiences, as we endeavored to show in 
 chapter three. 17 Their influence upon his thought of Jesus was only 
 indirectly felt through the application of his conception of his Spirit- 
 endowment to the interpretation of Jesus' personality. 18 
 
 The non-Marcan sections found in Matthew and Luke portray Jesus 
 as the great Teacher, as a prophet par excellence. He is of course the 
 Messiah, for he is called the Son of Man, 19 and his works of power are 
 indeed referred to. 20 But the emphasis is plainly put upon the prophetic 
 function of the Messiah. He is called to preach glad tidings to the poor, 
 to proclaim release to the captives, and to announce the coming of the 
 day of the Lord. His teaching arouses the wonder and astonishment of 
 the people. 21 And even the mighty deeds mentioned in these sections 
 are all such as a prophet might be expected to perform. The endowment 
 then which Jesus is thought to have had was the spirit of prophecy or 
 teaching. To the authors of these sections the uniqueness of Jesus' 
 personality lay in his power to teach, and this remarkable gift was ac- 
 counted for by ascribing to Jesus the possession of the Spirit, the very 
 Spirit which the Messiah was supposed to receive. 22 
 
 This emphasis upon the teaching of Jesus was doubtless occasioned 
 by the admiration which his followers felt for his words and utterances; 
 but the need which the early Christians must soon have felt for an authori- 
 tative body of teachings may have acted also as a spur to the collec- 
 tion of the sayings of Jesus. Likewise the presence of prophets and 
 
 17 Ch. 3, pp. 72 ff. 
 
 18 This method of explaining how Paul came to interpret Jesus' person in the way- 
 he did, does not mean that Paul regarded himself on an equality with Jesus as a pneu- 
 matic person. Christ was over all, and though Paul expected to be with him in heaven 
 and to reign with him, he nevertheless never hoped to be exalted to the position of 
 power and dignity to which Jesus had attained. 
 
 19 See for example Matthew 10:23; 11:19; 13:37; and Luke 6:22, 34; 11:30; 17:22 ff.; 
 19:10. 
 
 20 Matthew 11:2-6; Luke 4:18. Notice also the miracles that are recorded in 
 the sections peculiar to Matthew and Luke, which deal with Jesus' early Galilean 
 and Perean activities. -^\ " SK 
 
 21 Matthew 7:28, 29. y^ 
 
 22 Is. 29:18, 19; 35:5/6; 61 :l/cf. Matthew 11:2 ff.; Luke 4:16 ff. 
 
124 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 teachers in the early Christian communities, and the influence and 
 respect which noted teachers won in those days, must have been factors 
 too in the bringing of the teaching function of Jesus to the forefront, at 
 least in certain circles. 
 
 It is quite possible that Jesus as a prophet regarded himself as pos- 
 sessed by the Spirit of the Lord, and if so, the picture of him in these 
 non-Marcan sections must in the main be genuine. But one can easily 
 see how, since the early Christian prophets and teachers believed in 
 their own inspiration, they should ascribe the same power and endow- 
 ment to the earthly Jesus. Since the Spirit of the heavenly Christ 
 which was in them caused them to preach and to teach, the natural 
 presupposition was that this same Spirit was also active in the earthly 
 Jesus, for he had the same kind of divine substance in him as they now 
 possessed. 
 
 In Mark we find quite a different conception of the Spirit's ac- 
 tivity in Jesus. He is here not so much a teacher as he is a wonder- 
 worker. As the Messiah he plays the role of the conqueror of Satan 
 and his demons rather than that of the prophet. In both Matthew and 
 Mark Jesus is said to have taught with authority. 23 But with the 
 former the authority lay in the power of his words, while with the latter 
 the authority consisted in the power to cast out demons. 24 The first 
 thing then which the Spirit in Jesus meant to the author of Mark was to 
 give him the power over Satan and the demons. 25 Jesus' Spirit-life is 
 viewed as beginning with his baptism, when the Spirit is thought to 
 have descended upon him in the form of a dove. And this forms also 
 the beginning of Jesus' Messianic office, for he is at this time proclaimed 
 the Son of God. 26 Immediately the power of the Spirit was manifested 
 in his life in that he was able to withstand the temptations of Satan in 
 the wilderness. While he was there the angels ministered to him, a sign 
 that he was greater than Elijah who was cared for only by the birds of 
 the air. Jesus then began preaching in Galilee, but the thing that im- 
 pressed the people was not his words, but the power which he had over 
 evil spirits. 
 
