Conservative Friends Bible Study of The Gospel of John #24

John 14:1–17

We walk line by line through John 14:1–17 and hear Jesus calling us to trust God with steady hearts. We focus on what the Greek says about trust, knowing by experience, prayer in Jesus’ name, and the Spirit as the one called alongside to help.

• John 14 as a promise of access to the Father through Christ 
• “Believe” as trust and confidence rather than mere assent 
• Many dwelling places and the meaning of preparing a place 
• “I Am The Way Truth Life” and how Greek articles shape translation 
• Ginosko versus oida and knowing as lived experience 
• Philip’s request to see the Father and Jesus’ reply 
• “Greater works” and asking in Jesus’ name as alignment not magic 
• Warning against misuse of sign texts and ego driven power 
• Paracletos as advocate helper comforter intercessor 
• Ekklesia as a people called out and church as a body 
• “I will not leave you orphans” as friendless and without aid 

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Transcript

Opening Advice On Christian Community

Host 0:01

Advice fourteen Live in love as Christian brethren, ready to be helpful to one another. Rejoice together in the blessings of life, sympathize with each other in its trials, know one another as fellow workers in the things that endure, watch over one another for good, praying that each may be a living member of the Church of Christ and may grow in the knowledge of the love of God. From O'Hara Yearly Meetings, Book of Discipline.

Setting Up John 14 Study

Henry Jason 0:33

This is the OYM Greek Bible study. This is session number 24, and we left off at the very beginning of chapter 14, verse 1, in the Gospel according to John. Basically, in this section, it's talking about Jesus as being the way to God the Father. Verse 1, chapter 14, do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going. Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on, you do know him and have seen him. In verse 1, it says in my translation here, the New Revised Standard Version, believe in God, believe also in me. In actuality, that verb form there happens to be somewhat confusing because it just happens in the Greek and this form, it can be the imperative, or it can just be a present tense. You are believing in me, you believe in God, you also believe in me. But I think it's perhaps most likely a command here. Believe in God, believe also in me. I've talked about this word pistello several times in the past. This verb that

Trust Versus Belief In Greek

Henry Jason 2:28

gets translated as believe trust means to trust, to have confidence in, put one's trust in.

SPEAKER_05 2:37

The uh King James and those that try to stay close to it use the word believe. But I'm happy to see that two more modern translations, uh one Weymouth, 1930, and the other New English Bible, use the word trust. Yeah. And then and then there is uh yet another, I had in front of me, it says have faith in. It's always been helpful for me to remember that you have pointed to the fact that this verb and this commensurate noun don't have to do with intellectual affirmation, like what creed do you follow, but rather who do you put your confidence in? So that really has helped me.

Henry Jason 3:16

You have to remember these words are ordinary Greek words, and even if there were no Christians around, they'd still be used by ancient Greeks, and they meant trust, confidence. I'm not certain, but that's something I should look into. And the word believe and the word belief, I'm wondering if the meaning has slightly changed since King James times. That's always possible. So many words have changed. They mean sometimes meaning sometimes slightly, sometimes a lot. Let's just put belief, faith. Faith comes from a Latin word fides, f-i-d-e-s, which means trust. Same thing. So you have confidence in God, or you put your trust in God, put your trust in me too, is what Jesus seems to be saying here. In my father's house, there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going. In some manuscripts that says, Where I am going, you know, in the way you know. That's a different verse depending on what Greek manuscript you're looking

Many Dwelling Places And The Way

Henry Jason 4:34

at. I'm not exactly sure myself what um Jesus is saying about preparing a place. Anyone have any thoughts on that themselves?

SPEAKER_03 4:45

Well, I think it has something to do with him being the captain of our salvation, the one who goes before he is leading the way. So, in leading the way, he prepares a place for his followers.

Henry Jason 5:00

Yeah, that's the pioneer. He's marking off the trail. That sounds good. Okay. Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?

