There is a sense of what is called ‘spirit’ taught in the Book of Enoch which seems best to fit what we might call the set of characteristics which define something. This goes back, apparently, to the way of thinking and seeing the world in very ancient times. The sun has rays of light, and it has heat, and we could see it as two sets of characteristics. Then these might be called the two spirits of the sun. Today we would go further and apply these spirits to other stars, regarding both sun and stars as having a common nature, but common nature is more of an ancient Greek concept, particularly seen in later Christianity. God fills the universe with spirits, with many defining sets of characteristics of things He makes. People too have defining characteristics, which too could be seen as their spirits. In the thinking which can be regarded as following on from the Book of Enoch worldview, there is a sense in which the spirit defining something exists as something in its own right. Perhaps this is behind the sense in which Jesus can say he is there in existence before the birth of Abraham, who was born centuries before Jesus was born. Enoch, in the Book of Enoch, wrote of his own ascent up to the Son of Man, and apparently he meant by ‘the Son of Man’ the Christ—the anointed one, the elect one. Eventually this Son of Man became flesh, being named Jesus. Yet his defining characteristics existed as spirit, divine, long before he came in the flesh.
