"While the Spirit-Paraclete is the true broker, the brokers they rely on are imposters." - Tricia Gates Brown
"The final Spirit-Paraclete saying of John’s Gospel appears at 16.12-15. Jesus has still many things to say to the disciples that they can presently not bear. But when the Spirit of Truth comes ... Everything that the Spirit-Paraclete will proffer to believers will have its source in Jesus. And as v. 15 suggests, all that Jesus has comes from the father: ‘All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that ...[the Spirit of Truth] will take what is mine and declare it to you.’ ... The Spirit-Paraclete brokers truth by providing access to Jesus, the truth. That the Paraclete provides access to Jesus has been a theme all through the Farewell Discourses. Yet the contrast emphasized in 16.12-15 is that between the truth that Jesus’ faithful clients will receive and the falsehoods of the world. In 16.8-11 it was implied that those who remain loyal to the world will not receive the truth. They are led in the way of falsehood. Those who remain loyal to Jesus, on the other hand, will be guided in the way of truth by the Spirit of Truth.
The verb employed in 16.13a, (to guide), bears an affinity to the word used by Jesus in his ‘I am’ statements at 14.6, ‘I am [the way].’ As ‘the way’ Jesus provides believers with access to the Father; and as one who ‘guides’ believers into all truth, the Paraclete provides access to Jesus, who is ‘the truth’, as well as to the words ... from the glorified Jesus. The future tense verbs in these verses reveal that the Paraclete will disclose to the disciples ‘new’ revelations from the glorified Jesus and will not merely recapitulate and explain to them the teachings from Jesus’ earthly ministry. These new revelations will include information about ‘things that are to come.’...
The deep concern of the community centered on whether Jesus could continue to broker access to God when he was no longer on the Earth. This concern seems to be behind the emphatic reassurance of Jesus’ role as the exclusive ‘way’ to the Father (14.6). It is dealt with through the introduction of the Paraclete, who continues Jesus’ work and presence among the disciples. The Spirit-Paraclete and Jesus share a functional unity in that many of the tasks that the Paraclete is said to fulfill are earlier ascribed to Jesus. It becomes clear in the Discourses that the Paraclete does not act independently of Jesus, nor is identical with Jesus in some way. Essentially, the Paraclete perpetuates the presence of Jesus by brokering access to Jesus after he has departed. The Paraclete teaches the disciples by speaking to them what [the Paraclete] hears from Jesus (14.26; 16.12-15), ... reminds the disciples of what Jesus said to them (14.26), ... witnesses on behalf of Jesus in Jesus’ trial before the world (15.26), ... continues Jesus’ work of proving to the disciples the wrongheadedness of the world (16.8-11), ... guides the disciples into all truth by taking ‘what belongs to Jesus’ and declaring it to the disciples (16.12-15), and ... glorifies Jesus by providing the means for Jesus to continue his role as their patron/ broker to the disciples. The Paraclete provides the disciples with access to the glorified Jesus, allowing Jesus to continue his work of revealing God to the disciples, of witnessing alongside them, of exposing the darkness of this world. In other words, the Paraclete makes it possible for Jesus to continue to be ‘the way’ to the father, even when he is out of sight of the believers. [The Paraclete] provides a way for Jesus to continue to be a paraclete...
As the spirit is in the Gospel proper, so the Spirit–Paraclete is a benefit that Jesus will broker to believers. But as with the other benefits that Jesus provides, the source of the Paraclete is with God. The Father sends the Paraclete via Jesus. Ultimately, the Paraclete is sent to perpetuate the availability of access to God’s patronage...
As the true Spirit, the Paraclete stands apart from the false spirits of the world. Consequently, to call the Spirit-Paraclete the truth is to make a competitive claim against those opponents. While the Spirit-Paraclete is the true broker, the brokers they rely on are impostors."
