THE BIBLICAL MANIPULATIONS OF THE NEW WORLD TRANSLATION IN GENESIS 1:2: THE HOLY SPIRIT

בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית א ב
וְהָאָ֗רֶץ הָיְתָ֥ה תֹ֙הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ וְחֹ֖שֶׁךְ עַל־ פְּנֵ֣י תְה֑וֹם וְר֣וּחַ אֱלֹהִ֔ים מְרַחֶ֖פֶת עַל־ פְּנֵ֥י הַמָּֽיִם׃

New World Translation
Now the earth was formless and desolate, and there was darkness upon the surface of the watery deep, and God’s active force was moving about over the surface of the waters.

The anonymous authors of the New World Translation translated the Hebrew רוּחַ (ruach) which means “spirit” as “active force”. They have translated this way to prove the doctrine of Jehovah’s Witnesses, according to which the Holy Spirit (which they report written with lowercase initials) is not a divine person endowed with will and intelligence, but an impersonal being, the strength active of God the Father. But, contrary to what Jehovah’s Witnesses claim, the Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force, but God. The Holy Spirit has will and intelligence: desires (Romans 8,27), creates (Job 33:4; Psalms 104:30 ), loves (Romans 15:30), consoles (John 14:16.26; 15:26; 16:7), is saddened (Isaiah 63:10; Ephesians 4:30), reveals (Luke 2:26), forbids (Acts 16:6-7), teaches the truth (John 14:17.26; 15:26), knows all things (1 Corinthians 2:9-11), intercedes for the Church (Romans 8:26-27), testifies to Christ (John 15:26), can be tempted (Acts 5:9), lied (Acts 5:3), blasphemed (Matthew 12:31-32), and is parakletos (John 14:16), that is, “comforter”, “advocate”, “defender”, “helper”, just like Jesus Christ (1 John 2:1). John twice refers to the Holy Spirit using the masculine personal pronoun ἐκεῖνος (ekeinos), which means “he”, “he”, “that” (John 16:13-14). Peter told Ananias that by lying to the Holy Spirit he lied to God himself (Acts 5:3-4), while Paul said that we believers are the temple of God and that the Holy Spirit dwells in us (1 Corinthians 3:16). Being God, the Holy Spirit is not limited to a place, but is omnipresent (1 Kings 8:27; Psalms 139:5-12; Proverbs 15:3; Jeremiah 23:24; Mark 10:27) and therefore can take up residence, to once, in all believers (Acts 2:4; 4:31; 13:52).