Spirit of Christ - 1 Pet 1:11?

 Responding to JW critics

"Spirit of Christ"?

One critic said: (says) :

"The NWT intentionally mistranslated 1 Peter 1:11 which should read spirit of Christ, while in Romans 8 they translated the same Greek phrase Christ's spirit!"

Here we see English translations, which are Trinitarian, thus, translate, “pneuma”, not as “spirit”, but, “Spirit” and of course, because, such translations are Trinitarian!

Below, is written a response some years ago by a fellow apologist JW on 1 Pet 1:11 to a Trinitarian and one will see, that as with Rev 3:14, a particular Genitive is used and this is the downfall of people like Jevan, who are wholly ignorant!

1 Peter 1:11 "spirit of Christ."

The New International Version renders 1 Peter 1:11 this way:

"trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow."

The New World Translation reads:

"They kept on investigating what particular season or what sort of [season] the spirit in them was indicating concerning Christ when it was bearing witness beforehand about the sufferings for Christ and about the glories to follow these."

A footnote in the New World Translation states: "[v.]11 Or, "the spirit of Christ which was in them indicated."

Why has the NWT Translation Committee opted to render the Greek "TO....PNEUMA XRISTOS," literally, "the....spirit of Christ" as "the spirit in them was indicating concerning Christ"?

It appears that the phrase here "spirit of Christ" has been taken in the genitive of relation.

To give an example of this: John 7:35 literally is "the dispersion of the Greeks" means "scattered among the Greeks."-NIV.

The NIV has used the prepositional word "among" to show the relation of the word "dispersion" with the phrase "of the Greeks."

Another example of this is at Romans 5:18, literally is "DIKAIWSIN ZWHS," "justification of-life." The New International Version translates this as "justification that brings life." When we have this type of genitive then some such prepositional word or phrase is necessary to bring out what kind of relation the words have with each other.

The NWT Translation Committee has understood that the phrase "the...spirit of Christ" is not a reference to Christ's spirit but to the holy spirit of God that, through the prophets of the O.T., foretold about the sufferings that the Christ would have.

Of course, not all will so interpret.

However, note what P. H. Davids in The 1st Epistle of Peter wrote:

"...The identification of "Spirit of Christ," then, shows that it is the spirit’s witness to Christ in the O.T. that is the focus of interest, not the actual pre-existence of Christ which Peter does not mention..."

In a footnote he writes:

"This commentary suspects that he [Peter] has not reached the position clearly seen in John and Hebrews, that is, that there is not enough evidence to argue that he was in fact aware of the concept of the pre-existence of Christ and thus that "Spirit of Christ" most likely refers to the Holy Spirit or "Spirit of God" known in the O.T. times."-The New International Commentaries on the New Testament, Erdmans Publishing Co. Grand Rapids, Michigan, pp 62-63.

M. R. Vincent writes upon the words "EIS XRISTOS"("of Christ"):

"Lit[erally] unto Christ...The suffering destined for Christ, as in ver[se] 10 he speaks of the grace [EIS hUMAS], unto you: i.e., destined to come unto you. Peter was especially concerned to show that the sufferings of Christ were in fulfillment of prophecy, because it was a subject of dispute with the Jews whether the Christ was to suffer (Acts 3:18; 26:22, 23)."-Word Studies in the New Testament, Vol.1, page 302, Macdonald Publishing Company.

See also The First Epistle of St Peter by E.G.Selwyn, page 135, 136.

The "spirit" in 1 Peter 1:11 is not Christ's spirit, but God's holy spirit that inspired the prophets to write concerning the future sufferings of the Christ.