 23 Matthew 7:28, 29; Mark 1:22. 
 
 24 Cf. Mark 1:22 with the verses that follow, especially vs. 27. 
 
 25 The conception of the deity as Lord of spirits was widely current in ancient 
 times. See Tylor, Prim. Cult., pp. 308 ff. In the volume of Oxyrrhyncus Papyri 
 recently published by Grenfell and Hunt is a reference (Pap. No. 1380) in which Isis 
 is called the ruler of spirits. 
 
 26 Mark 1 :9 ff . 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 125 
 
 Jesus is also pictured by Mark as a wonder-worker. The exorcism 
 of demons was of course a part of his miracle-working, but besides this 
 exhibition of his power, he healed the sick, raised the dead, fed the mul- 
 titude, walked on the water, foretold his death and resurrection as 
 well as his coming again on the clouds, caused a fig tree to wither, etc. 
 He does nothing that can justify his enemies in putting him to death. 
 His remarkable personality manifests itself in the transfiguration of 
 his body, and his power over death is seen in his resurrection from the 
 dead. His miraculous activity is interpreted in various ways by the 
 people around him. His relatives think him to be mad; Herod regards 
 him as John raised from the dead; some think that he is Elijah, or one 
 of the other prophets, returned to earth; his enemies ascr be 1 is super- 
 natural power to the agency of Satan. But the demon-possessed, who 
 because of the presence of demons in them were supposed to have super- 
 natural knowledge, recognized what the others were unable, to see, 
 namely, that Jesus was the Messiah. 27 This is also the conclusion to 
 which those most closely associated with him came as to his remarkable 
 deeds and person. 28 
 
 Now there are several things to notice with regard to this Marcan 
 picture of the Spirit working in Jesus: (1) the author is evidently in- 
 fluenced in his thought of Jesus by the conceptions which he and his 
 contemporaries had with regard to pneumatic conditions. Just as a 
 Christian got possession of the Spirit at baptism, so Jesus is viewed as 
 receiving his spiritual endowment on this occasion. Again, the circle of 
 Christians to whom Mark belonged, doubtless possessed the power of 
 exorcising demons, healing the sick, and foretelling events; in fact, must 
 have been exercising most of those gifts which were considered operations 
 of the Spirit according to the popular conceptions. 29 So our author 
 naturally inferred that these same Spirit-activities played a part in 
 the life of Jesus. 
 
 (2) His thought of Jesus is also affected by his idea of salvation. 
 He evidently believed that salvation consisted in getting rid of Satan 
 and the demons. And this conquering of evil spirits he does not re- 
 serve entirely for the future work of the Messiah ; it is a matter which he 
 regards as a part of a man's present salvation. Hence he pictures Jesus 
 as already exercising his Messianic authority over the demons during 
 his earthly career, and as being conscious even before his death of his 
 
 27 Mark 3:11; 5:7. 
 
 28 Mark 8:29. 
 
 29 Mark 6:7, 13; 9:38 ff. 
 
126 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 Messianic office. 30 Since Jesus exhibited this power while upon earth 
 a man was not under the necessity of waiting until the future coming o 
 the Messiah before he could obtain deliverance. This was no d ubt one 
 of the causes for Mark reading back into the life of Jesus ideas which 
 prevailed in his day. And his motive must have been a practical one, 
 namely, to minister to the religious needs of his time. When we remem- 
 ber how the common people of that day were bound by superstitious 
 fear and dread of the demons whom they supposed to be constantly sur- 
 rounding them to do them injury, we may realize how the gospel of a 
 demon-conquering Savior must have come to them as a boon of price- 
 less value. 
 
 (3) Mark's conception of Jesus is also influenced by current notions 
 of the Messiah. Although the people proclaimed him to be the Messiah 
 of Davidic descent, 31 Mark is clear in stating that Jesus is the Son of 
 Man who should come on the clouds of heaven, 32 and even has Jesus 
 refuse to be called other than the Lord of David. 33 The picture which 
 Mark gives then of Jesus' earthly life accords with the Apocalyptic, not 
 with the national view of the Messiah. 
 
