What Is the Spirit of God? And Who Are the Seven Spirits in Revelation?

The Bible talks about the Spirit of God on its first page and on its last. He hovers over the waters, comes on judges and prophets, leaves a king, descends on Jesus, and stands before a throne as “the seven spirits of God”. Sometimes the word is capitalised and sometimes it isn't.

So what is this Spirit? Does God have a spirit? Is the Spirit a force, a person, or something else? This study follows the answer through scripture, one passage at a time.

One word for breath, wind and spirit

English has three words where the Bible has one. The Old Testament's word for spirit (Hebrew: רוּחַ, ruach, “wind, breath, spirit”) also means breath and wind, and the New Testament's word for spirit (Greek: πνεῦμα, pneuma, “breath, wind, spirit”) does the same. Context decides which is meant. Jesus plays on exactly this in John 3.

“The wind blows where it wishes. You hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

(John 3:8, BSB)

In Greek, “wind” and “Spirit” in that verse are both pneuma. Genesis 1:2 shows the same difficulty. The KJV and the BSB read “the Spirit of God”. The NRSV reads “a wind from God swept over the face of the waters”, and the old Aramaic translation Targum Onkelos also read it as wind.

The capital letter belongs to the same problem. The oldest Greek manuscripts are written in all capital letters, so the page never told anyone whether pneuma meant “Spirit” or “spirit”. Each translation committee made that call. In Revelation 1:4 the KJV, NKJV and NASB print “seven Spirits” with a capital, while the NIV and the BSB print “seven spirits” in lowercase. A capital is a translator's judgement, printed as if it were the text.

Does God have a spirit?

Yes, and scripture says so in plain words. God calls it “My Spirit”.

“My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days shall be 120 years.”

(Genesis 6:3, BSB)

“I will pour out My Spirit on all people” (Joel 2:28). “I will put My Spirit within you” (Ezekiel 36:27). Other writers speak of it too. “Where can I go to escape Your Spirit?” (Psalm 139:7). Yet Jesus also says “God is Spirit” (John 4:24).

That sounds like two statements, but Paul gives a way to hold them together.

“For who among men knows the thoughts of man except his own spirit within him? So too, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.”

(1 Corinthians 2:11, BSB)

You are a person, and you have an inner life only you can reach. Nobody calls that two of you. God is Spirit by nature, and his Spirit is that same God reaching out to act in the world. It is one God described from two sides.

The Spirit in the Old Testament

He hovers like an eagle

Genesis 1:2 says the Spirit of God “was hovering over the surface of the waters”. The Hebrew verb for hovering (Hebrew: רָחַף, rachaph, “to brood, hover”) turns up again in Deuteronomy 32:11, where God is compared to a parent bird. Strong's gives the verb the sense of brooding, the way a bird sits over eggs.

“As an eagle stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, He spread His wings to catch them and carried them on His pinions.”

(Deuteronomy 32:11, BSB)

So the picture in Genesis is less like wind over a puddle and more like a bird brooding over something it is about to bring to life. When the Spirit comes down “like a dove” on Jesus at his baptism (Matthew 3:16), the same image is in the background.

He gives life

Job's young friend Elihu puts it in one line: “The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life” (Job 33:4). Hebrew poetry says things twice, here with two different words. “Spirit” is ruach, and “breath” is neshamah (Hebrew: נְשָׁמָה, neshamah, “breath, a puff of life”), the word Genesis 2:7 uses for “the breath of life”. Both point to one source. It is a literal claim about where life comes from, carried by a picture everyone knew. A living thing breathes and a dead thing does not, and the breath is God's. The book never says how to rate Elihu overall, but this line agrees with the rest of scripture.

Genesis 2:7 has God breathe “the breath of life” into the man. Psalm 104:29-30 says that when God takes away their breath, creatures die, and “When You send Your Spirit, they are created, and You renew the face of the earth.” Job 34:14-15 adds that if God withdrew “His Spirit and breath”, all flesh would perish together.

He equips people

God says of the craftsman Bezalel, “I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability, and knowledge in all kinds of craftsmanship” (Exodus 31:3), so that he can build the tabernacle. In Judges 3:10 “the Spirit of the LORD came upon” Othniel, and he became Israel's judge. In 1 Samuel 16:13 the Spirit “rushed upon David from that day forward”.

He speaks through people

In Numbers 11:25 God takes some of the Spirit that was on Moses and places it on the seventy elders. “As the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied.” Ezekiel says “the Spirit entered me and set me on my feet” (Ezekiel 2:2).

He stays near, and he can be hurt

David prays “take not Your Holy Spirit from me” (Psalm 51:11). Isaiah says Israel “rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit” (Isaiah 63:10). You can only grieve someone, not something.

