Holy Spirit - "He" or "it?"

Kyle Dillon spiffy at learningstar.com
Wed Aug 19 12:40:07 EDT 1998


In Greek, John 16:13a says: "hOTAN DE ELQHi EKEINOS, TO PNEUMA THS ALHQEIAS...," which is translates "When He (or that One), the Spirit of truth, comes..."

Some say that because John used the masculine EKEINOS (that One) instead of the neuter EKEINO (which would have grammatically agreed with the neuter PNEUMA), he must have been making a theological statement concerning the personality of the Holy Spirit.

Others say that the EKEINOS in this verse is not referring to the appositive PNEUMA, but its supposed antecedent PARAKLHTOS (Counselor, a masculine word) from verse 7. Hence, no theological statement is made; John would just be conforming to the rules of Greek grammar.

So my question is: does EKEINOS refer to the PNEUMA of verse 13 (which would be theologically significant) or the PARAKLHTOS of verse 7 (which would be grammatically correct)? Also see John 15:26: is the antecedent PARAKLHTOS or PNEUMA?
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