I Am Way Truth Life

Henry Jason 5:15

Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life. This is such a critical verse here, in terms of Jesus, that divine spirit of Christ in Christ Jesus is speaking here, as it was understood by his followers who wrote this. I am the way to God the Father. I want to make a comment here about this article the, the word THE. In ancient Greek, before any abstract noun, you would use the definite article the THE, just like you do in French and Spanish and Italian. We used to do this in English in King James times. We don't anymore, unless we are emphasizing something. So in French you could say, this is the life, or in English you'd say, This is life. The better translation of this as I'm the way to God the Father. The way, because that is a concrete noun, a way to something, a path, ados is the word. It's that root that you see in Exodus, E-X-O-D-O-S. E-O-D-O-S is the way in that word. Exodus is out of the way out of something. I am the way, the way to God the Father. And then because it's now an abstract noun, truth, I am truth. You could say the truth, but I think for a modern English speaker, you get a clearer sense if you say, I am truth. I, this divine spirit, the Messiah, am truth, ultimate divine truth, total truth. And then finally, and the life. Again, life is an abstract noun. I am life, I am divine life, I am eternal life. So I would translate this into good modern English as I am the way, I am truth, and I am life, I am eternal life, the life of the ages. No one comes to the Father except through me. No one can come to God the Father except through this eternal, divine spirit that we call the Messiah, Spirit of Christ Jesus.

Knowing As Experience Ginosko

Henry Jason 7:30

If you know me, and let me just check. I don't remember what Greek verb is there for no. Yeah, so if you have, it's uh present perfect. If you have known me, if you have if you have experienced me, if you have an experience of me, you will know my father also. You will experience the father also, and from now on, you are experiencing him, are do know him, and have seen him. I don't know how more I can emphasize that passage as to our belief, our confidence is that Christ Jesus is the way to the Father.

SPEAKER_05 8:20

Henry, could you unpack that verb a little more about gnosko? The reason I ask it is that in English, when we talk about knowing, it's pretty much mental. But I think that in Hebrew, to know can imply an intimate, even sexual connection. And we have a little bit of that in the law, to know someone carnally means that they've had sex together. But I just wonder do you have that kind of depth of relationship in the Greek?

Henry Jason 8:51

Let's just talk about English for a moment. We have the English word no, right? K-N-O-W. In older English and in Scottish English, you have another verb that means no to can. And in older English, you had the verb what, W-O-T, and various forms of it, wit and others. We had three different words for knowing in older English of 300 years ago. Ken is still used in Scottish English, but now in modern English, this word K-N-O-W covers all the three different meanings that we had their separate meanings in earlier English. I'm just pointing this out because in other languages, and I know this occurs in Polish, they have at least three different verbs for knowing, depending on whether you know a fact, whether you know someone as a friend, and then more of an intellectual uh I'm pointing this out because different languages seem to break up this general semantic concept of knowing in different ways. They might be very particular with just one general word, or they might be very specific in using different words. And of course, they change over time. The two words that I just want to point out in the Greek now is the uh word ginosko, as it was written in first century Greek, Koine Greek, and this other verb, oida. These both get translated into English as no, and there are another couple of ones, epi gynosco, I think, and others, but these are the two very most common ones, and it's this word ginosko. In earlier Greek, there was another G in here. I'm just gonna put that in, gignosko. This is the one that has the sense of experience, to experience something, and even in terms of, I think this is how they translate the Hebrew, like Adam knew his wife, Eve, he experienced her sexually. Oida is a much broader word in terms of just knowing a fact or something. But it's important to know that this first verb, ginosko, is the one that it's important to realize that's the verb in the Greek because usually when it's used, it's got this sense of experiencing it rather than some kind of just mental kind of knowledge. And I said there are a couple of other forms here too, but it's this one word ginosko that is the uh one about knowing that we are really concerned about. So when you see the English word no in a translation, try to think of what no might that be in the original Greek. You don't have to know Greek, but I'm just saying if you see it, think is this the one that really has to do with a deeper sense of experiencing it, as well as just having some general knowledge of it. Any more comments or questions?

SPEAKER_05 11:52

I just want to give a tribute to what Ohio Yearly Meeting Friends offered through a weekend workshop that Ken Jacobson gave a couple of years ago, and the whole time was on this phrase, looking deeply at each of these elements of way, truth, and life. So, to the extent that friends there have opportunity to visit with Ken, he could remind any of us about the depth that is in each of those. It really stuck with me.

Henry Jason 12:21

Yeah, I just talked to him on the phone yesterday about something else. All right, shall we go on?