 (4) And Mark shows also in his Gospel the tendency, which has 
 characterized every age of the world's history, namely, the tendency to 
 idealize the hero. There never was a hero who did not have his wor- 
 shipper, and there never was a worshipper who did not have his tale. 
 Jesus was Mark's hero. And whether the myths that grew up around 
 the life history of Jesus were found in Mark's sources or were a product 
 of his own pen, is not a matter of consequence. They are present in 
 his work, and the only explanation which he could give as a man of his 
 day for such a remarkable array of deeds and such an extraordinary 
 personality as Jesus is said to have possessed, was to ascribe to him 
 Messianic functions and power while he lived upon the earth; and, of 
 course, this involved a belief in the Spirit-endowment of the man who 
 could display such power as to make him worthy to be regarded as the 
 Messiah and could assume such a dignified office. 34 
 
 The infancy narratives of Matthew and Luke havea yet more height- 
 ened conception than Mark of the personality of Jesus. His divine 
 
 30 Mark 2:10; 9:9-13 et al. 
 
 31 Mark 11:10. 
 
 32 Mark 13:26; 14:62 et al. 
 
 33 Mark 12:35-37. 
 
 34 See Pfleiderer, Ear. Xtian Concep. of Xst, chs. 2 & 3, for parallels in other 
 religious and philosophic systems to Mark's representation of Jesus. 
 
A STUDY OP THE SPIRiT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 127 
 
 Sonship is here viewed as being due to a divine birth. In Mark the 
 conception of Jesus is that of the apotheosis of a man; the Spirit of 
 God takes possession of him at maturity. According to the infancy 
 narratives he is born the Son of God, the Holy Spirit being his Father, 
 and the virgin Mary his mother. He is, as it were, a God-man. The 
 divine element then was in his character from the very beginning of his 
 human life. 35 The presence of this divine element in him was attested 
 by the leaping of the unborn child of Elizabeth, by the homage paid to 
 him as a child by shepherds and wise men, by the ministry of angelic 
 beings who kept him from suffering harm, by the fact that his coming 
 was recognized as the fulfillment of the Messianic hopes of the people, 
 by the testimony of the prophets, Simeon and Anna, by his precocity, and 
 by his consciousness of a divine call. 
 
 Whether these stories are connected with any definite pre-Christian 
 legends is hard to prove; that they have very little historical fact as a 
 basis may be taken for granted. They clearly belong to the type of 
 myth-literature. The particular form in which the stories are related, 
 and perhaps even their contents, may quite possibly have been de- 
 rived from Buddhist, Persian, and Greek myths. But the idea of divine 
 Sonship, which they depict, has its ultimate source in the conception 
 which was quite universal in ancient times and has not yet disappeared, 
 namely, that the extraordinary gifts and deeds of particular men must 
 have a divine cause and must be due to a divine element in the human. 
 The ascription of divine Sonship to the child Jesus then has its roots 
 in the notions that were current in the time when Matthew and Luke 
 were written or that at least made their influence felt when the Christian 
 myth was being formed. 36 
 
 It might be said however that the rivalry that doubtless existed 
 between the John the Baptist cult and the Christians must have been 
 
 35 It should be remarked that this conception of Jesus was the reason why Matthew 
 represents John the Baptist as refusing to baptize Jesus. Since Jesus was the Son 
 of God from birth, he had no need to be baptized (Matthew 3:13-17). But Matthew 
 fails to reconcile completely his idea with Mark's account of the Spirit's descent at 
 Jesus' baptism, and inserts the latter in spite of the fact that it is not in accord with 
 the picture of Jesus in the infancy accounts. And yet it might be possible that Mat- 
 thew thought that Jesus, even though he was the Son of God before his baptism, had 
 need at certain times of a special endowment of the Spirit. 
 
 36 On Buddhist legends regarding the childhood of Buddha, see Lalita Vistara, 
 I, 78-88, 91-94, 115, 118-122. On Greek ideas of Virgin Birth see Jamblichus, De 
 Vit. Pythag., ch. 2; Gellius, Noct. Att., 6, 1; Suet., Aug., 94; Origen, Cont. Cels., 
 I, 37; Hippol., Philos., IX, 10; Epiph., Haer., XXX, 53; Diodorus, Hist., I, 2; 
 
128 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHEXOMEXA IX THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 one of the motives for the writing of these infancy stories and for the 
 heightening of the personality of Jesus hich they manifest. The Chris- 
 tians did not deny that John was spiritually endowed from birth, but 
 they claimed that his birth did not possess the uniqueness of Jesus' birth. 
 He had an ordinary man as his father and he did not have a virgin as 
 his mother. The divine birth of Jesus implied that he had more of the 
 divine element in him than John had, and sustained a closer relation to 
 God. John was simply a Spirit-endowed prophet; Jesus was the Son 
 of God. 
 
