she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit

[chuckd]

Matt. 1:18

I have a few questions about this account.

What was the Holy Spirit to Matthew? A person of the Trinity or was he referring to something else?

Assuming he is referring to the third person, what is unique to the Spirit that he was the instrument for Jesus’ conception?

 

[Gwallard]

Matthew, like the rest of the early church, knew the Holy Spirit as God, as some who tried to lie to Him died at Peter's feet. Only people can be lied to. Matthew was part of that movement, and heard Jesus say that they were to baptize on the name of the Holy Spirit, such that he wrote those words explicitly in the 28th chapter of his gospel.

Even if Matthew was ignorant of the personhood of the Holy Spirit - a fact he certainly was not ignorant of - God, the author of Matthews Gospel, was not ignorant of it.

Or, do you mean "Holy Spirit" could have had a different designation in Matthew's particular idiom? If that is your question, Matthew 28 will also answer, or else the rest of God's works.

Your last question is a good one! I don't really know, but perhaps that the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son has something to do with it? Just musing.

 

[VictorBravo]

Assuming he is referring to the third person, what is unique to the Spirit that he was the instrument for Jesus’ conception?

Consider Genesis 1:2. The Holy Spirit "moved" or "hovered" over the formless "waters." The Hebrew verb is in the Piel form, which implies intense and focused activity.

"The Spirit blows where he will." We know he is active in spiritual birth as well as creation.

Beyond that, I have nothing more.

 

[BarbaraDyer]

Consider Genesis 1:2. The Holy Spirit "moved" or "hovered" over the formless "waters." The Hebrew verb is in the Piel form, which implies intense and focused activity.

"The Spirit blows where he will." We know he is active in spiritual birth as well as creation.

Beyond that, I have nothing more.

Good point!

 

[jwithnell]

I heard an early Genesis scholar recently make that same connection between creation and Mary. The idea fascinated me.

 

[chuckd]

I am perusing through John Owen's Pneumatologia and he has two chapters on this subject:
Work of the Holy Spirit with respect unto the head of the new creation - the human nature of Christ
Work of the Holy Spirit in and on the human nature of Christ