The Spirit of God

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 Reinhard Feldmeier - 9783657760145
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 Reinhard Feldmeier

The Spirit of God

Biblical Pneumatology in its
Religious-Historical Context

English translation by

T.R. Niles

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Cover Illustration: Paul Weigmann: Stained-glass window “Schöpfung,” 1985.
Collegiate and Provost Church of St. Mary’s Assumption in Kleve. © Photo: Ulrike Feldmeier

The German original edition was published in 2020 under the title “Gottes Geist. Die biblische Rede vom
Geist im Kontext der antiken Welt” by Mohr Siebeck GmbH & Co. KG in Tübingen.

Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.

The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed
bibliographic data available online: http://dnb.d-nb.de

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without prior written permission from the publisher.

All rights of the English edition © 2022 by Brill Schöningh, Wollmarktstraße 115, 33098 Paderborn, Germany,
an imprint of the Brill-Group (Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands; Brill USA Inc., Boston MA,
USA; Brill Asia Pte Ltd, Singapore; Brill Deutschland GmbH, Paderborn, Germany; Brill Österreich GmbH,
Vienna, Austria) Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Hotei,
Brill Schöningh, Brill Fink, Brill mentis, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Böhlau, Verlag Antike and V&R unipress.

www.schoeningh.de

Cover design: Anna Braungart, Tübingen

Production: Brill Deutschland GmbH, Paderborn

ISBN 978-3-506-76014-2 (hardback)

ISBN 978-3-657-76014-5 (e-book)

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 Não sei se a vida é curta ou longa para nós,
mas sei que nada do que vivemos tem sentido,
se não tocarmos o coração das pessoas.

I don’t know if life will be short or long for us,

but I know that nothing we live for makes sense
if we don’t touch people’s hearts.

Cora Coralina, “Saber viver”

***

For Uwe Wegner, in gratitude for more than 40 years of true friendship
and critical companionship which have transcended the separation of the
Atlantic and the division of the hemispheres.

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Table of Contents

Preface to the German Edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

Preface to the English Edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
A Note on the Translation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv

Prologue – The Spirit and the Spirits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Christianity as a Religion of the Spirit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Jesus the Charismatic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
The Spirit and the Tria Corda Lectures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Between Gift and Encounter, Materiality and Personality—
Phenomenology of the Spirit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Pneuma and Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

1. Breath of the Creator and Might of the Deliverer:

The Hebrew Tradition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
1.1 Being Overcome by the Spirit—Numinous Origins . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
1.2 The Spirit and Creation—Protology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
1.3 The Spirit and Preservation—Cosmology and Anthropology . . . 27
1.4 The Spirit and Renewal—Identity and Ethics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
1.5 The Spirit and Redemption—Prophecy and Eschatology . . . . . . . 32
1.6 The Spirit and God—Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

2. The Workings of Cosmic Reason:

Graeco-Roman Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
2.1 Stoic Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
2.1.1 Overcoming the Dualism of Reason and Matter—
Early Stoicism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
2.1.2 The Inner Harmony of the Universe—Middle Stoicism . . . . . 43
2.1.3 The “Divine Spirit” as “God within Us”—Late Stoicism . . . . . . 47
2.1.4 The Decline and Renewal of the Cosmos—Stoicism in
the Second Sophistic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
2.2 Middle Platonism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
2.2.1 The Divine Spirit as Agent of Transcendence—The Return
of Plato . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
2.2.2 Prophecy and Virgin Birth—Plutarch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
2.3 The Divine Spirit and the Holy Spirit—Convergence and
Contrast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

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viii Table of Contents

3. The Immanence of the Transcendent:

Hellenistic Judaism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
3.1 Spirit, Justice, and Judgment—The Wisdom of Solomon . . . . . . . 65
3.2 The Bond between the One God and His Creation—Philo of
Alexandria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
3.3 Consummate Corporeality—Joseph and Aseneth . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
3.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
3.5 Ancient Judaism as New Testament Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

