rûaḥ

Semantic range

1. 1wind, breeze, storm
2. 2breath — the animating principle of a living body
3. 3spirit; disposition; the Spirit of God

One word covers what English splits three ways, and Hebrew poetry exploits the overlap constantly. In Genesis 1:2 the rûaḥ ʾĕlōhîm moves upon the face of the waters — the Spirit of God, or a mighty wind, or both at once; the Hebrew declines to choose. In Ezekiel 37 the same word appears ten times in fourteen verses, meaning breath, wind and Spirit in turn, as dry bones are reassembled and then made alive.

Because rûaḥ is also breath, the Hebrew Bible ties spirit tightly to embodiment rather than opposing the two. That instinct sits close to the Restoration's teaching that "the spirit and the body are the soul of man" (D&C 88:15) and that spirit itself is matter, only finer (D&C 131:7–8).

Where it appears

• Genesis 1:2The Spirit of God moving upon the face of the waters.
• Ezekiel 37:1–14Breath, wind and Spirit braided together in the valley of dry bones.
• Numbers 11:17The Spirit taken from Moses and put upon the seventy.

See also

• נֶפֶשׁnephesh
• πνεῦμαpneuma