What is the meaning of the Hebrew wordruach?

The word which stands for "spirit" in the Old Testament is (ruach), in the New Testament, (pneuma). They are words precisely of the same significance. Both are derived from words which mean "to breathe,"* and in their primary sense therefore signify "breath," or what is a kindred thought, air in motion, "wind." From this as the type of viewless activity, its meaning of "spirit" most evidently and easily derived. The comparison between the two is what the Lord makes in John iii. 8, where like same word pneuma is both "wind" and "spirit": "the wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh or wither it goeth, so is every one that is born of the Spirit." Here manifestly the thought is of invisible activity beyond control; the effects are manifest, the power which produces them unseen and uncontrollable. In the formation of language, where that which can be conceived of only gets its name from that which is recognized by the senses, what more simple than that pneuma, originally breath or wind, should give its name to the power that, omnipresent in its activity acts unseen and uncontrolled? Hence "God is Spirit,"† the third Person of the Trinity, whom Scripture represents as the immediate mover, both in creation and in new creation, is preeminently the "Spirit of God."

*The verb is not used in the Old Testament, except in the Hiphil a causative form; and in this form it signifies "to smell." How this is really the same as to "cause to breathe" is plain on a moment's consideration. Pneuma occurs seven times in the New Testament, in every place to represent the blowing of wind. †In the "Personal Recollections" of Charlotte Elizabeth occurs a well known and touching illustration of the connection of thought. A poor dumb boy, in whom she was interested, and whom she had been seeking to impress with the fact of the being of God, told her that he had been looking everywhere for God, but could not find Him. "There was ‘God, NO'!" She took up a pair of bellows, and blew a puff at his hand, which was red with cold on a winter's day. He showed signs of displeasure, told her it made his hands cold, while she, looking at the pipe of the bellows, told him she could see nothing, "there was ‘wind, no'!" "He opened his eyes very wide, stared at me, and panted a deep crimson suffused his whole face, and a soul, a real soul, shone in his strangely altered countenance, while he triumphantly repeated. God like wind! God like wind!"

The word which stands for "spirit" in the Old Testament is ruach, in the New Testament, pneuma. They are words precisely of the same significance. Both are derived from words which mean "to breathe." and in their primary sense therefore signify "breath," or what is a kindred thought, air in motion, "wind." From this as the type of viewless activity, its meaning of "spirit" is most evidently and easily derived. The comparison between the two is what the Lord makes in John 3:8, where the same word pneuma is both "wind" and "spirit": "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth, so is every one that is born of the Spirit." Here manifestly the thought is of invisible activity beyond control; the effects are manifest, the power which produces them unseen and uncontrollable. In the formation of language, where that which can be conceived of only gets its name from that which is recognized by the senses, what more simple than that pneuma, originally breath or wind, should give its name to the power that, omnipresent in its activity, acts unseen and uncontrolled? Hence "God is Spirit," and the third Person of the Trinity, whom Scripture represents as the immediate mover, both in creation and in new creation, is pre-eminently the "Spirit of God."

The Hebrew word in the Old Testament, employed to designate the Holy Spirit of God, the third Person of the Holy Trinity, is ruach, signifying wind or spirit. The corresponding word in the New Testament is pneuma, likewise signifying wind or spirit.

When God chose to reveal Himself to mankind, He inspired men to commit His communications to writing. There is always a difficulty, in using the vehicle of human language, of giving full expression to Divine thoughts. Human language is designed to meet the needs and thoughts of men, and is bounded by time and sense. Divine thoughts, on the other hand, take a range far beyond the spheres of time and sense. To meet this difficulty the Spirit of God has often stamped words, familiar to man in his ordinary speech, with a new and higher meaning. This was so with the words ruach (wind, spirit) and pneuma (wind, spirit). Quite plainly these words are often used in Scripture to designate a Person—the Holy Spirit of God. There is no difficulty in recognizing this in the Scriptures.

There is one particular passage of Scripture that shows how the ordinary word pneuma (wind, spirit) is used as a simile of the Spirit of God. We read our Lord's own words:

"The wind [pneuma] blows where it lists, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it comes, and whither it goes: so is every one that is born of the Spirit" [pneuma] (John 3:8).

The literal meaning of both ruach and pneuma is ‘wind' and they are often used in this way. This is also the word used for ‘breath'—the wind of the nostrils.

The SPIRIT is distinctively the higher part of man, it marks the conscious individuality, and distinguishes man thus from the inferior creation. God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life, and by this man was set in relation with God, and cannot be really happy separated from Him, either in present existence or eternally. The words are ruach, πνεῦμα, and are the same as constantly used for God's Spirit, the Holy Spirit, or Holy Ghost, and for the angels as spirits, and for evil spirits.

