Ruach

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Breath of life

The Hebrew word rûaḥ (רוּחַ) occurs 378 times in the Tanach . In certain places the word is translated as ' spirit '. The basic meaning of rûaḥ is ' wind ' and ' breath '. In Greek translations of the Tanach the translation can be found as Pneuma , as well as in the New Testament .

Spread in the ancient Orient

The word is widespread in the Western Semitic language area. In Ugaritic there is rḥ ('wind' or 'scent'), in Phoenician-Punic rḥ ('spirit'), in Aramaic rwḥ ('wind' and 'spirit'), in Arabic rūḥ ( ' breath of life ', 'spirit') ) and rīḥ ('wind') and in Old Ethiopian roḥa ('to fan'). In Eastern Semitic, the Akkadian root sharu for 'breath' is used instead of rûaḥ .

Etymological aspects

Rûaḥ is feminine and is supposed to be an onomatopoeia word that imitates the sound of wind or breathing. Some authors have discussed the relationship between rûaḥ and rewach ('liberation'). The Akkadian word napaschu ('breathe easy ' and 'get wide') was cited as an indication . However, the connection is considered controversial.

Common Uses

The authors of the Tanakh use the Hebrew word rûaḥ with different frequencies. Ezekiel and Isaiah together record a large part of the occurrences in the Tanakh with a total of 103 sites. In large parts of the Tanach, especially the so-called minor prophets ( Hosea to Malachi ), it is hardly used (a total of 33 sites).

The most common use of rûaḥ in the Tanakh is in connection with weather phenomena. The hot wind that occurs in the spring in North Africa, which is called Sharav in Israel , is also mentioned in the Tanakh and called rûaḥ qadim there. Another common use is to describe activities of the wind, for example in the sense that the wind blows up the dry straw. The abbreviated formulation: "Scatter before the wind" has become a phrase in the Tanakh that denotes the downfall of the wicked ( Isa. 17:13  EU ). In a figurative sense, rûaḥ is used for the uselessness of human activity: “striving for wind” ( Koh 1.17  EU ).

Rûaḥ and the action of God, delimitations from other names

In the Tanach, " soul " and "body" represent aspects of the human being understood as a unit. The force that invigorates the body - in religious-scientific terminology the "body soul" or "vital soul" - is called nefesch (נפש), neschama or ru in the Biblical Hebrew 'ah (רוח). All three terms originally designate the breath.

Neschama is the breath of life which, according to the Book of Genesis, God breathed into the nose of his earthly creature Adam, with which he made him a living being (nefesch) . The specific basic meaning of nefesch is "breath" and "airway", "throat" and, due to the lack of a conceptual distinction between the trachea and esophagus, also "throat", "throat". Therefore, the word also denotes the source of the desire associated with the ingestion of food (hunger and thirst, appetite and greed) and, in a broader sense, also the seat of other desires, passions and feelings such as thirst for revenge, longings and affection. As the invigorating breath, Nefesch is the life force that leaves a person at death, and life that is threatened, risked or extinguished. In the broadest sense, nefesch also stands for the whole person including the body and then means “person” (also when counting people). Man does not have a nefesch , he is one and lives as a nefesch . Therefore, nefesch is also used as a substitute for a pronoun , for example in the meaning of "someone". The god YHWH has a nefesch , by which he swears ( Am 6,8  EU ).

Rûaḥ is also associated with the actions of God in the Tanach . The authors of the Tanach assume that YHWH causes the wind to move ( Gen 8,1  EU ), that the wind is generated by God (“rûaḥ YHWH” in Isa 40.7  EU ) and that God created the wind (with "Bara" in Am 4.13  EU ). In some places in the Tanach rûaḥ is used in the sense of the “breath of God” Ps 18:16  EU . It is not uncommon for the breath of God to be associated with YHWH's acts of war. In Isa 30:28  EU it says that God's fiery breath has destroyed the enemy.

In Old Testament research, the textual finding that the wind generated by God and his breath are identical is very controversial. Individual authors question the general establishment of wind and breath of God in the Tanach or assume that these are metaphorical formulations. Other authors suspect that this connection came about in epiphany ideas.

In some places in the Tanakh, rûaḥ seems to take on the meaning of ' mind '. These are reports in which it is mentioned that the narrator of God's rûaḥ was brought to another place (e.g. 1 Kings 18.12  EU ; 2 Kings 2.16  EU ). Westermann explains that one could assume that the “moving power of the wind” is being transformed into a “visionary sphere”.

