IndigoChild5559
Loving God and my neighbor as myself.
@Tamino wrote you a really super explanation, and what I have to add is very little.
English is at its heart a Germanic language (the Saxons were a Germanic tribe that conquered England).
However, it adopted words from many, many other languages such as Latin, as he pointed out. This willingness to incorporate new words from other peoples has made English the most expressive language in the world, with 171,476 in the dictionary. Just as a comparison, Hebrew has about 80,000.
When the Saxons first invaded England, they brought an older version of German with them. Just as the word in today's standard German is Geist, it was Geist even back then in Old High German. By the time what we call Old English was spoken, the word "gæst" (or "gast") primarily meant "spirit" or "soul." It was used to refer to the vital essence or life force within a person, often in a more general or broader sense than the modern English word "ghost." The term could encompass not just the spirits of the dead but also living spirits, including angels and demons--and God. The Old English version of "Holy Ghost" was Hāliġ Gast.
By the time the language had evolved into Middle English, the meaning had changed to something more specific: a disembodied spirit. So it still was used to indicate things like angels, demons, and God. It was during this period of Middle English, roughly 1100 to 1500 CE, that the phrase "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost" became common in English religious texts and liturgy.
It is only now, in Modern English, that ghost has come to refer only to the spirits of the dead. This does create a kind of incongruency. On one hand, God is not a dead spirit. On the other hand, religious people are very inclined to maintain tradition and will use older words and grammar in their texts. The Doxology was written in 1674, and is still sung by Christians today; it uses the phrase "Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost."
I bet that was more than you ever wanted to know about "ghost."
To add just a tad to Tamino's post, the Latin word "spiritus" began to influence the English language during the Middle English period, which lasted from roughly 1100 to 1500. English adopted many Latin words because Latin was the language of scholars and the Church. This term encompasses various meanings, including "breath," "soul," "life," and "spirit." In Latin, the words for Holy Spirit were "Spiritus Sanctus." By the 15th century, "spirit" had become well established in English.
While Christians today will say "Holy Ghost" when reading or singing these older texts, I've noticed that they have become uncomfortable with the use of Holy Ghost, and have pretty much switched to Holy Spirit.
Canaanite pantheism is extremely different from Christianity today. Christians believe there is only ONE God, expressed as the three persons Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That's not polytheism, it's a sort of mucky version of monotheism.
Furthermore, in classic paganism, what we call gods would be better understood to be "powers," things that had great effect on the lives of humans, such as "storm" or "sea" or abstractions like "love." They didn't have the Christian concept of God the Holy Spirit, who is not part of nature, but transcends nature.
Anyhow, it would be a great misunderstanding of Christianity to label Father, Son, and Holy Spirit a pantheon.
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