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+ From Notes on Galatians, by Hogg and Vine, p. 193.
The use or absence of the article in the original where the "Holy Spirit" is spoken of cannot always be decided by grammatical rules, nor can the presence or absence of the article alone determine whether the reference is to the "Holy Spirit." Examples where the Person is meant when the article is absent are Mat_22:43 (the article is used in Mar_12:36); Act_4:25, RV (absent in some texts); Act_19:2, Act_19:6; Rom_14:17; 1Co_2:4; Gal_5:25 (twice); 1Pe_1:2. Sometimes the absence is to be accounted for by the fact that Pneuma (like Theos) is substantially a proper name, e.g., in Joh_7:39. As a general rule the article is present where the subject of the teaching is the Personality of the Holy Spirit, e.g., Joh_14:26, where He is spoken of in distinction from the Father and the Son. See also Joh_15:26 and cf. Luk_3:22.
In Gal_3:3, in the phrase "having begun in the Spirit," it is difficult to say whether the reference is to the "Holy Spirit" or to the quickened spirit of the believer; that it possibly refers to the latter is not to be determined by the absence of the article, but by the contrast with "the flesh"; on the other hand, the contrast may be between the "Holy Spirit" who in the believer sets His seal on the perfect work of Christ, and the flesh which seeks to better itself by works of its own. There is no preposition before either noun, and if the reference is to the quickened spirit it cannot be dissociated from the operation of the "Holy Spirit." In Gal_4:29 the phrase "after the Spirit" signifies "by supernatural power," in contrast to "after the flesh," i.e., "by natural power," and the reference must be to the "Holy Spirit"; so in Gal_5:17.
The full title with the article before both pneuma and hagios (the "resumptive" use of the article), lit., "the Spirit the Holy," stresses the character of the Person, e.g., Mat_12:32; Mar_3:29; Mar_12:36; Mar_13:11; Luk_2:26; Luk_10:21 (RV); Joh_14:26; Act_1:16; Act_5:3; Act_7:51; Act_10:44, Act_10:47; Act_13:2; Act_15:28; Act_19:6; Act_20:23, Act_20:28; Act_21:11; Act_28:25; Eph_4:30; Heb_3:7; Heb_9:8; Heb_10:15.
The Personality of the Spirit is emphasized at the expense of strict grammatical procedure in Joh_14:26; Joh_15:26; Joh_16:8, Joh_16:13, Joh_16:14, where the emphatic pronoun ekeinos, "He," is used of Him in the masculine, whereas the noun pneuma is neuter in Greek, while the corresponding word in Aramaic, the language in which our Lord probably spoke, is feminine (rucha, cf. Heb. ruach). The rendering "itself" in Rom_8:16, Rom_8:26, due to the Greek gender, is corrected to "Himself" in the RV.
The subject of the "Holy Spirit" in the NT may be considered as to His divine attributes; His distinct Personality in the Godhead; His operation in connection with the Lord Jesus in His birth, His life, His baptism, His death; His operations in the world; in the church; His having been sent at Pentecost by the Father and by Christ; His operations in the individual believer; in local churches; His operations in the production of Holy Scripture; His work in the world, etc.
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