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Section Spirit to Structures

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A key-word search index to the contents of this site, entries that begin with the letter S, section Spirit to Structures. (The other sections under S are Sabaoth to Saints, Salem to Saraphs, Sardis to Seditions, Seed to Shushan, Sick to Sins, Sion to Speaking and Studies to Syriac.)

(Previous section: Sion to Speaking.) (Index overview.)

Spirit, spirits (and ghost, ghosts), spiritual, spirituality, spiritually, the Holy Spirit

• This post contains multiple entries – scroll down.
• Etymology of the word spirit: It comes from the old Latin noun spiritus which meant "a breathing", "a breath" (related to the verb spiro which meant "to blow", "to breath" and so on).
• The earlier English word was ghost (Old English, gast), but in the 1200s it began to be replaced by the Latin-based word spirit. The words ghost and spirit used to have the same meaning, but in modern-day English, the noun "ghost" tends to have a different, special meaning.
• The 1769 KJ version is not consistent but uses both "spirit" and "ghost". Thus, the KJV-1769 New Testament has both "Holy Spirit" (4 times) as well as "Holy Ghost" (89 times). In other words: KJV-1769 renders the Greek word pneuma around 111 times as "spirit", and 89 times as "ghost".
• Relevant Hebrew and Greek words in the Old and New Testaments:
  • In the 1769 KJ version New Testament, ghost and spirit are translations of the Greek noun pneuma which meant "breath", "wind" and so on (compare with pneô, "to breathe", "to blow", et cetera). (Exceptions: In Matthew 14:26 and Mark 6:49, KJV-1769 used "spirit" as a translation of the Greek noun phantasma, "apparition". In Mark 9:26, "spirit" is an added word, taken from the previous verse.)
    • Related words in the Greek text of the NT: Pneumatikos (adjective), "spiritual", and pneumatikôs (adverb), "spiritually".
  • Where The 1769 King James version Old Testament has the word ghost (only 11 times and always in the context and meaning "giving up the ghost" = dying), it is a translation of gava (verb, "to die") or nephesh (noun, "breath", "person", "being", "mind", "soul", "life" and so on).
  • Where the 1769 KJ version OT has the word spirit (around 242 times), it can be a translation of such words as:
    • Ruwach, both Hebrew and Aramaic ("wind", "breath", "mind", and so on). The KJV-1769 renders ruwach 232 (+8) times as "spirit", and 156 (+3) times in other ways.
      • A note: The KJV-1769 never translates the Hebrew noun nephesh as "spirit" or "ghost", except in Job 11:20 and Jeremiah 15:9 in the meaning "giving up the ghost". (Nephesh occurs 753 times in the OT. It meant such things as "breath", "life", "mind", "person", "being", et cetera. – Look also under the heading "Soul".)
    • Neshamah ("breath", "spirit"). The 1769 KJ version renders neshamah 2 times as "spirit", 17 times as "breath", and 6 times in other ways. (Compare with nashaph, "to blow".)
    • Nishma (Aramaic, "breath", "spirit"). Only in Daniel 5:23.
    • Owb. The 1769 KJ version renders that word 16 times as "[familiar] spirit". (In Job 32:19, the word owb appears to refer to a wineskin.)
  • Look also under the heading "Soul".
• The Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost
  • In older English, the wording was "the Holy Ghost" which meant the same as the later "the Holy Spirit". (The origin of the words "ghost" and "spirit" is explained in the notes above.)
    • The 1769 KJ version is not consistent. Consequently, KJV-1769 NT has both "Holy Spirit", 4 times, as well as "Holy Ghost", 89 times.
  • Regarding "the fruit of the Spirit", look under the heading "Fruit" – see also the essay eb01c.htm.
  • Moses was at one time assisted by 70 elders who had the Holy Spirit (Numbers 11). → eo08c.htm
  • The Holy Spirit – an outline and a no-nonsense synopsis of the matter of the distribution of God's Spirit, in the past, today, and in the coming days of the future. Also: Whose baptism is valid? Churches and preachers baptise people, but they are not notably changed and no obvious signs or fruit of the Spirit are seen in their lives. Why is that? Is the Spirit of God at all given to humans, at this present time? → eb01c.htm
  • The Holy Spirit is the New Covenant "sign" which shows who are God's people. → ec09b.htm
  • The Holy Spirit is the New Covenant's "writing" which is mentioned in Jeremiah 31:33. → ec08c.htm
  • The Holy Spirit is the "oil" of the wise virgins (Matthew 25), and also the "pledge" that was given to the saints. → eb07d.htm – eb01c.htm
  • The Holy Spirit is the New Covenant's "circumcision", "sign" and "seal". → ec09b.htm – eb01c.htm – et03c.htm
