When reading Hebrew ask a Hebrew expert. The Jewish Publication Society 1917 (JPS 1917) http://www.hareidi.org/bible/Genesis1.htm#1
reads:
BERESHIT
(Book of Genesis)
Chapter 1 - IN THE beginning G-d created the heaven and the earth.
- Now the earth was unformed and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of G-d hovered over the face of the waters.
The Watchtower can't allow for the Holy Spirit to be a cognizant person or one aspect of The Trinity would be validated. To contradict The Trinity requires disqualifying as many aspects of it as possible, to dig as deep a hole as possible for the student to climb out of. The Holy Spirit is intelligent, speaks, comforts, teaches, grieves, is sinned against (can one offend a force), convicts (of ones state of being an unredeemed sinner). To answer a question, "How can a person fill someone?, notice that many scriptures say that the Father was in him (Jesus ) and he was in the Father. NOT "in union" implying cooperation which is the Watchtower's idea and used in the New World Translation.
John 17:21 that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.
Acts 17:22, 23, 28
So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects.
"For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, 'TO AN UNKNOWN GOD ' Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.
for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we also are His children.'
In every case I found that the New World Translation "in union" is the Greek 'en' which means 'in'. The Kingdom Interlinear I used at the KHall for years, before I left, showed me that but I didn't clue in to the substance of being 'in Jesus' or "in the Father'
Isaiah tells how how the Holy Spirit is a special and unique messanger of GOD who is directly from GOD and represents ONLY HIM AS HIM.
Isaiah 63:
God's Ancient Mercies Recalled
7 I shall make mention of the lovingkindnesses of YHWH, the praises of YHWH,
According to all that YHWH has granted us,
And the great goodness toward the house of Israel,
Which He has granted them according to His compassion
And according to the abundance of His lovingkindnesses.
8 For He said, "Surely, they are My people,
Sons who will not deal falsely "
So He became their Savior.
9 In all their affliction He was afflicted,
And the Angel of HIS Presence saved them;
In His love and in His mercy He redeemed them,
And He lifted them and carried them all the days of old.
10 But they rebelled
And grieved His Holy Spirit;
Therefore He turned Himself to become their enemy,
He fought against them.
11 Then His people remembered the days of old, of Moses
Where is He who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of His flock?
Where is He who put His Holy Spirit in the midst of them,
12 Who caused His glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses,
Who divided the waters before them to make for Himself an everlasting name,
13 Who led them through the depths?
Like the horse in the wilderness, they did not stumble;
14 As the cattle which go down into the valley,
The Spirit of YHWH gave them rest
So You led Your people,
To make for Yourself a glorious name.
The Holy Spirit is The Angel of God's presence. A messenger of GOD's presence. GOD's presence. The Holy Spirit is not a mere directed force.
Now read JPS 1917:
Isaiah 63:7-14
I will make mention of the mercies of HaShem, and the praises of HaShem, according to all that HaShem hath bestowed on us; and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which He hath bestowed on them according to His compassions, and according to the multitude of His mercies. For He said: 'Surely, they are My people, children that will not deal falsely'; so He was their Saviour.In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them; in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bore them, and carried them all the days of old. But they rebelled, and grieved His holy spirit; therefore He was turned to be their enemy, Himself fought against them. Then His people remembered the days of old, the days of Moses: 'Where is He that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of His flock? Where is He that put His holy spirit in the midst of them? That caused His glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses? that divided the water before them, to make Himself an everlasting name? That led them through the deep, as a horse in the wilderness, without stumbling? As the cattle that go down into the valley, the spirit of HaShem caused them to rest; so didst Thou lead Thy people, to make Thyself a glorious name.' From the paper on the study of The Holy Spirit called "pneumatology" by:
Michel Rene Barnes
Veni Creator Spiritus
Dedicated to the work of Frank McCloin 1
" the LXX rendering of Isaiah 63:9 says
"…not an ambassador, nor an angel, but he himself saved them…." "
He himself" is God, and the text is emphatic that God saved Israel directly. The MT, however, says:
"In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them"
The MT version of Isaiah 63:9 is widely regarded by contemporary scholars as a key expression of Jewish angelomorphic pneumatology, and I will not here belabor the significance of the MT Hebrew text in this case."
...
" The Spirit Creator
The Jewish Doctrine of the Spirit Creator
The first reference to the "Spirit of God" appears in the second line of the first book of the Bible. We remember these first few words, sometimes only vaguely, but they are worth saying again here.
(1) In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. (2) The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters. (3) And God said, "Let there be light." And there was light.
If one reads this passage with the question of sources or original literary units in mind, then Genesis 1:1-2 has the appearance of having previously "stood alone" without being part of the "And God said" literary tradition that begins at Gen. 1:3. If, on the other hand, one reads this passage from the perspective of the literary unit Genesis 1, then what is striking is that "Spirit of God" does not appear again in the creation account in the first chapter of Genesis"
...
