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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
breathed on. Greek. emphusao. Only here in N.T., but used in the Septuagint in Gen_2:7 for the Hebrew word naphah, to breathe, or blow with force. The same Lord who, as Jehovah Elohim, breathed into Adam's nostrils the breath of life so that he became a living soul, here breathes upon the apostles that they may receive Divine power. Satan tries to parody the Lord's words and works. In the "Great" Magical Papyrus of about the third century A.D. occurs the following in a spell for driving out a demon: "When thou adjurest, blow (phusa), sending the breath from above [to the feet], and from the feet to the face". Deissmann, Fresh Light, p. 260.
the Holy Ghost. Greek. pneuma hagion (no art.): i.e. power from on high. See App-101. The Firstfruits of the resurrection here bestows the firstfruits of the Spirit, not only on the apostles, but on "them that were with them" (Luk_24:33, and compare Act_1:14; Act_2:1).