 The author of Acts says very little about the relation of Jesus to 
 the Spirit during his earthly life. Nothing is said of his pre-existence, 
 nor of his supernatural birth. The author is interested almost entirely 
 in the exalted heavenly Christ, and the repeated references to Jesus' 
 death and resurrection are made chiefly because they were the necessary 
 preliminaries to his exaltation. We do have, however, a few passages 
 that refer to Jesus' earthly career, and these agree in general with the 
 representation which we find in the non-Marcan sources of Matthew 
 and Luke. In these Jesus is a man ''approved of God unto you by 
 mighty works and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst 
 of you." 37 He is the prophet which Moses foretold the Lord would 
 raise up from among the people, like unto him, to whose message all 
 were to hearken. 38 Perhaps the most significant passage is: "Even 
 Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with 
 power: who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed 
 of the devil; for God was with him. '' 39 Even after his resurrection Jesus 
 is pictured as assuming the role of a prophet in forecasting the coming of 
 the Spirit and in assigning to the apostles their work in the future. 40 
 
 It is evident that the author thinks of Jesus chiefly as the future 
 Messiah. His earthly life was one of beneficent deeds, helpful service 
 and prophetic activity. He was above all the servant of God, 41 a con- 
 
 IV. 8-39. And on the subject in general consult Petersen, Die wunderbare Geburt 
 des Heilandes; Soltau. Die Geburtsgeschichte Jesu Christi; Pfleiderer. Ear. Xtian 
 Concep. of Xst, ch. 1, pp. 29 ff.; Cheyne, Bible Problems, pp. 71 ff.; and Harthnd, 
 Legend of Perseus. See also Case. Evol. of Ear. Xty. ch. 7, for a discussion of the 
 divine son ship of kings. 
 
 37 Acts 2:22. 
 
 38 Acts 3:22. 
 
 39 Acts 10:38. 
 
 40 Acts 1 :2. 4, 8. 
 
 i: Acts 3:13. 26:4:30. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPI5IT-PHEN0MENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 129 
 
 ception that resembles Paul's idea of the character of Jesus' career. 42 
 This earthly life, of course, was of such a nature as to win the approval 
 of God, and became the reason for his exaltation to Messianic dignity 
 and power. 43 So while he was on earth he performed the Messianic 
 functions of a prophet: the deliverance of a divine message and the 
 working of mighty deeds and wonders. He therefore in his earthly life 
 was possessed of the spirit of prophecy, and this is taken to account 
 for his remarkable message and deeds. 
 
 We might here also point out the relation which evidently existed 
 between the author's ideas of Spirit-possession and salvation and his 
 notion of the Spirit-endowment of the earthly Jesus. He had the popu- 
 lar notions regarding the operations of the Spirit; hence the Spirit- 
 possession of Jesus was also of this type, that is, the sporadic endowment 
 with power to prophesy and to perform miracles. Likewise his idea of 
 salvation as being chiefly the enjoyment of the privileges and blessings 
 of the future Messianic age, influenced him in placing the emphasis upon 
 the heavenly and exalted Lord and Messiah, rather than upon the Mes- 
 sianic significance of his earthly life. And the fact that he had already 
 dealt with the earthly Jesus in his Gospel might account for his seeming 
 lack of interest in his earthly life in Acts. 
 
 The epistle to the Hebrews like Paul divides the career of Christ 
 into three periods or stages of existence: his pre-existent life, his earthly 
 sojourn, and his present exalted state. In his pre-existent life he was 
 the Son of God and the agent of creation, to whom the Father entrusted 
 all things, for he made him his heir. His being was constituted of divine 
 substance and was the image of God. The light of God's glory shone 
 forth from him. And he was the sustainer of the universe. 44 His com- 
 ing to earth was evidently for two reasons: (1) to reveal the Father, 
 for it was through him that God spoke, and (2) to make purification 
 for the sins of men, which he accomplished by offering up his life to 
 God as a sacrifice. During his earthly life he inhabited the human body 
 of Jesus, but this assumption of human form involved limitations and a 
 humiliation on his part, for he thereby was made lower than the angels. 45 
 However this affected only his rank, not his person or character, for 
 he remained unspotted from sin. 46 
 
 42 Phil. 2:7. 
 
 43 Acts 2:33-36; 5:31; 10:38 ff. 
 "Heb. 1:1-3. 
 
 «Heb. 2:9. 
 «Heb.4:15. 
 
130 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 The two things in the life of Jesus in which the author was particu- 
 larly interested were his death and his sinlessness, the former bearing 
 significance in the fact that it was a sacrifice for the sins of men, the 
 latter being of importance because it made the offering of his life a 
 perfect one and ensured its eternal efficacy. His sinlessness was attained 
 not merely by virtue of his being God's Son, but through earnest prayers 
 and supplications to God and through suffering. 47 It was through 
 obedience even unto death that he was made perfect, a conception 
 very similar to Paul's. The death of Jesus is viewed as being due to 
 the power of his divine Spirit; at least, it was through this Spirit that 
 he offered up his fife as a sacrifice to God. 48 The author no doubt 
 regarded his death as being so unique and significant that the operation 
 of the Spirit to his mind must have played a part in it. 
 
