Frederick W Grant

How common a use of the word "spirit" this is, we may see by the inspired statement of the Jewish views in Acts 23:8: "For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel nor spirit: but the Pharisees confess both." There again the word "spirit" is taken as ordinarily applying (as our word "ghost," which is equivalent, does now) to the spirits of men apart from the body. Angels are given as another class. And the context confirms this: for Paul being called in question about the resurrection of Jesus, had declared himself a Pharisee, a believer in resurrection and hereupon the council was divided, "and there arose a great cry; and the scribes that were of the Pharisees' part arose and strove, saying, We find no evil in this man, but if a spirit or an angel hath spoken to him, let us not fight against God." Against this passage Mr. Storrs' criticism on Luke 24:39 falls pointless. "Angels are spirits," says he, "but have not a body of flesh and bones." But in these two last quoted passages, and as identified with the Pharisees' belief (the nature of which all admit), angels are named as a separate class of beings from these spirits spoken of, — "if a spirit or an angel." In a Pharisee's mouth even our opponents allow the meaning of such words. And with their belief Paul links himself. For having declared himself a Pharisee, and called in question as to one point of a Pharisee's belief, the resurrection of the dead, it is added as showing the points in which their faith coincided with the Christian's: "for the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel NOR SPIRIT; but the Pharisees confess both." The language of the inspired writer here shows his own consent with this doctrine: "the Pharisees confess (or acknowledge) both. When I speak of "acknowledging" a thing, I plainly suppose it true, what is acknowledged. And thus in these matters the Pharisaic and the Christian faith are one.*