Is the Holy Spirit the same as the breath of life that God breathed into man?

The Hebrew word ruwach is used to designate God’s Spirit in the Old Testament, and sometimes it's also used to designate man’s spirit. However, when God breathed life into Adam, a different word is used, which is neshamah, which means "breath," according to Strong's. This word is used in association with giving life to a human soul. So Genesis 2:7 does not use ruwach, but rather neshamah.

When God created Adam, He breathed into him the “breath of life” and Adam became a living soul (Genesis 2:7). The Hebrew word "nephesh" is the word translated "soul" in Genesis 2:7. The Hebrew word nephesh, although translated as "soul" in some older English Bibles, actually has a meaning closer to "living being"...a living, breathing conscious person, rather than to an immortal soul. According to Genesis 2:7, God did not make a body and put a soul into it like a letter into an envelope of dust; rather he formed man's body from the dust, then, by breathing divine breath into it, he made the body of dust live. In other words, the dust did not embody a soul, but it became a soul—--a whole creature. So, in other words, God gave that body of dust life. Though it's a very poor comparison, it's sort of like the story of Frankenstein, when lightning hit that dead body and it came to life.

1 Corinthians 15:45 says, "And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit." The Greek word for "quickening" is "zoopoieo" (Strong's Number 2227), whose word usage includes "life-giving." The Greek-English New Testament shows the literal translation from the Greek as being, "So also it has been written: became The first man Adam - soul 'a living;' the last Adam - spirit 'a life-giving.'" Matthew Henry's Commentary says, "The first Adam was made a living soul, such a being as ourselves. The second Adam is a quickening Spirit..." The first part of the word 'zoopoieo,' which is zoo, or zoe, means “life” in the sense of resurrection life. As a resurrected person (“spirit”), our Lord will “quicken” people or make alive in the resurrection. The second part, 'poieo,' means “to make,” in the sense of produce, construct, form, or fashion. It is equivalent to the Hebrew ‘asah, which means “to make” or “produce by labour.” ‘Asah is used in reference to the manufacture or construction of any thing. Putting these two parts together, we have the basic sense of zoopoieo, “to make alive with resurrection life,” or “to construct alive with resurrection life.”

1 Corinthians 15:45-49 says that He was resurrected from the dead through the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) as the second Adam, and, according to 1 Corinthians 15:20-28, that He will reign on the earth during the Messianic Kingdom until its end when all things return back to the Father.

John 5:26 says, "For as the Father has life in Himself: so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself."

So the Scriptures make a specific distinction between the spirit that animated the first Adam’s soul, “the breath (neshamah) of life” from the Father, and the “quickening” life-giving Holy Spirit (Ruach HaKodesh) of the Father that animated His Son’s soul.

Jesus was given life as a human, by the Holy Spirit, therefore His life force as a man is God’s Spirit. The Breath of Life – (neshamah) that we inherit from our parents was never intended to give eternal life. The longevity that was imparted to Adam and Eve was actually through their diet, the Tree of Life (Genesis 3:22) [Remember there were two trees, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the Tree of Life, and they were never told not to eat of the Tree of Life until after the Fall, when the angel guarded it with a flaming sword]. When we receive salvation, we receive the Holy Spirit, which enables our souls to have the same life as Jesus, which is eternal. When God created Adam, He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (neshamah) and Adam became a living soul. This breath of life was never designed to impart eternal life to its bearer. When Adam and Eve disobeyed Him, they were denied access to the Tree of Life, which was the source of food that maintained their longevity (Genesis 3:22).

In the present ministry of the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) by whose indwelling the believer is enabled to live a godly life (Ezekiel 36:26-27), the Holy Spirit is called Ruach HaKodesh, not just Ruach. Ruach HaKodesh means the 'Holy Spirit' or 'Holy Ghost' in Luke 3:16 and 11:13, Ephesians 1:13 and 4:30, 1 Thessalonians 4:8, Titus 3:5, 1 Corinthians 6:9 and Jude 1:20. "Kodesh" is an adjective meaning 'holy.' HaKadosh is a substantive that means "The Holy One," as in Ha-Kadosh baruch hu, or "the Holy One, blessed be He." Ruach HaKadosh would mean "the spirit of the holy one" as in a saint; it is not used for the Holy Spirit. Ruach HaKo'desh means "the holy Spirit" just like har ha-ko'desh means "the holy mountain," and admat ha-ko'desh means "the holy land," and ir ha ko'desh means "the holy city." Ruach Elohim means the spirit of God, found in Matthew 3:16 and 12:28, Romans 8:9,14 and 15:19, 1 Corinthians 2:11,14 and 3:16 and 7:40 and 12:3, Ephesians 4:30, and 1 John 4:2.