“Holy Spirit” is worth a pause. The Hebrew is ruach with holiness (Hebrew: קֹדֶשׁ, qodesh, “holiness, a sacred thing”), a spirit of holiness, and in the Hebrew Old Testament the phrase appears in just three places, Psalm 51:11 and Isaiah 63:10-11. Holy means set apart for God.

The Spirit that left Saul

One verse looks like a puzzle.

“Now the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and a spirit of distress from the LORD began to torment him.”

(1 Samuel 16:14, BSB)

Read it slowly and there are two different things. Whenever the Old Testament prints LORD (Hebrew: יְהֹוָה, YHWH, “Jehovah, the Lord”) in capitals, the Hebrew underneath is God's personal name. The Spirit of that LORD leaves, and a lowercase spirit takes its place, sent under God's control. The Hebrew describes it with a word that covers evil (Hebrew: רַע, ra, “evil, bad, distress”), harm and misery, which is why the KJV says “an evil spirit” and the BSB “a spirit of distress”. Both translate one phrase. It is not the same Spirit. The text puts the two side by side on purpose, and the chapter has just told us the Spirit rushed on David.

The Spirit in the New Testament

The Spirit comes down on Jesus at his baptism (Matthew 3:16). Jesus teaches that the Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask (Luke 11:13). Then he gives the Spirit a title.

“And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you do know Him, for He abides with you and will be in you.”

(John 14:16-17, BSB)

The Greek behind Advocate (Greek: παράκλητος, paraklētos, “advocate, one called alongside”) is paraklētos, built from words meaning beside and call, so it means someone called alongside to help. Older Bibles say Comforter. The word “another” matters, because Jesus has just been their Advocate himself. The Spirit is spoken of as “Him”, who is sent “from the Father” (John 15:26). At Pentecost the believers “were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:4).

Peter's words to Ananias link the Spirit directly to God.

“Ananias, how is it that Satan has filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and withhold some of the proceeds from the land? ... You have not lied to men, but to God!”

(Acts 5:3-4, BSB)

The title “Holy Spirit” is, word for word in Greek, the holy (Greek: ἅγιος, hagios, “holy, sacred”) spirit, the one set apart for God. Matthew 28:19 baptises “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”, one name for three. And Romans 8:9 uses “the Spirit of God” and “the Spirit of Christ” as the same thing in a single sentence.

A force or a person?

Readers answer this three ways, and the verses above are the evidence for each.

God's breath and power at work

On this view the Spirit is God acting, his breath and energy, and not a separate someone. It fits the Old Testament picture of wind, breath and power coming from God.

A distinct divine person

This is the Christian reading, and it leans on how the New Testament talks. The Spirit is grieved, sent, spoken of as “He”, promised as “another Advocate”, and lying to him is lying to God. Baptism names him beside the Father and the Son.

The Old Testament hints, the New names

A third reading holds the Old Testament already treats the Spirit as someone who can be grieved, sent and spoken through, and the New Testament shows who he was all along. The Old Testament never says “person”, so this is a reading of the pattern and not a single verse.

The seven spirits of God

Revelation names “the seven spirits of God” four times and nowhere else in the Bible. It is the passage that stops most readers, and the story of the Spirit leads straight to it.

“Grace and peace to you from Him who is and was and is to come, and from the seven spirits before His throne.”

(Revelation 1:4, BSB)

The seven spirits sit between the Father and Jesus Christ in a greeting. Christ is “the One who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars” (3:1). In the throne room John sees fire.

“Before the throne burned seven torches of fire. These are the seven spirits of God.”

(Revelation 4:5, BSB)

A few verses later the number appears on the Lamb.

“The Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which represent the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.”

(Revelation 5:6, BSB)

One lampstand, seven lamps

The torches are borrowed from earlier in the Bible. The tabernacle's lampstand (Hebrew: מְנוֹרָה, menorah, “lampstand, candlestick”) was one piece of hammered gold: “Make seven lamps and set them up on the lampstand” (Exodus 25:31, 25:37). The prophet Zechariah saw it in a vision.

“I see a solid gold lampstand,” I replied, “with a bowl at the top and seven lamps on it, with seven spouts to the lamps.”

(Zechariah 4:2, BSB)

Later in the same chapter the angel explains the lamps: “these seven eyes of the LORD, which scan the whole earth” (4:10). Revelation 5:6 takes exactly that picture and gives it to the Lamb. Earlier in the chapter the vision is said to run on one power: “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the LORD of Hosts” (4:6). The lampstand is one object and the flames are seven.

Revelation says when it is using a picture

The book announces its method at the start. Its Greek name, apokalypsis, means an unveiling (Greek: ἀποκάλυψις, apokalypsis, “a disclosure, an unveiling”), a disclosure of what was hidden. In the first verse Jesus “made it known” to John, and the verb behind that, sēmainō, means to signify (Greek: σημαίνω, sēmainō, “to signify, indicate”), from the word for a sign. The visions are signs, and the text keeps explaining its own. “The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches” (1:20). The seven torches “are the seven spirits of God” (4:5). The Lamb's seven eyes “represent the seven spirits of God” (5:6).

