Before we start consulting commentaries or reading up on
research studies, we would do well to acquaint ourselves thoroughly with the
Johannine text itself. Where in John is there mention of ‘spirit’ or
‘the Spirit’? We have to do stocktaking. We have to take note of
every single occurrence no less than seek a first global comprehension. Our
task is not unlike that of a manager who is transferred to another company and
who wants an initial comprehensive view of what has been entrusted to him:
central administration, production facilities, the warehouses, marketing
offices, and so on. We want to see what is there. We want to have a rough idea
of the material.
A concordance puts us on the way. Spirit (pneuma) occurs twenty times; paraclete, four. We draw up a list of all the verses involved and read them in context. Soon, we discover patterns. We notice that the term ‘spirit’ is associated with a number of key phrases that recur in various forms. Grouping like with like, we begin to put them in order. This process is unavoidably somewhat subjective; yet it is worth doing because it gives us a grasp on the material. What emerges are clusters of texts that center round the same meaning. If I omit 13:21 and 19:30 where ‘spirit’ would seem to reflect psychological idiom, my own scrutiny produces five such clusters.
While presenting these clusters and in fact throughout the next five chapters I will write ‘spirit’ as spirit, that is, in bold print and uniformly without capital. I adopt this practice because by assigning a capital in one case and not in another, I might already impose an interpretation which may need further study. John did not use capitals and his term spirit is intrinsically ambiguous, even in an expression such as the holy spirit.
The first cluster we must clearly distinguish comprises the so-called paraclete pa.ssages: 14:16-17; 14:26; 15:26; 16:7-11; 16:12-15. These passages stand out because in terminology and contents they differ considerably from other spirit passages. In fact, they are so different that they can hardly be called spirit passages at all. The expression the holy spirit occurs once (14:26) and the unusual phrase the spirit of truth three times (14:17; 15:26; 16:13), but the verses are dominated by the term ‘paraclete’ (14:16; 14:26; 15:26; 16:73. The image of the ‘paraclete’ obviously stamped its mould on the whole presentation. He is a companion (l4:16) who can be known (l4:17). He has a mission (14:26; 15:26; 16:7). He speaks (16:13), teaches (14:26), bears witness (15:26), declares future things (16:13) and convicts the world of wrong (15:18).
All this is quite different from usual spirit talk; and since these passages occur virtually in one block as part of the farewell discourses, they clearly represent a later elaboration of the spirit’s function. We will do justice to these texts in the second section of this book. Leaving them out of consideration just now, we shall restrict our attention to the other four clusters that unite statements on the spirit. They deserve their own investigation.
The first of these concerns the opposition between spirit and flesh. Three texts are particularly important in this context.
1. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; that which is born of the spirit is spirit” (3:6).
2. “It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is no use. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (6:63).
3. “God is spirit. Those who worship him should worship him in spirit and in truth” (4:24; cf. 4:231.
What we observe in these verses is that spirit belongs to John’s vocabulary of contrast.
Throughout his gospel, John stresses the difference between God’s realm of eternal reality and the perishable world we live in. He contrasts above and below, light and darkness, truth and falsehood, life and death, God and the devil. Spirit and flesh are aspects of the same duality. God is spirit, the world flesh.
Related to the above, and yet different, is a cluster of texts that speak of believers being born of; or engendered by, the Splrlt.
4. “Unless a person is born of water and the spirit, he (or she) cannot enter the Kingdom of God” (3:5).
5. “The wind (spirit) blows where it wills. You hear its sound but you do not know from where it comes or where it goes. So it is with every person who is born of the spirit ” (3:8).
Being born of the spirit is obviously parallel to being born of God (1:13). The first Johannine letter abounds with the expression. Who is born of God lives a holy life (1 Jn 2:29; 3:10), does not sin (1 Jn 3:9; 5:18), loves his neighbour (1 Jn 4:7) and overcomes the world (1Jn 5:4). Being born of God, in turn, comes close to being of God or from God. "Whoever is of God listens to God’s words" (8:47).
The thinking in contrasts, which we noted in the first cluster, prevails here, too. The opposite of being born of the spirit is being born of flesh (3:6), being born of fornication (8:41) or being of ‘your father, the devil’ (8:44). To be born of the spirit places a disciple on God’s side, makes him enter God’s Kingdom (3:5).
It is tempting to think that the expressions in the next cluster relate to the same experience. Here we are told of God giving the spirit and of believers receiving the spirit.
6. “It is not by measure that he (Jesus) gives the spirit” (3:34).
7. “This he (Jesus) said about the spirit which those who believed in him were going to receive.
Until that time the spirit had not been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified” (7:39).
8. “He breathed on them and said: ‘Receive the holy spirit’”(20:22).
Reading these texts we remember that in John's gospel “giving” is always a theological term. It always refers to a divine giving. The Father gave Jesus works (5:36; 17:4) a message (17:8), authority over humankind (17:2), disciples (6:37; 17:6; etc.), glory (17:22), in fact, everything (3:35; 13:3; etc.). What we ask in Jesus’ name, the Father will give (15:16; 16:23; cf 11:22). Whereas all we possess may be considered a gift from the Father, the real divine giving consists in granting what surpasses our earthly existence, in sharing what belongs to his realm of light and truth.
The gift of the spirit, which the disciples received after the resurrection (7:37; 20:20), manifestly pertains to such a supernatural giving. Here more than elsewhere John’s principle applies that “no one can receive anything unless it is given him from heaven” (3:27). No doubt the spirit was part of the “favour upon favour” which we received from Jesus’ fullness (1:16). Could it be that receiving the spirit and being born of the spirit are one and the same reality?
A similar question could be asked about the coming of the spirit, our final cluster; a coming announced in 16:13 and foreshadowed in Jesus’ baptism.
9. "I saw the spirit come down as a dove from heaven. It rested on him" (1:32).
10. "He on whom you see the spirit come down and on whom it will rest, he is the one who baptizes with the holy spirit" ( 1:33).
Is it farfetched to think that being born of water and the spirit (cluster 2), receiving the supernatural gift of the spirit (cluster 3) and being baptized with the holy spirit (cluster 3) could refer to one and the same event in the life of the believer? If so, what exactly was this event? Could it be known by the recipient himself, or be seen by others? What made Christians ‘born of the spirit’ different from devout Jews or God-fearing Hellenists?
How can we relate this specifically Christian gift to John’s view of the opposition between the flesh and the spirit (cluster 1) Is the Johannine conception reconcilable with our own world view and our experiences today? What is the dynamic equivalent of John’s teaching on the spirit in present-day terms.
To answer these and other questions we need to study the communities for whom John wrote, their religious practice and their spiritual needs. We have to analyse John’s objectives in writing the gospel and his concerns when mentioning the spirit. What did spirit mean to John and to John’s audience?