Whatever the origin of the term paraclete, in the gospel as we
have it today it designates the Spirit. The concept, with all the connotations
it must have carried for John’s audience, was made subservient to the
reality ‘Spirit.’ Paraclete thus became another way of
describing the transforming experience of being in the Spirit which, as we saw,
was a basic Christian event (chap five). Paraclete is an image of
Spirit-experience no less than wind or flowing water. (1) Phrased in
personalised traits, it sketches a portrait. It puts the Spirit before us as a
person who speaks, guides and gives witness. The focus is on his actions, on
the role he plays in our lives.
We have already reflected on various aspects of his powerful influence. In a world where life seems meaningless, where we find doubt, darkness and despair, he offers the comfort of messianic salvation (chap seven). In the cosmic conflict between good and evil, between defenseless believers and ruthless oppressors, he comes to our aid to plead our cause and silence our opponents (chap eight). He stands in for Jesus. He continues Jesus’ work and makes Jesus present in us (chap nine). Both the many ambivalent meanings inherent in the term and its varied use in the Johannine tradition combined to make paraclete a powerful and complex image, rich in associations of thought.
So much for the general background. What, however, about the specific task of teaching which, as we noted in chapter six, characterizes the paraclete’s function towards the disciples? “He will teach you everything” (14:26). “He will lead you to the complete truth” (16:13). “He will tell you of the things to come” (16:13). What does the paraclete do as our teacher?
We would do a great injustice to John’s gospel if we were to ascribe to the paraclete merely a supplementary or secondary role. In some way he will surpass Jesus. For while Jesus could only speak in obscure language (16:25) because the disciples were not able to bear the full message (16:12), the paraclete’s teaching will be all-comprehensive (14:26) and exhaustive (16:13). He is the teacher who will tell the full story.
What is this “complete truth” (16:13) John speaks about? It is certainly not a creed of fixed doctrines which John feared might be tampered with by succeeding generations. (2) To understand the phrase, we need to unravel the complexities of the notion “truth” in John. It links both the Hebrew ’emeth, faithfulness, (3) and the Hellenistic alêtheia, the eternal reality as found with God(4) In brief, it comes to this: Jesus has come to reveal truth by, on the one hand, exposing the evil of the world and, on the other, offering God’s loving salvation. “My task is to testify to the truth”(18:37). “If you accept my words... you will know the truth and the truth will set you free” (8:31-32). “There is no truth in the devil ... but I speak the truth” (8:44-45). “I am the truth” (14:6). For John, truth means revelation; and Jesus Christ, the God-man, is both the act and the contents of that revelation.(5) The truth simply stands for everything that came to light in Jesus Christ.
The specific contribution of the Spirit can now be spelled out. During Jesus’ life on earth the real significance of his coming had to remain obscure; for he had not yet died and only the cross would provide the key. The cross and resurrection would confirm that Jesus had truly died in love (3:13-17); that a new worship in spirit and truth was possible (4:23); that his body was food and his blood drink (6:55); that he was the good shepherd who laid down his life for the sheep (10:14-18); the grain of wheat bearing a rich harvest (12:23-32); the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (1:29). The scandal of Jesus’ humanness: his origin from Nazareth (1:46; 7:41-42; 7:52; 19:19) and his appearance as an ordinary human being (5:18; 7:27-28; 8:13-16; 8:53; 10:33) were bound to hide his true identity. It is this obscurity that could only be removed after Jesus’ death and return to the Father.(6) It fell, therefore, to the Spirit, the paraclete, to reveal Jesus’ genuine identity by clearly stating “the complete truth” (16:13), by teaching “everything” (14:26).
For anyone familiar with John’s gospel, it will be immediately clear that this is a fundamental notion of Johannine theology. Even more so than in the synoptic gospels, John presents Jesus’ actions and words in the light of post- resurrectional understanding. Teaching the truth about Jesus implies much more than passing on ancient traditions; it implies a thorough re-interpretation of those traditions in the light of one’s spiritual insights. At times the evangelist mentions the process in so many words. Jesus’ statement on driving out the merchants from the Temple was an enigma. “But after his resurrection they remembered what he had said. They believed the Scripture and the words Jesus had spoken” (2:22). Again, when Jesus entered Jerusalem seated on a donkey, the disciples were puzzled. “At the time the disciples did not understand this. But after Jesus had been glorified they re- membered that this had been written about him and that it had taken place” (12:16). It was the Spirit as paraclete who helped them remember, who made them understand what had happened, who led them into the complete truth. His teaching consisted in dynamic interpretation.(7)
There are scholars who link the term paraclete to the Hebrew and Aramaic word mêlîs, interpreter, basing their arguments on Targumic translations and Qumranic texts.(8) The derivation is tenuous; the more likely origin of the term being along the lines we discussed in chapters 8-10. But as an English equivalent of what kind of teacher the paraclete is, ‘interpreter’ comes close.
The paraclete will not bring a totally new revelation. “He will not be speaking as from himself but will say only what he has heard” (16:13). Jesus, after all, contained in himself the most adequate expression of who the Father is. He was the Word. “All that the Father has is mine. That is why I told you that whatever he (the paraclete) reveals to you he will take from what is mine” (16:15). Much of the paraclete’s teaching will, therefore, involve a remembering, a pointing back to things Jesus said or did. “He will remind you of all I said to you” (14:2). But the whole purpose of this pointing back to the past is to unveil its meaning, to lead the disciples into the whole truth (16:13).
