What means these: Holy Ghost, or Holy Spirit?

Theology
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Hello everyone! I am back doing a little :thinking: thinking. Usually what that means is that I don’t really have an answer but I’m trying to get to one. This sometimes takes meditating out loud.

However sometimes one cannot get to an answer because they yet to have scriptures,concepts, or proven ideals that may help. And that is where the engaging conversation with knowledgeable, questful scriptures and thoughts by others come in.

I do not believe AI can answer this. AI subscribes to its input.

Please don’t quote me because I’m working from my memory and using phone.

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I’m going to lay ideals out: and if you see both Holyghost/ Holy Spirit it’s because I don’t know which one it’s referring to in scripture.

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Before Jesus left He breath on His disciples and said receive ye the holy Spirit

Yet the “Holy Spirit/ Holyghost” [S/G] was yet not given or poured out.

He told His disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high.

There was to be the baptism of the Holyghost(HG)/ Holy Spirit (HS)

Jesus had to go back to the father to send the Comforter-S/G.

Have you received the Holy Spirit/ or Holy Ghost sense you believed.

And What happen at Jesus’s baptism?

……….

From the Kjv and those thoughts of scriptures, I have taken it that there is a difference between the Holyghost and Holy Spirit.

So let’s start off with this question who is the Comforter? In verses 18 Jesus says I will come to you.

John 14

If you love me, keep my commands. **16 **And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— **17 **the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be[c] in you. **18 **I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. **19 **Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. **20 **On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. **21 **Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”

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Nope, no difference @Corlove13

The supposed difference is purely one of translation, not of essence, person, or operation. The King James translators used “Holy Ghost” in some verses and “Holy Spirit” in others, but in the original Greek text, there is only one phrase: τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον (to pneuma to hagion), literally “the Holy Spirit.” The word pneuma means breath, wind, or spirit, and it is the same word used in every passage, whether English renders it “Ghost” or “Spirit.” There is not a single manuscript variant that separates the two terms. In Hebrew, the equivalent term is רוּחַ קֹדֶשׁ (ruach qodesh), which again means “Holy Spirit.” The Hebrew verb נָפַח (naphach), used in Genesis 2:7 when God “breathed” into Adam, links directly to Jesus “breathing” on the disciples in John 20:22, where He said λάβετε πνεῦμα ἅγιον (labete pneuma hagion), “receive the Holy Spirit.” It is the same Spirit of God, not a different one.

When Jesus breathed on the disciples, He imparted the regenerating life of the Spirit, preparing them for the empowering outpouring at Pentecost. The verbs used in both moments differ in function, not in identity. In John 20:22, the aorist imperative λάβετε (receive) marks an immediate impartation of divine life, the internal witness of the Spirit, corresponding to new birth. In Acts 1:8, ἐπιλήμψεσθε (you will receive) describes a future empowerment, the Spirit’s external anointing for witness. Same Spirit, different operations.

The Comforter Jesus promised in John 14:16–18 is explicitly identified as the Spirit of truth, and Jesus says, “I will come to you.” This is not a different entity but the same divine presence of Christ through the indwelling Spirit. The Greek word παράκλητος (paraklētos) means advocate or helper. In John 14:26, the same term is used again, and the identity is fixed: ὁ παράκλητος, τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον (the Helper, the Holy Spirit) whom the Father will send in Jesus’ name. No textual distinction allows “Holy Ghost” to refer to Christ Himself and “Holy Spirit” to another person. The Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, proceeding from the Father, bearing witness to the Son, and dwelling within believers.

The early church never read two Spirits or two phases of Spirit identity. At Pentecost, Peter quoted Joel 2:28, אֶשְׁפּוֹךְ אֶת־רוּחִי (I will pour out My Spirit), showing that what was received was the same Spirit Jesus had already breathed, now manifested in fullness and power. The continuity is unbroken: one Spirit, one Lord, one baptism (Ephesians 4:4–6).

Therefore, the English phrase “Holy Ghost” in the KJV is simply an older way of saying “Holy Spirit.” The word “ghost” once meant “spirit” or “breath,” as in “the spirit of man.” Modern translations avoid “ghost” to prevent confusion with the modern meaning of an apparition. Linguistically, the Greek pneuma and Hebrew ruach never split into two divine entities. There is no textual, grammatical, or theological justification for dividing them.

