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Advocate (2)

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

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ADVOCATE (παράκλητος).—A term applied to Christ in 1 John 2:1 (Authorized Version and Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885; (Revised Version margin) ‘Or Comforter or Helper, Gr. Paraclete’), and to the Holy Spirit in (Revised Version margin) of John 14:16; John 14:26; John 15:26; John 16:7, where both Authorized Version and Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 have ‘Comforter’ in the text. For an examination of the Greek word and its cognates, see art. ‘Paraclete’ in Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible iii. 665–668. The verb παρακαλέω occurs in the papyri in the contrasted senses of ‘encourage’ (Oxyr. Pap. 663. 42) and of ‘entreat’ (ib. 744. 6); but the passive verbal form has not been found. The term in its Latinized form came originally from the Itala or one of the Old Latin versions through the Vulgate. And Wyclif introduced it into the English versions, translating 1 John 2:1 ‘we ban avoket’ in 1382; so Purvey ‘au advocat’ in 1388.

Etymologically the word means ‘called to one’s side,’ especially for the purposes of help, and, in its technical usage, for advice in the case of judicial procedure, with the further suggestion of endeavouring to enlist the sympathy of the judge in favour of the accused. In 1 John 2:1 the last is generally taken to be the only sense; and the meaning evidently is that, if any believer sin Jesus Christ in person intercedes in his behalf with the Father, and, representing the believer, carries on his cause in the courts of heaven. Similarly, according to the passage in the Fourth Gospel, the Holy Spirit may be regarded as God’s Advocate both with and in man, promoting the Divine interests in the human sphere, from repentance (John 16:7-11, cf. Job 33:23-30) to perfecting. But here the technical legal sense of the word disappears, and the Spirit becomes, according to another marginal rendering, the God-sent ‘Helper’ of a man who is struggling against everything within or around him that makes godly living difficult. Whilst, therefore, the provisions of grace include the twofold advocacy,—Christ as the Advocate of a believer with God, and the Spirit as the Advocate of God with man, whether believing or unregenerate,—the two functions differ both in range and in relation; and the term ‘Advocate’ is too specialized to characterize or to cover the operations attributed to the Spirit. The Spirit, as an Advocate sent from God, entreats and helps a man (see art. Comforter), but does not represent him before God as Judge or as Father, and does not appeal to anything in man of final and supreme authority.

R. W. Moss.