Which pronoun is used for Spirit or Ghost and is there a rule that says we must use certain pronoun for the Spirit? Is it a common gender noun?

Which pronoun is used for the Holy Spirit (or Holy Ghost) in Christian theology? Is there a rule that says we must use certain pronoun for the Spirit? And is it a common gender noun?

The controversy pertains to the evolution of English Bible translations, started using "He" for the Holy Spirit. I know in Greek, the word for spirit 'pneuma' is neuter. The underlying assumption given by the modern as well as the old English translators is that in order to maintain the personhood of the Spirit, we must change the neuter pronoun to masculine.

I am under the impression that Spirit or Ghost is always a person or personal. My spirit is not a separate person than myself, however it is not an inanimate power. If my ghost leaves my body, I should use "it" to describe it, not "he".

I want to know the basis of this popular assumption among the translators that in English, a personal noun has to have a gendered pronoun. Is their assumption linguistically accurate? Do we have historical references of pronouns used for the Spirit or Ghost?

For reference, I know of the common gender nouns which have the neuter pronoun, and Spirit or Ghost should count under it. Formal gender is the linguistic gender which has nothing to do with biological gender. English tends to follow natural gender, and has no formal gender.

Examples of personal common gender are – baby, doctor, player, neighbor, friend, parent, anchor, pupil, teacher, cousin, reporter, etc.

Some definitions:

• Grammatical (formal gender) vs. natural gender The natural gender of a noun, pronoun or noun phrase is a gender to which it would be expected to belong based on relevant attributes of its referent. Although grammatical gender can coincide with natural gender, it need not.

• common gender: (linguistics) A grammatical gender in some languages, formed by the historical merging of masculine and feminine genders. (grammar) In some languages (e.g. Latin, Lithuanian), a gender applied to a noun that can be either masculine or feminine.

Solution 1:

A distinction must be made here.

When we refer to the Holy Spirit as one Person (or Hypostasis, as the Greek theologians call it) of the Holy Trinity, then the English language uses the gendered personal pronoun HE:

^KJVJohn 14:17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

However, the spirit of God can mean the grace/energy/power of God, in which case the pronoun used is IT:

^KJVNumbers 11:17 And I will come down and talk with thee there: and I will take of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them.
or
^KJVJohn 1:32 And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.

As for the spirit of a human being, it is said to be a part of the soul, although it is defined sometimes as synonymous of soul:

the non-physical part of a person which is the seat of emotions and character; the soul.

• We seek a harmony between body and spirit. (OxfordL)

(Wikipedia) explains that

Some Christians espouse a trichotomic view of humans, which characterizes humans as consisting of a body (soma), soul (psyche), and spirit (pneuma). However, the majority of modern Bible scholars point out how the concepts of "spirit" and of "soul" are used interchangeably in many biblical passages, and so hold to dichotomy: the view that each human comprises a body and a soul.

As part of the human soul, spirit is not the synonym of person, and so it is normally replaced by the pronoun IT.

As for the gender of the Holy Spirit, Wikipedia says

The grammatical gender of the word for "spirit" is feminine in Hebrew (רוּחַ, rūaḥ), neuter in Greek (πνεῦμα, pneûma) and masculine in Latin (spiritus). The neuter Greek πνεῦμα is used in the Septuagint to translate the Hebrew רוּחַ. The pronouns used to address the Holy Spirit, however, are masculine.

Even in the same language, a difference may arise relating to what word is chosen to describe the Holy Spirit. In Greek the word pneuma is grammatically neuter and so, in that language, the pronoun referring to the Holy Spirit under that name is also grammatically neuter. However, when the Holy Spirit is referred to by the grammatically masculine word Parakletos "counselor/comforter", the pronoun is masculine (since the pronoun refers to Parakletos rather than pneuma), as in John 16:7-8.

Most English translations of the New Testament refer to the Holy Spirit as masculine in a number of places where the masculine Greek word "Paraclete" occurs, for "Comforter", most clearly in the Gospel of John, chapters 14 to 16. These texts were particularly significant when Christians were debating whether the New Testament teaches that the Holy Spirit is a fully divine hypostasis, as opposed to a created force.

One very important note, however, is that the pronoun of neuter gender in Greek does not deny the noun it replaces the possibility of being a human person, whereas in English the disparity between the uses of it as referring to non-human entities and human ones is much greater.

Wikipedia notes

Whereas "he" and "she" are used for entities treated as people (including any entities that are being anthropomorphized), the pronoun "it" is normally used for entities not regarded as persons, though the use of "he" or "she" is optional for non-human animals of known sex (and obligatory for animals referred to by a proper name). Quirk et al. give the following example, illustrating use of both "it" and "her" to refer to a bird:

• The robin builds its nest in a well-chosen position ... and, after the eggs have hatched, the mother bird feeds her young there for several weeks.

The pronoun "it" can also be used of children in some circumstances, for instance when the sex is indefinite or when the writer has no emotional connection to the child, as in a scientific context. Quirk et al. give the following example:

• A child learns to speak the language of its environment.

However, when not referring specifically to children, "it" is not generally applied to people, even in cases where their gender is unknown.

[Therefore, all your examples except child: doctor, player, neighbor, friend, parent, anchor, pupil, teacher, cousin, reporter will not be repalced by IT.]

Also

It is considered to be neuter or impersonal/non-personal in gender. In Old English, (h)it was the neuter nominative and accusative form of hē. But by the 17th century, the old gender system, which marked gender on common nouns and adjectives, as well as pronouns, had disappeared, leaving only pronoun marking. At the same time, a new relative pronoun system was developing that eventually split between personal relative who and impersonal relative which (1048). As a result some scholars consider it to belong to the impersonal gender, along with relative which and interrogative what. (Wikipedia)