 The author's conceptions of Spirit-activities and of salvation had 
 a noticeable effect upon his idea of Jesus' life and person. His interest 
 was not in the popular conceptions of the Spirit, though he recognizes 
 the popular gifts of the Spirit as a subsidiary witness to the salvation 
 revealed through Jesus and the apostles. 49 He is primarily interested 
 in the revelation which the divine Son brought from heaven and de- 
 livered to men through the mediation of the Spirit. 50 Jesus revealed 
 a knowledge of God through his sinless life and his sacrificial death. The 
 work of the Spirit was revelation, the enlightenment of the believer; 
 this is also the office and work of the divine being resident in Jesus. 
 Again the author conceives of the patient endurance of suffering as one 
 of the believer's duties and lot, the strength for which he was to derive 
 from his union with the deity through enlightenment. So he thinks 
 of Jesus as having been made perfect through suffering. 51 Further- 
 more the author believes that the possession of the Spirit in the believer 
 was a permanent matter. He applies this notion to Jesus' endowment 
 and conceives of him as permanently inhabited by a divine being. 
 
 The author thinks of salvation as an inner and abiding covenant- 
 relation between God and man. The present life affords a mere fore- 
 taste of the results of this relationship. A man can already gain access to 
 the throne of God. And because the author thinks of the free and direct 
 access to God as one of the present attainments of the believer, he 
 
 47 Heb. 5:7-10. 
 
 48 Heb. 9:14. 
 
 49 Heb. 2:3,4. 
 
 60 Heb. 9:8; 10:15. 
 "Heb. 2:10 etaL 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 131 
 
 regards Jesus as the one who in his earthly career first of all opened up the 
 way into the Holy of Holies. But the future has a perfect Sabbath rest 
 and an eternal inheritance in store for the enlightened. In accord 
 with this future outlook the author places the emphasis upon the exalted 
 Christ, who because of his sinlessness and death was made to sit at 
 the right hand of God and now occupies a place above the angels and 
 above the great worthies of the past. He has become the great Mes- 
 sianic highpriest, the mediator of a new covenant. This great heavenly 
 highpriest therefore occupies the more prominent place in his thinking 
 than the earthly Jesus, just because he views the future life as being so 
 much more perfect and significant than the present foretaste of the 
 Spirit. 
 
 With the author of Revelation the earthly Jesus comes very seldom 
 into view. He knows of Jesus' Davidic descent, 52 and believes that 
 from his birth he was called to be the Messiah. 53 He emphasizes the 
 death of Jesus, for he is the Lamb that was slain; and the fact of his 
 death or martyrdom formed the basis for his present exalted state, for 
 he was thereby made worthy to receive power, wisdom and glory. 54 
 But after all in our author's thinking the figure of the heavenly Messiah 
 is central. The heavenly Christ is a divine spiritual being who is put 
 in command of all the heavenly forces and makes use of the angels 
 and spirits in heaven to fight against Satan and his evil forces, both 
 in heaven and on earth. 55 One of the functions of this divine being was 
 also to reveal to such prophets as the author the divine plan of the 
 future. 56 
 
 The ideas of the book are clearly tinctured by the experiences of 
 the author and by current religious conceptions. He was writing at 
 a time when the present held very little hope of salvation for the be- 
 liever. All he could expect in this life was persecution. Hence salva- 
 tion was viewed as a matter of the future. This accounts for the author's 
 preponderating interest in the future Messiah. So strong is this em- 
 phasis upon the future that the author practically ignores the Messianic 
 
 52 Rev. 5:5; 22:16. 
 
 53 Rev. 12:5. The author here perhaps reveals an acquaintance with traditions 
 similar to those in the infancy stories of Matthew and Luke. 
 
 54 Rev. 5:9, 12. 
 
 55 On the title, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, which the author of Revelation 
 applies to Christ (17:14; 19:16) see Pneider r, Ear. Xtian Concep. of Xt, ch. 5, 
 where this conception is treated from the standpoint of comparative religion. 
 
