This is my latest online Bible Study:
Biblical tales from the crypt - A Short Bible Study
With my mind's eye, I journey through several Biblical tales from the crypt. It appears that our present age of reasoning into the twilight regions of deaths, hauntings and ghosts from the past life have not evolved that far from the stories told thousands of years ago. I should add that Jesus Christ Himself taught of a spirit world. However, He did not teach about returning spirits of dead men/women to haunt the dickens from the otherwise calm and reasoned folk; but of angels, fallen and benevolent that can interact spiritually with us. Our Christian God even names Himself, Holy Ghost, to emphasize that part of His Divinity with which our spirits can relate. The word "spirit" is generally recognized as the vital principle or animating force within living things. The English word spirit comes from the Latin spiritus, "breath", and it has many differing meanings and connotations. So, on some level, we all believe in spirits. The word "ghost" is another rendering of "spirit." In the King James Bible both terms are used to describe 'spirit.' The choice of 'ghost' or 'spirit' as the correct word is made according to the context of the Biblical passages and the background at the time of its writing. Most modern translations simply use the word, "spirit." This is no doubt because the evolution of the term has moved more towards the ghostly, eerie, nature which the word 'ghost' has taken on since KJV times. Regardless, the word has its origin in the idea of "breath" or "wind". God breathed, and man became a living soul with a "spirit" of life within Him; Jesus breathed on his disciples, and said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost;" When Jesus died, he "gave up the ghost (breathed out His life)."
Having given this introduction, let us now examine the relationships between Jesus' teaching and some of the believed folklore of Bible days.
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