From Strong's, the most often-documented word used for "spirit" in the Hebrew Bible is ‘ruwach’ - roo’-akh. Strong (1986: 142). The most common word used in the Hebrew Bible for "soul" is ‘nephesh’ - neh’-fesh. Strong (1986: 105). The most used word for "spirit" in the New Testament is ‘pneuma’ - pnyoo’mah. Strong (1986: 78). The most common world for "soul" in the New Testament is ‘psuche’ - psoo-khay. Strong (1986: 106).

So, in conclusion, the Holy Spirit is not same as the breath of life that God breathed into man.

The Chinese Language: Evidence of the Genesis Account

"Old Chinese, sometimes known as "Archaic Chinese", was the language common during the early and middle Zhōu Dynasty (1122 BC - 256 BC), texts of which include inscriptions on bronze artifacts, the poetry of the Shījīng, the history of the Shūjīng, and portions of the Yìjīng (I Ching)."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_language#History_and_evolution

"The oldest discovered texts are oracular sayings incised on tortoise shells and cattle scapulae by court diviners of the Shang dynasty beginning in the early 14th century bc; these are the so-called oracle-bone inscriptions. Although the writing system has since been standardized and stylistically altered, its principles and many of its symbols remain fundamentally the same.

Like other scripts of ancient origin, Chinese is derived from picture writing. It grew into a word-by-word representation of language when it was discovered that words too abstract to be readily pictured could be indicated by their sound rather than their sense. Unlike other scripts, however, Chinese still works pictographically as well as phonetically. Moreover, its sound indications have not been adapted to changes of pronunciation but have remained keyed to the pronunciation of 3,000 years ago. The building blocks of the system are several hundred pictographs for such basic words as man, horse, and axe. In addition, expanded, or compound, pictographs exist. For example, a symbol of this type representing a man carrying grain means “harvest,” and thus “year” (nian)."
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761565543_2/chinese_language.html


EARLY CHINESE EVIDENCE OF THE GENESIS ACOUNT

BOAT
The Chinese word for boat is made up of three components.

The left most character means "ship" or "vessel."

The upper righthand character is the Chinese number "eight."

The bottom righthand character is the word for "mouth" or "person." The first boat mentioned in the Bible is Noah's ark. Just how many people or "mouths" were aboard this ship or vessel? Genesis 7:13 tells us: "In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark." So Noah's ark was a ship or a vessel with eight people. The Chinese language records this fact in perfect detail.


SEPARATE
After the flood, the eight humans on the Ark settle down, have children, and eventually diffuse themselves throughout the land to form different nations.


TEMPTER
Genesis 3:1-5
First, we have a character with the meaning of "secret" or "private."

Then we have another variation on the character for "man" or "son."

In this character, you see an enclosed garden divided into four parts.

When we combine these characters, we see the meaning of the character for "devil." The devil was crafty, tricky, and secretive in his private approach to Eve in the garden -- he caught Eve when she was alone; when Adam was not with her, and could not counsel or advise her against the devil's tempting. He spoke to Eve with the voice of a man so that she could understand. This whole event takes place in the garden of Eden. Afterward, Eve also tempted the man, Adam, and he fell to the temptation as well.

To form the "tempter" character, we first top the "devil" character with two trees. Although there were many trees in the garden of Eden, only two receive specific mention: (1) the "tree of life" and (2) the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" (Genesis 2:9). Satan's specific temptation to Eve was to get her to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

We then add the character for "cover" to indicate that this temptation took place under the "cover" of the trees of the garden. Again, Satan does not do his work out in the open light. The Deceiver comes to us in subtilty and craftiness.

