An often over-looked text that supports the personality of the Holy Spirit is Acts 13:1-2 (emphasis added):
Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.
Acts 13:2 is rather clear that it is the Holy Spirit that speaks; the Greek εἶπεν τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον translates as "the Holy Spirit said." As this is part of a historical narrative and not a poetical text, one cannot claim, without any good exegetical warrant, that the Spirit is being personified.
Joseph Fitzmyer, commenting on this verse, wrote (emphasis added):
Thus the Spirit-guided missionary journey of Barnabas and Saul is inaugurated; compare 20:28 and 1 Tim 4:14. The risen Christ has called Saul, and the Jerusalem church has sent to Barnabas to Antioch. Now the Spirit takes over and inaugurates the joint missionary work of the two, and especially of Saul, who becomes “the apostle to the Gentiles” (Rom 11:3). “The work” is a reference to the mission of Saul proposed in 9:15. (
On this event, William H. Shepherd cogently notes the following in his (recommended) volume on the Holy Spirit in Luke-Acts (emphasis added):
Though Luke does not say so, one might assume that the words of the Spirit were mediated by one of the assembled prophets; here, then, Luke pictures the Spirit as direct actor, with the prophet acting implicitly. The contrast with other passages, in which the Spirit is the indirect actor while the prophet acts directly (cf. Acts 11:28) underlines the significance of this event. (William H. Shepherd, Ir. The Narrative Function of the Holy Spirit as a Character in Luke-Acts [Society of Biblical Literature Dissertation Series no. 147; Atlanta, Ga.: Scholars Press, 1994], 210 n. 177)
Therefore, one is on solid grounds to argue that this passage provides good biblical evidence for the Holy Spirit being a person, not the operational presence of the Father and/or Jesus after the ascension as many Unitarians argue.
As an aside, I would recommend Shepherd's book to see the evidence for the personality of the Holy Spirit in Luke-Acts as well as a good discussion of the Pneumatology contained therein.
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