>From "People Today and the Jewish Bible: From a Lecture Series"
Martin Buber (November 1926)
in:
_Scripture and Translation_
by Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig
translated by Lawrence Rosenwald with Everett Fox
Indian University Press, 1994
pp. 15-16
What, however, does ruah mean? Opinion has been divided from the beginning
betyween "wind" -- whether a wind from G-d or a wind called "G-dwind" on the
basis of its force -- and "spirit" -- whether *the* spirit of G-d or *a*
spirit of G-d. Luther, keeping the quesiton always in motion, has first
"wind" and then "spirit." Both interpretations rest on the notion that we
have to choose between them. But we do not. The dynamic meaning of ruah,
which alone enables us to comprehend the passage -- a passage, by the way,
which even radical source critics have judged "very old" (Gunkel) and "very
ancient (Procksch) -- is the meaning of a "breathing," a "blowing," a
"surging," a "rushing." ...............................................
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