Tricia Gates Brown, Spirit in the writings of John
Continuum International, 2004, pages 231-3
THE APOCALYPSE OF THE SPIRIT-PARACLETE
Fulfillment of the promised divine eschatological instruction
"It's better to tell you after Realization that I am the Holy Ghost – no doubt. I am the one about which Christ has talked."The Paraclete Shri Mataji
"Jesus therefore predicts that God will later send a human being to Earth to take up the role defined by John .i.e. to be a prophet who hears God’s words and repeats his message to man."
M. Bucaille, The Bible, the Qur'an, and Science
"And when Jesus foreannounced another Comforter, He must have intended a Person as distinct and helpful as He had been."
F. B. Meyer, Love to the Utmost
"The Paraclete has a twofold function: to communicate Christ to believers and, to put the world on trial"
Robert Kysar, John The Meverick Gospel
"But She—the Spirit, the Paraclete...—will teach you everything."
Danny Mahar, Aramaic Made EZ)
"Grammatical nonsense but evidence of the theological desire to defeminize the Divine."
Lucy Reid, She Changes Everything
"The functions of the Paraclete spelled out in verses 13-15... are all acts of open and bold speaking in the highest degree."
David Fleer, Preaching John's Gospel: The World It Imagines
"The reaction of the world to the Paraclete will be much the same as the world’s reaction was to Jesus."
Berard L. Marthaler, The Creed: The Apostolic Faith in Contemporary Theology
Bultmann calls the "coming of the Redeemer an 'eschatological event,' 'the turning-point of the ages."
G. Ladd, A Theology of the New Testament
"The Paraclete equated with the Holy Spirit, is the only mediator of the word of the exalted Christ."
(M.E. Boring) Benny Thettayil, In Spirit and Truth
"The divine Paraclete, and no lessor agency, must show the world how wrong it was about him who was in the right."
Daniel B. Stevick , Jesus and His Own: A Commentary on John 13-17
Stephen Smalley asserts that "the Spirit-Paraclete ... in John’s Gospel is understood as personal, indeed, as a person."
Marianne Meye Thompson, The God of the Gospel of John
"The Messiah will come and the great age of salvation will dawn (for the pious)"
Eric Eve, The Jewish context of Jesus' Miracles
"The remembrance is to relive and re-enact the Christ event, to bring about new eschatological decision in time and space."
Daniel Rathnakara Sadananda, The Johannine Exegesis of God
"The Spirit acts in such an international situation as the revealer of 'judgment' on the powers that rule the world."
Michael Welker, God the Spirit
The Paraclete's "appearance means that sin, righteousness, and judgment will be revealed."
Georg Strecker, Theology of the New Testament
"While the Spirit-Paraclete is the true broker, the brokers they rely on are impostors."
T. G. Brown, Spirit in the writings of John
"The pneumatological activity ... of the Paraclete ... may most helpfully be considered in terms of the salvific working of the hidden Spirit."
Michael Welker, The work of the Spirit
"The pneuma is the peculiar power by which the word becomes the words of eternal life."
Robert Kysar, Voyages with John: Charting the Fourth Gospel
"The gift of peace, therefore, is intimately associated with the gift of the Spirit-Paraclete"
Francis J. Moloney, The Gospel of John
"This utopian hope, even when modestly expressed, links Jesus and the prophets to a much wider history of human longing."
Harvey Cox, The Future of Faith
"Because of the presence of the Paraclete in the life of the believer, the blessings of the end-times—the eschaton—are already present"
Robert Kysar, John
"They are going, by the Holy Spirit’s power, to be part of the greatest miracle of all, bringing men to salvation."
Robert E. Picirilli, The Randall House Bible Commentary
"The Kingdom of God stands as a comprehensive term for all that the messianic salvation included... is something to be sought here and now (Mt. 6:33) and to be received as children receive a gift (Mk. 10:15 = Lk. 18:16-17)."
G. Ladd, A Theology of the New Testament
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