The Spirit’s career as the sanctifying divider-and-uniter is evident as early as the Bible’s account of creation (Ge 1:1 – 10). In the flood narrative in Genesis 8, we encounter the first instance of the Spirit appearing as a dove, announcing the appearance of dry land (Ge 8:8 – 12), but earlier in this chapter it is said, “And God made a wind [ruach] blow over the earth, and the waters subsided” (v. lb). Given the parallelism with the creation account (of waters being divided for human habitation), there is no good reason not to translate ruach “Spirit” rather than “wind” in 8:1b.
