John Bengel Commentary - John 14:16 - 14:16

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John Bengel Commentary - John 14:16 - 14:16


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Joh 14:16. Καὶ ἐγώ, and I) The twenty-first verse gives the connection of this verse with the preceding verses.-ἄλλον, another) Therefore Jesus Christ is also an advocate [Comforter, Engl. Vers.] Let Zec 9:12 be considered, as to whether it is a parallel in point: for in this very passage He saith, ἐρωτήσω, I will pray.[349] One Paraclete is Himself distinct from the other; and the office too of the one differs from that of the other. Therefore Ἡ ΠΑΡΆΚΛΗΣΙς, the advocacy of the Holy Spirit, was intended to have something peculiar in it. Comp. ch. Joh 16:7-8, “It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you. And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.”-Παράκλητον [‘Comforter’], Advocate, Paraclete) This word is not found in the LXX., and John alone of the writers of the New Testament has it. Παρακαλεῖν is the Latin advocare, to call in to one’s help a patron: thence comes the term Παράκλητος, one called in to render aid; one’s defender, patron (counsellor); one who speaks in a person’s behalf, and suggests to him what he ought to say. See Joh 14:26, “The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost-shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” Comp. Joh 14:13 as to what we ought to say to God: “Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son;” ch. Joh 16:8, as to what ought to be said to the world, “When He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.” The appellations, Paraclete, and, the Spirit of truth, occur conjoined also in ch. Joh 15:26. The former corresponds to the economy of Christ, comp. 1Jn 2:1, “If any man sin, we have a Paraclete, or Advocate, with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous;” the latter, to the economy of the Father, comp. ch. Joh 4:23, “The true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship Him.” [The largest promises in this passage succeed one after another: as to the Holy Spirit, from Joh 14:15-17; as to the Lord Jesus Himself, from Joh 14:18-21; as to the Father, from Joh 14:22-24; and again as to the Holy Spirit, ch. Joh 16:12-15; as to the Lord Jesus, Joh 14:16-23; as to the Father, Joh 14:23-28.-V. g.]-μένῃ, that he may abide) So Joh 14:23, “If a man love Me,” etc., “we will come unto him and make our abode (μονὴν, lasting stay) with him.”-εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα, for ever) Not merely for one or two years.

[349] The quotation from Zechariah, though given as it is found both in Modern Editions of Bengel’s Gnomon and in that of 1759, seems to me a misprint for Joh 10:12, “I will strengthen (κατισχύσω) them in the Lord: and they shall walk up and down in His name, saith the Lord;” where the distinctness of the Paraclete-advocacy of the Son from that of the Holy Ghost may be implied.-E. and T.