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Bible Dictionaries
Comforter
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or COMFORTER (παράκλητος).—A term applied to Christ in (Revised Version margin) of 1 John 2:1, and four times (John 14:16; John 14:26; John 15:26; John 16:7) to the Holy Spirit. For the meaning of the original and the probable source from which St. John derived it, see art. ‘Paraclete’ in Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible iii. 665–668. The active sense is confined to ecclesiastical usage, and may have been emphasized by translators, from its appropriateness to the circumstances amidst which the word first occurs in John 14:16; but the passive sense may still be traced in relation to the Father and the Son, the Spirit being called and sent by Them to the help of men, as well as for the purpose of witnessing for God at the tribunal of the human reason (John 15:26). The English term is, however, quite inadequate. Whilst there is a suggestion of actual consolation in John 14:16, the principal points of St. John’s teaching are that the mission of the Spirit is contingent upon the departure of Christ (John 16:7), is thenceforward continuous and permanent (John 14:16), and includes functions in regard to both classes of men, the disciples and ‘the world.’ The latter He will convict (John 16:8-11) in respect of the three decisive matters of sin, righteousness, and judgment. With still a significant preference for words of an intellectual bearing, He will continue and complete the instruction begun by Christ (John 14:26), and guide the disciples ‘into all the truth’ (John 16:13). See art. Holy Spirit. The predominant cast of these phrases, almost all pointing to mental processes, is in itself a sufficient evidence of the unfitness of the term ‘Comforter,’ for which ‘Paraclete’ (wh. see) might with advantage be substituted.
R. W. Moss.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Comforter'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/c/comforter.html. 1906-1918.
