This post is part of my current blog series called “Questions People Ask about the Holy Spirit” (#HSQuestions). You are welcome to submit questions here.
I cringed as I sat there listening to the preacher. He based his sermon on John 14:17: “…the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.”
The preacher declared, “The Spirit is a ‘him’, and ‘he’ lives in you.” And on account of this he boldly proclaimed to the congregation, “The Holy Spirit is a ‘he,’ not an ‘it.’ Therefore the Holy Spirit is personal.”
The preacher was both right and wrong.
Not “He”
The Spirit is not “he.” Looking at your English Bible, you might think so. But you would be mistaken.
In fact, in the Old Testament, “Spirit” (Hebrew=ruach) is a feminine noun. As a result, historically the Syrian Christian tradition spoke of the Holy Spirit as “she.” And they were biblically justified in doing so.
When we come to the New Testament, though, “Spirit” (Greek=pneuma) is a neuter noun. And in Greek the Bible explicitly refers to the Spirit as “it” (John 14:17). Therefore, in some places the King James Version of the English Bible refers to the Spirit as “it” (for example, Romans 8:16).
Of course, in language grammatical gender doesn’t determine physical gender or sex. So, for example, the word “house” in Greek (oikos) is masculine, but a house is no more male than female. Similarly, the word “church” (ecclesia) is feminine in Greek, even though the church includes both males and females.
How did we end up with “he”?
In the fourth century a monk by the name of Jerome produced the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible. This became the translation of choice in the Western Roman empire. And in Latin, the word for “Spirit” (spiritus) is a masculine noun. This is one of the big reasons that the Western Church (which includes the Roman Catholic and Protestant traditions) ended up speaking of the Spirit as “he.”
In addition, in a few places the Bible refers to the Spirit as “he,” namely when Jesus calls the Spirit the “Paraclete.” This word is a masculine Greek noun (John 15:26). But, again, grammatical gender doesn’t really refer to sex.
What Really Matters
The Holy Spirit is not a he, she, it. The Spirit does not have a physical body, and therefore has no sex.
Biblically, we are justified to speak of the Spirit as it, he, or she. Nevertheless, it is a problem if we only think of the Spirit as a “he.” Some theologians have even suggested that to think of God only as a “he” is a form of idolatry (creating a human image of God).
While many English speakers aren’t comfortable with referring to the Spirit as “she,” the Bible does describe the Spirit as giving “birth” to us (John 3:5-6). And that’s not something that a “he” can do.
At the end of the day, what matters most is that we recognize that the Holy Spirit is indeed personal. The Spirit “teaches” us (John 14:26) and “intercedes” for us (Romans 8:26). And you can “grieve” the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30). So the Spirit is not just a divine force or power, but personal. And you can have a relationship with the Holy Spirit.
On account of this theological conclusion, historically most theologians have preferred not to speak of the Spirit as “it” since that would seem to imply that the Spirit is impersonal. And theologically, that implication would be incorrect.
(In case you are wondering, in this post I answered two questions: “Why do we refer to the Spirit as ‘he’?” and “How can we show others that he’s personal and not just God’s active force in the world?”)
Question: Are you comfortable with referring to the Holy Spirit as ‘she’? Why or why not? Leave a comment below by clicking here.
You might also be interested in my blog series called “The Holy Spirit in Life” (#HSLife).
Generally, I try very hard NOT to use pronouns when referring to God (the Father) and the Holy Spirit. I can just as easily say “God” or “God’s” as I can say “He” or “Him” or “His.” It seems to me that the one triune God far exceeds our piddly notions of gender. Designation of God, the Father, probably is more for our benefit than for some technical assignment of sex.
I usually take the same approach. Thanks for commenting!
I am a language teacher. Door, in French, is feminine but it doesn’t turn me on. Let’s not get hung up on Trudeau’s feminism or any of the gender thing. The fact is God’s Holy Spirit is personal … that’s why we say ” He.” I even say “You” when I thank Him for his persistent love and patience. Actually I am saying thanks to God, right … not to a second entity. Same thing when I think of Jesus, God’s Word …made flesh .. and He still speaks to me …God speaks to me.
If church structure is from God (I believe it is) then we would have a problem with Holy Spirit being female, Why? Because in the Church The woman is not to have authority over the man (1 Timothy 2:12) 1 Timothy 2:12-14, “But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but remain quiet. It seems to me if God doesn’t allow a female to have authority over a man or teach a man in the church setting, then why would He (God) create a female Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit plays a roll in every believer, John 14:26 Holy Spirit even teaches, so is a person to accept the Holy Spirit can be a female and teach a man everywhere except in Church? Too confusing.
There is no “thus sayeth the Lord” in 1 tim. 2:12 as Paul only says, “I do not now permit…”. This is a temporary solution by Paul to keep elite women from spreading a false heresy combining Christianity with the Artemis myths. The whole epistle has to do with false teachers so 1 Tim. 2:12 is dealing with the same thing. There are many books and websites that explain this well. So getting hung up on this verse to describe the authority structure of the church is a heresy in itself as it keeps half the church from exercising their spiritual gifts.
Go to You tube and type “seedbed, Why Women Must Learn in Quietness and Submission: Xenophon of Ephesus.” It’s a little heavy perhaps but will reveal how far Paul has been misunderstood, and how much misplaced emphasis has created a burden women were never intended to carry, i.e., male domination.
