John 15:15

15:15 I no longer call you slaves, ¹  because the slave does not understand ²  what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because I have revealed to you everything ³  I heard ⁴  from my Father.

John 16:13-16

16:13 But when he, ⁵  the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide ⁶  you into all truth. ⁷  For he will not speak on his own authority, ⁸  but will speak whatever he hears, and will tell you ⁹  what is to come. ¹⁰  16:14 He ¹¹  will glorify me, ¹²  because he will receive ¹³  from me what is mine ¹⁴  and will tell it to you. ¹⁵  16:15 Everything that the Father has is mine; that is why I said the Spirit ¹⁶  will receive from me what is mine ¹⁷  and will tell it to you. ¹⁸  16:16 In a little while you ¹⁹  will see me no longer; again after a little while, you ²⁰  will see me.” ²¹ 

John 17:6-8

Jesus Prays for the Disciples

17:6 “I have revealed ²²  your name to the men ²³  you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, ²⁴  and you gave them to me, and they have obeyed ²⁵  your word. 17:7 Now they understand ²⁶  that everything ²⁷  you have given me comes from you, 17:8 because I have given them the words you have given me. They ²⁸  accepted ²⁹  them ³⁰  and really ³¹  understand ³²  that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.

Genesis 1:12

1:12 The land produced vegetation – plants yielding seeds according to their kinds, and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. God saw that it was good.

Ephesians 3:3-4

3:3 that ³³  by revelation the divine secret ³⁴  was made known to me, as I wrote before briefly. ³⁵  3:4 When reading this, ³⁶  you will be able to ³⁷  understand my insight into this secret ³⁸  of Christ.

[15:15]  ¹ tn See the note on the word “slaves” in 4:51.

[15:15]  ² tn Or “does not know.”

[15:15]  ³ tn Grk “all things.”

[15:15]  ⁴ tn Or “learned.”

[16:13]  ⁵ tn Grk “that one.”

[16:13]  ⁶ tn Or “will lead.”

[16:13]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tn Grk “speak from himself.”

[16:13]  ⁹ tn Or will announce to you.”

[16:13]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “will tell you the things to come.”

[16:14]  ¹¹ tn Grk “That one.”

[16:14]  ¹² tn Or “will honor me.”

[16:14]  ¹³ tn Or “he will take.”

[16:14]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ tn Or “will announce it to you.”

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

[16:15]  ¹⁷ 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]  ¹⁸ tn Or “will announce it to you.”

[16:16]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “A little while, and you.”

[16:16]  ²⁰ tn Grk “and again a little while, and you.”

[16:16]  ²¹ 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]  ²² tn Or “made known,” “disclosed.”

[17:6]  ²³ 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]  ²⁴ tn Grk “Yours they were.”

[17:6]  ²⁵ tn Or “have kept.”

[17:7]  ²⁶ tn Or “they have come to know,” or “they have learned.”

[17:7]  ²⁷ tn Grk “all things.”

[17:8]  ²⁸ 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]  ²⁹ tn Or “received.”

[17:8]  ³⁰ 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]  ³¹ tn Or “truly.”

[17:8]  ³² tn Or have come to know.”

[3:3]  ³³ tn Or “namely, that is.”

[3:3]  ³⁴ tn Or “mystery.”

[3:3]  ³⁵ tn Or “as I wrote above briefly.”

[3:4]  ³⁶ tn Grk “which, when reading.”

[3:4]  ³⁷ tn Grk “you are able to.”

[3:4]  ³⁸ tn Or “mystery.”