The Counselor (16:7). See comments on 14:16.
I will send him (16:7). Old Testament prophetic literature is full of anticipation regarding the inauguration of the age of the kingdom of God by the pouring out of the Spirit.501
When he comes, he will convict (16:8). There are interesting parallels to this statement in Jewish documents. One first-century document says, “And the spirit of truth testifies to all things and brings all accusations. He who has sinned is consumed in his heart and cannot raise his head to face the judge [kategoreō]” (T. Jud. 20:5). First Enoch 1:9 (cited in Jude 15) deals with God’s final judgment of the godless, where God will prove them guilty of all their godless works. Elsewhere Enoch functions as accuser of all the godless (cf. Jub. 4:23; 10:3–4, 17; 1 En. 14:1). Another scribe (Michael?) has the task of writing down the transgressions of the seventy shepherds of the people and of reading aloud from this book at God’s judgment (1 En. 89:62–63, 70; 90:17). The same terminology occurs in the Qumran scrolls where the term “rebuke” is used in a somewhat similar sense (e.g., 1 QS 9:16–17). Greek moralists (such as Philo) use the expression “to convict” (elencheō) primarily of the conscience. Occasionally, Philo speaks of the Word as an elenchos (e.g., Worse 146).
In regard to righteousness (16:10). Isaiah had confessed that all the “righteous acts” of people in his day were “like filthy rags” (Isa. 64:6). The world’s (and Jewish) “righteousness” must thus be put in quotation marks; it is in fact the very opposite, unrighteousness (cf., e.g., Rom. 2:12–24). This is what is here said to be prosecuted by the Spirit of truth in his legal function of paraklētos.
Prince of this world (16:11). See comments on 12:31.
Spirit of truth (16:13). See comments on 14:17; 15:26.
Guide … into all truth (16:13). Such divine guidance was already the psalmist’s longing: “Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth” (Ps. 25:4–5; cf. 43:3; 86:11); “may your good Spirit lead me” (143:10). Isaiah recounts how God led his people Israel in the desert by his Holy Spirit (Isa. 63:14) and predicts God’s renewed guidance in the future (43:19). Wisdom literature applies guidance terminology to the figure of divine wisdom (Wisd. Sol. 9:11; 10:10, 17). The illuminating function of God’s Spirit (or Wisdom) is also prominent in Philo, who writes, “For the mind could not have made so straight an aim if there was not also the divine spirit guiding it to the truth itself” (Moses 2.265). For Philo, Moses was the “teacher of divine things,” who “has ever the divine spirit at his side, taking the lead in every journey of righteousness” (Giants 54–55). According to 1QS 4:2, “These are their [the spirits of light and darkness] paths in the world: to enlighten the heart of man, straighten out in front of him all the paths of justice and truth, establish in his heart respect for the precepts of God.”
He will tell you what is yet to come (16:13). This same verb (anangellō, “declare, announce”) occurs almost sixty times in Isaiah.502 According to Isaiah, declaring things to come is the exclusive domain of Yahweh (Isa. 48:14). A close parallel to the present passage is Isaiah 44:7, where Yahweh challenges anyone to declare the things to come (cf. 42:9; 46:10). Another striking parallel is found in 41:21–29, where the idols of the nations are exhorted to interpret the meaning of past events and to “declare to us the things to come, tell us what the future holds, so we may know that you are gods” (41:22–23). In 45:19, Yahweh is said to declare truth—an expression combining two of the attributes of the Paraclete predicated on him in the present passage.
You will see me (16:16). The vision of God, denied as a possibility by John (apart from mediation through Jesus; 1:18; 5:37; 6:46) in keeping with Old Testament teaching (Ex. 33:20), is the aspiration of Hellenistic piety, and indeed most of the world’s religions.
Weep and mourn (16:20). Both terms jointly refer to the loud wailing customary for mourning in the Near East. Similar terminology is already found in the Old Testament: “Do not weep for the dead king or mourn his loss” (Jer. 22:10).
Your grief will turn to joy (16:20). The Jewish feast of Purim celebrates “the time when the Jews got relief from their enemies, and … when their sorrow was turned into joy and their mourning into a day of celebration” (Est. 9:22). Old Testament Israel knew that it is God who is able to “turn their mourning into gladness” and to give them “comfort and joy instead of sorrow” (Jer. 31:13; cf. Isa. 61:2–3; 2 Esd. 2:27).
A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anquish because of her joy that a child is born into the world (16:21). Everyone who has ever experienced or witnessed the birth of a child can relate to this illustration. In the prophetic portions of the Old Testament, the image of a woman in labor is common503 and frequently applies to the coming of end-time salvation through the Messiah. The Day of the Lord is regularly portrayed as “a time of distress” (Dan. 12:1; Zeph. 1:14–15).
Intertestamental Judaism coined the phrase “the birth pains of the Messiah” to refer to the period of tribulation that precedes the final consummation.504 This terminology is also used in Jesus’ teaching on the end times, in which he speaks of “the beginning of birth pains” and times of “great distress” (Matt. 24:8, 21, 29 par.; cf. Rom. 2:9). The early church likewise saw present challenges in this larger perspective (Acts 14:22; 1 Cor. 7:26; 2 Cor. 4:17; Rev. 7:14).
You will rejoice (16:22). More literally, “your heart will rejoice.” The same phrase occurs in Isaiah 66:14 in the context of the Lord’s speaking words of comfort regarding Jerusalem (cf. 60:5). A general parallel is Psalm 33:21: “In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name.”
Figuratively … plainly (16:25). The term paroimia (translating Heb. mašal in the LXX) covers a wide range of parabolic and allegorical speech (e.g., Sir. 39:3; 47:17; see comments on John 10:6). However, the phrase en paroimiais does not necessarily mean “metaphorically” or “in a parable” but connotes the obscurity of Jesus’ way of expression.
I came from the Father … going back to the Father (16:28). The present passage constitutes a Christological parallel to Isaiah’s portrayal of the word of God in 55:11–12 (see comments on John 1:1).
You do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God (16:30). Apparently, the disciples think that the promise of 16:23a has been fulfilled. In Jewish thought, the ability to anticipate questions and not needing to be asked is a mark of divinity. Thus Jonathan is said to swear to David by the God “who, before I have expressed my thought in words, already knows what it is” (Josephus, Ant. 6.11.8 §230). Elsewhere Jesus himself affirms, “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matt. 6:8).
You will be scattered (16:32). The present phrase alludes to Zechariah 13:7, a passage quoted in Matthew 26:31 par. Other Old Testament passages likewise refer to the scattering of God’s flock.505
To his own home (16:32). The phrase also occurs in the LXX (Est. 5:10; 6:12), intertestamental literature (3 Macc. 6:27), and later in this Gospel (John 19:27). This probably refers to the disciples’ temporary dwellings in Jerusalem rather than to their homes in Galilee.
You may have peace (16:33). See comments on 14:27.
I have overcome (16:33). The verb occurs only once in the LXX with God as the Conqueror (Ps. 51:4; cited in Rom. 3:4). It is also found in apocryphal and pseudepigraphical literature.506