"Paraclete" - just wondering...

... said the apologist, researching the word to answer Jehovah's Witnesses' contentions that the Holy Spirit is a "force"... the only way I see the word "paraclete" used in the NT is in the sense of an advocate, (i.e. it always means a person and is never used in the sense of a "thing" such as a force)

Can anyone confirm this as I'm no Greek scholar...? All my dictionaries speak of a person though.

Also, would anyone know how to go about finding out about the use of the word in other, secular Greek writings (i.e. in case I'm told that all the false teachers just changed the meaning for the Bible to suit their own bias)

Thanks! Big Smile

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Kevin Becker

For this question I suggest you look up Holy Spirit see what descriptions are made. Are the pronouns personal pronouns? Are the verbs describing actions normally performed by a person?

Look up Holy Spirit in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge to see if you've missed anything.

Check your lexicons to see what the range of meaning any particular word that meets you interest has.

Finally, in your right click menu for lemma notice the Perseus lookup. That will take you to a website that will give you access to the entries in Liddel-Scott, the standard lexicon for Classical Greek. Keep in mind that it catalogs usages that a much older than the NT. Words do change meaning over time and you can see it in this lexicon. However, it does extend some into the Koine period, the time of the NT. This is a good resource to get into the question "what's in secular Greek writing?"

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/220757#Comment_220757

A search for "Holy Spirit" WITHIN 3 words "a force" returned a couple of useful refutations of this belief

logosres:discplmkr;ref=Bible.Jn14.26 (The Disciplemaker: What Matters Most to Jesus by Gary Derickson & Earl Radmacher)

14:26.
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will
teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to
you.

Jesus again
promises the Holy Spirit as a Helper to them in His absence. Here He says
several significant things about the person and ministry of the Spirit. He
begins His second description of the Spirit’s ministry by saying that the
Father would send Him to them in His name.

We see here an
example of the sameness of this Helper who has already been identified as
“another of the same kind” as Jesus. As Jesus did not come in His own name, but
was sent by the Father, so too the Holy Spirit did not come in His own name and
was also sent by the Father. And, as Jesus was the Father’s representative to
the disciples, now the Holy Spirit similarly serves as Jesus’ representative.

In His
description of the Holy Spirit in this verse and elsewhere in the upper room,
Jesus uses a term that argues strongly for the personality, the personhood, of
the Holy Spirit. Orthodox Christianity has affirmed that the Holy Spirit is not
a force, influence, or some other inanimate element, but a person, the third
member of the Godhead. He is as much a person as both God the Father and God
the Son. Here, while Greek has masculine, feminine, and neuter pronouns, Jesus
refers to the Spirit with a pronoun in the masculine gender. But, its antecedent
(the word the pronoun relates to) is not pneuma
(translated as “Spirit”) but paraklētos
(translated as “Helper”). But, lest someone attempt to use that as an argument
against the personality of the Spirit, paraklētos
(Helper) is an adjective being used as a noun.

In Greek,
adjectives do not have a single gender, but have forms for all three genders
and are given the gender appropriate to the word they modify or replace. Thus,
if the Holy Spirit was not a person and Jesus wanted to deny the personality of
the Spirit, He could have used the neuter form of “helper” rather than the
masculine. As a substantive (a word being used in place of a noun), one would
expect Jesus to use its neuter form since “spirit” (pneuma) is a neuter word. Also, only a neuter term would be
appropriate if it were to express the idea of an impersonal force.
Interestingly, Jesus did not change the gender of “spirit,” nor did He change
the gender of those pronouns that related back to spirit. He used good grammar.
Rather, He chose the form of “helper” as a masculine form in order to
communicate His personality unquestionably. So, again establishing His
personhood, Jesus goes on to describe His ministry.

The Holy Spirit
is not only coming to abide in them and help them like Jesus had, but He is
also coming to teach them. This raises the question concerning whether this
promise is for all believers or only for the disciples? The key to
understanding Jesus’ promise in this verse is to see “whom” He is addressing
when He says this. This is markedly different from what He says in His prayer
in chapter seventeen where He prays for His disciples and then for those who
would believe through them in later generations. Here, when Jesus says “you,”
He indicates that the promise is to the eleven. Also, the content of what is
promised necessarily involves the eleven. He says that the Spirit would not
only teach them, but would remind them of things He had said to them.