 56 Rev. 1:1. 
 
132 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 significance of Jesus' earthly life. He has him caught up into heaven, 
 it seems, immediately after birth in order that he might be shielded 
 from his enemies until the time when he should have acquired power 
 to overcome them. 67 The author clothes his idea of the Messiah in 
 the current Apocalyptic figures and notions, but he does this mainly 
 because of the suffering which he and his fellow- Christians were enduring 
 at the hands of the Roman authorities. Apocalypticism was a form of 
 thought quite often resorted to in order to encourage those who were 
 suffering persecution or were facing a national crisis. That our author's 
 idea of Jesus was conditioned by current Apocalyptic notions was to be 
 expected under the circumstances. 
 
 It might be remarked in passing that the author's consciousness 
 of his own prophetic endowment led him to ascribe the same spiritual 
 power and function to the heavenly Christ. 58 
 
 The fourth Gospel presents a very interesting study of the spiritual 
 element in the earthly Jesus. The author gives us practically the same 
 three-fold picture of Jesus as we found in Paul and Hebrews, though a 
 different terminology is used to describe the divine element in Jesus' 
 personality. He uses the technical term of the philosophers and the 
 Gnostics, the Logos, to denote the pre-existent Christ. His conception 
 is that this heavenly being, the hypostatized Word of God, who was 
 constituted of the same divine substance as God and was God's agent in 
 creation and the giver of light and life to the whole universe, came 
 down from heaven and became incarnate in Jesus. 59 When this incar- 
 nation took place is not definitely stated, though it is to be presumed 
 that the author conceived of it as occurring at the birth of Jesus. At 
 least, the descent of the Spirit at his baptism was not for his own spir- 
 itual endowment, which in view of the fact that he was the incarnate 
 Logos, he would not need; it was to point him out to John the Baptist 
 as the Savior of the world and the Son of God. 60 
 
 The earthly career of Jesus is depicted in such a way as to com- 
 port with the author's idea of his divine personality. His remarkable 
 character and power are first of all manifest in his miracles, which are 
 regarded not so much as works of love and helpfulness as they are signs 
 
 "Rev. 12:5. 
 
 58 Cf. Rev. 1:10; 4:2; 1:1. 
 
 59 John 1:1-14. 
 
 60 John 1:32-33. Notice that John in this connection says the Spirit "abode 
 upon him." He does not say that the Spirit entered into him. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SFIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 133 
 
 of Jesus' glory. 61 They are wrought not because Jesus' faith and love 
 impelled him to do so, but because he wants them to lead men to believe 
 in him. He has become the Christ of faith even in his earthly life. 
 
 Again, his Logos-nature manifested itself in his supernatural know- 
 ledge and in the majestic dignity of his person. He knew the secrets 
 of men's hearts, and was aware of what was occurring at a distance. 62 
 His personality was so awe-inspiring that the Greeks hesitated to approach 
 him, and those who came to arrest him were so overcome by his presence 
 as to fall to the ground. 63 His dignity of person was such as to create 
 a sort of a spirit of aloofness and condescension in him. 64 No mention 
 is made by John of his association with publicans and sinners. And 
 his human compassion, which was so prominent in the Synoptic account, 
 is largely supplanted by his desire to glorify himself or to win the faith 
 of men in himself. This is especially evident in the story of the rais- 
 ing of Lazarus. 65 Even his weeping on this occasion was not caused 
 so much — at least we believe this to be the author's representation — 
 by his regret for Lazarus' death, for how could he mourn in view of his 
 belief that he could and would raise Lazarus from the dead, as by the 
 evidence which the weeping of Mary and the Jews gave of their unbelief 
 in him as the resurrection and the life. 66 
 
 Again, in conformity with his heightened idea of the personality 
 of Jesus the author represents him as being the complete master of any 
 situation that confronts him. He is free from any human or external 
 compulsion. He acts and lives according to a life-plan that has all been 
 mapped out beforehand. He will not act, nor can anyone harm him, 
 until his hour comes. 67 His death was purely a voluntary matter, for 
 his enemies could not have put him to death had he not desired it. 68 
 
 Jesus' divine character is finally and especially manifest in his mes- 
 sage. His words attest his divine nature and proclaim him to be the 
 revealer of God. 69 If men believe his message regarding his coming 
 
 61 John 2:11; 9:3; 11:40. 
 
 62 John 2:25; 4:18; 11:11. 
 
 63 John 12:21; 18:6. 
 
 64 John 13:3,4; 16:15. 
 
 65 John 11:4,42. 
 
 66 John 11:33. 
 
 "John 2:4; 7:30; 8:20; 11:9. 
 
 68 John 10:18; 19:11. 
 
 69 John 5:24, 34, 47; 6:63, 68; 15:3. 
 
134 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 down from above to bring light and life to men, they will obtain salvation. 
 
