The Pulpit Commentary on Matthew 1:18

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

The Holy Ghost before Pentecost.

We are so accustomed to associate the term "Holy Ghost" with the descent of the Spirit on the disciples at Pentecost, that it seems strange to us to find it used by the evangelists even in the early portions of their Gospels. But there is no proper authority for connecting the term exclusively with Pentecost. Properly speaking, there is nothing peculiar or distinctive in the term. "Spirit" and "Ghost" are synonyms. "Holy Spirit" may properly be put wherever "Holy Ghost" is found. Nothing is added to our knowledge by using the term "Ghost." Whenever God is spoken of in the Scripture as working within things, out of sight, in the spheres of thought and feeling, he is spoken of as God the Spirit, or God the Ghostly. The Old Testament is full of statements concerning the working of God's Spirit in creation; in the antediluvians; in the kings; in the prophets. God works in the created spheres in two ways.

1. In external spheres, and in modes apprehensible by human senses.

2. In internal spheres, and in modes apprehensible by the feeling, the mind, and the will. God's secret workings are to be regarded as the operations of his Spirit. So the mysterious putting forth of Divine power in the case of Mary is properly presented as the working of the Holy Ghost.

I. GOD WORKING IN THE MINDS OF MEN IS THE UNIVERSAL TRUTH OF. THE HOLY GHOST. This belongs exclusively to no one age, to no one dispensation, to no one race. To the heathen God is the "great Spirit." "Moved by thee, the prophets wrote and spoke." There is this "inspiration of the Almighty which giveth understanding," as the common heritage of the race; and special forms it takes, within Jewish lines, only illustrate the universal forms it takes for all humanity.

II. GOD USING, AS HIS AGENCY, THE LIFE AND WORDS AND WORKS OF JESUS, IS THE SPECIAL CHRISTIAN TRUTH OF THE HOLY GHOST. So Jesus said, "He shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you;" "He shall … bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." The Holy Ghost of the early Church is the Holy Spirit of the Church of all the ages, only his instruments are precise; his agency is limited. He works through the outer revelation which has been brought to men by Christ, and is given to men in Christ.—R.T.

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