Yohanes 14:16-20

14:16 Then ¹  I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate ²  to be with you forever – 14:17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, ³  because it does not see him or know him. But you know him, because he resides ⁴  with you and will be ⁵  in you.

14:18 “I will not abandon ⁶  you as orphans, ⁷  I will come to you. ⁸  14:19 In a little while ⁹  the world will not see me any longer, but you will see me; because I live, you will live too. 14:20 You will know at that time ¹⁰  that I am in my Father and you are in me and I am in you.

Yohanes 16:13-16

16:13 But when he, ¹¹  the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide ¹²  you into all truth. ¹³  For he will not speak on his own authority, ¹⁴  but will speak whatever he hears, and will tell you ¹⁵  what is to come. ¹⁶  16:14 He ¹⁷  will glorify me, ¹⁸  because he will receive ¹⁹  from me what is mine ²⁰  and will tell it to you. ²¹  16:15 Everything that the Father has is mine; that is why I said the Spirit ²²  will receive from me what is mine ²³  and will tell it to you. ²⁴  16:16 In a little while you ²⁵  will see me no longer; again after a little while, you ²⁶  will see me.” ²⁷ 

Yohanes 17:6

Jesus Prays for the Disciples

17:6 “I have revealed ²⁸  your name to the men ²⁹  you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, ³⁰  and you gave them to me, and they have obeyed ³¹  your word.

Yohanes 17:8

17:8 because I have given them the words you have given me. They ³²  accepted ³³  them ³⁴  and really ³⁵  understand ³⁶  that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.

Yohanes 17:26

17:26 I made known your name to them, and I will continue to make it known, ³⁷  so that the love you have loved me with may be in them, and I may be in them.”

[14:16]  ¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “Then” to reflect the implied sequence in the discourse.

[14:16]  ² tn Or “Helper” or “Counselor”; Grk “Paraclete,” from the Greek word παράκλητος (paraklhto"). Finding an appropriate English translation for παράκλητος is a very difficult task. No single English word has exactly the same range of meaning as the Greek word. “Comforter,” used by some of the older English versions, appears to be as old as Wycliffe. But today it suggests a quilt or a sympathetic mourner at a funeral. “Counselor” is adequate, but too broad, in contexts like “marriage counselor” or “camp counselor.” “Helper” or “Assistant” could also be used, but could suggest a subordinate rank. “Advocate,” the word chosen for this translation, has more forensic overtones than the Greek word does, although in John 16:5-11 a forensic context is certainly present. Because an “advocate” is someone who “advocates” or supports a position or viewpoint and since this is what the Paraclete will do for the preaching of the disciples, it was selected in spite of the drawbacks.

[14:17]  ³ tn Or “cannot receive.”

[14:17]  ⁴ tn Or “he remains.”

[14:17]  ⁵ tc Some early and important witnesses (Ì^66* B D* W 1 565 it) have ἐστιν (estin, “he is”) instead of ἔσται (estai, “he will be”) here, while other weighty witnesses ({Ì^66c,75vid א A D¹ L Θ Ψ Ë¹³ 33^vid Ï as well as several versions and fathers}), read the future tense. When one considers transcriptional evidence, ἐστιν is the more difficult reading and better explains the rise of the future tense reading, but it must be noted that both Ì⁶⁶ and D were corrected from the present tense to the future. If ἐστιν were the original reading, one would expect a few manuscripts to be corrected to read the present when they originally read the future, but that is not the case. When one considers what the author would have written, the future is on much stronger ground. The immediate context (both in 14:16 and in the chapter as a whole) points to the future, and the theology of the book regards the advent of the Spirit as a decidedly future event (see, e.g., 7:39 and 16:7). The present tense could have arisen from an error of sight on the part of some scribes or more likely from an error of thought as scribes reflected upon the present role of the Spirit. Although a decision is difficult, the future tense is most likely authentic. For further discussion on this textual problem, see James M. Hamilton, Jr., “He Is with You and He Will Be in You” (Ph.D. diss., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2003), 213-20.

[14:18]  ⁶ tn Or “leave.”

[14:18]  ⁷ tn The entire phrase “abandon you as orphans” could be understood as an idiom meaning, “leave you helpless.”

[14:18]  ⁸ sn I will come to you. Jesus had spoken in 14:3 of going away and coming again to his disciples. There the reference was both to the parousia (the second coming of Christ) and to the postresurrection appearances of Jesus to the disciples. Here the postresurrection appearances are primarily in view, since Jesus speaks of the disciples “seeing” him after the world can “see” him no longer in the following verse. But many commentators have taken v. 18 as a reference to the coming of the Spirit, since this has been the topic of the preceding verses. Still, vv. 19-20 appear to contain references to Jesus’ appearances to the disciples after his resurrection. It may well be that another Johannine double meaning is found here, so that Jesus ‘returns’ to his disciples in one sense in his appearances to them after his resurrection, but in another sense he ‘returns’ in the person of the Holy Spirit to indwell them.

