Armchair Scholar
New Member
standingfirminChrist said:Actually, since the Scripture never speaks of the Holy Spirit coming down in human form, "itself" is not a wrong translation.
It is said to descend as a dove in the Gospels. We refer to doves as both it, he, or she.
"itself" in Paul's Epistle to the Romans is a proper translation.
It's unlikely that the likeness of the descending dove would have been a "she," therefore it can be understood as a male dove, therefore, the Holy Spirit is still correctly a "he." HE is God the Holy Spirit and He is still a person even though he did not take on human form as the Son did. God did not become a person because he came down from heaven. He has always had personhood distinctively equal in the three persons of the Godhead. He is/was a person apart from coming to earth (and before the Son took on a human body) and He was a person before He created the earth. He did not require a human body to be a person. God the Father is a spirit, as Jesus Christ the Son stated and affirmed, but this does not make the Father an "it" as the KJV translators did the Holy Spirit. God the Father was in heaven while Jesus Christ the Son was on earth (hence, he prayed "Our Father who is in heaven"), and God the Father is still referred to as "He" and "Him," not as "it." God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are all ONE God and three in one together, so why not refer to the Father and the Son as "it" also? My God is three distinct persons in one Godhead and neither of them are an "it." They are He/Him.
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