Was 'Holy Spirit' added later to the biblical text, as C.K. Barrett argues, and is 'Spirit of God' always the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament?
A viewer says the biblical scholar C.K. Barrett argues that the earliest biblical records read only 'Spirit' rather than 'Holy Spirit,' asks why 'Holy' was added, and asks whether 'Spirit of God' in the Old Testament always means the Holy Spirit.
Answer
In the Old Testament the exact phrase 'Holy Spirit' appears only about three times; usually it says 'Spirit of God.' In the New Testament, 'Holy Spirit,' hagion pneuma, is used probably two hundred and fifty times, sometimes with the article and sometimes without, but it is plain as day. C.K. Barrett is a respectable scholar, but I do not know where he is getting the claim that the earliest records lack 'Holy Spirit.' If he means the Greek manuscript evidence, there is no way that is right, because the Greek manuscripts do not refrain from using 'Holy Spirit'; sometimes they say Spirit, sometimes Holy Spirit. So unless the question is leaving out part of the story, he would know the manuscripts do not support that idea.