The spirit that returns to God

Introduction

Among students of Scripture, there is considerable disagreement concerning (and confusion surrounding) the meaning of the term “spirit” as it appears in various passages of Scripture. Much of this disagreement and confusion is undoubtedly due to the fact that both the Hebrew and Greek terms for “spirit” (ruach and pneuma, respectively) have a relatively broad range of meaning and uses, and can refer to different things depending on how they’re being used by the writer or speaker in various contexts. Thus, when seeking to understand the meaning of a verse or passage in which the term “spirit” occurs, it’s important to keep this fact in mind.

The most basic (and, arguably, literal) meaning of the terms ruach and pneuma is a current of air – i.e., a wind or breeze (Gen 3:8; 8:1; Ex 10:13, 19; 15:10; Num 11:31; 2Sa 2:11; 1Ki 19:11; Job 1:19; 8:2; Ps 1:4; 55:8; 83:13; 107:25; Prov. 25:14; Eccl. 1:6, 14, 17; 2:17; Isa 64:6; Jer. 10:13; 51:1; Ezek. 1:4; 5:2; Dan 7:2; etc.). By extension, the terms were used to refer to other things or activities that, although imperceptible (at least, generally speaking), had the ability to produce visible effects. For example, the terms are used to refer to God’s own imperceptible energy as manifested in various operations. We first read of this spirit in the second verse of Genesis: “Yet the earth became a chaos and vacant, and darkness was on the surface of the submerged chaos. Yet the spirit of the Elohim is vibrating over the surface of the water.”

See also Ex. 31:3; Num. 11:17, 25, 26, 29; 24:2; Jud. 3:10; 14:6; 1 Sam. 10:6; 16:14; 1 Kings 18:12; Neh. 9:20; Ps. 139:7; Isa. 34:16; 40:13; 42:1; 44:3; 61:1; Ezek. 2:2; 3:12; 8:3 (etc.). Moreover, when God's spirit – i.e., his active, imperceptible energy – is operating in someone in such a way that sets them apart from others for a special purpose (and gives them some special endowment for the accomplishment of that purpose), it is referred to as “holy spirit,” or “the holy spirit of God” (e.g., Acts 1:2, 5, 8, 16; 2:4, 17, 33, 38; 4:8; 5:32; 8:15, 17; 10:38; etc.). However, as we’ll see later on in this study, there is also a spirit given by God to humans (and animals) that, by virtue of the fact that it’s common to all “living souls,” is not referred to as a “holy spirit” from God. 

In addition to being used literally to denote a current of air or wind (and, by extension, to refer to the imperceptible energy of God operating in various ways), the terms ruach and pneuma are also used in Scripture to denote intelligent, super-human beings created by God (both good and evil). For example, in Heb. 1:14 we read the following concerning those celestial beings who reside in the heavens, and who are elsewhere referred to as the “angels” or “messengers” of God: “Are they not all ministering spirits commissioned for service because of those who are about to be enjoying the allotment of salvation?”

For other examples of the terms ruach/pneuma being used to refer to these beings, see Judges 9:23; 1 Sam. 16:14-15; 1 Kings 22:19-21; Job 4:15-16; Matt. 8:16; 10:1; Mark 1:23, 26; 3:11; 5:13; Luke 4:33; Acts 8:7; 16:18; 19:15; 23:8-9; 1 Tim. 4:1; 1 Pet. 3:19 [cf. 2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 1:6]; Rev. 4:5 (cf. Rev. 8:2; Luke 1:19).

Although these beings are typically unperceived by human beings (which is likely why they’re referred to as “spirits”), God can enable humans or other animals to see them if he so chooses (Num. 22:22-35; Judges 6:11-12, 20-21). And when they are perceived by humans, they’re seen as having a human (or human-like) appearance (Gen. 18:2, 16, 22 [cf. 19:1, 12-13]; Dan. 10:5-6, 16, 18; Mark 16:5; Heb. 13:2). However, according to what Christ declared to his disciples after he was resurrected (and in contrast with what was and is true of Christ in his resurrected, vivified state), these beings – despite their human-like appearance when visible – do not have flesh and bones (Luke 24:36-40).

