LIST TWO: EARLY MODERN ENGLISH PERIOD (1500–1600)
10 Historical Quotations
#1. William Tyndale — 1526
Source: English New Testament — Acts 2:4.
Original English:
"and they were all filled with the holy goost and beganne to speake with other tonges even as the sprete gave them vtteraunce."
Modern English:
"And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues, even as the Spirit gave them utterance."
Significance: Tyndale uses "holy goost" and "sprete" (Spirit) in the same verse, both referring to the same divine Person. This is particularly strong sixteenth-century evidence connecting "Ghost" with "Spirit."
Source: Tyndale Bible of 1526.
https://biblehub.com/tyndale/acts/2.htm
#2. Miles Coverdale — 1535
Source: Coverdale Bible — Acts 2:4.
Original English:
"and they were all fylled with the holy goost. And they beganne to preach with other tunges, euen as the sprete gaue them vtteraunce."
Modern English:
"And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. And they began to preach with other tongues, even as the Spirit gave them utterance."
Significance: Coverdale independently supplies another published Bible witness using "holy goost" and "sprete" in the same verse. This reinforces the continuity of the English expressions following Tyndale.
Source: Coverdale Bible of 1535.
https://biblehub.com/coverdale/acts/2.htm
#3. Thomas Cranmer's Book of Common Prayer — 1549
Source: The Book of Common Prayer — Holy Communion, Nicene Creed.
Original English:
"And I beleve in the holy ghost, the Lorde and gever of life, who procedeth from the father and the sonne"
Modern English:
"And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son."
Significance: The Book of Common Prayer identifies the Holy Ghost as divine and as the giver of life. It demonstrates that "Holy Ghost" was firmly established in the official English religious language of the mid-sixteenth century.
Source: The 1549 Book of Common Prayer, Society of Archbishop Justus.
https://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/1549/Communion_1549.htm
#4. Geneva Bible — 1560
Source: Acts 2:4.
Original English:
"And they were all filled with the holy Ghost, and began to speake with other tongues, as the Spirit gaue them vtterance."
Modern English:
"And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance."
Significance: The Geneva Bible preserves the same distinction of wording found in Tyndale and Coverdale: "Holy Ghost" in the first clause, followed by "Spirit" in the second. Both identify the same divine Person.
Source: Geneva Bible (1560).
https://bibelvers.no/en/geneva/acts/2/4
#5. John Jewel — 1564
Source: An Apology of the Church of England, English translation by Anne Bacon.
English Translation (spelling modernized in the consulted edition):
"We believe that the Holy Ghost, who is the third person in the Holy Trinity, is very God: not made, not created, not begotten, but proceeding from both the Father and the Son"
Significance: Jewel's theological defense explicitly identifies the Holy Ghost as the third Person of the Trinity. His work was originally published in Latin in 1562 and translated into English in 1564, making it another important sixteenth-century witness outside Bible translation.
Source: An Apology of the Church of England, New Whitchurch Press, reproducing Anne Bacon's English translation with editorial modernization.
https://newwhitchurch.press/jewel/apology
#6. John Foxe — 1570
Source: Acts and Monuments (Book of Martyrs), 1570 edition, p. 2026, examination of John Philpot.
Original English:
"the holy ghost is CHRISTES Vicar in earth."
And in the same exchange:
"that the spirit is CHRISTES Vicar on earth"
Modern English:
"The Holy Ghost is Christ's vicar on earth."
"That the Spirit is Christ's vicar on earth."
Significance: This is one of the strongest non-Bible-translation witnesses in the collection. Foxe's account renders the substance of Philpot's Latin statement using both "Holy Ghost" and "Spirit." The wording provides direct evidence that these English terms could identify the same Person.
Source: University of Sheffield, Acts and Monuments Online, 1570 edition, p. 2026.
https://www.dhi.ac.uk/foxe/index.php?book=11&gototype=&realm=more&type=citation
#7. Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion — 1571
Source: Article V — Of the Holy Ghost.
English Text (later standardized presentation):
"The Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the Son, is of one substance, majesty, and glory, with the Father and the Son, very and eternal God."
Significance: This official English doctrinal statement identifies the Holy Ghost as possessing the same divine substance, majesty, and glory as the Father and Son. It establishes the continued use of "Holy Ghost" in formal English theology.
Source: Fordham University, Internet Modern History Sourcebook.
https://sourcebooks.web.fordham.edu/mod/1571-39articles.asp
#8. English Translation of John Calvin's Commentaries — 1580
Source: Commentaries upon the First Epistle of Saint John and the Epistle of Jude, translated into English by W. H.
Original English (from the published title):
"accordyng to the truthe of the woordes of the holie Ghost"
The same title also refers to:
"sanctification by the Spirit of Christ"
Modern English:
"According to the truth of the words of the Holy Ghost."
"Sanctification by the Spirit of Christ."
Significance: The English translator's published title employs both "holie Ghost" and "Spirit of Christ." This demonstrates the simultaneous use of these expressions in sixteenth-century theological publishing.
These are words from the English edition's title, not a claim that Calvin personally composed the English wording.
Source: University of Jyväskylä bibliographical record, 1580 English edition.
https://jyu.finna.fi/Record/nelli09.1000000000629844
#9. Rheims New Testament — 1582
Source: Acts 2:4.
Original English:
"and they were al replenished with the Holy Ghost, and they began to speake with diuerse tongues according as the Holy Ghost gaue them to speake."
Modern English:
"And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they began to speak with diverse tongues, according as the Holy Ghost gave them to speak."
Significance: The Roman Catholic Rheims New Testament also retained "Holy Ghost." Its use confirms that the expression was not peculiar to Protestant Bible translations, but was established across different English Christian traditions.
Source: Original Rheims New Testament (1582).
https://originaldouayrheims.com/acts2
#10. Richard Hooker — 1593
Source: Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity — Preface, III.10.
English Text (later editorial spelling):
"it is the special illumination of the Holy Ghost, whereby they discern those things in the word, which others reading yet discern them not."
Hooker continues:
"There are but two ways whereby the Spirit leadeth men into all truth"
Significance: Hooker employs "Holy Ghost" and "Spirit" in the same surrounding discussion of divine illumination and understanding Scripture. His wording provides another late-sixteenth-century example from theological prose rather than Bible translation.
Source: Richard Hooker, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, Preface.
https://merecatholicity.com/hooker-a-preface-to-them-that-seek-as-they-term-it-the.html
CONCLUSION
So what do these fifteen historical quotations demonstrate?
Well, for one thing, the English word "Ghost" was being used to refer to the Holy Spirit centuries before the King James Bible of 1611. In fact, you can see this in the Middle English period with expressions such as "Haliȝ Gast," "Goost," "Hooly Goost," and "Holy Gost." These are historical forms of the same English expression that we know today as "Holy Ghost." The historical evidence demonstrates that "Ghost" was an established English word for "Spirit," and that "Holy Ghost" was a recognized expression for the Holy Spirit long before the KJV translators ever began their work. So why should we judge the language of the KJV according to a restricted modern understanding of the word "ghost" when the historical evidence demonstrates that the word had a broader meaning?
Should we not first seek to understand what these English words actually meant to the people who used them?
I hope this info helps, and may the Lord Jesus Christ bless you.
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