Philip Sees The Father In Jesus

Henry Jason 12:30

Verse 8. Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied. Jesus said to him, Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, Show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I say to you, I do not speak on my own, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me. But if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do, and in fact will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it. This is that verb about experience in verse 9. And you have not known me, Philip. You have not had an experiential sense of who I am. The one who has seen me has seen the father. How do you say, show us the father? Don't you have confidence? Don't you believe? Don't you trust that I am in the father? I am in the spirit of God the

Greater Works And Asking In My Name

Henry Jason 14:03

Father, and that God the Father is in me, that spirit of God the Father is in me. The words which I speak to you, I am not speaking from myself. They're not from my own self, they're not coming from my ego, but the Father in me, that spirit of the divine father, continuing in me, abiding in me, does his works, does his acts, his deeds, his works, is doing his works, his acts. Believe me, again, put your trust in me, trust me that I am in the father. I am in the spirit of God the Father, and the Father is in me. But if not, then put your trust or have trust because of the works themselves, because of the actions, the acts themselves that Jesus is doing. People follow that? It's a very interesting thing he's saying here. Amen, amen. I say to you, the one who has trust in me, the works that I am doing, that one, that person, that one also will do, and will do greater than these, because I am going to the father. You know, where there's a shorter ending and a couple of longer endings. And in one of them, I'm just looking for that passage if it's in this one here. Well, it's sort of indirect. This is in chapter 16 of Mark, the very last chapter, verse 17. And these signs will accompany those who believe. By using my name, they will cast out demons, they will speak in new tongues, they will pick up snakes in their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them. They will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover. There is something very powerful here about these true believers, absolutely full believers, having absolute confidence in Christ Jesus, that they will do some remarkable things. And I think this is the same reference we have here in John, verse 13. And whatever you might ask, in my name, it or this thing will be this will I this I will do this in order that the Father, God the Father, may be made manifest, may be made apparent, evident in me, in Jesus. And that's the word glorify. Again, glory doxa can refer to the shekina in the Hebrew, which is the manifest presence of God, some evidential presence of God that is apparent in some perhaps physical way. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. Again, in the name, the name, of course, refers to the basic essence, the basic nature of something, and the basic essence of God the Father is power in my power.

SPEAKER_03 17:40

I think it's important to realize that when one is in that power, one will not ask anything but what is in accord with the spirit of Christ. It's not like asking for something.

Henry Jason 18:00

I can think already of a baseball team or a football team and people praying for one side to uh win. I don't think that's the kind of prayer that's going to be answered. No. Yes. Of course, it it but if you're in that spirit, then you are in alignment with God. You are able to discern what God's will is and what can be asked for and what can't be asked for. And I'm assuming, of course, that's the apostles after the resurrection and Pentecost, they clearly had a much better understanding of the spirit, the spirit having descended on them and into them, those flames of light that descended on them. I mean, light being enlightened when they were enlightened spiritually and began to understand what Jesus was about throughout his life with them in a way they had not understood before. They were very thick-headed at times. And I think it's true about us too.

Misuse Of Signs And Testing Spirits

SPEAKER_05 18:59

I want to note at this point something that does trouble me how easily some of these verses have been misused, including the parallel reference in Mark, you know, the snake handling. Unless you can do that, you're not a real Christian. And then the kind of magical invocation is I'm glad you're helping us see beyond, you know, use the right words and shazam, hocus, pocus, whatever.

Henry Jason 19:28

Right, right. David, you're absolutely right. People take these things literally, but it's almost out of an egotistical will of their own that they want to be powerful, just like Adam and Eve who wanted to be like gods. It's the same old temptation that was there at the very beginning. We all want to be in control. I recognize that in myself. We feel God has given us individually the wisdom to know better than other people on various things. I think that can be true what I just said, but other times um no, we have to be able to discern what's what in our own psyches. I'm trying to remember where Paul says, test the spirits, check them out. Not every spirit is from God. Not that it might be an evil spirit, but it just needs to be checked out first. And I think friends said that as well. Might have been Fox. Okay.

Paracletos And What Church Means

Henry Jason 20:27

Verse 15: If you love me, you will keep my commandments, and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to be with you forever. This is the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

SPEAKER_03 20:51

Can you say what the Greek is for the word in 16, which you read as advocate?

Henry Jason 20:58

Yeah, I'm just about to go to that one.

SPEAKER_03 21:01

Okay.

Henry Jason 21:02

Okay, let's see. Yes, right. Comforter. Okay. Let's go there. I'm forgetting the ending on that verb, that noun. Paracletase. Is it a long E at the end? David?