  • The Spirit versus the letter (2 Corinthians 3:6 and Romans 7:6). → ec13c.htm
  • Galatians 3:2, "This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?" → ec10c.htm
  • Galatians 6:8, "For he who sows to his own flesh, that one shall reap corruption of the flesh. But he who sows to the Spirit, shall reap everlasting life through the Spirit". → em04c.htm
  • The Holy Spirit is the New Covenant's "writing". The New Covenant is written, "not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart" (2 Corinthians 3:3). → ec08c.htm – ec13c.htm – ec11c.htm – ec06f.htm – ec01c.htm
  • Regarding "the fruit of the Spirit", look under the heading "Fruit" – see also the essay eb01c.htm.
  • For those who are interested: A free, printable word-search puzzle on the Fruit of the Spirit. → puzzle35-p.pdf – A large print version and many more bible-based puzzles. → ep01.htm
  • For more, see the other parts of this multi-page index, or use the search function.
• "Spirit of the law".
  • This might surprise some, but the commonly used phrase "the spirit of the law" is in fact not biblical – it is not found in the Bible, nor is the phrase "the letter of the law" found there. → ec13c.htm
  • Facts regarding "the letter" versus "the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3 and Romans 7). → ec13c.htm
  • For more, see the other parts of this multi-page index, or use the search function.
• Spirits, spirit beings, spirit world, spirit realm
  • A note: Most English bible-translations do not use the phrases "a spirit being" or "spirit beings"; instead, the phrases are "a spirit" and "spirits". Likewise, the phrases "spirit world" and "spirit realm" are not found in the Bible.
  • Regarding God the Father and his son Jesus, look under the headings "God" and "Jesus".
  • The cherubs (keruwbim or cherubim) – were they spirits, and what did they look like? Also: In what form do angels appear? Do they have wings? → ed01c.htm
  • Are angels immortal, or can they die? → ed02c.htm
  • On angels and archangels, including the origin and meaning of the words angel and archangel. → ed07b.htm
  • Satan the Devil. Various things regarding mankind's arch-enemy. → ed04c.htm
  • "The spirit that now works in the children of disobedience" (Ephesians 2:2). → ew11c.htm
  • Regarding the word "demon", and the meaning of the old Greek words daimôn and daimonion. → ed08c.htm
  • Look also under the heading "Angels".
  • For more, see the other parts of this multi-page index, or use the search function.
• Spiritual, spiritually
  • Is righteousness the same as "spirituality"? → eg08b.htm
  • On the saints' spiritual calling, election, sanctification and justification. → eb02c.htm
  • On the saints' spiritual renewal. → eb06b.htm
  • How the apostles were to bear spiritual fruit to God. The parable of the vinedresser, the vine, the branches and fruit (John 15). How the apostles were to bear spiritual fruit to God. → ea11c.htm
  • On Jesus' and Paul's teachings regarding how those who proclaimed the Good Message could become spiritually unfruitful. → em08c.htm
  • The New Covenant's spiritual "House of God" or "Temple". → ea04c.htm – ea05c.htm
  • The apostle Peter wrote to certain saints: "...you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 2:5). What did that mean, on the practical level? → eo03d.htm
  • Should believers look up to "spiritual leaders", and follow them? → ee03c.htm – em03c.htm – es06d.htm
  • Who has biblical, spiritual or religious authority? Who can speak for God? → es06d.htm
  • Spiritual circumcision – the circumcision of the heart (Romans 2:29, Jeremiah 31:33). → ec09b.htm
  • A small brain-teaser with a big spiritual lesson. → ew07b.htm
  • For more, see the other parts of this multi-page index, or use the search function.
• Spiritual authority, spiritual leadership
  • Who has "spiritual authority"? In other words: Who can speak for God? What does the Bible teach regarding this? → es06d.htm
  • What the Bible really says about "spiritual leadership". → em03c.htm – ee03c.htm
  • For more, see the other parts of this multi-page index, or use the search function.
• "The spiritual meaning of such and such a thing" – look for the matter in question in this multi-page key-word index, or use the search function.
• For those who are interested: A free, printable word-search puzzle on the Spirit versus the letter (2 Corinthians 3). → puzzle26-p.pdf – A large print version and many more bible-based puzzles. → ep01.htm (Essay on 2 Corinthians 3. → ec13c.htm)
• Look also under the heading "Soul".
• Fore more, see the other parts of this index, or use the search function.

