Question:
Please explain in the Question Corner John 16:7, 13. Is the Holy Spirit a personality? Are the words “Him” and “he” masculine pronouns? Please explain what the meaning of the Holy Ghost is in 2 Peter 1:21. W. E. H.
Answer:
The pronouns in the above question are, of course, in the English, masculine pronouns, but they do not have the same distinction in the Greek. For instance the term “he” in verse 13, is in the original ekeinos, which is not a pronoun, but a pronominal adjective, properly translated “that.” It is used in Matt. 17:27 referring to the Koman coin which was used to pay temple taxes. That which really has no gender at all, but which is noted as being strong and big, is spoken of as masculine; while things of a softer, gentler nature are spoken of as feminine. That same distinction is to quite an extent observed in the English language also. **We speak of a battle-ship as a “man-of-war;” we speak of an ordinary ship as "she."It is that which is represented as proceeding forth from both Father and Son, and common to both Father and Son; that which makes Father and Son one, and that life which connects Jesus with all His true disciples wherever they may be. It is not a personality in the sense in which Jesus was a personality when here upon earth; because if that had been the case it would not have been expedient for Him to go away **(John 16:7), because He in His personality could be in only one place at a time, but the Spirit could be everywhere, as 'implied in Psalm 139, “Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy presence?” But there is this power with the Spirit of making Christ, or the Father, present everywhere at all times in response to faith. We have a very weak illustration of this in the telephone and in later inventions, by which a manager in his office, for instance — that office covering a half mile of territory, which could be enlarged to an almost unlimited extent — can call every foreman in every department to any number, and talk with them all at the same time, just as tho he were present with each one. That invention has the power to make that manager personally present in each department. That in a limited way shows how it is that the Holy Spirit can make Christ present in all parts of His great dominion at the same time,— just as truly present as though He were in His own personality present.