4. Children of God and Eternal Life:

The New Testament . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
4.1 The Son of God, Beloved and Driven—Mark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
4.2 Adoption and Inheritance—Paul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
4.2.1 Soteriology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
4.2.2 Ecclesiology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
4.2.3 Ethics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
4.2.4 Eschatology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
4.3 Triadic Theology and Salvation-History—Luke-Acts . . . . . . . . . . . 107
4.4 The Promise of Eternal Life and the Presence of
Divine Love—John . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Epilogue – Veni Creator Spiritus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

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Preface to the German Edition

The Holy Spirit often plays a minor role in our churches and in our theologies.
The picture looks significantly different in the Global South: in Pentecostal and
Neo-Pentecostal movements and in the charismatic renewal movements origi-
nating from them which have made an impact in mainline churches, the Holy
Spirit assumes a leading role. These movements are also the churches where
Christianity is growing at a steady rate; so much cannot be said of our part
of the world. One of the tasks of contemporary theology is to come to grips
with this tension between North and South regarding the importance of the
Spirit—in all disciplines of theology. The present study pursues this goal by of-
fering an exegetical contribution, seeking to explain biblical (and early Jewish)
sources by tracing their development in the context of the religious and intel-
lectual history of Graeco-Roman antiquity. In so doing, it becomes clear that
the founding documents of Christianity ascribed a fundamental importance to
the Spirit. Yet it also becomes clear that the charismatic character of the early
Christian movement is the soil in which the necessity of ‘testing the spirits’
sprang up. This historical-critical interpretation thus pursues the hermeneuti-
cal goal of holding up the critical mirror of the biblical testimonies both to the
Spirit-forgetfulness of the churches of the Northern Hemisphere and to the
overemphasis of some churches in the Global South. The result, I hope, will be
to spark further theological reflection among all interested parties.
That I as a rather traditional German exegete have addressed such ques-
tions and continue to do so is undoubtedly the result of my friendship with my
Brazilian colleague Uwe Wegner from the Escola Superior de Teologia (EST) in
São Leopoldo. Without any air of superiority, but with convincing resolve, he
has pointed out time and again since the beginning of our friendship in the
1970s just how limited my Eurocentric perspective is and has also expanded
my horizons through valuable insights into his home country; this little book is
dedicated to him. The expansion of my horizons is also indebted to the encoun-
ters with other colleagues which he facilitated; to name only but a few, I have
here in mind the church historian and Rector of the EST, Wilhelm Wachholz,
the systematic theologian Rudolf von Sinner from the Pontifícia Universidade
Católica do Paraná (PUC-PR), the sociologist Emil Sobottka from the pontifi-
cal university in Porto Alegre (PUC-RS), and the religious studies scholar Fritz
Heinrich from the University of Göttingen, who for many years has been a vis-
iting professor in São Leopoldo. They, too, deserve my thanks.
I owe my thanks to innumerous other people as well. For the last two de-
cades, I have studied and explored the worlds of classical and late antiquity

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x Preface to the German Edition

