John 20:22

He breathed on them (enepushsen). First aorist active indicative of empusaw, late verb, here only in N.T. though eleven times in the LXX and in the papyri. It was a symbolic art with the same word used in the LXX when God breathed the breath of life upon Adam ( Genesis 2:7 ). It occurs also in Ezekiel 37:9 . See Christ's promise in John 16:23 . Jesus gives the disciples a foretaste of the great pentecost. Receive ye the Holy Ghost (labete pneuma agion). Second aorist (ingressive) active imperative of lambanw. Note absence of article here (pneuma agion) though to pneuma to agion in John 14:26 . No real distinction is to be observed, for Holy Spirit is treated as a proper name with or without the article.