In addition to being used to refer to a current of air, God’s energy and super-human beings, the terms ruach and pneuma are also frequently used in Scripture to refer to the motivating principle of the heart or disposition of the mind that, although unseen, governs a person’s action/behavior and manifests itself in a person’s visible behavior. For example, in Exodus 35:21 we read the following: “And they came, everyone whose heart stirred him, and everyone whose spirit moved him, and brought Yahweh’s contribution to be used for the tent of meeting, and for all its service, and for the holy garments.”

In this verse, the spirit that is said to have “moved” certain individuals to perform certain actions was the motivating principle of the heart of these individuals. Concerning this spirit, we read the following in Eccl. 7:8-9: “A long-suffering spirit is better than a haughty spirit. Do not be rash to be vexed in your spirit, for vexation rests in the bosom of the stupid.” Both a “long-suffering spirit” and a “haughty spirit” refer to the disposition of a person’s mind (and which is manifested through a person’s words and actions). Similarly, to be “rash to be vexed in your spirit” is to have an easily vexed mental disposition (resulting in vexation resting “in the bosom”).

Paul was referring to this “spirit” when he exhorted believers to ”be rejuvenated in the spirit of your mind” (Eph. 4:23). It is with this “spirit of our mind” (i.e., the motivating principle of our mind) that “the spirit of Christ” – which God delegates “into our hearts” (Gal. 4:6) – is “testifying together…that we are children of God” (Rom. 8:15-16). For more examples where the terms ruach or pneuma are used to refer to the motivating principle of a person’s heart (or a mental disposition), see Gen. 41:8; Ex. 28:3; Deut. 2:30; 34:9; Num 5:14, 30; Josh. 2:11; 1 Sam 1:15; 1 Kings 21:5; Ezra 1:1, 5; Job 7:11; Psalm 51:17; Prov. 15:13; 16:2, 18-19; 29:11; Eccl. 7:8-9; Isa 11:2; 19:14; 26:9; 54:6; 57:15; 61:3; 66:2; Ezek. 11:19; 18:31; 36:26; Dan. 2:3; 7:15; Hos. 5:4; Hag. 1:14; Mal. 2:16; Matt. 5:3; 26:41; Mark 2:8; Luke 1:47; John 11:33; 13:21; Acts 17:16; Rom 11:8; 1 Cor. 4:21; Gal. 6:1; Phil. 1:27; 4:23; Col. 2:5; 2 Tim 1:7; 1 Pet 3:4.

This understanding of how ruach and pneuma could be (and often were) used in Scripture can also help us understand what Paul meant in 1 Cor. 5:1-5. In this passage we read the following:

Absolutely, it is heard that there is prostitution among you, and such prostitution (which is not even named among the nations), so that someone has his father's wife. And you are puffed up, and mourn not rather, that the one who commits this act may be taken away from your midst. For I, indeed, being absent in body, yet present in spirit, have already, as if present, thus judged the one effecting this, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (you being gathered, and my spirit, together with the power of our Lord Jesus), to give up such a one to Satan for the extermination of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

When Paul referred to being “absent in body, yet present in spirit,” he was referring to being present with them in the motivating principle of his mind (for it was in his mind that Paul had already judged the one who was guilty of the “prostitution” referred to in v. 1, as if he were bodily present with them). In fact, Paul had just used the word pneuma to refer to the motivating principle of his mind in the last verse of the previous chapter (“What are you wanting? With a rod may I be coming to you, or in love and a spirit of meekness?”). And just as Paul used the term “spirit” in these verses to refer to the motivating principle of his mind, so I believe that the “spirit” referred to in v. 5 (and which Paul hoped would be “saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” as a result of the man’s “flesh” being “exterminated”) was the motivating principle of his mind (i.e., the “spirit of his mind”).

The word translated “saved” (sozo) is defined in the Greek-English Keyword Concordance of the CLNT as follows: “keep or deliver from injury or evil, such as disease, drowning, but especially from sins and their effect.” But from what injury or evil did Paul hope this man’s spirit would be “saved?” Answer: from the sin-caused uncleanness/impurity that, at the time of Paul’s writing, characterized it. In 2 Cor. 7:1, Paul exhorted the saints in Corinth as follows: “…we should be cleansing ourselves from every pollution of flesh and spirit, completing holiness in the fear of God” (cf. 1 Thess. 4:3-7, where Paul similarly contrasts the uncleanness resulting from “prostitution” with a state of holiness). Thus, the salvation of this man’s spirit would involve its being cleansed from its uncleanness/polluted state so that it would be “blameless in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:23). This understanding of what Paul had in mind is supported by the fact that the salvation of the man’s spirit would inevitably follow from “the extermination of the flesh.” The “flesh” that Paul wanted to be exterminated was not the man’s body, but rather his sinful passions/lusts. It is this that Paul sometimes had in mind when he used the term “flesh” (see, for example, Rom. 13:13-14 and all of Paul's references to “the flesh” in Rom. 7-8; see also Gal. 5, especially v. 24).

