---
title: John 14:17
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/john-14-17/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/john-14-17.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: John 14:17
testament: NT
section: Gospels
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# John 14:17

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> the Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you do know Him, for He abides with you and will be in you.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "the spirit of the truth, which the world cannot receive, because it neither sees it nor knows it. You know it, because it remains with you and is in you."

## JW Usage

Read as the Spirit being present "with" believers and "in" them as active force — never as a person. The NWT consistently lowercases "spirit" and uses neuter pronouns ("which/it") to match the Greek grammatical gender of pneuma, and the Watchtower frames this as faithful translation.

## Protestant Usage

Greek pneuma is grammatically neuter, but John deliberately overrides grammatical gender for the Spirit elsewhere — using the masculine demonstrative pronoun ekeinos ("that one") at 15:26 and 16:13-14, where the Spirit teaches, testifies, convicts, guides, and speaks. That is personal action, deliberately marked with personal grammar. The standard English tradition follows John's lead and uses "he/him" at 14:17 because the actor is the same Person. The Spirit who "remains with you and is in you" is the third Person of the Trinity, not an impersonal force. Pair John 14:17 with the Spirit's personal acts elsewhere (Acts 5:3-4, where lying to the Holy Spirit is lying to God; Acts 13:2, where the Spirit speaks; Romans 8:26, where the Spirit intercedes).

## NWT Issue

The NWT renders the Spirit with neuter pronouns ("which/it/it/it") and lowercase "spirit" — consistent with its policy across the whole gospel and Acts. The Greek demonstrative ekeinos at 15:26 and 16:13-14 is masculine ("that one"), and English translation tradition has always recognised this as personal pronoun usage. The NWT renders ekeinos as "that one" rather than "he," following Greek grammatical gender mechanically and refusing the personal reading that the actions of the Spirit otherwise require. The cumulative effect — every "spirit" lowercase, every pronoun neuter, every personal demonstrative flattened — is to remove the Spirit's personhood from the published English text.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Born of God Cannot Go On Sinning](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/1john3-born-of-god.md) — 1 John 3:9 — a promise only available to all believers [Sanctification]
- [The Spirit Says 'I'](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/paraclete-personal-pneumatology.md) — Acts 13:2 — First-Person Verbs in Narrative Prose [Holy Spirit]
- ['The Truth' Is A Person, Not An Organisation](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/truth-claim-john14-6.md) — John 14:6 / John 14:17 / 1 John 5:20 [Authority]