[14:19]  ⁹ tn Grk “Yet a little while, and.”

[14:20]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “will know in that day.”

[14:20]  sn At that time could be a reference to the parousia (second coming of Christ). But the statement in 14:19, that the world will not see Jesus, does not fit. It is better to take this as the postresurrection appearances of Jesus to his disciples (which has the advantage of taking in a little while in v. 19 literally).

[16:13]  ¹¹ tn Grk “that one.”

[16:13]  ¹² tn Or “will lead.”

[16:13]  ¹³ sn Three important points must be noted here. (1) When the Holy Spirit comes, he will guide the disciples into all truth. What Jesus had said in 8:31-32, “If you continue to follow my teaching you are really my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free,” will ultimately be realized in the ongoing ministry of the Holy Spirit to the disciples after Jesus’ departure. (2) The things the Holy Spirit speaks to them will not be things which originate from himself (he will not speak on his own authority), but things he has heard. This could be taken to mean that no new revelation is involved, as R. E. Brown does (John [AB], 2:714-15). This is a possible but not a necessary inference. The point here concerns the source of the things the Spirit will say to the disciples and does not specifically exclude originality of content. (3) Part at least of what the Holy Spirit will reveal to the disciples will concern what is to come, not just fuller implications of previous sayings of Jesus and the like. This does seem to indicate that at least some new revelation is involved. But the Spirit is not the source or originator of these things – Jesus is the source, and he will continue to speak to his disciples through the Spirit who has come to indwell them. This does not answer the question, however, whether these words are addressed to all followers of Jesus, or only to his apostles. Different modern commentators will answer this question differently. Since in the context of the Farewell Discourse Jesus is preparing the twelve to carry on his ministry after his departure, it is probably best to take these statements as specifically related only to the twelve. Some of this the Holy Spirit does directly for all believers today; other parts of this statement are fulfilled through the apostles (e.g., in giving the Book of Revelation the Spirit speaks through the apostles to the church today of things to come). One of the implications of this is that a doctrine does not have to be traced back to an explicit teaching of Jesus to be authentic; all that is required is apostolic authority.

[16:13]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “speak from himself.”

[16:13]  ¹⁵ tn Or will announce to you.”

[16:13]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “will tell you the things to come.”

[16:14]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “That one.”

[16:14]  ¹⁸ tn Or “will honor me.”

[16:14]  ¹⁹ tn Or “he will take.”

[16:14]  ²⁰ tn The words “what is mine” are not in the Greek text, but are implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[16:14]  ²¹ tn Or “will announce it to you.”

[16:15]  ²² tn Grk “I said he”; the referent (the Spirit) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[16:15]  ²³ tn The words “what is mine” are not in the Greek text, but are implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[16:15]  ²⁴ tn Or “will announce it to you.”

[16:16]  ²⁵ tn Grk “A little while, and you.”

[16:16]  ²⁶ tn Grk “and again a little while, and you.”

[16:16]  ²⁷ sn The phrase after a little while, you will see me is sometimes taken to refer to the coming of the Holy Spirit after Jesus departs, but (as at 14:19) it is much more probable that it refers to the postresurrection appearances of Jesus to the disciples. There is no indication in the context that the disciples will see Jesus only with “spiritual” sight, as would be the case if the coming of the Spirit is in view.

[17:6]  ²⁸ tn Or “made known,” “disclosed.”

[17:6]  ²⁹ tn Here “men” is retained as a translation for ἀνθρώποις (anqrwpoi") rather than the more generic “people” because in context it specifically refers to the eleven men Jesus had chosen as apostles (Judas had already departed, John 13:30). If one understands the referent here to be the broader group of Jesus’ followers that included both men and women, a translation like “to the people” should be used here instead.

[17:6]  ³⁰ tn Grk “Yours they were.”

[17:6]  ³¹ tn Or “have kept.”

[17:8]  ³² tn Grk And they.” The conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has not been translated here in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English style to use shorter sentences.

[17:8]  ³³ tn Or “received.”

[17:8]  ³⁴ tn The word “them” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[17:8]  ³⁵ tn Or “truly.”

[17:8]  ³⁶ tn Or have come to know.”

[17:26]  ³⁷ tn The translation “will continue to make it known” is proposed by R. E. Brown (John [AB], 2:773).