The spirit that returns to God

In addition to the uses of the Hebrew and Greek terms translated “spirit” considered above, there is yet another use that we find in Ecclesiastes 12:6-7. In these verses we read the following:

“Remember Him, while the silver cable is not yet pulled away, and the golden bowl is splintered, and the jar is broken at the fount, and the rolling wheel is splintered at the cistern, and the soil returns to the earth just as it was, and the spirit, it returns to the One, Elohim, Who gave it.”

In v. 7, the same Hebrew word used to describe what happens to one’s soil-composed body after it dies is used to refer to what happens to the “spirit.” And since the term clearly means “return” when the soil is in view, we have good reason to believe that it means the same thing when the spirit is in view. That is, just as ”the soil returns to the earth just as it was” so “the spirit returns to the One, Elohim, Who gave it.” And if this particular spirit returns to God, it means that it once belonged to God. But what is the nature of this spirit which we’re told “returns to the One, Elohim, Who gave it?”

Since the inspired writer is describing the reversal of what is said to have taken place when God created the first human, our understanding of this verse must be informed by what was previously revealed concerning the creation of Adam. The account of Adam’s creation is found in Genesis 2:7, where we read the following: “Yahweh Elohim formed the human out of soil from the ground, and He blew into his nostrils the breath of life; and the human became a living soul.”

Notice that Adam (“the human”) had no existence until God formed him from the soil of the ground. But once formed by God and animated by the “breath of life,” it was Adam who existed. And since it was Adam’s body that was “formed out of the soil from the ground,” it follows that Adam was constituted by his body. This fact is reaffirmed by God himself just a few verses later: In Gen. 3:19, we read that God declared to Adam, “By the sweat of your brow shall you eat your bread until you return to the ground, for from it were you taken. For soil you are, and to soil you shall return.”

Notice that Adam is, once again, identified with that which was taken from the ground (i.e., soil). Like the animals that God created before he created humans (Gen. 1:24), humanity comes from the soil. Since it is our body that is composed of soil and which returns to the soil when we die, it follows that our body is that which composes us (thus making it something apart from which we cannot exist).

Notice also that, in Gen. 2:7, Adam is spoken of as existing in two different states at two different times. After having been formed “out of soil from the ground,” the finished creation was called “the human.” The human had no existence until God formed him from the dust of the ground. But once formed by God, it was “the human” that existed. If a celestial being had asked God, “What is this that you have formed out of soil from the ground?” God could have replied, “This is a human.” But the inanimate human form that God made from the soil of the ground was not initially a living, sentient being. For it was “the human” who we are then told received “the breath of life” from God and consequently “became a living soul.” Here we have the second state in which Adam existed after his creation – as a living being with a capacity for sensation/sensory awareness (or “soul”). But consider the following: since Adam existed as a human before receiving the breath of life from God, would it not follow that he remained a human after the “breath of life” left him and returned to its divine source? Yes. But after the breath of life departed from him, he simply became a dead (i.e., a lifeless) human.

In further support of this understanding of the essentially corporeal nature of human beings are numerous verses in which the physical remains of a dead human being are spoken of as if they were identical with the human being:

“After this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah east of Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan.” Gen 23:19

“There Abraham was buried, with Sarah his wife.” Gen 25:10

“Then David slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David.” 1 Kings 2:10

“And Solomon slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David his father, and Rehoboam his son reigned in his place.” 2 Chron. 9:31

“Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days…When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out.’” John 11:17, 43

“Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.” Acts 2:29

In Daniel 12:2, a certain category of human beings who have died are referred to as “sleeping in the soil of the earth.” Obviously, this imagery refers to the physical remains of those who have died (i.e., corpses, which are buried in the earth). Although this verse need not be understood as teaching that those who have died are literally sleeping in the soil, it does indicate that man’s body is essential to his existence.

