Biblical Concept of Hell. William Hyland
Son’s origin in order to bridge the gap between infinity and absoluteness and man’s inability to comprehend and visualize spiritual reality.The grass withers, the flower fades, when the רוּחַ (breath) of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever (Isaiah 40:7–8).Both רוּחַ and πνεῦμα, its counterpart in the Septuagint (LXX) as well as the New Testament, are varied and diverse in meaning: spirit, breath, and wind. God’s רוּחַ is the Third Person of the Godhead, Who proceeds from either the Father (Matthew 10:20; Romans 8:10-11; 2 Corinthians 1:21–22; Ephesians 3:14–16) or His Son (Romans 8:9; Galatians 4:6; Philippians 1:19; 1 Peter 1:11.) The function of His Breath is to source {cf. Romans 15:19; 1 Corinthians 3:16; Galatians 5:22; Colossians 3:16}, convey {cf. Matthew 4:4,10:20; John 16:7–8; 1 Corinthians 2:10,13; 1 John 5:7} and execute {cf. Zechariah 4:6; Romans 8:11} all that God desires.Then the Lord God formed man…and breathed into his nostrils the breath [נְשָׁמָה] of life; and man became a living being. (Genesis 2:7)Job: “In (the Lord’s) hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath [ רוּחַ ] of all mankind.” (Job 12:10)Job: “For as long as…the breath [ רוּחַ ] of God is in my nostrils” (Job 27:3).Elihu: “If (God) should determine to do so, if He should gather to Himself His breath [רוּחַ] and His anger [נְשָׁמָה], all flesh would perish together and man would return to dust.” (Job 34:14–15)Now 2 Timothy 3:16 affirms that “all Scripture is inspired by God…” with ‘inspiration’ being a God-breathed activity: His breath fills a person with the motivation and ability to do something creative for His glory. Anthropomorphically speaking, whenever God “speaks” or “says,” His speech is caused, borne, sourced, and delivered by His breath:…Yahweh’s word came to me saying… (Jeremiah 1:5)The early English translations for