Paraclete ( grc, παράκλητος, la, paracletus) means 'advocate' or 'helper'. In

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

, the term ''paraclete'' most commonly refers to the

Holy Spirit In Judaism, the Holy Spirit is the divine force, quality, and influence of God over the Universe or over his creatures. In Nicene Christianity, the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost is the third person of the Trinity. In Islam, the Holy Spirit acts as ...

Etymology

''Paraclete'' comes from the

Koine Greek Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...

word (). A combination of ('beside/alongside') and ('to call'), the word first appears in the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

in John 14:16.Kieffer, René, "John," in John Barton and John Muddiman, eds., ''The Oxford Bible Commentary''. Oxford University Press, 2007, 987. René Kieffer further explains the development of the meaning of this term:

Latin etymological precedent

Lochlan Shelfer suggests that the Greek term is a translation of the preceding Latin term :

In Classical Greek

The term is not common in non-Jewish texts. The best known use is by

Demosthenes Demosthenes (; el, Δημοσθένης, translit=Dēmosthénēs; ; 384 – 12 October 322 BC) was a Greek statesman and orator in ancient Athens. His orations constitute a significant expression of contemporary Athenian intellectual prow ...

: ''

A Greek–English Lexicon ''A Greek–English Lexicon'', often referred to as ''Liddell & Scott'' () or ''Liddell–Scott–Jones'' (''LSJ''), is a standard lexicographical work of the Ancient Greek language originally edited by Henry George Liddell Henry George L ...

'', apart from Demosthenes (above) cites also the example of a slave summoned as a help.

In Judaism

Philo Philo of Alexandria (; grc, Φίλων, Phílōn; he, יְדִידְיָה, Yəḏīḏyāh (Jedediah); ), also called Philo Judaeus, was a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria, in the Roman province of Egypt. Philo's deplo ...

speaks several times of "paraclete" advocates primarily in the sense of human intercessors. The word later went from

Hellenistic Jewish Hellenistic Judaism was a form of Judaism in classical antiquity that combined Jewish religious tradition with elements of Greek culture. Until the early Muslim conquests of the eastern Mediterranean, the main centers of Hellenistic Judaism were ...

writing into

rabbinic literature Rabbinic literature, in its broadest sense, is the entire spectrum of rabbinic writings throughout Jewish history. However, the term often refers specifically to literature from the Talmudic era, as opposed to medieval and modern rabbinic writ ...

. Other words are used to translate the

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

word 'comforter' and .

In Christianity

In the Christian New Testament, ''paraclete'' appears only in the Johannine texts, and it is used only on five occasions:

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

14:16, 14:26, 15:26, 16:7, and

1 John The First Epistle of John is the first of the Johannine epistles of the New Testament, and the fourth of the catholic epistles. There is no scholarly consensus as to the authorship of the Johannine works. The author of the First Epistle is te ...

2:1. In John 14:16-17, 'paraclete' is and 'spirit' is (), meaning 'breath'. appears over 250 times in the Christian New Testament, and is the word used to refer to the Holy Spirit. As a result of the immediate explanation in John 14:17, the paraclete in John 14:16 is considered to be the Holy Sprit. The ''

New Testament Studies ''New Testament Studies'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Cambridge University Press under the auspices of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas. The scope of the journal are short studies and articles on issues pertaining to th ...

'', a

peer-reviewed Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...

academic journal An academic journal or scholarly journal is a periodical publication in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as permanent and transparent forums for the presentation, scrutiny, and d ...

published by

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

, describes a "striking similarity" between the defined attributes of what the Paraclete is, and is to do, and what the outcome of Christian prophecy has spoken to, explaining the paraclete as the post-

Passover Passover, also called Pesach (; ), is a major Jewish holidays, Jewish holiday that celebrates the The Exodus, Biblical story of the Israelites escape from slavery in Ancient Egypt, Egypt, which occurs on the 15th day of the Hebrew calendar, He ...

gift of the

. "The Paraclete represents the Spirit as manifested in a particular way, as a pneumatic Christian speech charisma. Every verb describing the ministry of the Paraclete is directly related to his speech function." The

early church Early Christianity (up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325) spread from the Levant, across the Roman Empire, and beyond. Originally, this progression was closely connected to already established Jewish centers in the Holy Land and the Jewish ...

identified the paraclete as the Holy Spirit. In first-century Jewish and Christian understanding, the presence of the Holy Spirit is to claim the rebirth of prophecy. During his period as a hermit in the mid-12th century,

Peter Abelard Peter Abelard (; french: link=no, Pierre Abélard; la, Petrus Abaelardus or ''Abailardus''; 21 April 1142) was a medieval French scholastic philosopher, leading logician, theologian, poet, composer and musician. This source has a detailed desc ...

dedicated his chapel to the paraclete because "I had come there as a fugitive and, in the depths of my despair, was granted some comfort by the grace of God." Today, the Holy Spirit continues to be referred to as the paraclete in a prayer known as the

Divine Praises The Divine Praises or Laudes Divinae informally known as Blessed be God is an 18th-century Roman Catholic expiatory prayer. It is traditionally recited during Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. It may also be said after having heard, seen or in ...

