ClaimThe Bible and the translationverified2010sExplicit statement

The Bible and the translation · Claim record

In the New Testament the New World Translation refers to the holy spirit with the neuter pronoun “it” — for example at John 14:17, “the spirit of the truth, which the world cannot receive, because it neither sees it nor knows it”.

Claim ID claim-bible-spirit-impersonal-ntConcerns 2013Explicit statement

The claim and its evidence

Explicit statement · 2013 Verified

In the New Testament the New World Translation refers to the holy spirit with the neuter pronoun “it” — for example at John 14:17, “the spirit of the truth, which the world cannot receive, because it neither sees it nor knows it”. Source: New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (Study Edition), 2013

The organisation’s position or later explanation: The organisation observes correctly that πνεῦμα is grammatically neuter and that the pronoun αὐτό at John 14:17 is neuter; it adds that where the spirit is described as teaching or bearing witness, “he used a figure of speech called personification”.

Show the evidence (1 source)
Primary JW publication Verified

New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (Study Edition), “Study notes on John 14:16, 17, 'helper' and 'sees it . . . You know it'”

2013 · study notes, John 14:16, 17 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania

“When Jesus spoke of the holy spirit, an impersonal force, as a helper and referred to this helper as ‘teaching,’ ‘bearing witness,’ ‘giving evidence,’ ‘guiding,’ ‘speaking,’ ‘hearing,’ and ‘receiving’ … he used a figure of speech called personification … sees it . . . You know it: The two occurrences of “it” render the Greek pronoun au·toʹ, which is in the neuter gender and refers to the Greek word for spirit (pneuʹma), which is also in the neuter gender.”

The organisation's explanation of its impersonal rendering of the spirit at John 14:17. The grammatical observation about the neuter pronoun is correct as far as it goes; John 16:13-14 uses the masculine pronoun ἐκεῖνος with παράκλητος, which the note does not mention here.

Provenance and verification note for New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (Study Edition), Study notes on John 14:16, 17, 'helper' and 'sees it . . . You know it'

Confidence note. Study notes read in full on the nwtsty John chapter 14 page on wol.jw.org, 19 September 2026. The observation about ἐκεῖνος at John 16:13-14 is my own and was not checked against the interlinear in this session.

Corroborated by. src-nwtv-nwt2013-gen-1-2

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-nwtv-nwtsty-note-john-14-17

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