 It is in these various ways that the author gives evidence of the 
 presence of the Logos in the human Jesus. 70 And the question naturally 
 arises as to why John should have placed such emphasis upon the earth- 
 ly life of Jesus and should have idealized it in such a way. The answer 
 lies chiefly in his idea of salvation, which to him meant a present realiza- 
 tion. The Messiah had delayed his coming and the Christians had 
 begun, at least in some circles, to give up hope in his return to earth. 
 As a result they began to believe that Jesus was really the Messiah 
 while he was upon earth and that he had completed his Messianic work 
 at that time. The revelation which he had made was final, at least so 
 far as his connection with it was concerned. Hence they considered 
 themselves as being not only by anticipation, but in present reality, 
 members of the Messianic kingdom. Since their salvation depended 
 upon the past work of Christ, they naturally emphasized the significance 
 of his earthly career. And the Spirit, which under the Apocalyptic 
 regime was to signal the incipiency of the Messianic age, was now re- 
 garded as the mark of the completion of Jesus' Messianic work, sent as a 
 substitute for his Parousia. 71 
 
 The author's idea of gnosis as constituting salvation also had an 
 influence in his conception of Jesus' spiritual activity and endowment. 
 It was for this reason no doubt that he portrays Jesus as the revealer 
 of the truth and places such stress upon his omniscience. And since 
 the possession of this gnosis resulted in the permanent union of the 
 believer with his Lord, the possession by Jesus of a divine being who 
 resided in him permanently is likewise asserted. The man who pos- 
 sessed this gnosis was assured of eternal life; hence Jesus is portrayed 
 as the life-giver. And the result of the possession of divine knowl- 
 edge is also viewed as an enlightenment; the believer became a son 
 of light. Jesus is therefore conceived of as the bringer of light; in fact, 
 he is the light itself. Thus we see how the author read into the life 
 of Jesus the interpretations which he put upon the results of the Chris- 
 tians' pneumatic experiences. 
 
 It should be noticed here that the author was influenced by the 
 religious thought of his day, especially in his conceptions of the incar- 
 nate Logos, conceptions which had their roots both in Greek philosophy 
 and in Oriental mysticism. It was quite a general belief in ancient 
 
 70 For a fuller presentation of the above points see Scott, The Fourth Gospel, 
 pp. 145 ff. 
 
 71 John 14:18; 16:16. 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 135 
 
 times that there were two worlds, a heavenly one in which the Supreme 
 Deity reigned, and a material world which was the kingdom of Satan and 
 the evil spirits. The soul of man was regarded as coming down from 
 heaven, but was imprisoned in a material body during its sojourn upon 
 earth. The only way that the soul could be released and find its way 
 back to heaven was through the help of a god who would descend from 
 heaven for this purpose. When the Supreme Deity came to be regarded 
 as being too holy and pure to come into contact with the world, it was 
 believed that he would send his Son or another heavenly being to act as 
 his representative or vicegerent, in order to aid men in overcoming the 
 evil powers that opposed them. If a man could become united with this 
 divine representative of the deity, he could be assured of deliverance 
 from these evil forces now and of a blessed immortality in the future. 
 This union was effected either by the performance of some ritual, by 
 an ecstatic experience, or by the acquiring of a gnosis or divine revela- 
 tion which this representative of the deity would bring from heaven. 
 In New Testament times the last form of union with the deity was the 
 conception that prevailed among many people, especially among the 
 Gnostics and mystics. 
 
 These are the thought-forms in which the author of the fourth Gospel 
 clothes his conception of the pre-existent Logos and the character and 
 functions of the earthly Jesus. When men recognized Jesus as the Son 
 of God sent from heaven, and obtained the knowledge of God which he 
 brought to earth, they would be enlightened and be saved. 72 The 
 author while picturing Jesus in the light of his experience and in the 
 light of his idea of salvation, is a man of his day in expressing his con- 
 ceptions in the forms that were used, in his circle at least, in explain- 
 ing the divine plan of salvation. He here shows close affinity with 
 Oriental mysticism and a certain type of theological speculation which 
 characterized especially the philosophical and religious ideas of the 
 mysteries, Neo-Platonism, and the Gnostics. 73 
 
 In summing up the ideas of the New Testament writers as a whole 
 regarding the b'fe of the earthly Jesus, we might observe that they 
 agree in ascribing to him the possession of a divine constituent which 
 
 72 John 1:13; 17:3; 20:31 el al. Notice how in I John 5:1-12 a recognition of 
 Jesus as the incarnate Son of God is made the necessary condition to salvation. 
 
