Das Meitchen in German, little girl, she's neuter, must be a robot,
can't be a person because they refer to it with neuter pronouns.
It's ridiculous! Let's think better than that.
Recently I encountered some folks who used Segal's research into the two powers
to prove that the Trinity is false.
One thing they think is the Spirit is not a person because of the two powers.
Your thoughts?
Well, that's pretty weak. What's their definition of a person?
The definition of a person is the ability to distinguish, of that person,
that entity distinguish between himself and other entities,
that's a property of personhood, it's a property of self-awareness.
And, you know, you're going to read in the Bible, the Spirit does that.
The Spirit distinguishes between himself and others,
the Spirit exercises volition or will,
you know, chooses Paul and Silas to go on a mission trip.
What's their definition of personhood?
That's not going to do whether there's two. Two doesn't eliminate three.
The only thing that eliminates something from the consideration
is whether the entity exhibits the attributes of personhood.
You know, pneuma is neuter. In German, Das Machen, little girl, is neuter.
Is the little girl not a person? Hello?
Okay, grammatical gender does not decide the issue of personhood.
What decides the issue of personhood is how that entity is described.
Are they described with attributes that persons have?
So that's what they need to do, and that's where their research, at least the way
it's being presented here, is flawed.
This is not a grammar question, and there is at least one instance
where masculine pronouns are used of the Holy Spirit, by the way.
Again, the gender pronoun issue doesn't solve the issue,
which is: does the Spirit have the properties of personhood?
And the first thing you have to do there is come up with criteria for personhood.
So Bird has a quote here on the issue of personhood.
«Personhood is a complex matter, but we are safe to say that a person is a living being
[in other words] (no robot, imaginary friend, or pet rock),
[Person is a living being] who is self-aware, capable of cognition,
is able to relate to other beings...
and possesses recognizable character traits.
A person is someone who can distinguish 'I' from 'you'.»
Okay, so that's a quick non-professional philosopher summary of personhood.
And «Given this conceptual introduction,
several lines of evidence converge to convince us that the Spirit is a person.
Acts 13:2 makes it clear that the Spirit distinguishes himself as a personal entity
in relation to other persons:...
'Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them'
[It's the Spirit speaking].
The Spirit also has the qualities of a person... He has intelligence.
He knows what God knows, He has a mind, and He teaches people.
3. The Spirit is described in ways that suggest personhood:
He can be grieved.
He can be blasphemed.
He can make choices.
He can make decisions relating to the lives of believers (Acts 16).
He's described in ways that suggest he is a person.
The Spirit is to be obeyed, can be lied to, can be resisted, can be outraged.
The Holy Spirit is also described as a personal agent to believers.
He is the parakletos ("Paraclete"; i.e., "Comforter")
The Spirit's role is to witness, convict, guide, hear, speak, glorify, and declare.
Another indication... Greek grammar.» In John 16:13-14,
you're going to have masculine pronouns at least once referred to the Holy Spirit.
The point is, the arguments that whoever this person is putting forth
are poor because they're not starting off with a definition of personhood.
This issue is not decided by grammatical gender.
Otherwise, das Mätchen in German, little girl, she's neuter, must be a robot,
must be an impersonal entity,
can't be a person because they're referred to with neuter pronouns.
It's ridiculous! Okay, so let's think better than that.