# The use of Khod in the Old Testament



## seekeroftruth

I have a question concerning the word generally translated as ruach or ruah in Hebrew. According to Prof. Charles A. Briggs, D.D. (of Brown Diver Briggs Hebrew Lexicon) who has written in his; _The Use of Khod in the Old Testament, _the word _khod_ appears in one of YHVH's biblical pseudonyms, _ruach ha'kodesh,_ frequently used in the NT and found in Gen. 1:2 as _uruch Aleim, _in Gen. 8:1 as _Aleim ruch _and in Gen. 6:17 as _ruch chiim. _(the spirit of the living)He however seeems to translate the Hebrew word usually spelled _"Ruch" or "ruach"_ as the word _"Khod"_ spelled with the same Hebrew letters; _cheit, vav, dalet, _and giving it the same meaning; breath, wind or spirit. _Ruach hakodesh_ is according to Strong's; _ruach_, a feminine noun, a wind or a breath, (SHD 7307) coupled with; _hakodesh_ pure or sanctified. (SHD 6942). I am a new student of Hebrew so this is confusing to me, is there anyone who can enlighten me?



 Seekeroftruth


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## בעל-חלומות

I will be honest and say that I am not sure what your question is. The word רוח (ruach) means "wind", and the word חוד (khod) means "the end/point of a sharp object", and I don't see any connection between them.

חוד does not appear in רוח הקודש (ruah hakodesh - "the holy wind"), either, so you are not the only one confused here.


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## Lugubert

I don't find a single occurrence of a noun H-w-d in Gesenius' dictionary. (I obviously use H instead of an underdotted h.) My reply could stop there, but I might have misunderstood your point.

Why do you see a problem with ruaH? First, my quick transcriptions of the quoted words: 1:2 _ruaH ælohîm_, 6:17 _ruaH hayyîm_. In 8:1, the words are not a phrase: _ya`ver ælohîm_ | _ruaH_ "God made | a wind..." In the first and last cases, it's "wind", and in 6:17 it seems that "spirit" works better. The letters in ruaH is about as far from any Hôd as you could ask for.

And my favourite rendering of 1:2 is "God, what a wind there was over the face of the waters!"

Maybe it's nitpicking, but you won't find any Hebrew _ruaH ælohîm _in the almost 100% Greek NT.

Edited to add: I looked up the first page of the article, but didn't bother to download all of it yet (which I can, through my university's library). It's just too obvious that it is on r-w-H = ruaH. You have to read the Hebrew in the title in the Hebrew direction. I admit that in some fonts, it can be difficult to distinguish between r and d. The article could be interesting, though, as it is supposed to complement the author's article on nfsh "soul".


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## Macnas

Lugubert is right. I downloaded the article that you referred to. You forgot that Hebrew is read from right to left (not left to right as in English), and you confused the letters ר (reysh, an /r/ sound) and ד (dalet, a /d/ sound). The word used in the article is רוח _ruach_ (read: reysh, vav, chet).


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## seekeroftruth

Thank you for explaining that the article used the right to left spelling (not left to right as in English), it is confusing when authors sometimes spell it one direction and sometime the other, and that I had the letters ר (reysh, an /r/ sound) and ד (dalet, a /d/ sound) confused, I thought it must be some such thing. But if the word used in the article is רוח _ruach_ (read: reysh, vav, chet), why does Jstor give the name of Briggs article as “The Use of Khod in the Old Testament” when it only discusses this word for wind, rendered in English letters as _ruach or ruah, _and makes no mention of the word khod? Did someone at Jstor translate the word incorrectly? In the verses Briggs cites, the word discussed in his paper, however it is spelled, apparently refers to the word ruach or ruah, a wind etc. not _khod _as you have defined it. Since Briggs is one of the authors of Brown, Driver, Briggs Hebrew Dictionary, I hardly think it could have been him who made such a misleading mistake.


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## Macnas

Oh, huh. That's JSTOR's mistake, then.

The title given within the article itself is the correct _The Use of רוח in the Old Testament_. The title JSTOR gives is _The Use of חוד (sic) in the Old Testament_. My guess is someone not familiar with Hebrew typed in the article's title into the database.


And Hebrew can only be written in one direction, right to left. If you see anything in Hebrew written from left to right, that's simply wrong.


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## Lugubert

Macnas said:


> My guess is someone not familiar with Hebrew typed in the article's title into the database.


Considering the d/r mistake, that seems to be the case.


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## Mog Rhod

בעל-חלומות said:


> I will be honest and say that I am not sure what your question is. The word רוח (ruach) means "wind", and the word חוד (khod) means "the end/point of a sharp object", and I don't see any connection between them.
> 
> חוד does not appear in רוח הקודש (ruah hakodesh - "the holy wind"), either, so you are not the only one confused here.



In the Rigveda *Rudra *means the God of Storm, *Wind* and Hunt.  In reading a Theologians book, Hans Kung being the author, the Old Testament God is very similar in presentation to Shiva, and in fact "Rudra" eventually was called "Shiva" later.

In the Eastern/Oriental religions *"Winds"* are a kind of spiritual energy in the three channels of the body, and the ultimate purpose is to gather them (bring them from the yin/yang opposing channels of ida and pingala) and bring them into the "central" channel called the Shushumna.  I'm not entirely unsure that the Menorah is not a similar depiction, because the center lamp is "Shamash" or "Servant" candle.

Ru'ach also has a meaning in Kabbalah

*Human soul in Kabbalah*

 The Zohar posits that the human soul has three elements, the _nefesh_, _ru'ach_, and _neshamah_. The _nefesh_ is found in all humans, and enters the physical body at birth. It is the source of one's physical and psychological nature. The next two parts of the soul are not implanted at birth, but can be developed over time; their development depends on the actions and beliefs of the individual. They are said to only fully exist in people awakened spiritually. A common way of explaining the three parts of the soul is as follows:
_Nefesh_ (נפש) - the lower part, or "animal part", of the soul. It is linked to instincts and bodily cravings.
_Ruach_ (רוח) - the middle soul, the "spirit". It contains the moral virtues and the ability to distinguish between good and evil.
_Neshamah_ (נשמה) - the higher soul, or "super-soul". This separates man from all other lifeforms. It is related to the intellect, and allows man to enjoy and benefit from the. This part of the soul is provided at birth and allows one to have some awareness of the existence and presence of God.
Now *Rudra *in the Hindu tradition also means literally the *number 11*.  

I will leave it to you to meditate on any correspondence of *11 *in the Kabbalah 22 letters, and whether it means "equanimity".

You all are familiar with the Hebrew tradition of *Sitting Shiva* or mourning for 7 days aren't you?  Interestingly the epithet for the aspect of Shiva in India who resides in the cremation grounds (ascetic meditation on death) and is covered in ashes is *Shmashanavasin *or *Shmashanak *which is very similar (cognate?) with the Akkadian deity Shamash, or the center lamp of the "original 7 branched" Menorah.  In addition, the center lamp represents the heart and the Sanskrit word "Seva" or to "Serve" all seems related.


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