Even Christ, after he died, was spoken of as being present where his corpse was. For it was Christ (and not “merely” his body) who we’re told was entombed and subsequently roused from the dead. Consider, for example, the following words that a celestial messenger declared to the women who came to the tomb where Christ had been placed after his death:

“Fear you not! For I am aware that you are seeking Jesus, the Crucified. He is not here, for He was roused, according as He said. Hither! Perceive the place where the Lord lay. And, swiftly going, say to His disciples that He was roused from the dead, and lo! He is preceding you into Galilee. There you will see Him. Lo! I told you!” (Matthew 28:5-7)

According to the messenger, it was Christ (“the Lord”) who lay in the tomb. In other words, the lifeless body that occupied the tomb prior to Christ’s resurrection was, during this time, all that remained of Christ. In accord with this fact, when Paul reminded the saints in Corinth of the essential elements of the evangel he’d brought to them, he included the related historical fact that Christ “was entombed” (1 Cor. 15:4; cf. Rom. 6:4; Col. 2:12; Matt. 26:12; John 12:7). The fact that Christ was entombed means that (1) prior to his death, Christ’s body was what constituted him, and (2) while he was dead, Christ’s body was all that remained of Christ.

Consider the following argument:

1. When Christ died, his spirit returned to God (Luke 23:46), and his body was entombed (Matt. 27:59-60).

2. Christ is always said to have been wherever his dead body was between the time of his death and resurrection, and never where his spirit went (Matt. 12:40; John 19:33, 40, 42; Acts 2:39, 13:29; cf. John 11:17, 43-44).

3. Therefore, it was Christ’s lifeless body that constituted his personal remains while he was dead, and not his spirit (that is, Christ’s body was all that remained of Christ while he was dead for three days and nights).

From these and other verses of scripture it should be evident that our body is what constitutes us as human beings, and is something without which we cannot live or exist. Like every other living and breathing thing created by God, we as human beings are necessarily and essentially corporeal, embodied beings who could never – not even theoretically – exist in a “disembodied” state. Although our present mortal body is certainly not ideal – thus Paul spoke of it as being in need of deliverance, and as destined for transfiguration (Rom. 8:23; Phil. 3:21) – the human body is not, as Plato and his disciples believed, a “prison” from which an “immortal being” is in need of deliverance so that it may enjoy “eternal life” in a wholly non-physical realm. Our body is, rather, just as essential to our existence as three straight sides are essential to a triangle.

In Psalm 146:4 we read that, when a man’s “spirit departs, he shall return to his ground; in that day his reflections perish.” And in Psalm 104:29-30, David wrote the following concerning this spirit in relation to the animals God created: “You gather away their spirit; they breathe their last and return to their soil. You send forth Your spirit; they are created, and you renew the face of the ground.”

Unlike the body, this life-giving spirit doesn’t “constitute” or “compose” a human or animal. Nor is it a “part” of a human or animal. Again, it is what makes a human or animal alive (and which belongs to a human or animal while it’s alive), but no living human or animal is “part spirit.” It is that which returns to the earth (i.e., the body) that constitutes a man or animal (hence, in the above Psalms, we read that, after the departure of the spirit, it is the man himself who returns to “his ground,” and the animals themselves that return to “their soil”). And since it is obviously the body of a human or animal that returns to the earth, the only way it would be correct to say that humans or animals return to “their soil” is if they are constituted by their body.

Concerning the state of the body after a human dies, we read the following in James 2:26: “For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.” Notice that James referred to the body apart from the spirit – and not the spirit apart from the body – as being “dead.” From this we have further confirmation that a human is constituted by his or her body. For in Scripture it is the human person – the individual self – who is said to “die” or to be “dead.” Since it is the body that is said to be dead “apart from the spirit,” it is the body (and not the spirit) that constitutes a human person; thus, when a person’s body dies (becomes lifeless), the individual himself dies (becomes lifeless).

But what, exactly, is the “spirit” that we’re told “departs” from a human on the day that he dies (and which results in his death and subsequent return to “his ground”)? And what is the spirit that, when not present in the body, results in the body (and thus the human) being dead? This question brings us back to Ecclesiastes 12:7. As noted earlier, that which is being described in this verse (as well as in Ps. 146:4) is the reversal of what is said to have taken place when God created the first human. Here, again, is Genesis 2:7: “Yahweh Elohim formed the human out of soil from the ground, and He blew into his nostrils the breath of life; and the human became a living soul.”

