John 14
Jesus' Parting Words to His Disciples
1 Let not your1 heart be being troubled. Be believing in God and be believing in me. 2 In my father's house[hold]2 are many dwelling-places3 . If [it were] not [so], I would have told you, 3 because I go to prepare [a] place for you. And if I go and prepare [a] place for you, again do I come and will take you to myself, in order that where I am you may be also. 4 And where I go you know the way.5 Thomas says to him: Lord, we do not know where you are going. How do we know the way? 6 Jesus says to him: I am the way, the truth and the zoe-life4 ; no one comes to the father except through me. 7 If you have known me, you will also know my father.5 And from now [on] you know him and have seen him.
8 Phillip says to him: Lord, show us the father, and it suffices us. 9 Jesus says to him: So much time I am with you and you have not known me, Phillip? The [one] having seen me has seen the father. How do you say: Show us the father? 10 Do you not believe that I [am] in the father and the father is in me? The words that I say to you [all]6 I did not speak from myself, but the father dwelling in me does his works. 11 Be believing me that I [am] in the father and the father [is] in me. But if not, be believing on account of the works themselves. 12 Truly truly I say to you, the [one] believing in me, the works that I do, that [one] also will do, and greater than these will do, because I go to the father. 13 And whatever you ask7 in my name, this will I do, in order that the father be glorified in the son. 14 If you ask7 anything [of] me8 in my name, I will do [it].
Teaching on the Holy Spirit
15 If you agape-love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask9 the father and he will give you another advocate10 , in order that he be with you to eternity— 17 the spirit of truth, whom the world is not able to receive, because it does not behold him nor know [him]. You know him, because he dwells with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphans11, I come to you. 19 Yet [a] little [while] and the world no longer beholds me, but you behold me, because I zoe-live4 and you will zoe-live4. 20 In that day you will know that I [am] in my father and you in me and I in you. 21 The [one] having my commandments and keeping them, that is the [one] agape-loving me; and the [one] agape-loving me will be agape-loved by my father, and I will agape-love him and reveal myself to him.22 Judas says to him: not the Iscariot, Lord, and what has happened that you are [about] to reveal yourself to us and not to the world? 23 Jesus answered and said to him: If anyone agape-loves me, he will keep my word, and my father will agape-love him, and we will come to him, and we will make our dwelling-place3 with him. 24 The [one] not agape-loving me does not keep to my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but of the father having sent me.
25 These [things] have I spoken while dwelling with you. 26 But the advocate10, the Holy Spirit, which the father will send in my name, that [one] will teach you everything and will remind you of everything which I spoke to you.
27 Peace I leave you, my peace I give you, not just as the world gives do I give to you. Let12 your1 heart not be being troubled, neither let12 it be being cowardly. 28 You heard what I said to you: I go, and come [back] to you. If you were agape-loving me, you would have rejoiced that I go to the father, because the father is greater than I. 29 And now have I told you before it comes to pass, in order that when it comes to pass, you believe. 30 No longer will I speak many [things] with you, for the ruler of the world comes and he has nothing in me, 31 but in order that the world know that I agape-love the father, and just as the father commanded me, thus I do. Be arising, let us be going from here.
1plural
2Literally "house": In the Hebrew scriptures and Judaic practice, "house" never means a building per se but always refers to the people who live within the care and authority of the father: the wife, sons, daughters, slaves, in-laws, grandchildren: "So Joseph said to his brothers and to his father’s house, ‘I will go and tell Pharaoh and say to him, My brothers and my father’s house have come to me’ (Gen 46:31). (See also Gen 24:38; 28:21; Josh 2:13; Judg 6:15; 9:18; 16:31; 1Sam 22:15; 2Sam 14:9; 1Chron 28:4) This would suggest that the emphasis is on having a permanent place in the Household of the Father, being a member of that Great Family.
On the other hand, Jesus uses the phrase "my father's house" in John.2:16 to refer to the Temple, which John goes on to reinterpret as Jesus' body.
The only other place where the phrase occurs is Luke.16:27, where the rich man asks Abraham to send Lazarus "to my father's house" to warn his brothers.
3MONE "mah-NAY" (μoνη) dwelling place, room, abode, residence. Only used in John.14:2 and John.14:23. The verb form, MENO (μενω) "dwell" is quite common. Compare John.8:35 where "dwell" there is the verb form of "dwelling-place" here.
4from ZOE "ZOH-ay" (ζωη)—Life 'collectively', interdependent, interconnected. Although it means 'life' in the conventional sense (for example: Matt.9:18, Matt.27:63, Luke.2:36, Acts.25:24, Rom.7:2, 2Cor.1:8, 1Thes.4:17, 1Tim.5:10, Rev.19:20), Jesus uses ZOE exclusively of 'life eternal' (with the possible exceptions of Luke.15:13, Luke.16:25). The other N.T. writers use ZOE in both senses—temporal and eternal, generally clear from the context. The Father is the 'zoe-living God' (see Matt.16:16). The Septuagint (LXX) in Gen.2:7 has "...[God] breathed into his nostrils the breath of zoe-life, and the man became a zoe-living psyche-life" (and see 1Cor.15:45); and Gen.3:20 (LXX) "And Adam called his wife's name ZOE, because she was the mother of all zoe-living." Contrast PSYCHE (ψυχη): an individual manifestation of life/consciousness. See John.12:25 where both ZOE and PSYCHE occur. Greek also has the word BIOS (βιoς ) for 'life' in the sense of biological processes.
5 "If you had known me, you would have known my father.": ABCD; text: p66ℵDW
6"you" is singular in vs.7–8, but changes to plural here.
7AITEO "ay-TEH-oh" (αιτεω) "request", "demand", "beg" something for oneself. Far from humbly requesting—it's more like 'demanding'. Jesus uses AITEO only of the prayer of others, not of His own (cf. John.16:26)—and not requesting things for Himself, only for others. AITEO seems to suppose a lesser degree of intimacy than EROTAO (ερωταω), hence AITEO is used of the requests of the disciples to God, but EROTAO of the requests of the disciples to Jesus, and of those of Jesus to the Father ( John.14:16). AITEO is demanding/begging/pleading, EROTAO is polite and friendlier. Both AITEO and EROTAO occur in John.16:26.
8 "of me" is omitted by ADK vg
9EROTAO (ερωταω) "Ask", but more polite, not demanding/begging as is AITEO. Both AITEO and EROTAO occur in John.16:26.
10PARACLETOS (παρακλητoς ) One who intercedes. Used in John.14:16, John.14:26, John.15:26, John.16:7, 1John.2:1
11could be understood as an idiom for "leave you helpless"
12imperative