This cult, as do many others, deny, not only the Deity of the Holy Spirit, that
He, like the Father and Jesus Christ are equally Yahweh; but also deny His
Personality, thereby making Him out to be a mere “force” through which God
works. This is what they have to say, in their argument against the
“Personality” of the Holy Spirit.
“when the neuter Greek word of spirit (pneuma) is used, the neuter pronoun 'it'
is properly employed" (Should You Believe in the Trinity?, p.22)
To show their ignorance of the Greek language, they argue as they do above.
Because the Greek word translated in the New Testament "Spirit", is in the
neuter gender "πνευμα", it is supposed that it must follow that the Holy Spirit
is not a Person. It must be remembered, that in John's Gospel Jesus declares
that "God is Spirit" (4:24), are we to conclude from this statement, that God is
an impersonal being? I am aware that here "spirit" is used with the noun "θεὀς",
which is in the masculine gender, but this does
not prove that God is a Person. In
Acts 7:43, we have the masculine "θεου" used for an idol, which is certainly
not personal! The Personality of God,
is not to be found in the gender of the noun "θεὀς", but in the characteristics
which are attributed to Him, which are clearly Personal. Likewise of the Holy
Spirit, we are told that He has "a mind" (Rom.8;27); He can be "grieved"
(Eph.4:30); He "teaches" (Luke 12:12; John 14:26); "leads" (Luke 4:1); "forbids"
(Acts 16:6); "lied to" (Acts 5:3); "bears witness" (Acts 5:32), etc. All of
which is also used of God throughout the Old Testament, which can
only be understood of a Person. The
teaching of the Holy Spirit in the Gospel of John, is very important, for it is
here that we come across something new. We have already dealt with the facts,
that the noun "Spirit" in the Greek language is neuter; and that the Holy Spirit
is a Person, in as much as the Father and Son are. We now move on to another
aspect of the grammar, which has been overlooked.
In Greek grammar we have two "genders" of words, there is the "grammatical
gender", and there is the "natural gender". The Former deals with the
"agreement" of gender within a sentence; the latter is the "sex" gender. Take,
for example, Romans 8:16, and 26, where we read the words: "αυτο τὸ πνευμα",
which is translated by the King James Version: "the Spirit itself". Now, because
we have the use of the neuter "πνευμα", the pronoun "αυτο", and article "τὸ",
are also in the neuter; this is what is called "grammatical agreement of
gender", where it is so required by the "rules" of grammar. Taken by itself, the
sentence as translated by the King James is correct. But, here we have a case,
where other Scriptures, as well as the context, demands that we render the
words: "the Spirit Himself". Before I get accused of being biased, and
translating the words because of my "theological" position, I shall elaborate.
Firstly, in verse 16 we read of the Spirit of "bearing
witness" to the fact that we are "sons of God" (by adoption); secondly, in
verses 26 and 27 we read of the Spirit "interceding" on our behalf before the
Father. Now, in the book of Hebrews, we read of Jesus Christ as "ever living to
make intercession" (7:25), which is clearly used of a Person. Then, thirdly, in
verse 27, we read of "the mind of the
Spirit", where the Greek word for "mind" is "φρονημα", which denotes: "thought,
purpose, will, judgment, feeling" (see, H G Liddell and R Scott; A Greek-English
Lexicon; vol. II, pp.1955-1956), which can
only be used of a Person! So, the
translation " the Spirit Himself" is in keeping with the entire passage, which
clearly shows Him to be a Person.
Coming back to John's Gospel, we find a most interesting use of grammar by Jesus
of the Holy Spirit. Our Lord refers to the Holy Spirit by the pronoun "He", in a
few places (eg. 14:17, 26; 15:26; 16:8, 13, 14, etc.). But, it has been said,
that the use of "He" is not because a Person is meant, but for the sake of
"personification"; as Paul does in 1 Corinthians 13:5, where he says of "love",
that it "seeks not her own
(feminine)". Let us come away from the English, and look at the Greek of what
Jesus used. As I have already said, because "πνευμα" is a neuter noun, the
correct grammatical noun that Jesus should have used, would be "εκεινο", which
is also in the neuter. Also it should be remembered, that the use of the neuter
does not in any way indicate that a
Person is not meant, as I have shown this is more to do with correct grammar.