In light of what we read in this verse, the “spirit” that is in view in Eccl. 12:7 (and Ps. 146:4) can be understood as the “breath of life” that we’re told God breathed into Adam’s nostrils to make him a “living soul.” Moreover, this “breath of life” (neshamah chayyim) that God breathed into Adam cannot be understood as merely a current of air (for causing a current of air to enter into the nostrils of a lifeless human body would not give life to the body). Rather, this “breath of life” must be understood as a life-giving energy from God – i.e., an energy that has the distinct capability of making something (i.e., a human or animal) alive.

In Gen. 6:17, we read the following concerning this life-giving “breath” from God that made Adam a “living soul”: “Now behold, I Myself am about to bring a deluge of water on the earth to wreck all flesh under the heavens which has the spirit of life in it. All that is in the earth, it shall decease” (see also Gen. 7:15 for the use of the expression “spirit of life”). Because God causes the spirit of life to exist in each living human and animal (and to thus serve as each human and animal’s individual source of life), God is referred to as “the God of the spirits of all flesh” (Num. 16:22; 27:16).

In Gen. 7:22, we find the two expressions “breath of life” and “spirit of life” combined into a single expression, as follows: “Everyone who had the breath of the spirit of life in his nostrils, everything that had been in the drained area, they all died.” The expression translated here as “the breath of the spirit of life” is neshamah ruach chayyim. This is the only verse that contains this phrase. However, the phrase neshamah ruach (“the breath of the spirit”) occurs in 2 Sam. 22:16 and Psalm 18:15 without the term chayyim (“life”). And in these two verses, the expression seems to be a more emphatic way of referring to a single thing, and can thus be understood to mean “the breath which is the spirit of [God’s] nostrils”). And as will be demonstrated below, the terms “breath” and “spirit” are occasionally used synonymously in Scripture. Thus, the combining of the terms in Gen. 7:22 could be understood as an emphatic way of referring to what had previously been referred to as “the breath of life” and “the spirit of life” (according to this understanding, the meaning of the Hebrew expression translated in the CVOT as “the breath of the spirit of life in his nostrils” would simply be, “the breath which is the spirit of life in his nostrils”).

In Proverbs 20:27, we read that “a lamp of Yahweh is the life breath of mankind, searching all the chambers of the inner being.” The word translated “life breath” here (neshamah) is the same word translated “breath” in Gen. 2:7, 7:22 and elsewhere. Since it’s unlikely that the air we inhale and exhale is the “life breath” that’s being referred to here, it’s reasonable to conclude that the “life breath” of this verse is the same as the “breath of life” referred to in Gen. 2:7 and the “spirit of life” of Gen. 6:17. And if that’s the case, then it’s to be understood as that which directly results in our being alive. Evidently, this “life breath of mankind” is also the means through which God “searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought” of mankind (1 Chr. 28:9; cf. Jer. 17:9-10).

In accord with what’s said in these and other verses concerning the life-giving spirit from God that animates all “living souls,” we read the following in Ecclesiastes 3:19-20:

“For the destiny of the sons of humanity and the destiny of the beast, it is one destiny for them; as death is for this one, so is death for that one, and one spirit is for all; there is no advantage for the human over the beast, for the whole is vanity. All are going to one place; all have come from the soil, and all return to the soil.”

Just as humans and animals share “one destiny” (i.e., death) and all go to “one place” after dying (i.e., the soil), so they all share “one spirit” while they live. And what is the “one spirit” that is possessed by both humans and animals alike? Job answers our question as follows: “As long as my breath is yet whole within me and the spirit of [God] is in my nostrils, my lips shall assuredly not speak iniquity” (Job 27:3-4). Every living human or animal enjoys a portion or quantity of this spirit of God, and the portion that is within them is their personal spirit of life, keeping them alive until it departs from them and returns to God.

Job was not alone in his understanding of the spirit that animated him while he was alive. In Job 33:4 and 34:14-15, Elihu (who, in contrast with Job’s other three “comforters,” I believe was a prophet who spoke the truth)[1] also affirmed that this spirit of life is God’s own spirit/breath within a human:

“The spirit of El, it has made me, and the breath of Him Who-Suffices, it preserves me alive.”

