[B-Greek] John--14-15-16
Eric Weiss
papaweiss1 at yahoo.com
Wed May 25 14:02:12 EDT 2005
I'll keep my answer focused on the Greek text and Greek grammar so as not to stray into
theology.
My reading of John 14-16 shows that Jesus at times refers to the Holy Spirit as TO PNEUMA
(a neuter noun) and at other times as hO PARAKLHTOS (a masculine noun). When Jesus
uses a pronoun to refer to the Holy Spirit - either EKEINOS ("that" or "he") or AUTOS ("he" or
"it") - every instance of EKEINOS or AUTOS that is masculine (and is often translated as "he")
can be shown to be referring or possibly referring to PARAKLHTOS as the antecedent. There
is no instance where it can be shown that Jesus is definitely using a masculine pronoun to
refer to TO PNEUMA.
Bibles which translate these pronouns as "he" can be misleading and can imply to the reader
that Jesus is referring to the Holy Spirit as a person because He is supposedly calling the
Spirit "He." Jesus never calls the Holy Spirit a "he." Jesus does call hO PARAKLHTOS an
EKEINOS or AUTOS, but that's because Jesus/John is using correct Greek grammar which
requires that pronouns for masculine nouns also be masculine, and pronouns for neuter nouns
be neuter. Bible translators sometimes choose to translate these masculine forms of the
pronouns (i.e., EKEINOS or AUTOS) as "he." It might be better if they translated them as "that
one," because to translate them as "he" implies something to the English reader (i.e., the
personhood of the Holy Spirit because a "masculine pronoun" is supposedly being used to
refer to a neuter Greek noun PNEUMA) that is not what the Greek in fact says.
I am not denying the personhood of the Holy Spirit, just pointing out that the Greek text of John
14-16 does not violate Greek grammar and refer to the Holy Spirit as a "he" or as a person,
even though some translations have allowed or caused persons at times to preach that such is
the case.
Eric S. Weiss
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