SPEAKER_05 21:19

I'm seeing paracletos.

Henry Jason 21:21

Paracletos. Okay, that's what I was not sure of. Let me just check. Paracletos, that's right. Okay. In some translations, they don't translate it, they just transliterate and they say paraclete. But the word means one who appears in another's behalf a mediator, an intercessor, a helper. So all of those translations are accurate. A helper, a comforter, intercessor. Now, this is an interesting word because the word itself was actually borrowed into. Aramaic and Hebrew, because it was a legal term in Greek. And a parakletos was a person who came to court with someone to help or aid that person in his case in court. So that he could be a helper, a comforter, someone who's helping to intercess and do an intercessory kind of work for that person in front of a judge or a magistrate. This word is related to another Greek word, ecclesia. In both these words, the root is the K K-L-E. That root just means call, to call someone. Ecclesia is the word that gets translated as church. And the ek there has this prefix ek, which means out of, and then the verb root, clay, which means call. So ecclesia, the church of those people who are called out of the world. That's the ekklesia. They've been called out of the world. It did have a meaning in Greek, meaning those freemen as citizens in ancient Athens who assembled and had legal status there. So those were the freemen who were kind of, I'm not sure if they were governing body or whatever, but that's how that word was used earlier in the Greek before the first century. But the Christians also used it to refer to those who were called out of worldly concerns, out of the world. So they were the ecclesia.

SPEAKER_04 23:40

That word church, Henry.

Henry Jason 23:42

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 23:43

Um there are different interpretations of what church is. Some would say it's an institution, others would say it's the body of the people.

Henry Jason 23:54

Yes, that's what my understanding of the original word ecclesia is the in is the people, the actual members of that. I don't know what you would what the older the Greek community. Uh our English, while we're at it, I ought to say something about our word uh church, too. Our English word church comes from an earlier form, and you've probably seen this kirk. It's still used in Scotland. It's the same form, just a different pronunciation, which comes from a Greek word uriakos, which meant is an adjective meaning the Lord's, and that referred to the Lord's day, like Sunday. Well, let me here I've got the dictionary. Let's just go right to it. Belonging to the Lord, the Lord's. And that was a word that would refer to the Lord's Day being Sunday.

SPEAKER_02 24:49

Would it strictly be due to be the Lord's Day, or could it also be the Lord's house? Uh the Lord's this is an adjective.

Henry Jason 24:59

Let me just see if they give the form here. The Lord's day is certainly means Sunday. So it also is the word still in modern Greek that means Sunday, by the way. The Lord's day. I only see it referring to the Lord's Day. The word day is omitted. Well, the ending would be different, kuriake, or in modern Greek, kiriaki, imera, kiriaki mera. I'm just giving you where our word comes from for church. It was actually this word kirk, which really comes from the Greek adjective here, kuriakos, which was used kuriake emera, the Lord's day. So I'm not sure how it got transferred to church, but uh anyway, so that that's that's our word. Parakletos again, helper, comforter, intercessor, someone who oh, even in parakletos. Let me just say one more thing here. So you can see the connection between all these words. This prefix, parah, is a prefix that means alongside. So par paracletos is someone who's called alongside someone else to help, to aid, to be a comforter. And so that's what the paraclete is. And of course, our understanding here is that Holy Spirit is the parakletos, the paraclete, the comforter. That spirit, and then we got to go on and talk about the spirit of truth. Let me see. What verse did we leave off at here? Verse 17. And again, the word here, you will know him, or you know him, is that verb that has that sense of experiencing him. Okay, and because he remains with you, and that word with is this prefix P-A-R-A used as a preposition. It's parakletas par parhumin. So uh again, it's very clear what's being said here in the Greek.

Orphans Friendless And The Spirit Of Truth

Henry Jason 27:05

I will not leave you orphans, I'm coming to you.

SPEAKER_03 27:11

Is that a literal translation of the Greek? Orphans?

Henry Jason 27:16

I will leave you orphans. Orph orphanos to me means orphan. Uh, I don't know if it has any other meaning. I think that that's where we get our English word. Uh let me just check orphanos. Various senses relating to the loss of a relationship. So it can mean being deprived of parents without parents, an orphan, also can pertain to being without the aid and comfort of one who serves as an associate and friend.