Thus, the “Holy Ghost” and the “Holy Spirit” are the same divine person, the third person of the Trinity, who proceeds from the Father, glorifies the Son, regenerates the believer, and empowers the Church. The verbs differ by context, He is breathed, poured out, fills, empowers, leads, but He Himself is one and the same eternal Spirit of God.

The Holy Spirit
The “Holy Spirit” is spoken of under various titles in the NT (“Spirit” and “Ghost” are renderings of the same word, pneuma; the advantage of the rendering “Spirit” is that it can always be used, whereas “Ghost” always requires the word “Holy” prefixed.) In the following list the omission of the definite article marks its omission in the original (concerning this see below): “Spirit, Mat_22:43; Eternal Spirit, Heb_9:14; the Spirit, Mat_4:1; Holy Spirit, Mat_1:18; the Holy Spirit, Mat_28:19; the Spirit, the Holy, Mat_12:32; the Spirit of promise, the Holy, Eph_1:13; Spirit of God, Rom_8:9; Spirit of (the) living God, 2Co_3:3; the Spirit of God, 1Co_2:11; the Spirit of our God, 1Co_6:11; the Spirit of God, the Holy, Eph_4:30; the Spirit of glory and of God, 1Pe_4:14; the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead (i.e., God), Rom_8:11; the Spirit of your Father, Mat_10:20; the Spirit of His Son, Gal_4:6; Spirit of (the) Lord, Act_8:39; the Spirit of (the) Lord, Act_5:9; (the) Lord, (the) Spirit, 2Co_3:18; the Spirit of Jesus, Act_16:7; Spirit of Christ, Rom_8:9; the Spirit of Jesus Christ, Php_1:19; Spirit of adoption, Rom_8:15; the Spirit of truth, Jhn_14:17; the Spirit of life, Rom_8:2; the Spirit of grace, Heb_10:29.”+

  • From Notes on Galatians, by Hogg and Vine, p. 193.

J.

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Hello Corlove13

The Holy Spirit and the Holy Ghost are the same. Some translations say one or the other. However, to fully understand the reality, you must fully understand who the Holy Spirit is.

'In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." Genesis 1:1

In the beginning God. God was in the beginning.

Next verse.

“The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”

When there was yet nothing, the Holy Spirit was there. Do you see that? But wait.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1

A little bit later.

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14

God, the Word, which became flesh, Jesus, and the Spirit were there in the beginning and have always been. Then, to fully understand who the Holy Spirit is, we need to return to John 14.

“I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.”

He said, I shall come to you. Is he already there? Of course. What He is telling them is that the Holy Spirit is Him, He is God. Three yet one. That is when the flesh dies, and He goes to be with the Father. The Spirit, who never dies, will come and dwell in us.

“Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.”

Again, “I” in you. Not some spook. “I.” Jesus. The Holy Spirit is equal to Jesus. He IS Jesus. Jesus IS God. Are you following?

“Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?”

Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”

Read that again**. “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and WE will come to him and make OUR home with him.”** What is He saying? Remember, OUR means three or more. Jesus said WE will make OUR abode with him. The very real person Jesus, the very real person the Holy Spirit, and even God Himself will live IN us.

This is why we should always strive to do the best we can and never fear the world. Because He who overcame the world lives in us.

PC

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Sounds like you are parroting someone else’s ideals.

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Now what is the difference between you living a physical life on earth….

You being dead

And you resurrecting?

…………

I am not denying that Jesus, and the Father do not share the same nature.

What I may try on is that when something is separated from it’s components to become something else that it can discharge, ignite something from itself.

Take for example H20

When H20 become ice the atmosphere is cold.

When H20 becomes steam it ignites humidity

Cold and humidity are not the same.

As far as my knowledge goes, I don’t know anyone besides God that has become man.

The question: Is what proceeds from the begotten as man the same as that which will proceed from the father who is Spirit?

John 14

**16 **And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

John 15

**26 **But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:

**27 **And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning

……….

