i. THE ETYMOLOGY AND USE OF THE WorRD. —The verb παρακαλεῖν is frequently used both in LXX and in NT (though not found in St. John’s writings) with the meaning to comfort or console, a meaning which is rare in classical Greek. Thus Gn 3155 ‘ And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him ; but he refused to be com- forted’ (ἦλθον παρακαλέσαι αὐτόν" καὶ οὐκ ἤθελεν παρα-
καλεῖσθαι); Mt δ' ‘ Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted’ (μακάριοι οἱ πενθοῦντετ" ὅτι αὐτοὶ παρακληθήσονται). Moreover, the abstract
subst. παράκλησις, formed from παρακαλεῖν, often means comfort or consolation, as 2Co 1** * Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort ; who comforteth us in all our aflliction, that we
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may be able to comfort them that are in any affliction, through the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God’ (θεὸς πάσης παρα- κλήσεως, ὁ παρακαλῶν ἡμᾶς ἐπὶ racy τῇ θλίψει ἡμῶν, εἰς τὸ δύνασθαι ἡμᾶς παρακαλεῖν τοὺς ἐν πάσῃ θλίψει, διὰ τῆς παρακλήσεως ἧς παρακαλούμεθα αὐτοὶ ὑπὸ τοῦ ϑεοῦ. But the oldest meaning of παρακαλεῖν is not to ‘comfort,’ but to ‘send for,’ ‘summon to one’s aid’ (=Lat. advocare). Thus in Xenoph. Anab, i. 6. 5, παρακαλεῖν τινα σύμβουλον, ‘to call one in as adviser’;* and this meaning is found in NT, Ac 28” διά ταύτην οὖν τὴν αἰτίαν παρεκάλεσα ὑμᾶς ἰδεῖν καὶ προσλαλῆσαι, ‘For this purpose, then, have I called for you, to see and to speak with you.’ The question, then, is whether παράκλητος, which is undoubtedly passive in form, signifies ‘one called in’ (for aid of some kind), or has assumed an active meaning (after παρακαλεῖν, to console), ‘one who comforts or consoles,” The question must be determined by an examination of the use of the word elsewhere and of its con- text in NT.
1. The Classical Use.—In classical Greek παρά- κλητος is a judicial word. It is the equivalent in use as well as etymology of the Lat. advocatus. Both are wider in meaning than our ‘advocate,’ and approach nearer our ‘counsel.’ Asconius (ad Cic. in Q. Cecil.) says, Qui defendit alterum in judicio, aut patronus dicitur, si orator est; aut advocatus, si aut jus suggerit, aut presentiam suam commodat amico. Our ‘advocate’ is the Rom. patronus (qui orator est), the Gr. παράκλητος is the Rom. advocatus. Thus Demosth. de Falsa Leg. p. 341, 10, al τῶν παρακλήτων δεήσεις καὶ σπουδαὶ, ‘the petitions and Pere of the partisans.’ The occurrence of the word is rare, but, where it
occurs, this, or something very near this, is its meaning.t 2. The Evidence of the LXX.—The word παρά-
xAnros is not found in the LXX. The adj. παρα- kAnrixés occurs in Zec 14 ‘ And the LORD answered the angel that talked with me with good words, even comfortable words’ (λόγους παρακλητικούς). Once also there occurs the subst. παρακλήτωρ, Job 16? ‘Miserable comforters are ye all’ (παρα- κλήτορες κακῶν wdvres). The use of this word, which has a proper active form and meaning, is on the whole to be regarded as evidence against the sense of ‘comforter’ for παράκλητος. The one being already in existence, taken directly from παρακαλεῖν in the sense of ‘console,’ it is improb- able that the other would have come (against its
assive form) to be used for the same meaning. t is true that Aq. and Theod. use παράκλητος in this passage ; but they may have felt the influence of the word as used in St. John’s Gospel, which at the time they wrote (c. 120-150 A.D.) was prob- ably interpreted ‘Comforter.’ Symm. uses παρηγο- ροῦντες.
3. The Use of the Word by Philo. — Philo employs παράκλητος several times in the sense of ‘intercessor’ or ‘advocate’ (in its classical mean- ing). In de Joseph. c. 40, Joseph, after discovering himself to his brethren, is made to say, ἀμνηστίαν ἁπάντων παρέχω τῶν els ἐμὲ πεπραγμένων" μηδενὸς ἑτέρου δεῖσθε παρακλήτου, ‘I grant forgiveness for all that you have done against me; you need no one else as intercessor.” And in Vit. Mos. iii. 14, the reason why the high priest on enterin the Holy of Holies should wear the symbo of the gos, is given in the words, ἀναγκαῖον yap ἣν τὸν ἱερωμένον τῷ τοῦ κόσμου πατρὶ παρακλήτῳ χρῆσθαι τελειοτάτῳ τὴν ἀρετὴν υἱῷ πρὸς τε ἀμνηστείαν ἁμαρτημάτων καὶ χορηγίαν ἀφθονωτάτων ἀγαθῶν, ‘It
* Of sch. 6. Ctesiph. § 200, τ΄ δῶ σε Δημοσθίνην ταρακαλιῖν; t Of. Diog. Laert. Vita Bionts, iv. 50, τὸ ἱκανόν eos ποιήσω, ἰὰν ren karert (‘a deputation’ is Field’s trans.) σίμψης, καὶ μὴ
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was indispensable that he who was consecrated to the Father of the world should employ as his Advocate the Son, most perfect in virtue, for both the forgiveness of sins and the supply of unlimited blessings.’ It has been claimed that Philo uses παράκλητος once in the direct active sense of παρακαλεῖν, to comfort, viz. in de Opif. Mund. c. 6; but there also the meaning is passive and general, ‘one called to help’—ovdevt δὲ wapa- κλήτῳ. τίς yap ἣν ἕτερος, μόνῳ δὲ ἑαυτῷ χρησάμενος ὁ θεὸς ἔγνω δεῖν εὐεργετεῖν... τὴν . . . φύσιν, ‘employing no helper (for who else was there ἢ) but τὴς Hine did God think good to bless the world.’
4. In the zone and Talmud.—The Gr. word appears in the Targ. and Talm. in the form δ 05 or ΚΡ 15, and always in the sense of helper, inter- cessor, or advocate, t.e. always as a passive. Thus the Targ. at Job 16” ‘ My péraklits are my friends’ (AV and RV ‘ My friends scorn me’); and at 33% the péraklit is placed in antithesis to ‘9p, Gr. κατήγορος (in Rev 12” κατήγωρ), ‘accuser.’ At Job 16%, however, where the Lxx has παρακλήτωρ and the meaning is ‘comforter,’ the Targ. does not use péraklit. The passages from the Talm. have been collected by Buxtorf, s.v. Perhaps the most pertinent example is found in Pirke Aboth, iv. 15 (see Taylor, Sayings of the Jewish Fathers?, p. 69): ‘Rabbi Li‘ezer ben Jacob said, He who performs one precept has gotten to himself one advocate (915); and he who commits one trans- gression has gotten to himself one accuser (“25 })}.᾿