“ISN’T THE HOLY SPIRIT A PERSON NOT AN ‘IT’?
“ISN’T THE HOLY SPIRIT A
PERSON NOT AN ‘IT’?
“…
but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us …” (Romans
8:26)
The
relatively recent phenomena in twentieth century scholarship, has the
English
language calling people ‘who’ not ‘what’ or an ‘it’.
And
this practice has unfortunately infiltrated the wording of the King
James Bible
with the incorrect versions of the New International Version, New
American
Standard and the New King James Version.
But
is this correct grammar?
It
is common knowledge that most languages separate their nouns
into masculine,
feminine and neuter.
For
example, kitchen eating utensils in the German language, have a
neuter
knife with the neuter preceding article of “das” in das Messer;
a feminine
fork with the feminine preceding article of “die” in die
Gabel;
and a masculine spoon with der Loffel (with an umlaut
over the
“o”) … that is … nouns have their own distinct gender.
Furthermore,
in the Greek, the masculine is denoted by the article “o”,
feminine by “a”
and the neuter by “to”.
In
addition, the gender of a word in the English is determined by the root
word
from which it is derived.
For
example, the word “itself” in Romans 8:26 is “pneuma”
which means
“spirit’ … and as the “spirit” is like the air, this is where we
get the
word “pneumatic” from … you know … air pumps pumping up things
like a pneumatic
car tyre.
So
the following verse shows that as the root word for “wind” is “pneuma”,
and as
God’s Spirit is like the air, it is correct grammar to have the
“Spirit” as the
neuter “pneuma” … “it’.
“The
wind bloweth where it listeth … so is every one that is born of
the Spirit.”
(John 3:8)
Indeed
therefore, it is correct grammar to call the “Spirit” an “it” in the
following
verse …
“… but the Spirit itself maketh
intercession for us …” (Romans 8:26)
Hence,
as the word for “pneuma” is neuter, the King James Bible
correctly translates “pneuma” as “itself”, and to do
otherwise
would be incorrect grammar … as in the New International Version,
New
American Standard and the New King James Version.
So
depending on the etymology, and among other reasons, the root and
origins of a
word determine its gender.
So
as a Christian, one does feel ‘pumped’ knowing that the Holy
Ghost
dwells within.
Harley
Hitchcock
February
2024
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