with the two other co-editors of the SAPERE series: the classical philologist
Heinz-Günther Nesselrath (Göttingen) and the New Testament scholar Rainer
Hirsch-Luipold (Bern). From the team of researchers involved in SAPERE, I
would especially like to thank Dr. Natalia Pedrique for the suggestions she of-
fered during our jointly instructed course on the ‘spirit’ in Graeco-Roman an-
tiquity. From the academic advisory board of SAPERE, I would like to thank
the philosopher Maximilian Forschner from the University of Erlangen, who
gifted me a copy of his wonderful book on the Stoics and was also so kind
as to read my chapter on ‘spirit’ in Graeco-Roman philosophy; I have gladly
incorporated his remarks and suggestions. For valuable impulses regarding
Philo, I am indebted to my Jerusalem colleague Maren Niehoff, with whom
I have conducted two projects. I owe important insights into the history of
effects of the New Testament texts to the interdisciplinary New Testament/
Patristics seminar which I co-instructed with my Göttingen colleague Peter
Gemeinhardt. Last but not least, I wish to thank my friend and Old Testament
scholar Hermann Spieckermann. While conducting this study, I shamelessly
pillaged the insights concerning the Spirit in the Old Testament which he had
produced for the biblical doctrine of God we co-authored; he was also so gen-
erous as to countercheck the result.
A professor is quite fortunate whenever he or she has a team of dedicat-
ed junior researchers with whom one can discuss unfinished material and
think about it further. Here, I would like to thank Dr. Jan Basczok, Prof. Dr.
Dr. Matthias Becker, Dr. Jens-Arne Edelmann, Jonas Hiese, T.R. Niles, and
Dr. Michael Wandusim. The last two—one from the West Coast of the USA,
one from the West Coast of Africa—joined me in co-instructing a seminar on
the Holy Spirit in the New Testament and in the Global South, offered through
a study program in Intercultural Theology (Hermannsburg/Göttingen). This
seminar was visited primarily by students from Africa and Asia, which allowed
for the challenges mentioned at the outset to become impressively clear.
Thanks are due also to Danilo Paap, who cautiously read and corrected the
entire manuscript, and to Dr. Claus-Jürgen Thornton, who once again perfectly
prepared a manuscript of mine for the printing presses.
This study never would have come about if the triumvirate of the Tria
Corda—Karl-Wilhelm Niebuhr, Matthias Perkams, and Meinolf Vielberg—had
not invited me to hold the Jena Lectures on Judaism, Antiquity, and Christianity
in 2019. I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to them and to all the other
colleagues who met with me in Jena for being receptive and for discussing
the subject matter in a lively and interested manner. Especial thanks are due
both to Karl-Wilhelm Niebuhr, who even after the lecture event advised on the

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Preface to the German Edition xi

study in a collegial manner which was truly exemplary, and to Elena Müller
from Mohr Siebeck.

Reinhard Feldmeier
Bayreuth, Pentecost 2020

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Preface to the English Edition

The German edition of this volume has been lightly revised for the English
translation and supplemented through additional references to ancient
sources.

I thank Jörg Persch, the general manager of Brill Germany, for the offer to
include this volume in the Brill Schöningh program, and also Martina Kayser
for the excellent supervision of the publication. Special thanks are due to my
former assistant T.R. Niles, who has translated the volume with expertise and
an astonishing personal engagement.

Reinhard Feldmeier
Gstadt am Chiemsee, Pentecost 2021

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A Note on the Translation

Anyone who has worked with Reinhard Feldmeier knows that throughout his
career as a professor of theology, he has always attempted to maintain an ac-
tive engagement with the Church. In the same way that his intention to con-
duct theology to the benefit both of the academy and the Church has shaped
his writing, so too does the present translation seek to be beneficial and ac-
cessible for various audiences. For this reason, all references to Hebrew and
Greek terms in the running text have been transliterated in order to facilitate
the reading experience. Such references in the footnotes, however, have been
left unchanged. In addition, I have translated all quotations from German and
French sources into English.
I have attempted to keep the use of parenthetical references to the German
term underlying the translation to a minimum. A notable exception to the rule
concerns the German substantive Gegenüber, which denotes a person or other
entity which stands opposite the subject and is capable of interacting with it in
some way. Aside from the one instance in which the context allowed for a peri-
phrastic translation (the Spirit “makes the human being into a person capable
of standing face-to-face with God”), the term has been translated as “counter-
part” which, while imperfect, appears to me to be the best option in a notori-
ous lose-lose situation in German translation work. The use of a parenthetical
reference to the term Gegenüber will, I hope, clarify the intended meaning.
Biblical quotations derive from the New Revised Standard Version but have
been altered where necessary in order to accord with Feldmeier’s reading of
the Hebrew or Greek text. Unless otherwise noted, the translation of other an-
cient sources into English stem from Feldmeier and myself.
Abbreviations for all sources, ancient and modern, follow the conventions
of The SBL Handbook of Style.

T.R. Niles
Bern, Pentecost 2021

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