John is the only New Testament writer who uses the Greek word parakletos (paraclete) to designate the Holy Spirit. The multiple uses of the term are found in Jesus' farewell address in chapters 14 -16 of the fourth gospel. Below is a graphic that shows some of the ways paraclete has been translated into English from John's Greek text. It also shows how John conceived the role of the Spirit in the life of the believer.
Robert Kysar, in his book John, The Maverick Gospel, points out the two-fold function of the Paraclete: 1) He communicates Christ to the believer and 2) he puts the world on trial. But what I would like to get a better handle on is how John's community understood this to happen in practice.
How did the Paraclete teach them all things about Jesus?
How did they experience revelations of the future?
How did the Spirit guide them into all truth?
Let me know what you have discovered in practice (not conceptually) about the Paraclete's workings?
Thursday, August 26, 2010
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