Here are 2 passages

First one, the Father emits the→ comforter

The second one, Jesus emits the→ Spirit of truth

…….

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I suppose @PeterC and I must have it all wrong then, and you’re the one who’s right, @Corlove13. I can share more background from the rabbis since the Messiah was Jewish, but this isn’t Facebook or TikTok, and you’re free to hold your own view. I’ve simply shared what I know to be biblical truth, whether you accept it or reject it is up to you.

Shalom. Enjoy your day.

J.

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Hey Corlove 13,

This is how I try to explain it. Of course, there will be some that disagree; anyway, it really does not matter to your salvation.

Look here in the Word.

“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Genesis 1:26-27

In the original language, the word “our” means three or more. We are created in the image of God. We have our brains. or mind. Our knowledge, wisdom, will, and emotions are fashioned after God the Father. Our body. Fashioned after the flesh of God, or the Word of God in the flesh, Jesus. Our spirit. Who we are, the thing that lives on, is fashioned after the Holy Spirit. We are three, yet one. This is why, when we leave this earth, a person’s being, or spirit, leaves their body and goes to heaven.

I understand that this can be a difficult concept. As I pointed out in my last response, when Jesus is talking about the comforter, the teacher, the spirit to bring remembrance of all He said, He made statements like this.

“Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day, you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.”

Again, “I” in you. “I.” Jesus. The Holy Spirit is equal to Jesus. He is Jesus. Jesus IS God.

“Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. {Whose commandments? Jesus, God, Same thing.} And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”

Read that again. “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and WE will come to him and make OUR home with him.” What is He saying? Remember, OUR means three or more. Jesus said WE will make OUR abode with him. The very real person Jesus, the very real person the Holy Spirit, and even God Himself will live in us. They are all the same. As we are three, yet one. The difference, we are not God.

PC

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There is not any difference between Holy Ghost and Holy Spirit.

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You’re writing nonsensical stuff here. Jesus is not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit and the Holy Ghost are one and the same.

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He says otherwise. So does the Word of God. But then again, Jesus is the Word, so yeah.

PC

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The Ruach Ha-Kodesh is not Jesus @PeterC

Jesus tells His disciples in John 14:16, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Paraklētos to help you and be with you forever.” The verb here for “give” is didōmi, which means to actively hand over, to entrust. Jesus is showing that the Spirit is someone distinct from Himself; the Father will didōmi the Spirit to the disciples, not send Jesus Himself in that same role.

In John 14:26, Jesus says the Spirit “will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” The verbs didaskō (teach) and anamimnēskō (bring to remembrance) highlight the Spirit’s active function. Jesus spoke these words in the past, and now the Spirit continues the work by internalizing and applying them to the disciples’ lives. The Spirit acts in real time within the believer, guiding, reminding, and empowering, but this is distinct from Jesus’ own earthly ministry.

In John 16:7, Jesus says, “If I do not go away, the Paraklētos will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.” The verbs erchomai (come) and aposteilō (send) show a clear distinction: the Spirit’s arrival depends on Jesus’ departure. Jesus’ movement back to the Father triggers the Spirit’s sending, so the Spirit is someone who comes in continuity of Jesus’ work, but is not Jesus Himself.

Even in John 16:8, the Spirit “will convict the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment.” The verb elengchō (convict, expose, reprove) shows action unique to the Spirit. Jesus does not reprove in the same direct manner now; the Spirit does the ongoing work of applying Christ’s redemptive work to the hearts of people.

So reading these passages in Greek, the verbs show Jesus and the Spirit in distinct roles. Jesus mediates salvation through His life, death, and resurrection, and the Spirit applies it within believers. The Spirit teaches, convicts, reminds, and empowers, always sent by the Father at Jesus’ initiative. They share divine essence, yet their personal roles in God’s plan are different.

Correct?

J.

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Hey Johann. Different roles, yes. Just like we, our mind or soul, flesh, and spirit all have different roles, it does not make us any less of one or the other. Jesus Himself said, “I will come.” “We will make our home in those who believe.