However, instead of using the neuter "εκεινο", Jesus uses the masculine
"εκεινος". Why? Also, when He refers to the Holy Spirit as "the
Comforter"(14:26), he should have used the neuter "το παρακλτον", which would
agree grammatically with the use of "πνευμα". But, as before He adopts the
masculine "ὀ παρακλτος". And, we also have the use of the masculine "αυτον"
("Him" -16:7; where we should expect "αυτο"); and "εαυτοὗ" ("Himself" -16:13;
again where we should expect "εαυτο"); and we also have the use of the pronoun
"ὁν" ("Whom"-15:26; where the neuter "ὃ" is required). On the use of the
masculine, the Jehovah's Witnesses argue, that, because Jesus uses the masculine
"παρακλτος" for the Holy Spirit, "So when Jesus referred to what the helper
would do, he used masculine personal pronouns (John 16:7, 8). On the other hand,
when the neuter Greek word for spirit (pneuma) is used, the neuter pronoun 'it'
is properly employed" (Should You Believe in the Trinity, p.22). Here, once
again we can see their wilful ignorance of the Greek grammar. Their argument
that Jesus uses the masculine "παρακλτος", and therefore uses the masculine
"εκεινος" to agree in gender, is with fault. The question, as to why did He use
the masculine "παρακλτος", instead of the neuter "το παρακλτον"?, is not dealt
with. If He had the neuter available to Him, then why should He employ the
masculine, seeing that the neuter "agrees" in gender with "πνευμα"! As for their
argument, that "when the neuter Greek word for spirit (pneuma) is used, the
neuter pronoun 'it' is properly employed", is without any ground. As they
themselves go on to quote 14:17 (ibid), where Jesus uses the neuter "αυτο" for
the Holy Spirit, and they argue that it should be rendered "it"; where, though
Jesus uses the neuter "πνευμα" in this verse, yet in the previous verse He uses
the masculine "ὀ παρακλτος"; which, according to their argument, the masculine
should have been employed. The question we must ask is, why does Jesus use the
neuter "αυτο" here? The answer lies in the fact, that the earliest textual
evidence for this text, the Papyri Greek manuscript, known as P66 (c.200 A.D.),
actually has the masculine "αυτον" (see, Papyrus Bodmer II; Dr William's
Library, London); which must show that the change to neuter is a corruption!
Dr George Winer, who, in his Greek Grammar, deals with "the
gender of pronouns", has this to say: "The gender of pronouns,-personal,
demonstrative, and relative,-is not infrequently different from that of the noun
to which they refer, the meaning of the noun being considered rather than its
grammatical gender. This construction is most common when an animate object is
denoted by a neuter substantive or a feminine abstract, in which case the
masculine or feminine pronoun is used, according to the sex of the
object...Jo.xv.26, however is not an example of this kind, as πνευμα is only an
apposition" (A Treatise on the Grammar of New Testament Greek, 176-177)
What the above means is this, that sometines the gender of a pronoun differs to
the noun to which they refer. Take, for example, John 6:9 (one that Dr Winer
uses) where we read of the "παιδαριον" (neuter,
lit. child; without reference to sex), where our English versions read "boy".
The way that the "sex" of the child was determined, was from the use of the
pronoun used in the sentence, "ὃς" (who), which is the masculine gender. Here
the gender of the pronoun (masculine), is different to the noun (neuter); but it
is the gender of the pronoun that establishes the "sex" of the child. Likewise,
in John 15:26, we have the neuter noun "πνευμα", which is described by the
pronoun "εκεινος" (He) which is in the masculine. Dr Winer dismisses this by
saying that the masculine is used here with the neuter, because it is "only an
apposition". But, this has got nothing to do with the use of "εκεινος" with
"πνευμα", as in apposition we would see the use of the neuter "εκεινο"! The
reason why Dr Winer remarks as he does above on John 15:26, is because he denies
the "Personality" of the Holy Spirit, even His Deity (as he was a Unitarian). As
we can see from the rendering of the neuter "αυτο" (14:17), where the King James
has "Him", and not "it"; and where
Paul uses the neuter in Romans, as we have already seen, when speaking of the
Holy Spirit. Nor can we allow for those who would draw a parallel with Jesus'
use of the masculine "εκεινος", with the use of the same in John 12:48, where
Jesus speaks of "the word which I spoke, that (εκεινος) shall judge him". Here
we have a case, where the phrase "the word" (ὀ λογος), is in the masculine
gender, and would, according to the agreement of "grammatical gender", require
the use of the masculine "εκεινος" (that). Further examples of such can be found
in John 2:22; 4:50; 15:3, 20; 1 Cor.15:54; 1 Thess.2:13, etc., and has
no bearing, whatsoever on the use of
"εκεινος" when applied to the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is Almighty God, as are the Father and Jesus Christ. One God,
Three Distinct Persons