In John 16:7 Jesus states, "I will send him unto you," not "it." If the holy spirit was to be on earth in the state of a spirit, Jesus's statement would have been more like: "I will send it unto you."
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1Just an FYI: of the modern English translations of the Bible, it is only the King James Version of the Bible which uses the term “Holy Ghost.” It occurs 90 times in the KJV. The term “Holy Spirit” occurs 7 times in the KJV. – The Freemason Apr 27 '15 at 15:20
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So your question is: "Why does the English language refer to spirits as people, rather than objects?" Seems pretty clearly off-topic. – Flimzy Apr 27 '15 at 20:17
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@TheFreemason that's because later translations of the Bible were mostly done after the word "ghost" had narrowed from meaning "spirit, essence, supernatural being" in general to meaning "spirit of a departed human being, still present after death". – Matt Gutting Apr 28 '15 at 17:20
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Why is the holy spirit a spirit? Maybe a clue is found in the term, "Holy Spirit." :)
Spirits are not necessarily of neutral gender. For instance, when Jesus appeared to His disciples, they saw a man, and yet thought they had seen a spirit (Luke 24:37). So from their standpoint, they had no problem with a spirit looking like a male.
Steve
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