SPEAKER_05 27:48

I'm seeing a translation that renders it friendless. I am not going to leave you friendless.

Henry Jason 27:54

Yeah, yeah, that's what the second meaning is. I'm happy I looked this up. So the second meaning is pertaining to being without the aid and comfort of one who serves as associate and friend. So it isn't just that physical family sense, but also you need a friend and you don't have them there.

SPEAKER_05 28:12

That was good good speed, picked that one up. Ah, okay. Good news Bible simply says I will leave you alone.

Henry Jason 28:22

Okay, I won't leave you friendless. I will ask the father, and he will give you another encourager or helper or whatever, that he may be with you forever into the age and forever. Uh, the spirit of truth with a capital T here, I'm assuming, which the world is not able to receive or accept because it does not see him or know him. Now, this verb see is not the see we had earlier. This is what the verb that kind of means like perceive, it does not perceive him, it does not notice him, perceive or notice. So it doesn't notice him, it doesn't take notice of him, it doesn't perceive him, because it doesn't perceive him nor does it know him, and that's the ginosco again, it doesn't experience him. You experience him because he remains again, par who mean with again. That that width is that P-A-R here, he remains alongside you. Uh, we get the English word parallel, that's the P-A-R-A there. Parallel, you know, alongside something. Uh, he is with you, he remains with you, and he will be in you, plural, in you.

SPEAKER_02 29:53

In some places it seems to be in the future, and in some places it seems to already be happening.

Henry Jason 29:59

Yeah, I think future as well as present and future. John is talking to these Christians who clearly are experiencing Christ within themselves now and will be experiencing them in the future. And in the text we have here, with what Jesus is saying, I think that's mirroring what they themselves were experiencing at the end of the first century. I will not leave you orphans, I am coming to you. Yet a little time, a little something, and the world, the world won't notice me, but you will notice me, you will perceive me because I am alive. Because I am alive, you also will live. I because I live, you also will live, or I'll be alive. On that day, you will know again, experience, you will know that I am in my father, and you are in me, and I in you. Plural. You plural will know that I am in the father, I am in that spirit of God the Father, my father, and you are in my spirit, in me, and I am the spirit within you. Oh, I did I'm not sure if I read the English further on this part, did

Topos Place And You Plural

Henry Jason 31:23

I or not? Oh, I'm seeing it's already quite late. So perhaps we should start over here again next next time at verse uh 18. All right. Okay, and any last questions here, comments?

SPEAKER_02 31:38

Um yes, yes, way back in verse three, um, where we were talking about preparing a place. What was the Greek for place?

Henry Jason 31:48

Oh, yeah, that that was a word I uh forgotten now. What was it here? It's the word for place. Tapas. Oh, topos.

SPEAKER_05 31:59

We get topography from that.

Henry Jason 32:02

Tapos is place, D-L-P-O-S place, and we have an English word. You probably know this word. Utopia. Well, the Greek word for no is ooh. Utopia or utopia is no place, it doesn't exist, in other words, it's a pun on words, the English word utopia. So it's ooh in topas. So uh again, the word for ooh, the word for not in Greek is that.

SPEAKER_05 32:38

I want to go back to the penultimate thing that you said looking at 19 and 20. And I think I'm really hearing this for the first time that you said that it was you plural, that I will be with you as a body, as the uh church coming together. I mean, it's not just an individual. I just wonder if that is uh implicit in the grammar, if that's pretty clear.

Henry Jason 33:03

I didn't read the English here. I was just looking at the Greek and I didn't realize I hadn't read the English, but we can start with that maybe next time because it is clearly all the the you you have there, that Y O U is in all those phrases and sentences of 18 and 19. It's all in the plural, you plural. I will not leave you plural orphaned. I'm you plural. He's talking to the disciples. We'll go over that again, starting with verse 18. Good night. Thanks. Bye-bye. Thanks, thanks, Nancy and Bernice.

Host 33:41

This podcast has been a production of Ohio Yearly Meeting. It was hosted by Henry Jason and edited by Kim Palmer. The introduction and credits were read by Chip Thomas. The quote in our introduction is from the Queries and Advices section of Ohio Yearly Meetings Book of Discipline. A link to that book can be found in the show notes to this episode. We welcome feedback on this or any of our podcast episodes. We can be contacted through our website, Ohio Yearly Meeting.org.