Abstract: This study provides students of the Book of Mormon with the first comprehensive analysis of the many ways in which the word “spirit” is used in that volume of scripture. It demonstrates how the titles “Holy Ghost,” “Spirit of God,” “Spirit of the Lord,” “Holy Spirit,” and “the Spirit” are used interchangeably to refer to the third member of the Godhead. It also shows that the Holy Ghost was understood to be a separate being. The analysis is thoroughly integrated with scholarly studies of references to the spirit (rûah) in the Hebrew Bible. The functions of the Holy Ghost are also identified and explained.

Students of Restoration scriptures and practices usually begin their studies of the Holy Ghost and its functions from the perspective of the New Testament; the revelations received by Joseph Smith for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; or even from other Christian traditions, theologies, and practices. As another fundamental Restoration scripture, the Book of Mormon has not always been easy to reconcile with that approach because of some passages that do not fit modern language and categories easily. The following study takes a different approach. It begins with a systematic study of the references to the Spirit and to the Holy Ghost in the text of the Book of Mormon and proposes an analysis of this Nephite discourse that is coherent and consistent throughout that text and that benefits from comparisons with Old Testament conceptions.

While some have taken the position that Joseph Smith must have inserted New Testament phraseology and concepts into the text to make it more appealing to Christian readers of his time, I do not agree with that and will not undertake any intertextual analyses involving [Page 188]the New Testament.1 The Book of Mormon presents itself as written by Israelites educated in Jerusalem in the late seventh century BCE and by their descendants, who claimed a version of the Old Testament as their scriptural heritage. Accordingly, this essay focuses on the text of the Book of Mormon with some comparisons with the Old Testament with the help of scholars who have produced relevant studies of that text.

The Spirit in the Old Testament and in the Book of Mormon

The analysis that follows shows a much more explicit and developed Nephite understanding of the Spirit of the Lord and the functions of that spirit in the world than we would expect from reading the Old Testament alone. But the Hebrew Bible also turns out to provide a productive context for illuminating Book of Mormon language of the spirit. Wilf Hildebrandt’s exhaustive 1995 study of Old Testament usage facilitates my comparison with the Book of Mormon text.