 73 We would not desire to minimize the possible influence of Pauline thought and 
 of the Stoic notion of the Logos upon the conceptions of the author of the fourth Gos- 
 pel, but we nevertheless believe that the close relation of our author's ideas to the 
 type of thought represented in the mystical cults should also receive due consideration. 
 
136 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 they consider to have been the cause and explanation of his remarkable 
 activity and personality while on earth and which gave him the power 
 and right to be called the Messiah or Savior. They further agree in 
 thinking of him as continuing in a risen and glorified state, but in the 
 form and power of the Spirit still abiding with his followers and work- 
 ing in their lives. They differ however (1) in their conception as to 
 when this divine element entered into the human Jesus, (2) in the termi- 
 nology used to designate this divine increment, (3) in their estimate 
 as to the particular gift which this divine element wrought in and through 
 Jesus, and (4) in the emphasis which they put upon the significance of 
 Jesus' earthly life. 
 
 Some thought of the divine element entering Jesus at baptism, others 
 at birth. Some designated this divine constituent as the Holy Spirit, 
 others called it the Son of God, or God's image, still others the Logos, 
 or pre-existent Word of God. In some circles the chief spiritual gift 
 of Jesus was that of prophecy, in others it was the gift of healing and 
 of power, in others a life of obedience and virtue, in still others the 
 gift of knowledge or revelation. Some regarded the heavenly Christ 
 as of greatest importance to their salvation, others placed the emphasis 
 equally upon his earthly and heavenly states of existence, while still 
 others considered his earthly life as of greatest significance. These 
 variations of opinion were due in the main to four causes: (1) the dif- 
 ferent interpretations which the Christians put upon their pneumatic 
 experiences; (2) the diversity of their opinions as to what they got 
 from these experiences; (3) their different notions as to when they 
 would obtain salvation; and (4) the variation in their religious train- 
 ing and environment, which may be said to a greater or less extent to 
 have conditioned also the first three causes. 
 
 A word might be said in conclusion as to the help which the early 
 Christians' interpretation of Jesus' spiritual endowment gave them in 
 the propagation of their cult. In the first place, they asserted in their 
 competition with the John the Baptist cult that their religion was 
 superior to John's because the divine element in Jesus' personality 
 surpassed that in John's, a point which John himself is said by the 
 Christians to have acknowledged. 74 As a result of this difference they 
 believed that Jesus could dispense the Spirit, and could endow his 
 followers with divine power, a feature that was evidently lacking in 
 
 74 Mark 1:2-7; John 1:15 et ah 
 
A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 137 
 
 John's cult. 75 The Christians could in this way offer more to the peo- 
 ple than could the followers of John. 
 
 Then to those who were looking for a great teacher and longed for 
 an authoritative presentation either of God's will or of high ethical 
 ideals, the Christians could present the idea of Jesus, the Spirit-endowed 
 prophet and teacher. This seems to have been one of the objects 
 which the authors of the non-Marcan sources of Matthew and Luke 
 had in mind when they wrote their documents. Again, those who de- 
 manded the exhibition of power in their hero-god, and were yearning for 
 help to get rid of the demons of which they were in constant dread, could 
 find satisfaction in the Jesus of Mark, who by the power of the " genius" 
 within him was able to conquer all the evil forces of this world 
 whether visible or invisible. This would particularly attract the Roman 
 type of mind. The conversion of Sergius Paulus 76 which was due to the 
 fact that the Spirit in Paul proved stronger than the spirit in the magician 
 is an example of how this conception would appeal to the power-loving 
 Romans. Then the infancy narratives of Matthew and Luke would 
 satisfy those who were familiar with the idea of the supernatural birth 
 of heroes and gods. Again, the conception of Christ as a heavenly being 
 come down from above, assuming human form, teaching men the way 
 to God and to heaven, suffering death and again returning to his heavenly 
 abode, the picture we have portrayed of Jesus in Paul, Hebrews and John, 
 must have powerfully appealed to those who were mystically inclined or 
 given to theological speculation. And to those who could find no satis- 
 faction in this world but looked to the future for their salvation, the 
 picture of Jesus as the heavenly Messiah or as a dying and rising deity 
 would be particularly attractive. It is no wonder that with such a 
 power of adaptation and with the ability to minister to such a large 
 number of classes of people Christianity should have finally triumphed 
 over all her competitors. 
 
 75 See especially Acts 19:1-7. 
 
 76 Acts 13:4-12. 
 
138 A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
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A STUDY OF THE SPIRIT-PHENOMENA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 139 
 
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