Ruah Ha-Kodesh [the Holy Spirit: ruah = spirit; kodesh = holy] is but one of a number of personifications or metonyms1 of divinity found in Rabbinic writings. In Rabbinic literature, divinity is referred to in various new ways that were not found explicitly in the Bible. In addition to Ruah Ha-Kodesh, there are the Shekhinah (Divine Presence), the Bat Kol [the Small Voice], and the Memra [the Word]...
Even the Torah itself is sometimes personified as “a figurative trope for God ... simultaneously identical and not identical,” as exemplified in the opening section of Genesis Rabbah.2 Each of these figures might be termed a divine metonym. They may offer the function of speaking of the ineffable deity in a more personal and intimate way, without impinging on God’s holiness or transcendence. They show a Rabbinic tendency toward the anthropomorphism and “anthropathetism” (attributing human-like emotions) of God. “The rabbinic God not only acts but feels, reacts, and remembers with much pathos. In short, this God also has a personality and his personality is tied to the fate of Israel.”3 At times these divine metonyms all seem to be different ways of referencing God, but at other times, they seem to evolve into separate characters of their own, characters that interact and address one another in Midrashic accounts.
During the Babylonian exile, the use of God’s name YHWH was increasingly limited, probably to emphasize His distinctive holiness and to avoid implications that the Hebrew Deity was on the same level as the many pagan gods encountered by the exiled Judeans. From the time of Darius I in the the Persian period (late 6th century B.C.E.), the name YHWH disappears from correspondence between the Jewish authorities in Jerusalem and the Persian court. From then on the “proper” name of God was increasingly limited in use, and eventually confined to the Temple service and the pronunciation of oaths (and after the destruction of the temple, its pronunciation became completely taboo, Mishnah Sanhedrin 10:1). Instead, various substitutes were introduced in the Persian and Hellenistic periods, such as “Lord,” “Most High,” or “God of Heaven”4... God is not being called by a name, but by an adjective or descriptive phrase. Meanwhile, as God was perceived as more distant and transcendent, “middlebeings” were depicted to fill in the perceived gap between heaven and earth. These “divine mediators” may include, but were not limited to, metonyms for God. In postbiblical Jewish tradition, as found in the apocrypha, and the Dead Sea Scrolls, they came to include angels, spirits, the Memra (divine word or Logos, mentioned often the Targumim), and even personifications of evil.5 The Targumim, Aramaic translations of the Bible, are especially well-known for their various circumlocutions for the name of God,” which in addition to the Memra [the Divine Word] also include the Glory of God and the Presence (Shekhinah) of God.6
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Author: Julie Hilton Danan
Keywords: Holy Spirit, Holy Ghost, Spirit of God, Spirit of Yahweh, Spirit of YHWH, God's spirit, YHWH's spirit, Yahweh's spirit, The Spirit, Spirit of Elohim, Shekinah, Shekhinah, Divine spirit, Metonym for God, Metonym, Metonymy, Ruah ha-Kodesh, Ruach ha-Kodesh, Ruach, Ruah, Dead Sea Scrolls, Divine voice, Personification, Personified, Bat Kol, Bath Kol, Voice of God, Memra, Divine Word, Daughter of the voice, Vox dei, agent, agency, messenger, angel, angel of the Lord, angel of YHWH, angel of Yahweh, God's messenger, ambassador, represent, representative, representation, image of God, angel messenger, parakletos, paraclete, comforter, helper
Bible reference(s): Genesis 1:2, Genesis 6:3, Genesis 41:38, Exodus 31:3, Exodus 35:31, Numbers 24:2, Judges 3:10, Judges 6:34, Judges 11:29, Judges 13:25, Judges 14:6, Judges 14:19, Judges 15:14, 1 Samuel 10:6, 1 Samuel 10:10, 1 Samuel 11:6, 1 Samuel 16:13-14, 1 Samuel 19:20, 1 Samuel 19:23, 2 Samuel 23:2, 1 Kings 18:12, 1 Kings 22:24, 2 Kings 2:16, 2 Chronicles 15:1, 2 Chronicles 24:20, 2 Chronicles 18:23, 2 Chronicles 20:14, Nehemiah 9:30, Job 27:3, Job 33:4, Psalms 51:11, Psalms 104:30, Psalms 139:7, Psalms 143:10, Isaiah 11:2, Isaiah 30:1, Isaiah 40:13, Isaiah 42:1, Isaiah 44:3, Isaiah 59:21, Isaiah 61:1, Isaiah 63:10, Isaiah 63:11, Isaiah 63:14, Ezekiel 3:14, Ezekiel 11:5, Ezekiel 11:24, Ezekiel 36:27, Ezekiel 37:1, Ezekiel 37:14, Ezekiel 39:29, Joel 2:28-29, Haggai 2:5, Zechariah 4:6, Micah 2:7, Micah 3:8, Matthew 1:18, Matthew 1:20, Matthew 3:11, Matthew 3:16, Matthew 12:28, Matthew 12:32, Matthew 28:19, Mark 1:8, Mark 3:29, Mark 12:36, Mark 13:11, Luke 1:15, Luke 1:35, Luke 1:41, Luke 1:67, Luke 2:25, Luke 2:26, Luke 3:16, Luke 3:22, Luke 4:1, Luke 4:18, Luke 10:21, Luke 11:13, Luke 12:10, Luke 12:12, John 1:33, John 14:26, John 20:22, Acts 1:2, Acts 1:5, Acts 1:8, Acts 1:16, Acts 2:4, Acts 2:17-18, Acts 2:33, Acts 2:38, Acts 4:8, Acts 4:25, Acts 4:31, Acts 5:3, Acts 5:9, Acts 5:32, Acts 6:5, Acts 7:51, Acts 7:55, Acts 8:15, Acts 8:17, Acts 8:19, Acts 8:39, Acts 9:17, Acts 9:31, Acts 10:38, Acts 10:44, Acts 10:45, Acts 10:47, Acts 11:15, Acts 11:16, Acts 11:24, Acts 13:2, Acts 13:4, Acts 13:9, Acts 13:52, Acts 15:8, Acts 15:28, Acts 16:6, Acts 19:2, Acts 19:6, Acts 20:23, Acts 20:28, Acts 21:11, Acts 28:25, Romans 5:5, Romans 8:9, Romans 8:14, Romans 9:1, Romans 14:17, Romans 15:13, Romans 15:16, Romans 15:19, 1 Corinthians 2:11, 1 Corinthians 2:14, 1 Corinthians 7:40, 1 Corinthians 6:19, 1 Corinthians 12:3, 2 Corinthians 3:17, 2 Corinthians 6:6, 2 Corinthians 13:14, Ephesians 1:13, Ephesians 4:30, 1 Thessalonians 1:5, 1 Thessalonians 1:6, 1 Thessalonians 4:8, 2 Timothy 1:14, Titus 3:5, Hebrews 2:4, Hebrews 3:7, Hebrews 6:4, Hebrews 9:8, Hebrews 10:15, 1 Peter 1:12, 2 Peter 1:21, Jude 1:20, 1 John 4:2, Susanna 1:45, Wisdom of Solomon 1:7, Wisdom of Solomon 9:17, 2 Esdras 14:22, Judith 16:14
Source: Ph.D., Dissertation: The Divine Voice in Scripture: Ruah ha-Kodesh in Rabbinic Literature, The University of Texas at Austin (Austin: 2009), pp. 209-223, 249.
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