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Joh_16:8.[171] The threefold ministry of the Paraclete towards the unbelieving Jews and Gentiles. Thus will He be your counsel against the κόσμος !
ἐλέγξει ] convict, namely, through His testimony of me, Joh_15:26. This ἔλεγξις , of which the apostles were to be the bearers in their office, is the activity which convinces the person concerned (arguendi ratio exprobans), which reveals to him his unrighteousness, and puts him to shame (Joh_3:20, Joh_8:9; Joh_8:46; 1Co_14:24; Tit_1:9; Mat_18:15; Luk_3:19, et al.), and the consequence of which may be in the different subjects either conversion (1Co_14:24), or hardening and condemnation (Act_24:25; Rom_11:7 ff.). To apprehend it only of the latter side of the matter (Erasmus and many others, including De Wette, Brückner, and especially Wetzel, following the Fathers), is not justified by περὶ κρίσεως , since the κρίσις is intended, not of the κόσμος , but of the devil, and stands opposed to the Johannean view of the deliverance of the world through Christ; the unbelieving world (Joh_16:9) is to be convicted of the sin of unbelief; and this, to him who is not hardened, is the way to faith (comp. Joh_17:20-21), and therewith to separation from the world. Godet well designates the threefold ἔλεγξις as the moral victory of the Spirit through the preaching of the apostles. As the first prominent example, see the discourse of Peter, Acts 2, with its consequences.
περὶ ἁμαρτίας , κ . τ . λ .] The objective contents of the ἔλεγξις set forth separately in three parts (themata). See, respecting the individual points, on Joh_16:9-11.
[171] See Wetzel, üb. d. Elenchus des Parakl. Joh_16:8-13, in the Zeitschrift f. Luth. Theol. 1856, p. 624 ff.