Interesting discussion guys. I thought I’d weigh in. It seems to me that the question of referring to the Holy Spirit as “He”, rather than “it” is a theological one rather than a linguistic one. It is with attempt to avoid, as you mentioned, teaching that the Holy Spirit is an impersonal entity. This would deny His deity. This is called Pneumatomachianism and was a fourth century heresy. It is interesting what you pointed out about Syrian translations using the feminine pronoun for the Holy Spirit. I didn’t know this. Certainly, you will find languages where the word “spirit” happens to be feminine. However, biblically speaking, God reveals himself with masculine personifications. Most importantly are the other two persons of the Trinity, the Father and the Son. We certainly do not have to be afraid to refer to the Father and the Son as “He”, for obvious reasons. Though the Spirit is less obviously male. It is wiser to refer to him as “he” as well. Referring to him as “she” would be to make statement. It would be to associating the Holy Trinity with a feminine personification and it would also be to go against church tradition.
None of you know what you are saying, and I give you all a big F+.
How can you Christians be so blind? How can you say, that Jesus called the spirit, The Paraclete, exactly where do you find that in the Bible. I will give $10,000 if you can show me where Jesus said that.
The Holy Spirit is the power of God. If it was a he then Christ would have prayed to him as his father
Jesus introduces a new word to describe the Holy Spirit — Paraclete (Greek paraklētos; John 14:16-17, 26; 15:26; and 16:7).
The word is variously rendered in English as “Paraclete” (New Jerusalem Bible), “Comforter” (KJV), “Counselor” (NIV, RSV), “Advocate” (NRSV, New Living Translation), “Friend” (The Message), and “Helper” (ESV, NASB, Today’s English Version).
For instance in John 14 verse 16. Helper in the NAS version is Parakleton in the original greek.
True. That is the one place where the NT refers to the Holy Spirit using grammatically masculine language.
Hi Andrew, I enjoyed and appreciate your post on this matter. I always thought it odd that people would be offended if a pronoun wasn’t used because they immediately think of the Jehovah witnesses. He, She, or It. Please use capitals :). Theologians thinking “it” isn’t acceptable because it doesn’t imply personality, do so because of their theology. I don’t see the third and fourth century theology in the first century text. God’s nature obviously is Spirit, Jn 4.24. When we receive the Holy Spirit, it’s not a person, it’s God. God bless you Andrew, love your posts!
After I had a revelation kind of experience in 1971 where I was shown that the Holy Spirit is “She” and after studying all the proof in Proverbs 1-8 and the Book of Wisdom in the original 1966 Jerusalem bible, my study was rounded out by the I Ching, written by the Tai Ping Christians who were called the Sabbath Keepers.
The book explains that God consists of the masculine and feminine PRINCIPLES.
Those two principle, the Receptive and Creative, the yin and yang, consist in the Word and The Holy Spirit. Man being the imagery of the Word and woman being God’s imagery of the Spirit.
The Word, being masculine, was made flesh and dwelt among us.
If the Holy Spirit had been made flesh, God would have had a daughter.
It’s not complicated. 🙂
Terry
Thanks, Dr. Gabriel! You’ve managed to shake my categories of thinking!
Some don’t even use masculine vs. feminine to demarcate gender as much as animate vs. inanimate genders the languages of Plains Cree or Innu for example.
Just to complicate things more, in French, some translations have rendered the word for John 1:1-14’s “the Word became flesh” I.e. Logos in Greek (masculine) as La Parole, which is grammatically feminine in gender. The various translations also make explicit that La Parole’s pronouns are ‘Elle’ (she) in verse 2-14, which makes one wonder how the French mind conceived of this in the first place.
Nevertheless, if La Parole is the pre-incarnate Christ, who by definition would not have assumed a human gender until Elle took on human form, then wouldn’t Elle be exempt from human gender or sex just like how God is beyond gender or sex, seeing Elle is the second member of the Trinity (which in French is also grammatically feminine, La Trinité)?
“Au commencement, la Parole existait déjà. La Parole était avec Dieu et la Parole était Dieu. Elle était au commencement avec Dieu.”
Jean 1:1-2 S21
P.S. I realise some old translations have used Le Verb (masculine) as well as La Parole (feminine). See: “Au commencement était le Verbe, et le Verbe était en Dieu, et le Verbe était Dieu.”
Jean 1:1 BCC1923
La Bible en Français Courant even breaks normal French grammar to state that La Parole is Il (he): “Au commencement de toutes choses, la Parole existait déjà; celui qui est la Parole était avec Dieu, et il était Dieu. Il était donc avec Dieu au commencement.”
Jean 1:1-2 BFC
For me, as a female follower of Christ, I’ve always felt that because men and women have different dominant characteristics and have both physical and emotional attributes, that The Holy Spirit is the feminine deity of the Trinity. The Bible says we are all made in the image of God and that humans encompass the same personality traits as our Creator. No one should argue that men and women have different roles and features so it’s only logical to see Her as the part of God from which I was created. The role women play in this world align with this perspective. The Holy Spirit is our counselor, comforter, teacher, and healer. Not to mention, when a Christian accepts the sacrifice Jesus made when he died and rose again to reconcile and seal the new covenant between God and man, The Bible says we are “born of The Spirit”. The last time I checked, women (females) are the ones who can give birth!
Love the post Andrew. You open up some great questions about the Holy Spirit, and God’s character. Many thanks. I prefer to think of the Holy Spirit as a person, as an essential part of God’s character who therefore loves me intentionally. Of course, gendered categories are irrelevant, if we are to see gendered categories as ONLY related to physical bodies. But I don’t think this is right. Characteristics of masculinity and femininity are not just physical, but relate to God’s qualities which are different and yet complimentary. This is why I think it says in Genesis 1:27 that God made humankind in God’s own image, BOTH male and female. In the Trinity then it makes more sense to me to have God as Father (and Mother), Christ as brother, and The Holy Spirit as a she, maybe a sister?