{"id":15845,"date":"2025-07-14T18:49:54","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T23:49:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/?p=15845"},"modified":"2025-07-16T19:00:59","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T00:00:59","slug":"john-167-8-the-comforter-as-a-he","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/15845\/john-167-8-the-comforter-as-a-he\/","title":{"rendered":"John 16:7\u20138 The Comforter as a \u201cHe\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hey, Pastor John!<\/span><\/p>\n

As I was reading in John tonight, I came across this and wanted to ask you about it! In John 16 while Jesus is talking about the Comforter coming, he refers to the Comforter as a \u201che\u201d instead of an \u201cit.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

John 16<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. But I tell you the truth; it\u2019s better for you that I go away, for if I don\u2019t go away, the Comforter won\u2019t come to you. But if I go, I\u2019ll send him to you.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. And when he comes, he\u2019ll convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    After reading that and trying to understand why Jesus may\u00a0have said it that way, it reminded me of the set of videos you made several years back describing how the Greek text makes\u00a0it very clear that the Spirit is a thing instead of a person. I know the Spirit isn\u2019t a person, but do you know why Jesus may have said that? The only thing I could think of was maybe Jesus used “he” because he was using “comforter” as a more personal name? Or maybe because “comforter” is masculine in Greek? At the end of the day I know it’s a very small thing, but I enjoyed considering it and wanted to see if you know why Jesus said it that way!<\/span><\/p>\n

    Thank you!<\/span><\/p>\n

    Samuel<\/span><\/p>\n

    Here are the videos on the Spirit study!<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

    Pt. 1:<\/span>\u00a0https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=BI2h1eQvjdc<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

    Pt. 2:<\/span>\u00a0https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=FrwoWDE3t70&t=101s<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

    Pt. 3:<\/span>\u00a0https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=euXj90FYycU<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

    =========<\/span><\/p>\n

    Hi Samuel.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

    I dealt with that issue on Page 25 of\u00a0The Influence of Trinitarian Doctrine\u00a0on Translations of the Bible.\u00a0 You can find the entire study at GoingtoJesus.com.\u00a0 Here is that section:<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

    John 16:7\u201314<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Nevertheless, I am telling\u00a0you the truth; it is better for\u00a0you that I go away.\u00a0 For if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to\u00a0you; but if I go, I will send him to\u00a0you.<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n
    2. And when he\u00a0[\u201cthat(masculine)one\u201d]\u00a0comes, he will reprove the world for sin, for righteousness, and for judgment;<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n
    3. for sin because they do not believe in me,<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n
    4. and for righteousness because I am going to the Father and\u00a0you no longer see me,<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n
    5. and for judgment because the ruler of this world has been judged.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      \u00b6\u00a012.<\/span> \u201cI still have much to tell\u00a0you, but\u00a0you are not now able to bear\u00a0it.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

      \u00a0 13.<\/span> When he [\u201cthat (masculine) one\u201d], the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.\u00a0 For he will not speak of himself, but whatever he will hear, he will speak, and he will reveal to you things that are coming.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

      14<\/span>. He will glorify me because he will take from what is mine and reveal it to you.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

      John 16:13 at first appears to contain a masculine pronoun referring to the Spirit, but\u00a0pneuma\u00a0is not the subject here.\u00a0 The subject throughout this section is\u00a0paraclatos, beginning with verse 7.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

      The powerful influence of the Trinitarian faith upon even a great scholar\u2019s mind is evident in Professor A. T. Robertson\u2019s treatment of John 16:13.\u00a0 He dismisses the possibility of \u201cthat (masculine) one\u201d in verse 13 referring to\u00a0paraclatos\u00a0because of the five verses that come between\u00a0paraclatos\u00a0and that pronoun.\u00a0 And he makes that assertion, despite the fact that verses 8\u201311 make up just one long sentence, and (2) \u201cthat (masculine) one\u201d in verse 8 is the only subject of that long sentence.\u00a0 In other words,\u00a0paraclatos\u00a0is the only subject of verses 7\u201311.\u00a0 Why then, could it not be the subject of verse 13 as well?\u00a0 To say, as Dr. Robertson does (p. 709), \u201cin this passage John is insisting on the personality of the Holy Spirit\u201d is a completely unwarranted assessment of the grammar and imposes upon John a Trinitarian faith about which he in no other place says anything, though opportunities abounded for him to do so.\u00a0 No one except someone predisposed to a Trinitarian faith would possibly see in John\u2019s grammar in these verses a voice \u201cinsisting\u201d on the personhood of God\u2019s spirit.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

      One should especially note that the use of the masculine noun,\u00a0paraclatos, cannot be taken as evidence that the Spirit is a (masculine) personality, for other such descriptive titles for the Spirit are feminine words, such as\u00a0dove,\u00a0promise, and\u00a0gift.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

      In fact, the word most closely related to\u00a0paraclatos\u00a0is\u00a0paraclasis\u00a0(consolation), and it is feminine.\u00a0 In Scripture, there are many more feminine words than masculine words used in reference to the Spirit.\u00a0 But who is willing to suggest that the Spirit should be referred to as\u00a0she?<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

      Outside of these verses in John, the only other usage of\u00a0paraclatos\u00a0is in reference to Jesus himself, found in 1John 2:1.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

      Thank you for the question, Samuel.\u00a0 I hope this helps.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

      Pastor John<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Hey, Pastor John! As I was reading in John tonight, I came across this and wanted to ask you about it! In John 16 while Jesus is talking about the Comforter coming, he refers to the Comforter as a \u201che\u201d instead of an \u201cit.\u201d John 16 But I tell you the truth; it\u2019s better for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-qa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15845"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15845"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15847,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15845\/revisions\/15847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}