St John: The Holy Spirit
INTRODUCTION:
The Holy Spirit is one of the greatest (and difficult one for us to understand fully) theme that John whishes to present in his gospel. In this essay we will explore two main aspects of the Holy Spirit in John, namely, in the non-Paraclete passages and the Paraclete passages.
I: The Non-Paraclete Passages:
The testimony of John the Baptist: 1:32-33
To avoid describing Jesus’ reception of the Spirit dependent upon he baptism by John, the fourth gospel eliminates the description of the baptism completely, though it retains the traditional setting for the Spirit’s descent in the course of John’s baptising. Another way in which the fourth evangelist has dealt with the difficulty is by avoiding any mention of John’s baptism being one of repentance, by making John’s baptism a preparation for the one to come (1:27, 31) and by making the forgiveness of sins uniquely the gift of the Lamb of God (1:29)[1].
John uses a visible sign of the Holy Spirit, a dove, but the way he describing the Spirit upon Jesus reveals a further interest of John’s theology. The Greek verb menein (meaning to remain, to rest, and abide) is used twice (1:32-33) implies that Jesus possesses the Spirit in a permanent way.
Begotten of Water and Spiri: 3:5-8
Born of water and Spirit (3:5): In explaining to Nicodemus the word anothen (3:3), Jesus goes on with the idea of water and the Spirit. These two words do not have articles in Greek, which may denote very general meanings. Are there two begetting, one of water and the other of Spirit? Or is there only one begetting through two co-ordinate factors, water and the Spirit- or is one factor subordinate to the other?[2] Grayston presumes they mean the cleansing and uninhibited power of God, because to a Jew like Nicodemus, they may suggest the promise in Eze. 36:25-27 that God will wash his people with clean water and put a new Spirit within them, though Christians may also think of baptism and the gift of the Spirit (cf. Acts 10:47)[3].
Jesus goes on to explain to Nicodemus the nature of this birth by comparing it with the wind in nature. This is John’s typical play of words, because pneuma means both wind and Spirit, and here it is used without an article. In the end of verse 8, John makes it clear with tov pnmematos, which is the Holy Spirit. Jesus, as portrayed by John, has progressively introduced us to the mystery of the Holy Spirit, agent of the new life by which man is reborn[4].
The Spirit Given without Measure: 3:34
There is an ambiguity in the second clause of this verse. ‘He’ here may mean John the Baptist, the man sent by God (1:16), or Jesus, the one who ‘utters the words of God’, or God the Father as implied in 3:35. It is possible that the ambiguity may be deliberate to suggest a mysterious quality regarding the origins of the Spirit, and also to echo the later fluctuation (14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7) in who sends the Spirit, the Father or the Son[5].
Here we see ‘word’ and ‘Spirit’ go together. For John, the teaching of Jesus and the Holy Spirit are simply two complementary aspects of the same revelatory process[6] because the Spirit gives the disciples an understanding of Jesus’ words (cf. 14:25-26).
We can also find in this verse a note of the Holy Spirit’s permanent residence in Jesus as in 1:32-33, because Jesus is given the Spirit ‘without measure’.
The Spirit of Peace and Forgiveness: 20:21-23
For those who see the moment of crucifixion/ resurrection as the moment of Jesus’ glorification, this feature causes no problems because it fits 7:39. However, John’s presentation of Jesus giving the Spirit here diverges with Luke’s account in Lk. 24:49 where the disciples are told to wait in Jerusalem until they are clothed with ‘power from on high’ as Jesus will ‘send the promise of my Father upon you’, and in Acts 2:1ff. where the event of Pentecost happens. This differences is treated in three ways:
- Jesus does give the Spirit immediately after his resurrection as an assurance of peace, but it comes more fully at the Pentecost (Luke’s phrasing ‘with power’)[7].
- There is a divergence, but it is not surprising, because as all other events, while part of one experience, are later described separately[8]. Or because NT authors are more concerned with historical mysteries than with chronological orders[9].
- In Johannine perspective, resurrection, ascension, and the coming of the Holy Spirit take place on one and the sane Ester Sunday, because from the present verse, the ascension has now take place. What John insists here is the intimate connection of the resurrection with the animation of the Church by the Spirit (cf.1Cor. 15:45), something that has always been reflected in the liturgy and the teaching of the Church[10].
The action of breathing recalls Gen. 2:7 when God the Creator gives life to man, which may imply that Jesus gives his new life to the apostles after his resurrection. There is also an interesting point here: pneuma means both ‘breath’ and ‘Spirit’. Like Adam, echo receives life (breath) from God and then is bestowed with authority to subdue the earth (cf. Gen. 1:28), the disciples receive pneuma (Spirit) from Christ and are bestowed with authority to confer forgiveness[11].
