John 20:22

[Rubia Warren]

John 20:22
And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost"....


This is a pretty dumb question, but why did Jesus breathe on them?

[John Reece]

From The Gospel According to St. John, by Alfred Plummer:

ενεφυσησεν. The very same verb (here only in the N. T.) is used by the LXX in Genesis 2:7 of breathing life into Adam. This Gospel of the new Creation looks back at its close, as at its beginning, (1:1) to the first Creation.

We are probably to regard the breath here not merely as the emblem of the Spirit (3:8), but as the means by which the Spirit was imparted to them. ‘Receive ye,’ combined with the action of breathing, implies this. This is all the more clear in the Greek, because πνευμα means both ‘breath’ and ‘spirit,’ a point which cannot be preserved in English; but at least ‘Spirit’ is better than ‘Ghost.’ We have here, therefore, an anticipation and earnest of Pentecost; just as Christ’s bodily return from the grave and temporary manifestation to them was an anticipation of His spiritual return and abiding Presence with them ‘even unto the end of the world.’

I hope that helps.

Blessings,

John

[nomad]

it's a good question. one i don't have an answer for :)

a personal opinion that this is a little bit of foreshadowing for when the holy spirit DID come (he came as a rushing wind as well as tongues of fire), but that's just speculation on my part. as well as the above posting.

some have used this verse to claim that they had received the holy spirit at THIS point, but that seems contradictory... if they already had the spirit, why would jesus tell them (this in acts 1) to wait in jerusalem for the spirit?

neither of these really answers your question though.

[Pilgrim]

I think John is right on with his quote.