In the Tanach the rûaḥ comes suddenly and unexpectedly over the person, it is stormy and upsets those whom it takes hold of. It gives extraordinary powers, u. a. also the capacity for ecstatic prophecy and visions. Not only the relationship with God, but also the relationships between people are rearranged and healed by the Rûaḥ. She gives those whom she takes a new, loving heart.

Rûaḥ and human breathing

When the authors of the Tanakh want to name the human breathing , the word נְשָׁמָה neschamah is used alongside rûaḥ . Due to the different usage of the two words, individual authors have concluded that rûaḥ means violent, noisy puffing, whereas neschamah means calm breathing. C. Westermann contradicted this view with the reference to Isa 42,14  EU , where neschamah is used for the violent breathing of a woman giving birth. According to Westermann, neschamah should indicate the difference between being alive and being dead, which is why the word is also used for the "living breath" in Gen 2.7  EU .

The word rûaḥ , on the other hand, is intended to denote human breathing under the "aspect of dynamic vitality" (C. Westermann): In view of Solomon's wealth, the Queen of Sheba gasps ( 1 Kings 10.5  EU ). In many places rûaḥ describes the returning liveliness of an exhausted person, for example Samson in Ri 15.19  EU . For this reason, individual authors have brought the idea of ​​liveliness in the Tanach directly into connection with rûaḥ .

Change of meaning of rûaḥ

Albertz and Westermann state in their detailed commentary in the Theological Concise Dictionary of the Old Testament (THAT) that there has been a serious change in the meaning of the term rûaḥ in the course of the genesis of the Old Testament writings . Originally, rûaḥ had a dynamic character, which was leveled over time and then referred to a mere "being alive" in the later writings of the Tanach. Rûaḥ took the place of the word neschamah in its meaning . Neschamah is a term that was widely used in the ancient Orient in connection with accounts of the creation of man. In the post-exilic period, according to Westermann, rûaḥ takes the place of the original neschamah in reports of the creation of man.

To understand this process, the authors of the THAT refer to Ez 37  EU , where rûaḥ is historically used for the first time in the meaning of "breath of life". In Ez 37.11  EU , the original meaning of rûa sei can still be recognized in the complaint about the “withered bones” . By announcing a revival of the withered bones, Ezekiel changes the use of rûaḥ : the returning life force becomes human creation. According to Westermann, the term rûaḥ in Isa 57  EU also serves to connect salvation and human creation and thus to give the term rûaḥ a new meaning.

Relationships with Other Spiritual Concepts

The meanings of the individual concepts are not congruent despite the many similarities in the various spiritual systems. It is irrelevant whether the concept of “life energies”, “spiritual forces” or “ subtle matter” that “flow” in the “world” and in the human body and with ideas of “breath”, “breath”, “wind” "Or" haze ", can be inferred exclusively esoterically from the coherent systems of the individual religions or spiritual systems or whether it actually results or will result in evidence according to empirical - scientific thinking, in the sense that they can be physically found . They are irrelevant for religious practice, because what is decisive is that they can be individually and collectively experienced and effective in meditative practice, religious ritual or healing or sacrificial ritual through imagination .

Examples of the different spiritual systems are the Hindu ātman (Sanskrit, n., आत्मन्, ātman, Pali: atta, originally: breath of life, breath) and prāna (Sanskrit, m., प्राण, prāṇa, breath of life, breath of life), the qi ( Chinese  氣  /  气 , Pinyin qì , IPA ( standard Chinese) [ tɕʰi˥˩ ], W.-G. Ch'i ), a central term in Chinese Daoism , neschamah and rûaḥ (רוּחַ) in Hebrew, the psyche ( ancient Greek ψυχή Soul ) and pneuma ( Greek πνεῦμα pneũma , "spirit", "breath", "air", "breath") in the ancient Greek culture or the anima , animus or spiritus in Latin. These "breath terms" have natural and supernatural aspects, with the emphasis of their interpretation sometimes on the natural, sometimes on the supernatural side.

literature

  • Ernst Jenni, Claus Westermann (ed.): Theological concise dictionary for the Old Testament (THAT), Volume 2; Darmstadt: Scientific Book Society, 2004 2 ; Sp. 726-753.
  • Wilhelm Gesenius , Frants Buhl : Wilhelm Gesenius' Hebrew and Aramaic Concise Dictionary on the Old Testament. Unchanged reprint of the 17th edition published in 1915. Springer-Verlag, Berlin 1962; Pp. 748-750.