There is another problem with John’s account here that is the contradiction with that of Luke about the giver of the Spirit. John may mean that Jesus has power to give pneuma because he possesses it (1:32-33). However, in 14:16, Jesus promises that the Father will send ‘another’ parkletos, and in 16:7, Jesus says that parkletos will not come if he does not go away. So, scholars have debated the possibility of having ‘two separate Spirits’ in John’s Gospel, or there is difference between pneuma and parkletos, though both are mysteriously linked through the person and activities of Jesus[12].
II: The Paraclete Passages:
Paraclete is a distinctive and special title for Spirit by John the Evangelist. He sees preuma and Paraclete as synonymous. In English, Paraclete is translated as Counsellor (R.S.V) or Advocate (J.B.) Other terms are also suggested like Comforter, Intercessor, Revealer, Helper, Strengthener, Champion, Vindicator, etc. In fact, parkletos is itself a masculine word, meaning ‘the one who has been called to the side of another’ or ‘a friend at court’, thus it conveys more personalization than other terms[13]. Barrett[14] says that grammar alone takes the Spirit from an abstract impersonal force into a personality.
The Spirit of Truth: 14:16-17
The giver of the Paraclete here is the Father, and he gives ‘another’ Paraclete, which implies that Jesus himself is the first Paraclete (cf.1Jn. 2:1). It may mean that when Jesus is on earth, he cared and spoken for the disciples (17:1-26), now he has to depart, because he only ‘pitched his tent’ among us (1:14). His departure is necessary because he has to take up the role of Paraclete before the Father (1Jn. 2:1;cf.1: 1)[15].
The Paraclete is stated to be with the disciples ‘for ever’, which may be a hint that Jesus’ temporary fleshly association with the disciples will be replaced by the ‘spirituality’ of the Paraclete which enables him to be in the disciples as an unseen, yet driving force[16], which may fulfill the promise of Isaiah 7:14, God is with us ‘through the Paraclete’.
The Paraclete is described as the Spirit of Truth. Truth here does not mean abstract or philosophical truth; neither does it mean the moral virtue of veracity[17]. The opposition of the truth is the world, which for John is a place of darkness/evil. It needs enlightenment but chooses to serve the devil, which is an opponent of truth (cf. 8:44)[18].
The Spirit- The Instructor: 14:26
In this verse, the Paraclete is equal in status and being to the Holy Spirit[19], because here John uses definite article: to pneuma to agion.
One more time, the Paraclete is said to be sent by the Father, but in Jesus’ name, which probably means his bidding (14:16). However, here is a development in Jesus’ involvement with the sending of the Holy Spirit[20].
One of the functions of the Paraclete is to instruct the disciples, probably because Jesus has not been able to teach them everything; especially he has not been able to give them an understanding of his words (cf. 2:21-22). Lest the expression ‘all things’ be interpreted as discontinuous with the teaching of Jesus, the phrase is immediately added, ‘and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you’. The Church’s memory of Jesus and his word is the particular work of the Holy Spirit[21]
The Spirit – The witness: 15:26
The Paraclete is said to proceed from the Father. This is also used in the creedal statement of the fourth century to describe the eternal procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father. However, parallel here to, ‘I shall send to you from the Father’, the term describe the ‘temporal mission’ of the Holy Spirit[22].
Jesus is here said to send the Holy Spirit. In 14:16,26, the giving and sending is the work of the Father. Since Jesus and the Father are one (10:30), the sending can be attributed to one without excluding the other[23]. There is also the intention to emphasise that the Spirit issues from the Father who essentially is the divine source of the Paraclete’s being. Yet at the same time, if the Paraclete is the Spirit of Jesus, then Jesus’ source is likewise divine; it seems that this is how the evangelist understood Jesus, and is the perspective of his presentation elsewhere[24].
The role of Holy Spirit here is to bear witness on behalf of Jesus. This fits Acts 1:8 when the disciples are promised the Spirit and required to be witnesses. There are numerous witnesses: John the Baptist (5:33-35), Jesus’ work (5:36), the Father (5:37), and the Scriptures (5:39). So while the Paraclete may be important in ‘source’ terms, Russell[25] says that he is ‘only one further witness to Jesus’.
The Spirit – The prosecutor: 16:7-11
To your advantage: It seems that the ministry of Jesus and that of the Holy Spirit cannot be concurrent. Howard[26] remarks that ‘as long as the dominant personality of their Master was at their side, the disciples could not grow to their full stature. Faith and obedience cannot have their perfect work until the visible fellowship has become an invisible communion’. This can be more clearly understood in Grayston’s example of a medical student: on the wards with the professor, he responds to the teacher rather then to the patient. Similarly, the actions of the disciples are responses to Jesus’ physical presence rather than the situation in which they find themselves. Thus, Jesus has to go away so that the community will have the proper freedom of making decisions[27].
