volume 16, issue 2, 2024, pages 256-274

DOI: https://doi.org/10.64438/sbsAROF2087
Published online: 2024-12-01
Published in print: 2024-12-30

Abstract: In the Greek literature, the verbs ζωογονέω and ζωοποιέω were used in the context of mythicphilosophical ideas about the origin of life on earth: “give life, produce life”. In biblical Greek, their meanings are shifted: “keep alive” and “revive, bring (back) to life”. Later Christian authors build on the biblical tradition, but they reuse the cosmogonic meaning of these verbs, namely in the debate about the creation of the world and the part the Holy Spirit played in it (Gen 1:2c: πνεῦµα θεοῦ ἐπεφέρετο ἐπάνω τοῦ ὕδατος). The verbal adjective ζωοποιός in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, used as one of the new titles of the Holy Spirit, pointed to this.