Spoil, spoils, spoiled, spoiling

• How Jesus spoiled the "powers and principalities" (Colossians 2:15). → ed06c.htm – eo07d.htm
• On the spoiling mentioned in Exodus 3:22 and 12:36, and its timing. → ex09c.htm – ec04f.htm
• On the spoiling of Numbers 31 (in connection with certain claims regarding tithing). → em01d.htm
• Fore more, see the other parts of this index, or use the search function.

Spoke, spoken – Look under the headings "Speak" and "Language".

Spue (spit, vomit)

• Revelation 3:16, "I am about to spue thee out of my mouth" (KJV-1769). → ea03d.htm
• Fore more, see the other parts of this index, or use the search function.

Spurious

• The word "spurious" comes from the Latin spurius, "illegitimate", "false" (literally, "of illegitimate birth").
• Even the most commonly used bible-versions contain a number of spurious wordings – that is, words, phrases, verses or even longer passages, that are not original but have been added later. The so-called Comma Johanneum in 1 John 5:7-8 is an example of such things. (For more on the Comma Johanneum, look under the heading "Trinity").
• Fore more, see the other parts of this index, or use the search function.

Stacte – Look under the heading "Incense" (sub-heading "Frankincense").

Star, stars

• The "stars of heaven" of Genesis 22:17 and Deuteronomy 1:10, 10:22 and 28:62. → ey03c.htm
• Acts 7:43, the star of Remphan (Rephan, Romphan). → ew05c.htm
• "Order of the Eastern Star" (a Freemason organisation). → ew04d.htm
• Revelation 8:11, "And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter." → et06d.htm
• The talk about "Star of David" (hexagram) and "Star of Solomon" (pentagram) is deception: Neither are biblical symbols, but both are used as occult signs with a sinister meaning. → (ew04d.htm) – (ew05c.htm)
• For more, see the other parts of this multi-page index, or use the search function.

Statement of beliefs, statement of faith – Look under the heading "Doctrine, doctrines".

Statute, statutes

• The Old Covenant's "statutes" – choq, chuqqah. → ec03d.htm
• The Old Testament: What was the difference between the concepts law, statutes, precepts, decrees, judgments, ordinances, charges, commandments and testimonies? → ec03d.htm
• Fore more, see the other parts of this index, or use the search function.

Stenazô (stenazontes, Hebrews 13:17) → ee04c.htm

Stephanos (and stephanoô)

• In the NT, many bible-translations have the word "crown". However, the Greek word in question, stephanos, meant "a wreath" (from stephô, "to twine or wreathe"). The crown (originally, a three-pointed thing) that "royalty" sometimes wear, has nothing to do with the Bible's stephanos but is of an altogether different, sinister origin.
• Stephen was in the Greek NT text called Stephanos (Acts 6, 7, 8, 11 and 22). For more on Stephen, look below, under the heading "Stephen".
• For more, see the other parts of this multi-page index, or use the search function.

Stephen, Greek Stephanos (Acts 6, 7, 8, 11 and 22)

• Stephen was of the men the saints in Jerusalem chose as a servant at the social welfare tables. → ee02b.htm – ea13b.htm
• Acts 7:60 says that Stephen "fell asleep" (ekoimêthê, a form of the verb koimaô), but that was merely an euphemistic expression in the Greek language which referred to death. → eb09c.htm
• Look also above, under the heading Stephanos.
• For more, see the other parts of this multi-page index, or use the search function.

Steward, stewards, stewardship

• The 1769 KJ version has the word "stewardship" only in the parable of the unfaithful steward, Luke 16:1-13.
  • In that passage, the Greek noun in question is oikonomia, "one who manages a household", from the noun oikos, "house", and the verb nemô, "to deal out", "to distribute", "to pay". (Related: The noun oikonomia, "household management", and the verb oikonomeô, "to manage a household".)
    • The word oikonomia occurs even in 1 Corinthians 9:17, Ephesians 1:10 and 3:2, and Colossians 1:25. There, the 1769 KJ version "translates" it by copying the Catholic Vulgate version which had the Latin word dispensatio in those verses (and also in Ephesians 3:9 and Colossians 1:25). (In Luke 16, the Vulgate had vilicatio, "farm management".)
• Paul to Titus: "An elder must be above reproach as God's steward" [Greek, oikonomos] (Titus 1:7). → ee05b.htm – ee01c.htm
• When Paul was about to end his life as a free man, he gave an account of his ending stewardship (Acts 20:17 and onward). → em03c.htm – em02c.htm
• 1 Corinthians 9:17, "If I do a thing as my own enterprise, then I have a right to wages, but as I now am not in my own enterprise, the activity I have been trusted with is only a stewardship [Greek, oikonomia] given to a slave". → em05e.htm
• On the apostle Paul and his teachings. → eo11b.htm
• Fore more, see the other parts of this index, or use the search function.