" The second example of a Spirit-creator text is found in Job: "The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life." (Job 33:4) The passage may be seen as a condensed reference to the creation tradition expressed at Genesis 1:2b and Genesis 2:7. 20 Clearer echoes of these Genesis spirit expressions can be found in two other pasages in Job 26:4:
With whom have you sent your words?
Whose breath-of-life has come forth from you?
which echoes the description of Genesis 1:1-2b and 2:7. The final Job passage is 27:3, "…as long as my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils," which again echoes the description of Genesis 2: 7.
There are two psalms from First Temple Judaism that seem to associate the Spirit of God with creating: Ps. 33 and Ps. 104.
By the
Word of the Lord the heavens were spread out, And by the Spirit of His mouth all their power . ( Ps. 33:6 )
When thou sendest forth thy Spirit , they are created; and thou renewest the face of the ground. ( Ps. 104:30 ) " ...
Found at http://www.mu.edu/maqom/spiritus.pdf .
Jehovah's Witnesses are disallowed from thinking in abstract terms, what are properly called mysticisms. Mysticism does not imply demonology. It implies a deeply abstract idea.
Another commentary by Dr. Gary S. Greig reads:
Biblical Reasons to Receive God’s Glory and Give It Away in Power Evangelism
Furthermore, in
Isaiah 63:9-10
the angel of the Lord, who led the Israelites through the wilderness after the Exodus from Egypt, is called “the angel of His presence ( mal’akh panav, literally “the angel of His face”)” referring to the “Presence” and “Glory” of the Lord that Moses asked for and saw manifested in a Glory cloud in
Exodus 33:14-23 and 34:5-7
. And the “angel of His Presence” is then associated in the next verse,
Isaiah 63:10
, with “His Holy Spirit”:
Isa 63:9-10
(NIV)
In all their distress he too was distressed, and
the angel of his presence saved them.
In his love and mercy he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.
Yet they rebelled and grieved
his Holy Spirit.
So he turned and became their enemy and he himself fought against them. [boldface and italics mine]
We know that “the angel of His presence” does not mean that just one angel or archangel or even the Holy Spirit’s presence alone, led the Israelites through the wilderness. In fact, there were “thousands” of angels attending the presence of the God’s Spirit leading the Israelites from Mount Sinai to the Promised Land, according to
Deuteronomy 33:2-3
The Lord came from Sinai and revealed himself to Israel from Seir. He appeared in splendor from Mount Paran,
And came forth with
ten thousand holy ones (angels) . With his right hand he gave a fiery law to them.
Surely he loves the people; all your holy ones are in your power.
And they sit at your feet, each receiving your words.
(80 Old Testament scholars are virtually unanimous about the fact that the term “holy ones” of
Deut. 33:2 refers to angels, because the Septuagint, the 3 rd -to-2 nd century B.C. Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, translates the end of 33:2 as “on his right were his angels with him.” Dunn and Rogerson, express the common interpretation of this passage: “In the OT the ‘sons of God’ and the ‘ holy ones ’ . . . are the angels (see Gen 6:2 ; Deut 33:1 ; Job 38:7 ),” Dunn and Rogerson , Eerdmans Commentary of the Bible (Eerdmans, 2003), p. 379; F. M. Cross and D. N. Freedman argued that Yahweh came from Sinai with His retinue of angels, “The Blessing of Moses,” Journal of Biblical Literature 67 (1948): 198-199.)
In his article on the place of angels in contemporary theology, Dr. Lawrence Osborn points out that while Scripture "attributes all events ultimately to God . . . it recognises that many of those events are mediated through creaturely causes and agents." And listen to the witness of other biblical scholars about the close association of the Holy Spirit and the angels when God manifests His power and presence:
Both an angel of the Lord/God and the Spirit of the Lord/God play thus similar roles; as God’s divine agents in the Jewish Bible. . . . Likewise in Luke-Acts, the narrative role of the angel is sometimes presented as identical with that of the Holy Spirit. . . . The term angel(s)
of God found in Lk. 12.8, 9; 15.10; Acts 10.3; 27.23 (cf. Lk. 4.10 ) is also reminiscent of the Spirit of God in Acts 2.17, 18 .
The use of this kind of language and imagery is an essential element in the way the Old Testament speaks of God. He can ‘send’ his
ruach [ Spirit ], his angel , or his word . . . . In all of these, it is God himself who is present. They are so to speak extensions of his own being, means of his touching upon the affairs of Israel.
[boldface emphasis mine]
The majority of [NT references to leading angels] . . . occur in the Book of Revelation . . .
enopion tou Theou [before God, in the presence of God], i.e., as part of the divine manifestation and in execution of the divine will."
END QUOTE.
Thus I think that the absolute inability of man to understand the nature of GOD limits us.