Web links

  • The biblical image of man: Spirit - soul - body, School for Healing Eastern Switzerland, Weinfelden Switzerland, accessed on October 16, 2018 [3]

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Helen Schüngel-Straumann : Geist (AT). Created: January 2009, on bibelwissenschaft.de [1]
  2. ↑ Andreas Resch : The soul. Innsbruck, Grenzgebiet der Wissenschaft 62 (2013) 2, 99–128 ( PDF 474 kB; 24 pages on imagomundi.biz)
  3. ^ J. Aistleitner: Dictionary of the Ugaritic language ; Edited by O. Eißfeldt. No. 2494
    C. H. Gordon: Ugaritic Textbook 1965; No. 2308
  4. ↑ H. Donner, W. Röllig: Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions , 3 volumes; No. 79.
    Ch. H. Jean and J. Hoftijzer: Dictionnaire des inscriptions semitiques de l'ouest. 1965. 276.
  5. ↑ JA Fitzmyer: The Aramaic Inscriptions of Sefire. Biblia et Orientalia 19, 1967.
    L. Koehler and W. Baumgartner: Lexicon in Veteris Testamenti libros. 1958. p. 1123.
    C. Brockelmann: Lexikon Syriacum. 1928. p. 718.
  6. ↑ P. Fronzaroli, AANLR VIII / 20., 1965
  7. ↑ J. Hehn: To the problem of the spirit in the ancient Orient and in the OT ; Journal for Old Testament Science (ZAW) 43 (1925), pp. 210–225.
  8. ^ DW Thomas, Zeitschrift für Semitistik (ZS) 10 (1935), pp. 311-314.
    D. Lys: Ruach. Le souffle dans l'AT ; 1962; P. 19 f.
  9. ↑ W. von Soden: Akkadisches hand dictionary ; 1959; P. 736 f.
  10. ↑ Genesis 2.7.
  11. ↑ Karin Schöpflin : Soul. II. Old Testament . In: Theologische Realenzyklopädie , Vol. 30, Berlin 1999, pp. 737-740, here: 738f .; Hans Walter Wolff : Anthropologie des Alten Testament , 4th edition, Munich 1984, pp. 26–37.
  12. ↑ Genesis 35:18.
  13. ↑ Documents from Karin Schöpflin: Soul. II. Old Testament . In: Theologische Realenzyklopädie , Vol. 30, Berlin 1999, pp. 737-740, here: 738 and Hans Walter Wolff: Anthropologie des Alten Testaments , 4th edition, Munich 1984, pp. 37-40.
  14. ↑ Karin Schöpflin: Soul. II. Old Testament . In: Theologische Realenzyklopädie , Vol. 30, Berlin 1999, pp. 737-740, here: 738f .; see. Heinz-Horst Schrey : body / physicality. In: Theologische Realenzyklopädie , Vol. 20, Berlin 1990, pp. 638–643, here: 638f. and the detailed presentation by Horst Seebass : נפש. In: Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament , Vol. 5, Stuttgart 1986, Sp. 531–555, here: 538–552.
  15. ↑ Karin Schöpflin: Soul. II. Old Testament . In: Theologische Realenzyklopädie , Vol. 30, Berlin 1999, pp. 737-740, here: 739; Hans Walter Wolff: Anthropologie des Alten Testament , 4th edition, Munich 1984, pp. 41–46.
  16. ^ P. van Imschoot: Theologie de l'AT , Volume 1; 1954; P. 184.
  17. ↑ JH Scheepers: The gees van God en the gees van the volume in the Ou Testament ; 1960; Pp. 93-97.
  18. ↑ C. Westermann: The praising of God in the psalms ; 1968.
    J. Jeremias: Theophanie ; 1965.
  19. ↑ R. Albertz, C. Westermann in theological hand dictionary of the Old Testament (THAT) II, 734.
  20. ↑ NH Naith: The Distinctive Ideas of the Old Testament. 1947, p. 145 ff.
  21. ^ AR Johnson: The Vitality of the Individual in the Thought of Ancient Israel. 1949, p. 28 ff.
  22. ^ Jenni / Westermann, THAT. P. 735f.
  23. ^ C. Westermann: Genesis 1-11 ; Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament I / 1; P. 281ff.
  24. ^ Jenni / Westermann, THAT. P. 738.
  25. ↑ Kundalini and the subtle system of the body. Text excerpt from Karin Brucker: The elemental force Kundalini: Recognize phenomena, interpret symptoms, master transformation. OW Barth, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-4264-1037-0 , accessed October 13, 2018 [2]
  26. ↑ Hans-Joachim Simm (Ed.): Aspects of the Bible. Themes - figures - motifs. Herder Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau 2017, ISBN 978-3-4513-7504-0