“If He places it in His heart concerning him, He can gather back His spirit and His breath to Himself; all flesh would breath its last together, and humanity would return to the soil.”

In these verses, Elihu was using a literary device known as synonymous parallelism. According to this commonly-used device, the same or similar idea or meaning is, for the sake of emphasis, expressed using two or more different words or expressions (see, for example, Num. 23:7-10; Job 3:11; 4:17; 8:3, 11, 15; 11:7; 27:4; 34:2; 38:7; Psalm 1:5; 2:1, 4, 9; 6:5; 18:4-5; 19:1; 38:1; 78:1; 119:105; 120:2; Prov. 1:13-16; 3:1, 11; 12:28; Eccl. 10:18; Isa. 60:1-3; Hab. 1:2).

Another example of this literary device that involves the terms “breath” and “spirit” is Job 4:9: “By the breath of God they perish, and by the spirit of His nostrils they are consumed.” Here we find the same idea expressed in two different ways. Consider also Job 32:8 (ESV): ”But it is the spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand.” Rather than referring to two different things that make man understand, Job was, for the sake of emphasis, simply expressing the same idea in two different ways. This “spirit in man” or “breath of the Almighty” that “makes [man] understand” is likely the same “spirit of humanity” referred to by Paul in 1 Cor. 2:11, as follows: “For is any of humanity acquainted with that which is human except the spirit of humanity which is in it?” When Paul referred to this spirit as being “acquainted with that which is human,” he may have had Prov. 20:27 in mind (where we read that ”a lamp of Yahweh is the life breath of mankind, searching all the chambers of the inner being”). But as we've seen, this “spirit of humanity” or “life breath of mankind” is also present in the beasts; the difference is not in the nature of the spirit itself, but in the nature of the created being to which it gives life.

Consider also Isaiah 42:5: “Thus says Yahweh God…Who gives breath to the people upon it, and spirit to those who walk in it…” And in Isaiah 57:16, we actually have two instances of synonymous parallelism in the same verse:

For I will not accuse you for the eon,

and I will not always be angry;

for then the spirit would grow weak before Me,

even the breath of man, which I have made.

Just as the first two lines express the same basic idea in two different ways, so the last two lines express the same idea in two different ways as well (with “the spirit” being equivalent to “the breath of man”). Significantly, this “spirit” or “breath of man” is referred to as something that God has “made.” The same essential idea is expressed in Zech. 12:1, where God is referred to as the ”Former of the spirit of the human within him.” That is, the “breath of man” which God is said to have “made” is the same as the “spirit of the human within him” of which God is said to be the “Former.” But what does it mean for God to have “made” the “breath of man,” or for God to be the “Former” of this spirit (the spirit of life) within us?

Since the truth being affirmed in these verses necessarily includes the first human, Adam, we need only determine how God formed the spirit of life within Adam in order to know what is being affirmed in these verses. And as we’ve seen from Gen. 2:7, Yahweh formed the spirit of life within Adam by breathing it into his nostrils. Moreover, the word translated “Former” in Zech. 12:2 (or “formed” in most versions) was most often used to denote a potter, or that which a potter does to a lump of clay to make a new piece of pottery. Some exceptions to the more common “potter” imagery are Psalm 74:17 (where the seasons are said to have been formed by God), Psalm 95:5 (where God is said to have formed dry land by making the sea recede), Psalm 139:16 (where the days of our lives are said to have been formed by God before they existed), Isaiah 45:7 (where God is said to have formed the light), Isaiah 43:1, 7 (where God is said to have formed Israel) and Jer. 18:11 (where God is said to be forming evil, or calamity, against Israel).

However, even in the non-pottery-related occurrences of the word, the underlying idea seems to be that of something being made or caused to occur by virtue of a change or modification of something that was already in existence (just like making a piece of pottery involves taking from or modifying a lump of clay which already exists). In light of these considerations, we can understand Zech. 12:1 (and Isa. 57:16) as follows: Just as a potter forms/makes a piece of pottery from a pre-existing lump of clay (rather than creating it “out of nothing”), so God “formed” the spirit of life within Adam (or, in the language of Isaiah 57:16, “made” it) by causing a portion of his own life-giving spirit to exist within Adam, as his own personal source of life.

