John 20:22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.

John 20:22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.

What does Jesus do when He had said, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you” (John 20:21)?

“… He breathed on them…” (John 20:22).

•       ἐνεφὐσησεν  (enephysēsen) (“He breathed”) 3S Aorist Active Indicative of ἐμφυσάω

•       “The verb translated breathed on (emphusao) appears only here in the New Testament. In the Septuagint it is used in Genesis 2:7 of God’s breathing the breath of life into man; it is also used in Ezekiel 37:9. John expects his readers to see a parallel between God’s creative breath in Genesis 2:7 and Jesus’ act of breathing here. In a number of languages breathed on must be rendered “blew upon.” A term literally meaning “breathe” may refer only to normal inhaling and exhaling of the breath, while anything as striking as this action of Jesus would be expressed as ‘blowing upon.’”

 Barclay Moon Newman and Eugene Albert Nida, A Handbook on the Gospel of John, UBS Handbook Series (New York: United Bible Societies, 1993), 615.

When Jesus breathes on them, what does He say to them?

“… ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’” (John 20:22).

•       λάβετε (labete)  2P Aorist Active Imperative of λαμβάνω

•       πνεῦμα ἅγιον (pneuma hagion) (“the Holy Spirit")

•       What had Jesus said about the Holy Spirit?

o   John 14:16 “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;

o   John 14:26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.

o   John 15:26   “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me,

o   John 16:7 “But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.

o   John 16:13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

 

Father,

Glory and thanks to You as the Giver of every good and perfect gift. By Your grace and according to Your Word, You sent Jesus to reveal and to redeem. All who are baptized into the death of Jesus are raised in the power of His resurrection through the Holy Spirit Whom You sent to give us new life. And Your love has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who was given to us. Our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit Who is in us, Whom we have from You. We are not our own.

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and Your love, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.