26 But when the Counselor comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness to me;
Chapters 14-17 of John’s Gospel contain what we call the Farewell Discourse, it is Jesus’ final words of encouragement, warnings and eschatological promises to his apostles before his mission on Mount Calvary. These chapters of John have been used as a proof-text for Hellenistic influence on the Apostle or even worse, the accusation that it was actually a second century pseud-epigraphical writing by a Greek, not a Jew of first century Palestine. Writings like Aeneas’ Farewell in Virgil’s Aeneid or Socrates’ final words in Plato’s Phaedo are used as comparisons.
All of this conjecture can be thrown out the window when one looks at the Old Testament, although not as intricate and separated by many generations, we see similar discourses from key figures like Jacob, Moses, Joshua and David or even Matthias in 1 Maccabees. Some might argue that biblical sources are not adequate and that’s fine, people are allowed to be wrong I guess but there are also Jewish sources of the Second Temple Period in the region Palestine, that behold, were even written in Aramaic in the centuries preceding the birth of John the Apostle. Both 1 Enoch and the Testament of the 12 Patriarchs feature such discourses and they were widely popular in the Aramaic speaking Jewish society of first century Palestine. Foreign influence was not remotely required as a building block for John’s writing style, which truly I just believe to be the most personally accurate recording of Jesus’ spoken words, albeit in Greek.
Jesus is telling his apostles about ho paraklētos or The Advocate or The Counselor depending on translation choices. Ho being the definite article “The” implying a singular entity of the subject “Advocate” and a secondary implication of eternality. This is a figure, a person who is the spiritual embodiment of Advocacy and comfort. Jesus says that he will send it but it’s nature is that of the Father for it comes from him but sent by Jesus, it proceeds from the Father but is a witness to Jesus. In another place Jesus says he also comes from the Father but him and the Father are one. This is highly trinitarian and a good text to point to for such things but on the surface it can be confusing because we inevitably try to fit it into mortal finite frameworks we can imagine, not so surprisingly, God should be beyond those frameworks. Their natures are equal but their relations are different. Both the Son and the Spirit proceed from the Father but in the sense of eternality not in the finite sense of human experience where the former is not equal to the latter (see the heresy of Arianism). The Spirit also proceeds from the Son as he can send it, that is why we say it in the Creed. To say Jesus can’t send it would be to argue with the Scriptures themselves and I’m glad I don’t have to take that position.
This Advocate is the Spirit of Truth, and has several references in the Old Testament throughout the Psalms, the Prophets but my favourite as it is the most analogous to today’s readings is that of the Book of Numbers where the Spirit comes upon the elders, enabling prophecy and granting them binding and loosing authority within the container of the Old Covenant. A similar thing is happening here just on a grander scale with the New Covenant.
27 and you also are witnesses, because you have been with me from the beginning.
Jesus adds to this saying on the Spirit, its relation to him and the Father, with how the theological kaleidoscope extends out, mirroring the divine forms as it is applied to those in its foundational covenant members. As the Spirit is a witness to Jesus, so they the apostles are. Their participation from the beginning of Jesus’ calling them is a human, in-time, equivalent to the Spirit’s participation in the Trinity for eternity. This grants them special powers obviously, especially that of binding and loosing. Even the monarchical head is mirrored onto Peter, the Apostles are equal in nature but not in relation. This is an invitation to theosis or divinisation.
1 “I have said all this to you to keep you from falling away.
Currently in the events of John’s writing, the linchpin of the early Catholic Church is dependant on the physical presence of Jesus. The Incarnation was a redeeming miracle of our own nature but it was also a pedagogical tool for the Apostles, they needed the theological training wheels of God in the Flesh but it is a teaching tool after all and if you want to learn to ride a bike you have to take off the stabilizers at some point. They must learn to rely on the Spirit, a non-physical and invisible person but one that will prevent them from falling away if they rely on it. Jesus is telling them all of this so they know what is coming, first the three days in the tomb is going to cause some panic but then after the ascension they have no physical human Jesus to touch anymore to rely on. The Advocate is going to be necessary when they are, by all material accounts, alone and suffering.
2 They will put you out of the synagogues; indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.
The Houses of Prayer, reading and Law Study, the Synagogues, were public hubs for all Jews and even Gentiles who believed. The mission that Jesus is sending his apostles on is going to be so hostile to the obstinate Jews that the Apostles will be thrown out of them. Jesus also speaks of a moment in the near future that people will kill them thinking they are serving God in doing so. This should immediately make you think of Saint Paul who prior to his encounter with Christ at Damascus, was killing and imprisoning Christians not out of evil desire but because of his religious zeal, he truly believed that this is what God wanted. He was not hiding blood lust under a religious facade. This was obviously not a singular thing, there were many like Paul in the first century.
3 And they will do this because they have not known the Father, nor me.
These figures that commit these horrible acts, prove that they do not know God the Father or God the Son, again when we look to Paul, it is his encounter with Christ that changes his ways, in a lesser form by relation, this applies to all those who encounter Christ in the veiled form of just a normal Christian person. Not many people have Paul’s Damascus moment, but many witness Christ in Christians that is enough to convert them, by witnessing the Son in the Christian, they can know him and by extension, know the Father.
4 But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you of them. “I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you.
A vital circumstantial proof of the Resurrection is that the most of the Apostles died for believing it. The hinge they clung to was most likely these words of Jesus’ farewell. He told them these things would occur. That they would happen after he has gone but the Spirit will be with them. They would remember these words and the promises and finish the race, winning the crown martyrdom and a throne in Heaven.
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