This phrase also gives us the key to John’s notion of the Paraclete: he is the replacement of the physical presence of Jesus while Jesus is with the Father. The Paraclete will mediate the presence of Jesus to his disciples (cf.14: 18), but that presence will no longer be physical as during the public ministry. It will nonetheless be visible and experiential, but not because Jesus is palpably present in their midst. Rather the Paraclete will continue to work in and through the disciples in such and way that they will know the spiritual presence of Jesus[28].
He will convince the world: The Greek word elegchein has two meanings:(a) to bring to light; (b) to convict of a crime, which is also found in 3:20 (where light would expose the deed of the evil man for what they are) and in 8:46 (where Jesus asks who convict him sin). Besides, it also found in Rev. 3:19, where it means ‘to punish’[29].
For sin, the second meaning seems to fit because to John, there is only one attitude: acceptance or rejection of Jesus. The world’s sin is its rejection of the light offered in Jesus (3:19; 12:37; etc.)[30].
The Teaching and Prophetic Spirit: 16:12-15
I have many things: Grammatically, this may mean that Jesus has some more to tell the disciples about persecution, or new revelation, but they cannot bear, so Jesus has to leave that job to the Spirit. However, the immediate verses state that the Spirit will not say ‘on his own authority’. He will say only what ‘he hears’, he will take things from Jesus and declare them. Moreover, in 15:15, Jesus says that he has made known to the disciples all that he heard from his Father, so Sanders[31] concludes that ‘there is no question here of completely fresh revelations’.
The role of the Spirit here is to guide the disciples to all truth, which for John may be the fullness of reality as discerned in Jesus himself. In declaring things that are to come, the Paraclete acts like a prophetic Revealer, unveiling the future[32], but what is revealed here is the full understanding of Jesus’ deeds and words (2:2; 12:16; 13:7).
Saying that the Spirit will not speak on his own authority, Jesus establishes the Paraclete as his own agent, invested with the same authority that he himself has received from the Father[33]. Russell, on the other hand, feels that this passage, while mentioning the Spirit, has drawn all the attention to the Father and the Son, which makes it more Christological than Trinitarian[34].
CONCLUSION:
In study John presentation of Spirit we can see that in the fourth gospel the role of Holy Spirit has two stages, when Jesus was on earth, and after Jesus is resurrected. One of the main works of the Spirit after Jesus was resurrected is to represent the continuing presence and power of Jesus with his disciples, and to continue his work in the world. The Spirit is to teach the disciples about the truth and together with them, they will bear witness about risen Christ.
[1] Montague, G.T., The Holy Spirit: Growth of a Biblical Tradition, pp. 340-341, Paulist Press, New York 1976.
[2] Montague, G.T., Ibid., p.343.
[3] Grayston, K, The Gospel of John, p.35, Epworth Press, London 1990.
[4] Montague, G.T., Ibid.
[5] Russell, J., Op. cit., p.17.
[6] Montague, G.T., Op. cit., p.344.
[7] Russell, J., Op. cit., p.22.
[8] Barrett, C.K., The Gospel According to John, p.570, SPCK, London, quoted by Russell, Ibid.
[9] Brown, R.E., The Jerome Biblical Commentary, Vol. II, p.464, Geoffrey Chapman, London 1969.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Russell, J., Op. cit., p.23.
[12] Russell, J., Op. cit. p.23.
[13] Russell, J., Op. cit. pp.10-12.
[14] Barrett, C.K., Op. cit., p91, quoted by Russell, Ibid.
[15] Montague, G.T., Op. cit., p.351.
[16] Russell, J., Op. cit., p.24.
[17] Montague, G.T., Ibid.
[18] Russell, J., Ibid.
[19]Russell, J., Op. cit. p27.
[20] Russell, J., Op. cit. p25.
[21] Montague, G.T., Op. cit., p.352.
[22] Ibid.
[23] Ibid.
[24] Russell, J., Op. cit. p29.
[25] Russell, J., Op. cit. p30.
[26] Quoted by Russell. J., Ibid.
[27] Grayston, K., Op. cit., p.135.
[28] Montague, G.T., Op. cit., p.354.
[29] Sanders, J.N., The Gospel According to John, p.305, Adam & Charles Black, London 1968.
[30] Montague, G.T., Op. cit., p.354-355.
[31] Sanders, J.N., Op. cit., 355.
[32] Russell, J., Op. cit., p.32.
[33] Ashton, J., Understanding the Fourth Gospel, p. 423, Clarendon Press, Oxford 1993.
[34] Russell, J., Op. cit., p.33.