Stoicheia, stoicheion → et07e.htm – ec02d.htm – es04-2.htm

Stoic, Stoics, Greek stôikos, Acts 17:18

• The Stoics who are mentioned in Acts 17:18 were followers of a Greek sect of philosophy which had been introduced around 300 BCE by a man called Zeno (Zênôn).
• Fore more, see the other parts of this index, or use the search function.

Stomach, stomachs (belly, bellies)

• Paul warned the saints in Philippi about men "whose end is destruction, whose god is the belly, and their glory in their shame, who mind earthly things". → em03c.htm
• Paul to the saints in Rome: "Now, it is my desire, brothers, that you will take note of those who are causing division and trouble among you, quite against the teaching which was given to you: and keep away from them. For such people are not servants of the Lord Christ, but of their stomachs; and by their smooth and well-said words the hearts of those who have no knowledge of evil are tricked." (Romans 16:17-18.) → ea10c.htm
• Mark 7:18-19, "And he said to them, Have even you so little wisdom? Do you not see that whatever goes into a man from outside is not able to make him unclean, Because it goes not into the heart but into the stomach, and goes out with the waste?" → ef01b.htm
• Regarding food and diet in the light of biblical considerations, look under the heading "Health".
• For more, see the other parts of this multi-page index, or use the search function.

Stone, stoned, stones

• Regarding the Old Covenant's tables of stone, look under the headings "Table, tables, tablets", "Covenants" and "Decalogue".
• The stone and the rock (petra and petros) of Matthew 16:18. → ea01d.htm
• Is Jesus "a capstone on top of a pyramid" as some have claimed, or is he, as the Bible says, the main corner-stone of the foundation of God's spiritual dwelling? → ea05c.htm
• The stone from heaven in Ephesus (Acts 19:35). → (ea14c.htm
• On the akrogoniaios or "corner-stone" of 1 Peter 2:6 and Ephesians 2:20. → ea05c.htm
• Peter to certain saints: "...you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 2:5). What did that mean, on the practical level? → eo03d.htm
• The symbolism of the missing capstone on the pyramid on the dollar bill. → ea05c.htm – (ew04d.htm)
• According to ancient writers, the prophet Jeremiah was stoned to death in Egypt. → ey14b.htm
• "Stones of fire" (Ezekiel 28:14 and 16) = flashy gems, jewel-stones in which the king of Tyre was arrayed. A note: There are many misleading translations of Ezekiel 28. For more, see this essay. → ed05c.htm
• On the Knight-Templar and Freemason idol-stone which is called "Coronation Stone", "Stone of Destiny", "Lia Fail" and so on. → ey14b.htm – ey12b.htm
• Stones in general, as religious symbols. → (ew04d.htm) – (ea14c.htm) – (ey14b.htm)
• The New Covenant is written, "not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart" (2 Corinthians 3:3). → ec08c.htm – ec13c.htm – ec11c.htm – ec06f.htm – ec01c.htm
• Regarding the Old Covenant's tables of stone, look under the headings "Table, tables, tablets" and "Covenants".
• Look also under the headings "Petra", "Peter" and "Rock".
• For more, see the other parts of this multi-page index, or use the search function.

Strait, straits – The Straits of Tiran (and the route of the Exodus). → eo06f.htm – eo06-2.htm

Stranger, strangers – Look under the heading "Foreign, foreigner, foreigners".

Strangle, strangled

• Strangled things, Acts 15. → eo04d.htm
• For more, see the other parts of this multi-page index, or use the search function.

Strong drink (Hebrew shekar)

• The 1769 King James version translates in around 20 Old Testament passages the Hebrew word shekar as "strong drink". In the New Testament, KJV-1769 likewise translates sikera (Luke 1:15, a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew shekar) as "strong drink". Some have thought that to refer to distilled alcohol (liquor), but most probably, the word shekar refers to fermented products such as beer. Explanation: There is no evidence of use of distilled alcohol in ancient times. It seems that production of alcoholic beverages through distillation was not practiced until after New Testament times.
• For more, see the other parts of this multi-page index, or use the search function.

Structure, structures

• Proper structure for religious fellowships. – Look under the heading "Assembly".
• For more, see the other parts of this multi-page index, or use the search function.

(Next section: Studies to Syriac.) (Index overview.)

1-9 – A – B – C – D – E – F – G – H – I – J – K – L – M – N – O – P – Q – R – S – T – U – V – W – X – Y – Z – Detailed index overview

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Some part of this multi-page key-word index was changed or modified 2010-03-07.