So, 'secret' + 'man' + 'garden' + 'devil' + 'trees' + 'cover' = "tempter"


COVET

The word "covet" or "desire" pictures a woman making a decision between two trees. Genesis 2:8-9 shows us that there were two significant trees side by side in the garden from which to choose. The woman made a wrong choice as we are told in Genesis 3:6. She chose the tree which God had commanded her not to eat of. She coveted the knowlege which the devil told her could be hers.


FORBIDDEN

Here again we see the two trees at the top of the character for "forbidden." The bottom portion of this character is an abbreviated form of a word for God plus an added little "hook" (bottom center) which changes the meaning from "God" to "God commands or notifies." So the word "forbidden" means "God makes a commandment about two trees." God in fact made specific commandments forbidding Adam and Eve to eat from either of the two trees (at different times). He first forbid them to eat of the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" (Genesis 2:16-17). After they fell to temptation, He forbids them to eat of the "tree of life" (Genesis 3:22-24).
http://bibleprobe.com/chinese.htm

Here are some others:

Eve secretly eats from the Tree of Knowledge with her mouth. This first sin marks the beginning of humankind's sinful fall and descent from holy relationship with God.


After eating from the Tree of Knowledge, Adam and Even become aware of their nakedness and hide in the trees. "Body is tree" characterizes this intent of camouflaging into the background.




All three of these characters mean "naked", and share the character for fruit as a component. If you were to design a language, why would you use the word for fruit to make the word "naked"? Genesis provides a contextual explanation for this choice. Adam and Eve hide their private areas with the leaves of a fruit tree; specifically, a fig tree.


God created human beings who could not only walk, but talk.


The first man was created from dust; the dust made alive.


Lamb + (above) me = Righteousness
In the Old Testament people sacrifice lambs for their sins. In the New Testament, Jesus died for our sins on the cross to offer us salvation. The only way to salvation is to accept Jesus who paid for our sins.

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HOW DID GOD CREATE THE WORLD?

Days and years in Genesis

Many people today discount the lifespans of those listed in Genesis, saying that its impossible that people actually lived that long. However, if the years in Genesis 5 are really shorter concerning men’s ages, then the days in Genesis 1 and 2 must be shorter as well, concerning the Creation account. Contrarily, if the days in Genesis 1 and 2 are actually thousands or millions of years, then the years of men’s ages in Genesis 5 must be thousands or millions of years!

Other ancient genealogies other than the Bible show long lifespans as well, during that time. The Sumerian Kings list mentions 3 kings that are said to have reigned 72,000 years each. Now, that is obviously exaggerated, but that very exaggeration makes more sense if people did live long lifespans back then. If they merely lived 70 or so years, such an exaggeration would make far less sense.

Genesis 7:4 says, “Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.” If days were actually thousands or millions of years in Genesis, then it must have rained without letup for millions of years! That would mean that Noah was afloat in the ark with the animals for millions of years! On the other hand, if a 900 year genealogy is actually more like 90 years, then 40 days and 40 nights must only be a few minutes or less. This would mean that God flooded the entire world in just a few minutes!

Gen. 8:3,4 says, “The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.” How could they be so precise and exact with time periods HERE, yet be so imprecise when reporting people’s ages, or the days of Creation, in earlier chapters? In other chapters, very exact measurements are given, as well. It’s ridiculous to think that they could be so particular and exact with dates, measures, etc., yet be so imprecise and inaccurate when notating the number of years that people lived, or how long the period of Creation took.

If the recorded ages of some of the people in Genesis reflects a longer span than the years they actually lived (i.e., Adam lived 930 years; Seth lived 912 years; Enosh lived 905 years; Kenan lived 910 years; Mahalalel lived 895 years; Jared lived 962 years; Enoch lived 365 years; Methuselah lived 969 years; Lamech lived 777 years; Noah lived 950 years), then why is it that after the Flood, when God announces that man's lifespan will be shorter from now on, the lifespan of people begin to be (eventually and somewhat progressively) more 'normal' as they are today?

Gen. 11:10,11 says, "Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, he became the father of Arphaxad. And after he became the father of Arphaxad, Shem lived 500 years and had other sons and daughters."

OK, lets say that 500 years was an exaggeration of, say, 5 times the actual years that Shem lived, meaning that he actually lived to be 100, and he actually had Arphaxad when he was 20 years old.

