John 14:17-29

14:17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, ¹  because it does not see him or know him. But you know him, because he resides ²  with you and will be ³  in you.

14:18 “I will not abandon ⁴  you as orphans, ⁵  I will come to you. ⁶  14:19 In a little while ⁷  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 ⁸  that I am in my Father and you are in me and I am in you. 14:21 The person who has my commandments and obeys ⁹  them is the one who loves me. ¹⁰  The one ¹¹  who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will reveal ¹²  myself to him.”

14:22 “Lord,” Judas (not Judas Iscariot) ¹³  said, ¹⁴  “what has happened that you are going to reveal ¹⁵  yourself to us and not to the world?” 14:23 Jesus replied, ¹⁶  “If anyone loves me, he will obey ¹⁷  my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and take up residence with him. ¹⁸  14:24 The person who does not love me does not obey ¹⁹  my words. And the word ²⁰  you hear is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me.

14:25 “I have spoken these things while staying ²¹  with you. 14:26 But the Advocate, ²²  the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you ²³  everything, ²⁴  and will cause you to remember everything ²⁵  I said to you.

14:27 “Peace I leave with you; ²⁶  my peace I give to you; I do not give it ²⁷  to you as the world does. ²⁸  Do not let your hearts be distressed or lacking in courage. ²⁹  14:28 You heard me say to you, ³⁰  ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad ³¹  that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I am. ³²  14:29 I have told you now before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe. ³³ 

[14:17]  ¹ tn Or “cannot receive.”

[14:17]  ² tn Or “he remains.”

[14:17]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Or “leave.”

[14:18]  ⁵ tn The entire phrase “abandon you as orphans” could be understood as an idiom meaning, “leave you helpless.”

[14:18]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn Grk “Yet a little while, and.”

[14:20]  ⁸ tn Grk “will know in that day.”

[14:21]  ⁹ tn Or “keeps.”

[14:21]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “obeys them, that one is the one who loves me.”

[14:21]  ¹¹ tn Grk “And the one.” Here the conjunction καί (kai) has not been translated to improve the English style.

[14:21]  ¹² tn Or “will disclose.”

[14:22]  ¹³ tn Grk “(not Iscariot).” The proper noun (Judas) has been repeated for clarity and smoothness in English style.

[14:22]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “said to him.”

[14:22]  ¹⁵ tn Or “disclose.”

[14:23]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “answered and said to him.”

[14:23]  ¹⁷ tn Or “will keep.”

[14:23]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “we will come to him and will make our dwelling place with him.” The context here is individual rather than corporate indwelling, so the masculine singular pronoun has been retained throughout v. 23. It is important to note, however, that the pronoun is used generically here and refers equally to men, women, and children.

[14:24]  ¹⁹ tn Or “does not keep.”

[14:24]  ²⁰ tn Or “the message.”

[14:25]  ²¹ tn Or “while remaining” or “while residing.”

[14:26]  ²² tn Or “Helper” or “Counselor”; Grk “Paraclete,” from the Greek word παράκλητος (paraklhto"). See the note on the word “Advocate” in v. 16 for a discussion of how this word is translated.

[14:26]  ²³ tn Grk “that one will teach you.” The words “that one” have been omitted from the translation since they are redundant in English.

[14:26]  ²⁴ tn Grk “all things.”

[14:26]  ²⁵ tn Grk “all things.”

[14:27]  ²⁶ sn Peace I leave with you. In spite of appearances, this verse does not introduce a new subject (peace). Jesus will use the phrase as a greeting to his disciples after his resurrection (20:19, 21, 26). It is here a reflection of the Hebrew shalom as a farewell. But Jesus says he leaves peace with his disciples. This should probably be understood ultimately in terms of the indwelling of the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, who has been the topic of the preceding verses. It is his presence, after Jesus has left the disciples and finally returned to the Father, which will remain with them and comfort them.

[14:27]  ²⁷ tn The pronoun “it” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied. Direct objects in Greek were often omitted when clear from the context.

[14:27]  ²⁸ tn Grk “not as the world gives do I give to you.”

[14:27]  ²⁹ tn Or “distressed or fearful and cowardly.”

[14:28]  ³⁰ tn Or “You have heard that I said to you.”

[14:28]  ³¹ tn Or “you would rejoice.”

[14:28]  ³² sn Jesus’ statement the Father is greater than I am has caused much christological and trinitarian debate. Although the Arians appealed to this text to justify their subordinationist Christology, it seems evident that by the fact Jesus compares himself to the Father, his divine nature is taken for granted. There have been two orthodox interpretations: (1) The Son is eternally generated while the Father is not: Origen, Tertullian, Athanasius, Hilary, etc. (2) As man the incarnate Son was less than the Father: Cyril of Alexandria, Ambrose, Augustine. In the context of the Fourth Gospel the second explanation seems more plausible. But why should the disciples have rejoiced? Because Jesus was on the way to the Father who would glorify him (cf. 17:4-5); his departure now signifies that the work the Father has given him is completed (cf. 19:30). Now Jesus will be glorified with that glory that he had with the Father before the world was (cf. 17:5). This should be a cause of rejoicing to the disciples because when Jesus is glorified he will glorify his disciples as well (17:22).

[14:29]  ³³ sn Jesus tells the disciples that he has told them all these things before they happen, so that when they do happen the disciples may believe. This does not mean they had not believed prior to this time; over and over the author has affirmed that they have (cf. 2:11). But when they see these things happen, their level of trust in Jesus will increase and their concept of who he is will expand. The confession of Thomas in 20:28 is representative of this increased understanding of who Jesus is. Cf. John 13:19.