Let us examine this, then, with Scripture, so far as we can take Scripture, for our author goes far beyond. Scripture says nothing of the life-power manifested in cohesion, or in chemical combination, or even in the crystal. Nor does it speak of the instinct of the plant. This we may well pass over. We must, however, deny that nephesh (or even nephesh chayah) means "a creature that lives by breathing." We must also deny that neshamah represents the spirit of man proper, or that it is represented by the Greek pneuma. Ruach is the true word for spirit in the Hebrew, as pneuma is in the Greek, and that whether it be the Spirit or God, the angel-spirits, or the spirit of man; and this without any possibility of question. Both of these words have the lower sense of breath, and neshamah is the ruach in action, most commonly signifies "breathing" (in Greek not pneuma, but pnoe although applied in the higher sense in Prov. 20:27.

Neshamah, moreover (necessarily in the lower sense), is applied to the beast in Gen. 7:22, while ruach in the sense of spirit is not, save vaguely in Ecc. 3:21, — a passage elsewhere fully examined.

But I am told that Hebrew will tell us wonders, and I have only to make some square Chaldaic letters and immortality disappears. Let us follow the scripture use of these Hebrew words. Now I think it will be found that neshama is the act of respiration, or breathing — if from God, in the power of the life in Him — but breathing. Ruach, spirit (but used for the Spirit of God, a wind, or other spirit, the spirit of man, or even of beast, in Ecclesiastes), is that by which man or beast breathes, the life which expresses itself in breathing. Hence, in the flood, all wherein was the nishmath ruach chaiim, the breath of the spirit of life, died, man or beast, all whose present life was sustained by breathing. Nephesh chaia is the actual result in a living individual. The man or beast doing this is a nephesh chaia, a living soul, any living animal, man or beast. And nephesh so fully gives the idea of what is individual (seen and known, moving about, represented to us by bodily presence) that it is used for a dead body, because the same once living form is there. An Israelite was not to profane himself by a dead body (nephesh), rightly so translated, but there is no neshama or ruach. So we should call dead relatives by their names and shew their corpses as themselves, though we well know there is no life in them. It is called nephesh meeth, a dead body, or simply nephesh. Priests were not to profane themselves by it unless for their nearest of kin.

26 - 7. N'sha-mah (breath) seems to me the act of respiration souffle; ruakh (spirit) (chap. 7:22, etc.), the existence of respiration as life, spirit or life in us. God breathed into man's nostrils a nish-math khay-yim (breath of life), it is not there ruakh. Thus we have, in the Flood, all in whom was the nish-math ruakh khay-yim (breath of the spirit of life) - this spirit of life itself - ne-phesh khay-yah, a living soul, is all that constitutes individuality - personality - what taken together constitutes I - a person without reference to the body, though in it and living in it, and hence, if used for a dead body as being the apparent person. The ru-akh is the power of life which is exercised in us in breathing, the thing that acts, and in us lives, by breath. Man became a ne-phesh khay-yah (soul of life) by God's breathing the nish-math khay-yim into the formed and organised dust, and so there was a ru-akh which was life, and in the body maintained by breathing. God did not breathe a ru-akh, nor did man become n'sha-mah, or even ru-akh, but a ne-phesh. Ru-akh being the power of life, this word ru-akh is used of Him; it is the active power of God. As to the rest, I have remarked.

As far as I see without a concordance we have only ne-phesh khay-yah (soul of life), then ru-akh khay-yim (breath of life), or nish-math ru-akh khay-yim (breath of the spirit of life) The ru-akh khay-yim (breath of life) made man a ne-phesh khay-yah (a soul of life). The ru-akh khay-yim (breath of life) was in flesh, but no being was ru-akh khay-yim (breath of life), man was (became) ne-phesh khay-yah (a soul of life). Then, moreover, arises the question, is rle-phesh khay-yah (soul of life) said of any but man? It is said, Genesis 1:20-21, of what the waters brought forth, and verse 24 of what the earth. Whatever I suppose had ru-akh khay-yim (breath of life) was ne-phesh khay-yah (a soul of life). Indeed ne-phesh is itself breath or breathing. And this form of life, animal life (I suppose animal the same derivating) man clearly has. But the difference is immense of his becoming so by Elohim's breathing into his nostrils, so that we tou gar kai genos esmen

The "wind," or "breath," of verse 9 seems to be identified with "My Spirit," of verse 14: indeed, the same Hebrew word is translated, wind, breath or spirit, according to the context. It is interesting to compare these verses with John 3:8. There the blowing of the wind is connected with the Spirit's action in new birth. Here it is connected with His action in quickening. This should show us how closely new birth and quickening are connected one with the other, and that they must not be divided from each other, though they should be distinguished and separately considered, as they are in chapters 36, and 37 of Ezekiel.

"Ruach (spirit, is derived from ruah, ‘to blow,' and nesme,* to breathe' (I) primarily signifies ‘wind, air, breath'; but it is sometimes used to signify a principle, having some relation to electricity, diffused through universal space, a principle that stimulates the organs of men and animals into activity, and which is used by the animals themselves to control their voluntary motions... This principle, being the principle of life in all creatures, is in the hands of God and controlled by Him, hence in Him we live and move and have our being; and God is the God of the spirits of all flesh; when God taketh away His Spirit and His breath - i. e., God's spirit and God's breath - then man returneth to his earth and his thoughts perish."