I've just been looking at John 1:32 in the Greek, and also comparing translations.
"καὶ ἐμαρτύρησεν Ἰωάννης λέγων ὅτι Τεθέαμαι τὸ πνεῦμα καταβαῖνον ὡς περιστερὰν ἐξ οὐρανοῦ, καὶ ἔμεινεν ἐπ’ αὐτόν·" John 1:32
I think the key word here ἔμεινεν or emeinen is the Aorist Active Indicative. My Linguistical key says this Aorist is "Constative" which means it has happened. So "remained" for the verb, with the subject being understood. But the question is, understood as what??
ESV follows KJV, which I find it does in many places in the NT.
"And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him." John 1:32 ESV
NIV seems to solve the issue by more or less paraphrasing the line and not using a pronoun at all, but letting it refer back to the accusative of the principal clause. What I don't like about this translation, is that it loses the "aorist" feel to the word "remain." I suppose it could be loosely described as something "undefined" but it really is not true to the the word "meno." (I think all this work I have been doing on phrasing would really pay off for this verse. I also wonder how much input my professor had on this verse, as he is on both the NIV and the ESV translation and revision committees?)
"Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him." John 1:32 NIV.
Holman's really goes all out with the deity of both Christ and the Holy Spirit, and takes a bold step and uses "He." A definite statement by the translation committee and really opposing the KJV, in particular. I'm not sure if "rest" though, is the best translation of the word although it does convey the meaning. I do like the way it retains the word order in the first clause, by saying "from heaven, like a dove.
"And John testified, “I watched the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He rested on Him." HCSB
Finally, NASB. Maybe I need to go back and read this version? Back to lots of capitals, which I remember the NASB is very famous for.
"John testified saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him." John 1:32 NASB
I'm not going to look at the other verses, as I really need to go study Greek - specifically the passages we have been studying for my mid-term.
I would say that technically, KJV and ESV are correct, as this is a neuter verb in the 3rd person sg. But theologically, I do not agree. And the fact that the neuter pronoun only appears in 4 places in the whole NT says to me that we need to focus on the Holy Spirit being a person, not an "it." "It" implies a "thing." Using "He" is a much better theological construct. And as I posted before, gender in Greek is not something that means the object or person is actually masculine, feminine or neuter, but the way the language developed over time, as a grammatical device.
So using "it" is not a theological concept, but rather a grammatical issue. And perhaps to the ancient Greeks a "spirit" was a "thing." That does not mean that the Holy Spirit is a thing!
Really interesting discussion, though. And looking at the fact that 1 Peter is one of the verses, Peter almost certainly used a scribe or amaneusis to write this verse. I am sure a scribe would have been very careful to get the Greek gender correct, as that is what he was being paid to do. I would love to look at all these verses, but now is not the time.
