Why is this same Greek word translated into two different words in the Bible?

Question

Why is it that in the King James Version of the Bible, the Greek word πνεῦμα (pneuma) is sometimes translated to "Spirit", and other times translated to "Ghost"?

For example, look at Matthew. In Matthew 1:18, it's translated to "Ghost", but in Matthew 3:16, it's translated to "Spirit"? I guess in Matthew it looks to me like it is translated to "Ghost" only when the word "Holy" is before it.
But why is that?

And in other cases, like Luke 11:13, the word "Holy" is before it, but it is translated to "Spirit".

Why is this?!

Answer 1

Because in the Greek a word has more than one meaning. That is why it is so hard to translate and your newer versions translate it differently because as time goes on we understand it better.

Answer 2

Different Bible translations have different meanings for words. The King James Bible was a nice Bible for its time period 1600s. I agree with Alex Trebek (Jeopardy) the best Bible to use in English with the best translations is the New World Translation. It doesn't go back and forth between words. It uses actual Greek & Hebrew scrolls (Dead Sea Scrolls, etc) to explain the Bible. Your example is good because it shows how confused religions have made people. Spirit is the (pneu-ma) refers to a life force within a body. A ghost is supposed to be a disembodied soul. That is not a correct Bible teaching. A human IS a soul and cannot exist without both body and soul. Use of the term ghost is both confusing and not Christian.

Answer 3

***STARJUMPER and SOME others, you are correct****


In church, whenever the priest discussed the Holy Trinity, he would say "Pneuma", and we were taught to understand that it means "Holy Ghost" or "Holy Spirit". It all depends on the context in which you are saying it, and like someone pointed out, some just things get lost in translation and it would be impossible to trace the exact intention of the original written word. The literal meanings of ghost and spirit are pretty much interchangeable,in Greek AND in English so you can translate it into whatever word you prefer.

Answer 4

Some are linked to dozens

Pneuma is defined as: wind, breath, things which are commonly perceived as having no material substance; by extension: spirit, heart, mind, the immaterial part of the inner person that can respond to God; spirit being: (evil) spirit, ghost, God the Holy Spirit.

The word is used 379 times in the Greek New Testament and most modern translations usually render it as "spirit." While English is a living language, the Greek of the NT is basically a dead language. English words continue to change meanings, so new translations are needed to ACCURATELY relate the ORIGINAL MEANING as meanings of English words change.

The word has several "contextual translations." For instance, Mark 8:12 "He sighed deeply and said..." and John 3:8 "The wind blows..." The PRIMARY meaning of the word is "wind" or "breath," but most scriptural uses relate to the Spirit of God, a human spirit, or an "evil spirit."

Answer 5

Translating from one language to another can never be exact.

The meaning that one language has for a word often means MORE ............or LESS...... than what our word means. If you look in our dictionary, you will see that many words have a number of meanings. Another language often has many, BUT DIFFERENT other meanings.

Greek has four words for love, each meaning something different. English has one....and it can mean many things....but who knows which one? So when we translate "Agape, Philos, Eros, Sorge" from Greek we may use many other words to try to catch the meaning of the Greek usage.

Answer 6

That's the problem with the King James version, the scholarship is good, but it is archaic language. It is just a translation decision, ghost was interchangeable with spirit, but it is the same Grk. word as you pointed out.

Answer 7

Are a Ghost and a Spirit not interchangeable words? You know the Bible is not Unsolved Mysteries or Psi factor.

Answer 8

πνευμα means two things. Spirit and sometimes it is referred to an spiritual entity, or the soul of someone who died. Greek is a very complex language, each word having hundreds of different meanings. In order to understand how each word is used, you must read the context in which it was written.

Answer 9

part of it deals with the word origins within the biblefirst was aramaic then greek then latin then english along the way it gets interpreted diffrently that is also why english is sometimes difficult for some to learn because of the word origins

Answer 10

Looking in my new English it is always translated into spirit.
King James was trying to keep the Catholics from killing people who were translating the bible into english.
He was not even a christian. He did a pretty good job but their knowledge in those days was limited.
They added stuff they shouldn't have that is all their is to it.