GOD’S BREATH
We have been reading some very interesting claims from Bible Correctors, who think the “inspiration” of the scriptures should be corrected to read “God breathed” scriptures in 2 Tim. 3:16. Seems to us the way that the words are used it would be better to say “God blasted, or God blown, since God is said to blow and blast. Nevertheless, the word “inspiration” is a noun and not a verb or an adjective and can only be used as a noun in both places.
Does God have Human parts?
John5:37 The Father . . . which hath sent me . . . Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.
Psa 27:8 When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek.
Psa 10:12 Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up thine hand . . .
Deut 9:10 And the LORD delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger of God . . .
Exo 33:23 And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.
Exo 15:16 Fear and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of thine arm they shall be as still as a stone . . .
Psa 34:15 The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.
Isa 11:4 . . . he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay . . .
When it comes to God, shall we believe that God, who is said to be SPIRIT, has physical nostrils, lips, a face, a mouth, hands, ears, mouth, eyes, arms, and a face as do humans? Granted the Jesus and Holy Spirit Theophanies were able to take forms in the O.T. and even in the N.T. as a dove. Still, is it not possible that those references to God’s body parts are references to that which has been coined anthropomorphisms? Anthropomorphisms are poetic symbols or metaphors representing that of God which would otherwise be indescribable, because God, in his being, is an unapproachable bright light and is invisible SPIRITand has no known form. The only way that we can perceive such an infinite God is through God’s condescendence in metaphoric symbols which are more understandable to our finite minds and experience. Must we go along with the Mormons who teach that God the Father has a body? Or is there a more reasonable explanation?
What about God’s Human-like Actions?
And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day . . . -- Gen 3:8
And the LORD smelled a sweet savour . . . -- Gen 8:21
He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh . . . -- Psa 2:4
. . . I will bewail with the weeping of Jazer the vine of Sibmah: I will water thee with my tears . . . -- Isa 16:9
O vine of Sibmah, I will weep for thee with the weeping of Jazer . . . -- Jer 48:32
. . . Christ. . . an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. -- Eph 5:2
What of these passages that seem to speak of God in human terms? Those are descriptions of God’s actions, and emotions put into human terms. Though God is without a body, his acts are put in human like terms. God is described as talking, walking, smelling, sitting, laughing, and weeping. Does god really have a nose, a tongue, tear ducts, and vocal cords for all these human-like actions?
God’s Breath from His Nostrils and Mouth?
Exo 15:8 And with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea.
2Sam 22:9 There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured . . .
Job 4:9 By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath[RAUCH] of his nostrils are they consumed.
Job 27:3 All the while my BREATHH5397is in me, and the SPIRITH7307 of God is in my nostrils . . .
Isa 11:4 . . . with the breath [RAUCH] of his lips shall he slay the wicked.
Does God have a mouth or nostrils or lips? If so does God breathe from His Nostrils, from His mouth or from His lips? Does God breathe in or out or both? If none these, why believe that God has actual breath composed of air or some other gas? What does He breathe or exhale? Air? Smoke? Fire? Flood? In 1 Peter 1:21, men were moved by the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of God, and not the breath of God as some Bible Correctors try to draw a comparison there with 2 Tim. 3:16 and also claim that that this verse refers to the INITIAL inspiration of the written word (when it says SPAKE), not realizing that the written word was often dictated from the lips of a prophet. In 1 Pet 1:21 all we see is the Spirit of God and not the breath of God. I well can remember my early battles with the Jehovah’s Witnesses and how they tried to prove to me that the Spirit of God was but an influence and not a person. They would take me to the places where RUACH was translated breath the same way that Bible Correctors try to do in their efforts to prove that the scriptures were God breathed. The word RUACH is used every place that the word “spirit” is mentioned in the O.T. and then some. The word is used for good spirits, bad spirits, lying spirits, evil spirits, animal spirits, man’s spirit, the Holy Spirit, and God’s spirit. The quality of the spirit is not inherent in the word but is supplied by its adjectives. The Spirit of the Lord and of God and the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament have the underlying Hebrew word RUACH. The God of the spirits [RUACH] of all flesh as well as the spirit of Jealousy, anguish of spirit, the spirit of Jacob, Pharaoh’s spirit, man’s death departing spirit, wind, life, BREATH, animal breath, and even air.
It is interesting that in the Old Testament RAUCH is rendered both wind and Spirit just as PNEUMA is wind and Spirit in the New Testament. If God is Spirit, it is certainly different than man’s or the animals’ spirits. And if God has breath, it certainly is different from Job’s stinky breath. Could it be that the breath of God is also an anthropomorphismand that God “inspirited” the scriptural product which was already settled in heaven, with Spirit life in order to give us scriptures by inspiration? After all, are not the scriptures said to be alive or quick and powerful with discerning powers? Could it be that the KJB Bible and all the English pre–KJB Bibles were correct in using the word “inspiration” rather than God breathed? Could it also be that the modern perversions that say “breathed out” or “God breathed” are wrong? Could it also be that the corrupt Lexicons and grammars that appeared after the KJB are “Johnny Come Lately” Bible Correctors that are equally wrong? Of course, you know our answers to these questions.
God’s Breath Contrasted with God’s Spirit
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the SPIRITH7307 of God moved upon the face of the waters. -- Gen. 1:2
And the LORD God formedman . . . and BREATHEDH5301into his nostrils the BREATHH5397 of life; and man became a living soul. – Gen. 2:7
All in whose nostrils was the BREATHH5397 H7307of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. – Gen. 7:22
And the channels of the sea appeared, the foundations of the world were discovered . . . at the blastH5397[of the BREATH H7307[RUACH-SPIRIT]of his nostrils. – 2 Sam. 22:16
Job 26:13 By his SPIRITH7307he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent.
. . . there is a SPIRITH7307 in man . . . the inspirationH5397 of the Almighty giveth them understanding. – Job 32:8
The SPIRITH7307 of Godhath mademe, and the BREATHH5397of the Almighty hath given me life. – Job 33:4
If he set his heart upon man, if he gather unto himself his SPIRITH7307 and his BREATHH5397. . . -- Job 34:14
Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O LORD, at the BLASTH5397of the BREATHH7307[RUACH – SPIRIT] of thy nostrils.—Ps 18:15
By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the BREATHH7307 [RUACH] of his mouth [the spirit of his mouth]. . . Psa 33:6
As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My SPIRITH7307 that is upon . . . MY WORDS . . . SHALL NOT DEPART . . . from henceforth and for ever. – Isa 59:21
It seems that God created the Bible on earth, patterning it after that which was already settled in heaven, and then gave life to the installments of His word by “INspiriting” them. Can anyone deny the creative Spirit of God or His connection with the world’s creation and the word of God’s creation? It is odd that the Hebrew experts cannot connect the dots on the interchangeability and even the synonymy of these Hebrew words for spirit, breath, and blast.It is very interesting that Gen. 7:22 puts both the word “breath” and the word “spirit” in the same term, “BREATH OF LIFE.”More interesting is Job 33:4 which mentions the creative SPIRIT,who makes man and the breath of life, and gives to whatever God created – life. It seems that God’s breath has life giving properties in the things which God forms or creates. Jesus said that His words were SPIRIT and that they were LIFE. The word is QUICKor alive and powerful. Who makes the word ALIVE?To have inspiration of the Scriptures, God’s SPIRIT must be upon His WORDS.
-- by Herb Evans