germ within him that would transmute the essence of his σῶμα ψυχικόν, or old man, and change it into a σ@μа veνμаTIKóv. This process was begun in this life but would be completed at the resurrection. The inner man, the cowlev åvoρwños, was the nucleus which was to be clothed over by the owμа пνеνμатIкóv. 161 Putting on the new man or putting on σῶμα πνευματικόν. 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

164

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 ethicizing 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.16 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, ooos to describe the initiated in the mysteries must have meant more than merely the proper performance 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. Stoicism and Paul see Pfleiderer, Prim. Xty, Vol. I, ch. 3.

On the relation between
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.

160 Wobbermin, Religionsgeschichtliche Studien, pp. 36 ff.

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 conceived 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 significant 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.

173

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." 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 conception 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." He is either an emanation of divine substance from the risen Christ or his double. He has come from heaven

175

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,' he has in mind a permanent spiritual state. And when he refers to the

177

171 John 14:26. This was doubtless the way in which the author of the fourth Gospel 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 I Pet. 1:2; 3:15; 4:14.

177 Heb. 10:15 ff.

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.

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 conditions 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. Certain cases in which the abnormal features of the phenomena were due to defective physical and mental conditions such as sickness and insanity, 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 instruments.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 production of a certain emotional and intellectual frame of mind, or the possession 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.

1I 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.