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 The historical setting of the Farewell Discourse is the preparation of Jesus’s followers for the time following his departure. References to the Spirit in chapters 14–16 are numerous, with Jesus envisioning the giving of the Spirit following his exaltation. Contrary to the disciples’ sentiments at the time, Jesus’s departure will benefit them in several ways. Most important, Jesus will petition the Father to send the paraklētos, “another helping presence” like Jesus.

The term paraklētos does not occur in the LXX and is found elsewhere in the NT only at 1 John 2:1, which describes Jesus as believers’ “advocate” with God the Father. Jesus’s reference to the Spirit as “another paraklētos” in 14:16 indicates that the Spirit’s presence with the disciples will replace Jesus’s encouraging and strengthening presence with them while on earth (cf. 14:17). When the Spirit comes to indwell believers, it will be as if Jesus himself is taking up residence in them. Thus Jesus can refer to the Spirit’s coming by saying, “I am coming to you” (14:18).

This relieves a primary concern for Jesus’s first followers in the original setting of the Farewell Discourse: Jesus’s departure will not leave them as orphans (cf. 14:18); just as God has been present with them through Jesus, he will continue to be with them through his Spirit. The Spirit thus ensures continuity between Jesus’s pre-and post-glorification ministry. What is more, the Spirit’s coming will constitute an advance in God’s work with and through the disciples (16:7; cf. 14:12). The changing relationship between believers and the Spirit pre-Pentecost and post-Pentecost is nothing less than programmatic, highlighting a fundamentally changed relationship of the Spirit with the people of God.

The initial reference to the Spirit as paraklētos in 14:17 is the first of five Paraclete sayings in the Farewell Discourse (14:26; 15:26; 16:7–11, 12–15), in each case referring to the Holy Spirit. As Jesus’s emissary, the Spirit will have a variety of functions in the lives of Jesus’s followers:

(1) He will bring to remembrance all that Jesus taught them (14:26).


(2) He, together with Jesus’s followers, will testify regarding Jesus (15:26).


(3) He will, presumably through Jesus’s followers, convict the world of sin, (lack of ) righteousness, and judgment (16:8–11).


(4) He will guide Jesus’s followers in all truth and disclose what is to come (16:13).


Clearly, these statements pertain initially to Jesus’s historical followers. In their case, the Spirit, as “another paraklētos,” will pick up seamlessly where Jesus left off during his early ministry with them: he will remind them of Jesus’s teaching and help them understand it; he will empower their post- Pentecost witness and the early Christian mission; he will vindicate Jesus historically by showing that the decision, arrived at by an unholy alliance between the Roman governor and the Jewish authorities, to crucify Jesus was unjust and that Jesus was innocent. He will disclose to Jesus’s followers what is to come, engendering the formation of the NT canon as apostolic testimony to Jesus.


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