Use of the Personal Pronoun when referring to the Holy Spirit

The verses most Trinitarian theologians use for their proof that the Spirit is a person are in chapters 14 through 16 of the Gospel of John. Here Jesus refers to the Spirit as the Comforter, which in the Greek is parakletos. The pronoun "he" is used in connection with the word Comforter or parakletos. However, the reason for its use is grammatical, not theological, or spiritual.

All pronouns in Greek must agree in gender with the word they refer to, therefore the pronoun "he" is used when referring to the Greek word parakletos. Only John refers to the Spirit as the parakletos- "Comforter." The other New Testament writers use the word pneuma which means "breath" or "spirit." This is the Greek equivalent of ruah, the Hebrew word for "spirit" used in the Old Testament. Pneuma is a grammatically neuter word and is always represented by the pronoun "it."

However, the translators of the King James Version, being swayed by the doctrine of the Trinity, have generally mistranslated the pronouns referring to pneuma as masculine. One instance where they did not mistranslate is found in Romans 8:16.

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

John's use of the parakletos is no proof the Spirit is a person. For if the simple gender of a noun were the basis for the personality of the Spirit, then the Spirit changed gender from the Old to the New Testament, the Hebrew word for "spirit" in the Old Testament being in the feminine gender in a majority of cases and in a masculine sense less often.

The fact that the word "spirit" is feminine in the Hebrew did lead some to believe that the Spirit was a feminine being of the Godhead. They believed in a Trinity of the Father, the Mother and the Son. Interestingly enough, their belief was condemned by the Trinitarians who used the same kind of ploy to prove that the Spirit was a masculine being!