p^^^^5e.^r«^'^^^-«^«"^ etc. 292ff. ; Schurer, GJV^ ... 31,. ^^^ ^^^_^^^ ^^^^^^
FATHER'S HOUSE {oUia toO ivarpis MO.').— The name appfied by Jesus in Jn 14= to the eterna^ home, w-1 ither He goes to prepare a place for His isdples. To their fear lest they might nevei re on Him after the impending ^fPa^ation He •wiswers t)i it in His Father s house there are many ' |„„!,.s I aovaD-yi lilai'C, therefore, for eveiyone who l,i.li..ve~ in Him. See .art. MANSION.
„ . ..-.. t,.w>o pKpwhere in the Gospels, with
reiSe.^'^li^'^n.^c, a;dV^o;:irSes bears a?emphat.c
FATHER'S HOUSE
VEAU
583
meaning : (a; in i^K •^*^ tne words t* rea tow Txrpot f^ov, although capable of the translation 'about my Father's busi- ness ' (as in AV), are more properly rendered ' in my Father's house * (RV). This rendering is supported by the context. See Business. Tlie first recorded utterance of Jesus has an all-
of manhood, awakened in Him the sense of a peculiarly close relation to God, whom He recognized henceforth as His Father. (6) In Jn 2'6 the words which appear in the Synoptic nan-ative as a quotation from the OT (' It is written. My house shall be called,' etc.) are given as a direct saying of Jesus, 'Make not my Father's house a house of merchandise.' The Speaker thus declares by what authority He cleanses the Temple. As Son of God He has the right of ordering His Father's house and casting out the intruders who have dishonoured it.
The ' Father's house ' of John 14= has been ex- plained (on the analogy of the above passages) as the heavenly Temple, of which the Temple at Jerusalem was the earthly type (ef. Is 6', He 9). Apart, however, from the particular difficulty that a temple could hardly be described as a place of ji.ovts.1, the whole tone of the passage demands a simpler explanation. Jesus thmks of the 'house' as a home, to which He is Himself returning, and in which He will be reunited at last with His disciples. The expression ' Father's house ' has already been used implicitly with this larger mean- ing in Jn %^ 'The servant abideth not in the house for ever, but the Son abideth for ever.'
Theolo^cally, the passage Jn 14='- marks a de- parture from the prevailing type of Johannine thought. It withdraws into the future that com- munion with Christ and participation in His eternal life which are elsewhere regarded as present realities. It further identities the irapovaia with the coming of Christ to the believer in the hour of death (v.^), not (as in the sequel of the discourse) with His abiding spiritual prcseiin'. The divergence, however, does not nrci^sanly involve a contradiction. While maint.-unini; tli.it Life is given in the present, St. John Imiks to a future in which it will become fully manifest (cf 5=8- =9 6^ etc.). For the believer, as for Christ Himself, death is the transition to a larger 'glory.'
The allusion to the ' Father's bouse ' is ob\'iously figurative, and we cannot even infir truni it that St. John conceives of the future «iii M iiinlrr forms of space. Such a conception sirm,, iii,lr..(l, to be debarred by the great declaratiuii {i'-'j of the spiritual nature of God. The essential thought in the saying is simply that the believer will enter after deatli into that perfect communion with God which is impossible under the conditions of this world. In more than one Synoptic passage this communion is described by Jesus under the imagery of a feast (Mt 26-» 8",'Lk 14'™). This image is replaced in the Fourth Gospel by the less vivid but more adequate one of a perpetual sojourn with the Father in His house. But in both cases the image is only the vehicle, necessarily imperfect, of the spiritual idea, that the crowning blessedness of the believer will consist in nearness to God and perfect fellowship with Him.
This main idea is combined, in the Johannine passage, with several others which serve to render it more complete an<l definite : (1) The communion with God is mediated by Christ, who is Himself the Son, and therefore has the right to bring His cho.sen friends into His I'.-uhn s house (cf. 8^^- *= 17='). (2)It«-ill 1,,.;, l;,-,|iiiu roniMHinion, not fitful andinterruptL-.l like (Imt \\liirli i- -laiited to us in the present. Thosr wlio wpi-.^ formerly servants ivill ' abide in the house for ever,' like the Son Himself. They will not be strangers, tarrying for an hour, but will have /loval appointed to them — fixed places which they can call their own. (3) The emphasis on the ' many mansions ' would seem to suggest that the perfect communion with God does not involve a mere absorption in Him. Each life will maintain its own identity and receive its
separate fulfilment. Jesus will be the .same in the higher world as He was in this, and the disciples likewise will find themselves again, and resume their fellowshi]) with each other and with Him. A certain resemblance can thus be traced between the thought of this passage and that of St. Paul in 2 Co S'"''. The Apostle anticipates for each believer ' a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens,' which will take the place of the 'earthly house of this tabernacle.' The saying in the Gospel declares that there will be room for all these separate mansions within the one ' Father's house.' Literature. — The various commentaries on St. John's Gos- pel, ill loco, e.g. Holtzmann, Loisy, Weiss, Buggc, Calmes, Godet ; Schrenck, JXe johann. Aiischauung vom Leben (1898), p. 167 f. ; Grill, Entstehung des vierteu Evangeliumn (1902), p. 360, etc. ; Titius, Dk johann. Anschauung der SeUgkeit (1900), eh. vi. ; Ker, Sermons, ii. 247 ; Madaren, Hoi;/ of Holies, 12.