However, in verse 12, the next verse, it says, "When Arphaxad had lived 35 years, he became the father of Shelah." Verse 13 continues, "And after he became the father of Shelah, Arphaxad lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters."

So, if you apply that 1/5 argument, Arphaxad must have become the father of Shelah when Arphaxad was 7 years old!

The same thing applies to the verses after that. Shelah became a dad at 30 years of age and lived to be 403. Eber became a dad at age 34 and lived to be 430. Peleg became a dad at age 30 and lived to be 209. Reu became a dad at 32 and lived to be 207. Serug became a dad at age 30 and lived to be 200. Nahor became a dad at 29 and lived to be 119.

If those ages of their lifespan were actually much shorter, then the ages they became a dad must have been much younger. So again, they must have fathered children when they were not even 10 years old yet!

Not only that, but notice that, in general, the lifespans become progressively shorter and shorter.

Computer points to one author

“After feeding the 20,000 Hebrew words of Genesis into a computer at Technion University in Israel, researchers found many sentences that ended in verbs and numerous words of six characters or more. Because these idiosyncratic patterns appear again and again, says project director Yehuda Radday, it seems likely that a sole author was responsible. Their exhaustive computer analysis conducted in Israel suggested an 82 percent probability that the book has just one author.” (Omni magazine, August 1982)

Is there any confirmation of Biblical events from written sources outside the Bible?

"The most documented Biblical event is the world-wide flood described in Genesis 6-9. A number of Babylonian documents have been discovered which describe the same flood.

The Sumerian King List, for example, lists kings who reigned for long periods of time. Then a great flood came. Following the flood, Sumerian kings ruled for much shorter periods of time. This is the same pattern found in the Bible. Men had long life spans before the flood and shorter life spans after the flood. The 11th tablet of the Gilgamesh Epic speaks of an ark, animals taken on the ark, birds sent out during the course of the flood, the ark landing on a mountain, and a sacrifice offered after the ark landed.

The Story of Adapa tells of a test for immortality involving food, similar to the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

Sumerian tablets record the confusion of language as we have in the Biblical account of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9). There was a golden age when all mankind spoke the same language. Speech was then confused by the god Enki, lord of wisdom. The Babylonians had a similar account in which the gods destroyed a temple tower and “scattered them abroad and made strange their speech.”


More examples of extra-Biblical confirmation of Biblical events:

- Campaign into Israel by Pharaoh Shishak (1 Kings 14:25-26), recorded on the walls of the Temple of Amun in Thebes, Egypt.

- Revolt of Moab against Israel (2 Kings 1:1; 3:4-27), recorded on the Mesha Inscription.

- Fall of Samaria (2 Kings 17:3-6, 24; 18:9-11) to Sargon II, king of Assyria, as recorded on his palace walls.

- Defeat of Ashdod by Sargon II (Isaiah 20:1), as recorded on his palace walls.

- Campaign of the Assyrian king Sennacherib against Judah (2 Kings 18:13-16), as recorded on the Taylor Prism.

- Siege of Lachish by Sennacherib (2 Kings 18:14, 17), as recorded on the Lachish reliefs.

- Assassination of Sennacherib by his own sons (2 Kings 19:37), as recorded in the annals of his son Esarhaddon.

- Fall of Nineveh as predicted by the prophets Nahum and Zephaniah (2:13-15), recorded on the Tablet of Nabopolasar.

- Fall of Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon (2 Kings 24:10-14), as recorded in the Babylonian Chronicles.

- Captivity of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, in Babylon (2 Kings 24:15-16), as recorded on the Babylonian Ration Records.

- Fall of Babylon to the Medes and Persians (Daniel 5:30-31), as recorded on the Cyrus Cylinder.

- Freeing of captives in Babylon by Cyrus the Great (Ezra 1:1-4; 6:3-4), as recorded on the Cyrus Cylinder.

- The existence of Jesus Christ as recorded by Josephus, Suetonius, Thallus, Pliny the Younger, the Talmud, and Lucian.

- Forcing Jews to leave Rome during the reign of Claudius (A.D. 41-54) (Acts 18:2), as recorded by Suetonius."

http://www.christiananswers.net/q-abr/abr-a009.html