, recited during

Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, also called Benediction with the Blessed Sacrament or the Rite of Eucharistic Exposition and Benediction, is a devotional ceremony, celebrated especially in the Roman Catholic Church, but also in some other Ch ...

Scholarly interpretations

John 14:16 quotes Jesus as saying "another Paraclete" will come to help his disciples, implying, according to Lawrence Lutkemeyer, that Jesus is the first and primary Paraclete. In 1 John 2:1, Jesus himself is called "paraclete". Raymond Brown (1970), supported by George Johnston (2005), also says that the "another Paraclete" of John 14:16 is in many ways another Jesus, the presence of Jesus after Jesus ascends to his Father. The

Gospel of Matthew The Gospel of Matthew), or simply Matthew. It is most commonly abbreviated as "Matt." is the first book of the New Testament of the Bible and one of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells how Israel's Messiah, Jesus, comes to his people and for ...

twice uses the passive form of the corresponding verb , in 2:18 and 5:4. In both instances, the context is of mourning, and the meaning of the verb is 'to be comforted'.

Paraclete first appearing in gospel

Here is the context of the passage in John 14:15-27 with the translation of ''Paraclete'' as ''Advocate'' emphasised:

In Islam

Many Muslim writers have argued that "another Paraclete" (John 14:16)—the first being

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

—refers to

Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...

. This claim is based on Quran 61:6. A few Muslim commentators, such as

David Benjamin Keldani David Benjamin, Chaldean or Dawud Benyamin Keldani (1867 – ''c''.1940) was a Chaldean Catholic priest who converted to Islam and adopted the name Abd ul-Aḥad Dāwūd ( ar, عبد الأحد داود). He is famous for his book Muhammad in Bible. ...

(1928), have argued the theory that the original

used was , meaning 'famed, illustrious, or praiseworthy', rendered in Arabic as ( another name of Muhammad), and that this was substituted by Christians with .Donzel, E. Van and B. Lewis, Ch. Pellat. "Isa" in
Encyclopedia of Islam Volume 4
', 1997, 83. There are currently no known Greek manuscripts with this reading (all extant Greek manuscripts read ), although the earliest manuscript evidence available is from the 3rd century. Regarding what the original Greek term was, according to A. Guthrie and E. F. F. Bishop: Sean Anthony agrees that the connection of Ahmad to the Paraclete in the Gospel of John may have been a later tradition that is not found in the work of

Ibn Ishaq Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq ibn Yasār ibn Khiyār (; according to some sources, ibn Khabbār, or Kūmān, or Kūtān, ar, محمد بن إسحاق بن يسار بن خيار, or simply ibn Isḥaq, , meaning "the son of Isaac"; died 767) was an 8 ...

and that the earliest extant attempts by Muslims to connect these two figures that inspire later discussion on the subject goes back to

Ibn Hisham Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Hishām ibn Ayyūb al-Ḥimyarī al-Muʿāfirī al-Baṣrī ( ar, أبو محمد عبدالملك بن هشام ابن أيوب الحميري المعافري البصري; died 7 May 833), or Ibn Hisham, e ...

and

Ibn Qutaybah Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muslim ibn Qutayba al-Dīnawarī al-Marwazī better known simply as Ibn Qutaybah ( ar-at, ابن قتيبة, Ibn Qutaybah; c. 828 – 13 November 889 CE / 213 – 15 Rajab 276 AH) was an Islamic scholar of Persian ...

. A later interpolation of this passage to the

Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Classical Arabic, Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation in Islam, revelation from God in Islam, ...

has been rejected in modern Islamic studies. This has been supported by the fact that the earliest as well as the later manuscripts of the Quran contain the same passage and wording in Surah 61.

A letter from antiquity

Łewond Łewond (Armenian Ղեւոնդ) or Leontius was a late 8th-century Armenian priest and historian. Very little is known about his life, except that he was an eyewitness to the events he describes after 774. His historical work was commissioned by Sa ...

's version of the correspondence between the Byzantine emperor

Leo III the Isaurian Leo III the Isaurian ( gr, Λέων ὁ Ἴσαυρος, Leōn ho Isauros; la, Leo Isaurus; 685 – 18 June 741), also known as the Syrian, was Byzantine Emperor from 717 until his death in 741 and founder of the Isaurian dynasty. He put an en ...

and the Umayyad caliph

Umar II Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz ( ar, عمر بن عبد العزيز, ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz; 2 November 680 – ), commonly known as Umar II (), was the eighth Umayyad caliph. He made various significant contributions and reforms to the society, and ...

, the following is attributed to Leo:

References

Notes

External links

{{Wiktionary
Catholic Encyclopedia: Paraclete

Jewish Encyclopedia: Paraclete
Christian terminology Christianity and Islam Names of God in Christianity New Testament Greek words and phrases New Testament theology Pneumatology Sayings of Jesus