Is The Holy Spirit An “It?”

It is written:

“The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:”. (Romans 8:16)

According to Scripture, the Holy Spirit possesses all of the attributes of being a Person.

For example:

• The Spirit Knows (1 Corinthians 2:11)

• The Spirit Speaks (Acts 8:29; 10:19-20; 11:12; 13:2; 1 Timothy 4:1)

• The Spirit Can Be Grieved (Ephesians 4:30)

• The Spirit Wills (1 Corinthians 12:11)

• The Spirit Loves (Romans 15:30)

• The Spirit Can Be Resisted (Acts 7:51)

• The Spirit Groans (Romans 8:26)

• The Spirit Testifies (John 15:26)

• The Spirit Guides (John 16:13)

• The Spirit Searches (1 Corinthians 2:10)

• The Spirit Leads (Acts 16:6-7)

• The Spirit Forbids (Acts 16:6-7)

• The Spirit Teaches (John 14:26)

Why, then, does the KJV refer to the Holy Spirit as an “it?”

Consider the following:

“What about the neuter nouns and pronouns used of the Holy Spirit? When it comes to discussing masculine, feminine, and neuter words in Greek, we are entering a realm that many people would probably prefer to avoid. However, because the Jehovah’s Witnesses enter this realm to argue against the Holy Spirit’s personality, we must take a brief look at how we should respond. Let us begin by noting that in the Greek language, all nouns are one of three genders—masculine, feminine, or neuter. These genders are not indicators of sex. In The Elements of New Testament Greek, J.W. Wenham notes that “in Greek, gender has to do with the form of the words and has little to do with sex. There are masculine, feminine, and neuter forms, but ‘bread’ [in the Greek] is masculine, ‘head’ is feminine, and ‘child’ is neuter.” 47 Thus, simply because a term is grammatically masculine does not mean that it is actually masculine in gender. Simply because a term is grammatically feminine does not mean that it is feminine in gender. And simply because a term is grammatically neuter does not mean that the item is an “it.” One reason the Jehovah’s Witnesses say the Holy Spirit is an “active force” is that the Greek word for “Spirit” (pneuma) is neuter. However, as noted above, this is faulty reasoning, since the neuter gender of the word has to do with the grammatical form of the word and not actual physical gender. For example, one will find that in Scripture, neuter terms are used in reference to infants (Luke 1:41,44; 2:16; 18:15), children (Mark 5:39-41), girls (Matthew 9:24-25; Mark 5:41-42), unclean spirits (Matthew 12:24,27-28; Mark 7:26,29-30), and angels (Hebrews 1:14). Obviously, each of these beings have personality, even though a neuter term is used in reference to them. We can safely conclude, then, that the use of a neuter term does not indicate a lack of personality.” (Ron Rhodes, Reasoning From The Scriptures With The Jehovah’s Witnesses, 212-213 (Kindle Edition); Eugene, Oregon; Harvest House Publishers)

The Holy Spirit is a Person.