As we saw in chapter nine, the expression “the Spirit of Truth” has parallels in Essene documents. But from whatever contemporary sources John may have borrowed the term, we need to recognise its full Johannine meaning. Jesus came to reveal “truth,” as we saw above. The paraclete completes the job by showing all the implications of that “truth.” He makes us see that all Jesus’ works were “signs” with deeper dimensions. He makes us realise that Jesus, though truly human, was sent by the Father; that he is the Word, the light of the world, the bread that comes from heaven; that he is life and resurrection. By giving this final interpretation and thus revealing the complete truth, the paraclete shows himself to be “the Spirit of Truth” (14:17; 15:26; 16:13). The Spirit “bears witness”(15:26) to the full reality of Christ.(9) He can offer this testimony because he, like Jesus, can simply be called ‘truth.’ “The Spirit bears witness because the Spirit is truth” (1 Jn 5:6).
The same relationship between the paraclete and Jesus finds expression in the theme of Jesus’ ‘glory.’ Jesus’ true status as the Word and the Only-begotten, that is, the glory he possessed with the Father before the world began (17:5) remained hidden during his earthly life. Only after his hour of death and resurrection this glory could become manifest. “It was for this that I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name” (12:27). “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son” (17:1). It was the paraclete, sent by the Father (14:16; 14:26; 15:26), who would reveal Jesus’ true status and thus glorify the Son. “The paraclete will glorify me” (16:14). The paraclete proclaims Jesus as Lord.(10)
This is also how we have to understand the phrase: “He (the paraclete) will make known to you the things that are coming” (16:13). This does not attribute to the Spirit any powers of prediction; as if he would let us know in the year 1990 what will happen in 2010. The “things that are coming” refer to the messianic future, to the events to take place on the day of Yahweh. The Essenes believed God had given them their ‘Teacher of Justice’ “in order that he may interpret all the words of his servants, the prophets—words through which God has announced what has to happen to his people and his community.”(11) After Jesus’ return to the Father, the disciples will live in that messianic future. The paraclete will explain how the realities of that time fit into the history of salvation. Interpretation can thus lead to creative adaptation throughout the centuries to come.
How will the paraclete communicate his teaching? Are we to expect extraordinary phenomena, external apparitions or revelations from above? Decidedly not. Here the identification with the Holy Spirit indicates a categorical answer. The experience of the Spirit is an inner transformation, as we saw in chapter five, an enlightenment of our mind and new love in our heart. The paraclete passages do not change this mode of experience; what they tell us is that the inner transformation will provide teaching and interpretation.
The paraclete promises themselves say this clearly. The paraclete makes himself known in the interior of the mind and heart. “The world cannot see or know him. But you will know him because he will be with you and in you” (14:17). “The anointing you have received stays with you. You need no other teacher. You can learn all you need to know from his anointing which is real and not illusion” (1 Jn 2:26-27). There is a fusion, as it were, of Spirit and disciple.
By changing the disciple’s awareness, the Spirit can speak through him. The witness of the Spirit and of the disciple thus becomes almost one reality.(12) “The Spirit of Truth will bear witness to me. And you, too, will be my witnesses” (15:26-27). Compare: “We are witnesses to all this, and so is the Holy Spirit given by God to those who are obedient to him” (Acts 5:32). Some gifted leaders—like the Beloved Disciple? (see chapter nine)—no doubt possessed the Spirit to a greater degree and thus became his mouthpiece in the community, teaching and interpreting authoritatively.(13) The experience of the Spirit thus became for the individual and the community the experience of the paraclete: the continued presence of Jesus as comforter and adviser, but, most of all, as teacher and interpreter.
1. M. Scott, “Images of the Spirit in John’s Gospel,” The Bible Today 20 (1982), 78-83.
2. So U.B. Mueller, o.c. p. 72.
3. J. Giblet, “Aspects of the Truth in the New Testament,” Concilium 83 (1973) 35-42.
4. C.H. Dodd, The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel, Cambridge University Press 1953, pp. 170-178.
5. I. De La Potterie, La vérité dans Saint Jean, Biblical Institute Press, Rome 1977.
6. L. Rubio Moran, “Revelación en enigmas y revelación en claridad,” Salmanticensis 19 (1972), 107-144.
7. H. Schlier, “The Holy Spirit as interpreter according to St. John’s Gospel,” Communio 1 (1974) 128-141.
8. Compare “interpreter of knowledge” in IQH 2:13; 18:11. G. Johnston, “The Spirit-Paraclete in the Gospel of John,” Perspective 9 (1968) 29-37; H.F. Woodhouse, “The Interpreter,” Biblical Theology 18 (1968) 51-53.
9. M.C. Tenney, “The Meaning of ‘Witness’ in John,” Biblia Sacra 132 (1975) 229-241.
10. L. Floor, “The Lord and the Holy Spirit in the Fourth Gospel,” Neotestamentica 2(1968) 122-130.
11. IQp Hab 2:8-10; cf. O. Betz, Der Paraklet, o.c. p.44.
12. W.F. Lofthouse, “The Holy Spirit in the Acts and in the Fourth Gospel,” Expository Times 52 (1940-41) 334-336.
13. J.A. Grassi, “The Gospel of John. Criteria for an Authentic Teacher,” The Bible Today 80 (1975) 534-544.