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day, you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”

Then here, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

Yes, of course, they have different roles. God was. Jesus created all things. The Spirit walked on the face of the deep. God so loved, the Word had to become flesh, Jesus, and died for our sins, so that the Holy Spirit could come and adopt us, educate us, protect us, and make us justified for when the time comes, Jesus returns, and brings us all before God.

Again, complicated to understand, but the answer is simple: they are three yet they are one. God is all. Jesus is the I Am, and the Holy Spirit is him in the spirit.

PC

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Sorry, you are contradicting millennium years of sound teaching. The Christian church has confessed the Trinity as the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost/Spirit since the Apostle’s Creed was first confessed.

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This sounds like Modalism/Sabellianism, correct @PeterC ? Not the Creed, but the way you explain it, perhaps?

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth.

And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried.
He descended to the dead.
On the third day He rose again.
He ascended into heaven,
and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.
From there He shall come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.

This creed distinctly separates the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, affirming each person’s role while maintaining the oneness of God, directly opposing modalistic ideas.

J.

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You must be well grounded in Church history brother @DrDale

J.

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Exactly right. I have to type 20 characters, so I’m adding this.

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38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

39 (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified

Now from a glance one may interpret:

That the Spirit they should receive is the Holyghost.

But the second glance leads to questions. Like:

Did the Holyghost fall on all who believed and when it did is this when they received the Spirit?

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As has been stated and reiterated many times and in many ways, there is no different, no distinction, between the Holy Spirit and the Holy Ghost. This is the one and same Divine Person of the Holy Trinity. The use of “Holy Ghost” is more archaic, while “Holy Spirit” is more contemporary.

English is a funny chimera language, where we have blended Germanic and Latin into our language, often with the result of having an over abundance of words, for example beef and cow (beef is from Latin through French, cow is Germanic), we can speak of both justice (Latin) and righteousness (Germanic), of both malice (Latin) and evil (Germanic), faithfulness (Germanic) and fidelity (Latin), believable (Germanic) and credible (Latin), and it goes on.

We can speak of a ghost (Germanic) or a spirit (Latin).

When the Holy Spirit inspired the biblical writers, the words they used were ruach (Hebrew) and pneuma (Greek), as such throughout the New Testament we see time and again Hagia Pneuma (Holy Spirit/Ghost), and in the Old Testament we see mention of God’s Ruach (God’s Spirit/Ghost).

Historically English speakers have used Holy Ghost, and this was standard throughout much of the history of English, and so we see it in early English translations of the Bible, most famously the King James Version. However, in the last couple hundred years “Holy Spirit” has become more common for most English speakers, and so contemporary translations of the Bible use Holy Spirit, not Holy Ghost.

Here is John Wycliffe’s translation from the 14th century, of Acts 2:4

“And alle weren fillid with the Hooli Goost, and thei bigunnen to speke diuerse langagis, as the Hooli Goost yaf to hem for to speke.“

Here is how the New Revised Version, from the 20th century, has Acts 2:4

“All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.“

And here is the original Greek:

καὶ ἐπλήσθησαν πάντες πνεύματος ἁγίου καὶ ἤρξαντο λαλεῖν ἑτέραις γλώσσαις καθὼς τὸ πνεῦμα ἐδίδου ἀποφθέγγεσθαι αὐτοῖς

The Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost, the Pnematos Hagia, Spiritu Sanctus, Ruach HaQodesh. All mean the same: The Third Person of the Holy Trinity.

“We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father [and the Son], who with the Father and Son is worshiped and glorified.” - Nicene Creed

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The Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost, the Pnematos Hagia, Spiritu Sanctus, Ruach HaQodesh. All mean the same: The Third Person of the Holy Trinity.

It could be so that, that one is third person in Trinity.

Liken to A male child who is third born…

The child does not remain a child. If the child lives long enough he becomes a man. And if the man gets married he becomes a husband and if the husband has a child he becomes a father. And if the man gets older he grows in wisdom.

In this case are a son, father, and husband the same?

Was the child a husband? If not there is a difference between child and husband. But while there is a difference no one says there isn’t somethings that do not remain the same.

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Hello DrDale. I gave you scripture from God; you tell me of traditions of men. I chose to believe in God; however, as I stated before, neither belief matters in your salvation. Only the Blood of Christ. God bless.