Till' .lohannino conception of the Spirit conies out most fully in (lis. 14-16. The Spirit may be said to lie the main subject in the discourses in which Jesus preiiares the discijiles for His de- parture. All the difficulties connected with the
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HOLY SPIRIT
HOLY SPIRIT
words of Jesus in the Fourtli Gosjiel liavL- to be allowed for here ; to draw the line between wluit was literally said by Jesus at the moment and what is due to the eommentaiy of experience inter- preting His remembered words, might have seemed to the Evangelist liimself not only unreal but un- spiritual. The follow ing points may be noted.
(1) The first hint of the future suggests the sur- passing greatness of the experiences which the Spirit was to bring. ' He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also ; and greater works than these shall he do ; because I go to the Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, tliat will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son ' (14'-'-). The Spirit is not yet named, but we can see that it is in the writer's mind. The overwhelming experiences of the Apos- tolic age, the great movement then inaugurated, the new sense of the power of prayer as it takes hold of the name of Jesus, cast beforehand the shadow of their coming in these amazing words. This is a promise of the Spirit, though the name is not mentioned ; and indeed nothing short of their ful- filment in the Apostolic age could have enabled tlie writer to recall such words, or to believe them, or to have any idea of what they might mean.
(2) Immediately after, the language becomes more precise, and the Spirit is expressly men- tioned 14'''''- 'If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I ^^■ill ask the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may be with you for ever ; even the Spirit of truth ; which the world cannot receive, because it does not see or know it (ain-d). You know it ; for it dwells with you, and shall he in you. I wUl not leave you desolate : I come unto you.' "What strikes us first here is the new name given to the S])irit, dWof TapaK\-qTov. It is indeed only the name which is new : in idea it answers closely to the only promise of the Spirit which we find in the Synoptic Gospels. These older writers (apart from Lk 11", which is no real exception) only speak of the Spirit as a future pcssession of the disciples in Mk 13", Lk 12'-, Mt 10". The situation contemplated is that in which the disciples are brought before judges and'kings to bear testimony to their Master. That is the hour in which they need an advocatus, a counsel, a TrapdicXTjTos ; and Jesus promises that they will have one in the Spirit. Tlie expression
' another advocate ' implies that the disc Himself. As long as He
have
already had experience of one, namely, of Jesus
■ ■ ng
strength was reinforced from Hlni ; and when He goes, then, in response to His intercession, His place is taken by the Spirit. There is another power with them now wiiich does for them what Jesus did before. Yet is it really another ? In 1 Jn 2' it is Jesus who is the irapd«.\7rros, even after Pentecost ; and even here ( Jn U'*) He says, ' / come xmto you.' The presence of the Spirit is Jesus' own presence in spirit ; we are reminded anain of 2 Co 3" and of Mt 28«'. In the spirit Jesus will be with His OAvn for ever, will dwell by tliem and be in them. What is meant at this point by. calling the Spirit the Spirit of truth (Jn 14") is not quite clear, but some contrast is implied between it and the world (cf. 1 Co 2'2). The world, as Plato miglit have said, is tlie great sophist ; it is a realm of deceits and illusions, by which the mind of the disciple, were he left to himself, might easily be put at fault ; but in the Spirit tlic dis(i|.le lias a safeguard against its subtleties and Mi|,lii-i icntions ; he is kept in the truth wliich s:ni(tilic- ln'ausoit is one with Got!, truth as truth is in .Tcsus (17'", E]ih 4-'). There is no definition here of the rela- tion of the Spirit to Jesus or to the Fatlier, though it might be said that the Spirit is the altir rgo of Jesus. Only, it is the Son who asks the Fatlier