Seven is the book's number for complete, from the seven churches to the seven stars to the seven lampstands. The Hebrew word for seven (Hebrew: שֶׁבַע, sheva, “seven, the sacred full number”) carried that sense already, and Strong's concordance describes it as the sacred full number. A Lamb with seven eyes is not a sheep with extra eyes. It pictures one who sees everything, and the text itself names what the eyes are.

Is God divided into seven?

Scripture rules that out. Paul writes “There is one body and one Spirit” (Ephesians 4:4), and in 1 Corinthians 12 he says “the same Spirit” (12:4) and “one and the same Spirit” (12:11). Revelation holds both numbers together, because the letters to the churches keep ending with “what the Spirit says to the churches” (2:7), singular, in the same book that says seven.

The sevenfold language has a root as well. Isaiah 11:2 describes the Messiah this way.

“The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him—the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and fear of the LORD.”

(Isaiah 11:2, BSB)

The six gifts each carry more in Hebrew than English shows. Wisdom (Hebrew: חׇכְמָה, chokmah, “wisdom, skill”) is practical skill, the word used of the craftsmen who built the tabernacle (Exodus 31:3). Understanding (Hebrew: בִּינָה, binah, “understanding”) comes from a root meaning to discern. Counsel (Hebrew: עֵצָה, etzah, “counsel, advice”) is advice and the plan it builds. Strength (Hebrew: גְּבוּרָה, gevurah, “strength, might, force”) is the force of a warrior. Knowledge (Hebrew: דַּעַת, daath, “knowledge”) comes from the verb for knowing a person as well as a fact. The fear (Hebrew: יִרְאָה, yirah, “fear, reverence”) of the LORD is reverence.

Count the Spirit of the LORD and the six gifts listed after him and you reach seven. Many readers see that as the background to Revelation's number. It is one Spirit resting on one person, drawn out into seven aspects.

Are the seven spirits angels?

Some readers say yes, and they have a reason. Revelation 8:2 speaks of “the seven angels who stand before God”, and Tobit 12:15, a book outside the Protestant Bible, has Raphael call himself one of seven angels who serve before God's glory.

Most readers answer that the text points the other way. A greeting of “grace and peace” comes from God, and 1:4 sets the seven spirits between the Father and Jesus Christ. The lamps and eyes come from Zechariah, where they belong to the LORD himself. Revelation calls angels angels everywhere else, and twice John kneels before an angel and is stopped: “Worship God!” (19:10, 22:9). A blessing that came from angels would sit oddly beside that.

What the text says and what it leaves open

No verse says in so many words that the seven spirits are the Holy Spirit. The identification is built from the passages above, from the greeting in 1:4, the lampstand in Zechariah 4, the sevenfold Spirit in Isaiah 11 and Paul's “one Spirit”. It is a strong case, and the one most readers reach, but it comes from putting passages together and not from a single verse.

One Spirit from the first page to the last

The Spirit who hovered over the waters (Genesis 1:2) breathes life into every creature (Psalm 104:30), fills a craftsman, rests on a judge, speaks through a prophet and comes down on Jesus. John saw that same Spirit as lamps burning in the throne room, then as the eyes of the Lamb, then as light sent out over the whole earth. He wrote seven because the book uses seven to mean complete. In Revelation the Spirit is shown with nothing missing.

Sources

• Berean Standard Bible (public domain), every verse quoted, including Genesis 1:2, 2:7 and 6:3, Exodus 25:31, 25:37 and 31:3, Numbers 11:25, Deuteronomy 32:11, Judges 3:10, 1 Samuel 16:13-14, Job 33:4 and 34:14-15, Psalms 51:11, 104:29-30 and 139:7, Isaiah 11:2 and 63:10, Ezekiel 2:2 and 36:27, Joel 2:28, Zechariah 4:2-10, Matthew 3:16 and 28:19, Luke 11:13, John 3:8, 4:24, 14:16-17 and 15:26, Acts 2:4 and 5:3-4, Romans 8:9, 1 Corinthians 2:11 and 12:4-11, Ephesians 4:4, and Revelation 1:1, 1:4, 1:20, 2:7, 3:1, 4:5, 5:6, 8:2, 19:10 and 22:9.
• “Genesis 1:2”, Wikipedia, and Claude Mariottini, The Spirit of God in Genesis 1:2, for the meanings of ruach and the “Spirit of God” versus “wind from God” readings, including the NRSV and Targum Onkelos.
• Revelation 1:4 in other translations. KJV, NKJV, NASB and NIV, for the capital and lowercase readings.
• Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, digitised by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA), for the Hebrew and Greek words, their meanings and roots. Each marked word links to its entry in the word glossary.
• “Seven Archangels”, Wikipedia, and Tobit 12:15, for the tradition of seven angels who serve before God.