The Spirit Will Come Upon You

The New Testament was written in Greek, and the Greek verb for knowing is ginosko γινώσκω ghin-oce'-ko. Like the Hebrew yada, it is the ordinary word for knowing a fact or a person, and like yada it is also used for the union of a husband and wife. It appears in that sense at the birth of Yeshua.

No Knowledge of a Man

The angel Gabriel came to a young woman in Nazareth who was betrothed to a man named Joseph. He told her that she would conceive and bear a son.

Luke 1:30-35 And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mariam, for you have found charis χάρις khar'-ece(grace) with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call His name Yeshua. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end." Mariam said to the angel, "How will this be, since I have no knowledge of a man?" The angel answered and said to her, "Hagio(holy) pneuma πνεῦμα pnyoo'-mah(spirit) will come upon you, and the dynamis δύναμις doo'-nam-is(power) of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the holy One to be born will be called the Son of God.

Many English Bibles let Mary say, “since I am a virgin.” The Greek says, word for word, “since a man I do not know,” with the verb ginosko, and the YLV renders it “since I have no knowledge of a man.” The verb is ginosko. She had not known a man in the way Adam knew Eve. By every law of nature, a son could not come.

In place of a man’s knowing, the angel names two other actions, both of them the work of God. The Spirit will eperchomai (ἐπέρχομαι), “come upon” her, and the power of the Most High will episkiazo (ἐπισκιάζω), “overshadow” her, covering her as a shadow covers. Where no human knowing had taken place, the Child would be conceived, and He would be called the Son of God.

This conception stands alone in history. No other child was ever conceived in this way. But the words Scripture uses around it are not new words. They stand in the same line as the words we have been following: knowing, coming upon, a seed brought forth.

Joseph Did Not Know Her

Matthew tells the same events from Joseph’s side, and he uses the same verb.

Matthew 1:18-25 Now the birth of Yeshua Messiah was this way: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the hagio(holy) pneuma(spirit). And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her publicly, resolved to send her away quietly. But while he was deliberating these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying: "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for what has been begotten in her is from the hagio(holy) pneuma(spirit). And she will bear a Son, and you shall call His name Yeshua, for He will save His people from their sins." Now all this took place so that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying: "Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel" — which is translated, "God with us." And Joseph, having awakened from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife, and did not know her until she had borne her firstborn Son; and he called His name Yeshua.

The angel tells Joseph in a dream that “what has been begotten in her is from the hagio(holy) pneuma(spirit),” and at the end Matthew says that Joseph “took his wife, and did not know her until she had borne her firstborn Son.” The verb is ginosko again. Luke gives Mary’s own words and Matthew tells the story from Joseph’s side, yet the two Gospels agree, and both use the word of Genesis 4:1 to say it.

The Breath of God

Scripture’s language of new life does not stop at Nazareth. At the beginning of the Bible, life came into the first man by the breath of God.

Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed Adam of dust (aphar עָפָר aw-fawr') from the ground (adamah אֲדָמָה ad-aw-maw'), and breathed into his nostrils the breath (neshamah נְשָׁמָה nesh-aw-maw') of life, and Adam became a living soul (nephesh נֶפֶשׁ neh'-fesh).

The Hebrew verb for “breathed” is naphach (נָפַח). Centuries before Yeshua, Jewish scholars translated the Torah into Greek. That translation, known as the Septuagint, was widely read in the first century, and for this verb in Genesis 2:7 it used the word emphysao (ἐμφυσάω), “to breathe into.”

In the latter part of the day on which He rose, the risen Yeshua came to His disciples behind shut doors.

John 20:21-22 So Yeshua said to them again, "Eirene(Peace) be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you." And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, "Receive hagio(holy) pneuma(spirit);

“He breathed on them.” John uses the verb emphysao here, and this is the only place in the New Testament where it appears. It is the very verb the Septuagint used for God breathing into Adam. Human life in the first creation began with God’s breath entering a man made of dust, and he became a living soul. The new creation begins the same way: the risen Son breathes on His disciples and says, “Receive hagio(holy) pneuma(spirit).” The new creation mirrors the first, and the breath of life enters in once more.

The Spirit Within

The prophets had promised that this would happen. Through Ezekiel, God told the exiles in Babylon what He would one day do for them.

Ezekiel 36:25-27 And I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean; from all your uncleannesses and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit (ruach רוּחַ roo'-akh) I will put within you; and I will remove the heart of stone out of your flesh (basar בָּשָׂר baw-sawr'), and I will give you a heart of flesh (basar). And my spirit (ruach) I will put within you, and I will cause you to walk in my statutes (chuqqim חֹק khoke), and you shall keep my judgments (mishpat מִשׁפָּט mish-pawt') and do them.

The promise moves in a clear order. First God promises cleansing with clean water, from all their uncleannesses and from all their idols. Then comes a new heart, a heart of flesh in place of a heart of stone. Then comes the Spirit. God cleanses, renews and then enters, and each step is His own work; the people receive what He does.

The phrase “within you” is beqirbekhem (בְּקִרְבְּכֶם), “in your inner part.” God does not promise to place His Spirit beside His people, or to let Him hover nearby. He promises to put His Spirit within them, so that the Spirit enters.

And the promise says what the Spirit within produces: “and I will cause you to walk in my statutes (chuqqim), and you shall keep my judgments (mishpat) and do them.” The Spirit who enters a person does not lead that person away from the statutes of God. He causes him to walk in them. This is the same promise we read in Jeremiah 31, where God puts His Torah within His people and writes it on their hearts. In Ezekiel it is His Spirit within, and the result is the keeping of His statutes.

The order matters. The keeping does not come first and earn the Spirit. God gives the new heart and puts His Spirit within, and then the walking follows. Earlier we read that love toward God, in Scripture’s own words, is keeping His commandments. Here the prophet shows how God Himself brings that love about: by putting His Spirit within His people. The union and the keeping cannot be separated, and the union comes from His side first.

Entering and Seed

Scripture uses the language of entering and of seed both for the union of a husband and wife and for the coming of God’s Spirit and word into a person. The words of the text themselves point to the meaning. The physical union that fills the earth with human children is a picture the Bible uses for the spiritual union that fills the kingdom of God with children of God, who walk in His statutes. The first blessing on the man and the woman was “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28). The Spirit who enters God’s people brings forth a new kind of fruit, sons and daughters born not of the flesh but of the Spirit. Scripture follows that thread further, to believers born of the Spirit who grow toward the likeness of the Son.

The word ginosko has one more step to take. Yeshua Himself used it, on the night before His death, to say what eternal life is. And He used it in another place, of the last day, in a sentence that no one who calls Him Lord should ever forget.