Thus, rather than being “created out of nothing,” the spirit of life within a living human or animal is simply a localized instance of something that previously existed (and which originally belonged exclusively to God) – i.e., that which Job referred to as “the breath of the Almighty,” and which Elihu referred to as “[God’s] spirit and His breath.” After the spirit of life departs from a human or animal (and event which directly results in the human or animal’s death), it returns to its original source (i.e., God).

In the book of the Revelation, the apostle John is given a vision of two witnesses who, after prophesying for 1,260 days, are killed (Rev 11:1-8). We are told that their corpses will lie in the square of the “great city” (Jerusalem), and that the unbelievers of the earth will celebrate their deaths for three and a half days (vv. 9-10). But then we read the following in v. 11: “And after the three days and a half the spirit of life out of God entered into them, and they stand on their feet.”

Notice that the two witnesses are spoken of as being present where their dead bodies are. This is in accord with the fact that, as with the first man, Adam, humans are constituted by their body (and not by the spirit that departs from us at death). Notice also that the expression “spirit of life out of God” is singular; the two witnesses won't each receive a separate spirit from God, but rather a single spirit of life out of God enters both of these men. This “spirit of life out of God” that will enter the two witnesses and restore them to life is undoubtedly the same spirit or “breath” that God breathed into Adam’s nostrils to make him a “living soul” (Gen. 2:7), and which is referred to later as the “spirit of life” in Gen. 6:17 and 7:15 (in fact, the same Greek expression that is translated “spirit of life” in Rev. 11:11 - without the article - occurs in the LXX translation of Gen. 6:17 and 7:15). It is this spirit that Solomon said is shared by both humans and animals (Eccl 3:19), and which we find referred to in Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones (see Ezek. 37:1-14, and note that the spirit which reanimates those who were dead is repeatedly referred to as a single spirit, and is referred to as God’s own spirit in v. 14).

Once given by God, the spirit of life belongs to those to whom it is given, and may thus be referred to as the spirit of whoever is (or was) being animated by it. For example, in Luke 8:55, we read the following concerning the resurrection of Jairus’ daughter: “Yet [Jesus], casting all outside and holding her hand, shouts, saying, ‘Girl, be roused!’ And back turns her spirit, and she rose instantly.” The spirit of Jairus’ daughter that returned to her was simply a portion or localized instance of the “one spirit” that is shared by all “living souls,” and was thus the same spirit that had sustained her life before she died. Since she had formerly been in possession of this spirit – for it had been given to her by God when she first came into existence – it could be referred to as “her spirit.”

Conclusion

Unlike the humans and animals to which it gives life, the spirit of life that returns to God is not, itself, a living or conscious thing that either dies or lives after the death of a human or animal. This spirit certainly exists, but existence and life are not synonymous. All living things exist, but not all existing things are alive. Like a current of air or electricity, the spirit of life that is possessed by all living humans and animals is neither alive nor dead. Thus, this spirit doesn’t “die” when it departs from a human or animal and returns to God (for it wasn’t alive to begin with). Life and death are defined by the presence or absence of the spirit of life; it is the presence of the spirit within a human or animal that makes the human or animal alive, and the absence of this spirit from a human or animal is what makes a human or animal dead (lifeless). Thus, in order for the spirit of life itself to be alive, it would have to have its own spirit of life giving it life (which is, of, course absurd).

Moreover, since it is the presence of this spirit within a human or animal that makes a human or animal alive (and the absence of this spirit that makes a human or animal dead, or lifeless), it follows that the entity which becomes lifeless (i.e., dies) is that to which the spirit was given, and from which it is taken away. In other words, that which dies when a human or animal dies is not the spirit of the human or animal, but that which the spirit was making alive while being present within the human or animal. And this means that when Christ died for our sins, his lifeless condition was based entirely on the absence of the life-giving spirit from his body, and not on the state or condition of his spirit after it departed from him and returned to God. Although we have no scripturally-informed reason to believe that the spirit of life that Christ committed into the hands of his Father ceased to exist when it departed from Christ and returned to God, the condition of this spirit after it returned to God is irrelevant with regard to our understanding of what happened to Christ after it departed from him. After Christ’s spirit departed from him, Christ died, and all that remained of Christ was his lifeless body.

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[1] For a helpful article defending the inspiration and prophetic status of Elihu, I recommend the following: https://stanrock.net/2014/10/23/elihu-the-forgotten-prophet-of-job/