Necessarily,
then, only those who had already been taught by Him could be reminded of what
He had said. This is likely the background to the disciples’ selection of
Joseph and Matthias as candidates to replace Judas in Acts 1:15–26. They needed
someone who could speak with apostolic authority, which meant someone who had
heard all of Jesus’ teachings. In short, we can trust their testimony,
contained in the Gospels, precisely because of this promise from Jesus to them
that the Holy Spirit would remind them. Their reports of the teachings of
Jesus, including those given in this upper room, are reliable and accurate, and
not merely musings or paraphrases on what might have been said. John 2:19–22;
12:16; and 20:9 provide us with examples of the Spirit’s ministry of reminding
them. Having said all this, that the promise is only applicable to those in the
upper room with Jesus, there is still “a legitimate secondary application that
concerns Christians today. The Holy Spirit comes to live with us and be in us
(14:17), too; and he helps us to call to mind, as we need them, the words of
Scripture we have first learned.”

logosres:peopsprt;art=peopspr0.L1 ("The Person of the Holy Spirit" in People of the Spirit by Jack Hayford)

The Person of the Holy Spirit

Read the
following scriptures and record what you observe about the Holy Spirit.

What
does the Bible say about the Spirit as an intelligent Person?

John 15:26

John 16:13

Acts 13:2

Does
He demonstrate emotion and exercise will?

Rom. 15:30

1 Cor. 12:11

1 Thess. 5:19

Are
there attributes of deity assigned to Him?

Acts 5:3, 4

1 Cor. 2:10

Heb. 9:14

What
are some of His specific New Testament names?

John 14:17

Rom. 8:9

1 Cor. 3:16

Phil. 1:19

What
are some New Testament symbols ascribed to Him?

Matt. 3:16

John 3:8

John 7:37–39

We
see then that the Holy Spirit is not a force—He’s a Person. He is intelligent
and exercises emotion and will. He is equated with God Himself (Acts 5:3, 4)
and knows the Father’s very depths. No wonder the church continues to sing,
“Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost”!

Allen Browne

... researching the word to answer Jehovah's Witnesses' contentions that the Holy Spirit is a "force"... the only way I see the word "paraclete" used in the NT is in the sense of an advocate, (i.e. it always means a person and is never used in the sense of a "thing" such as a force)
Can anyone confirm this as I'm no Greek scholar...? All my dictionaries speak of a person though.
Also, would anyone know how to go about finding out about the use of the word in other, secular Greek writings (i.e. in case I'm told that all the false teachers just changed the meaning for the Bible to suit their own bias)

What resources to you have? The 10-volume Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (edited by Kittel) is in Scholars and upwards. It's one of the most comprehensive tools for analysing how words were used in Greek culture, in the LXX, in the NT, and by the fathers, so as to grasp the meaning from actual usage.

In this particular case, παράκλητος is used only in the Johannine literature, and always in legal context -- an advocate or counselor in the legal sense. In Jn 14-16, Jesus is about to undergo a trial himself. It will look like he has been condemned, but this "trial" will not conclude with Jesus' condemnation. The disciples are to be witnesses (legal sense again) to the resurretion, and the Spirit will be their counselor in that task, which will turn Jesus' "defeat" on its head. (That needs fleshing out a great deal, but persue the thought and it makes sense of his conversation with them on that night.)

Rich DeRuiter

... said the apologist, researching the word to answer Jehovah's Witnesses' contentions that the Holy Spirit is a "force"... the only way I see the word "paraclete" used in the NT is in the sense of an advocate, (i.e. it always means a person and is never used in the sense of a "thing" such as a force)

Can anyone confirm this as I'm no Greek scholar...? All my dictionaries speak of a person though.

Also, would anyone know how to go about finding out about the use of the word in other, secular Greek writings (i.e. in case I'm told that all the false teachers just changed the meaning for the Bible to suit their own bias)

Thanks!

This is from the Dunamis course (a ministry of PRMI; see prmi.org for more info on who they are), which I have taught, and find helpful. It deals with the question of whether or not the Holy Spirit is a person or a force. Only one of the points deals with the advocate/counselor. Together, they make an impressive case.

The Holy Spirit has attributes that can only belong to a Divine Person:
Love (Romans 15:30)
    I urge you, brothers…by the love of the Spirit
Discernment, reason (1Cor 2:10)
    …The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.
Understanding (1Cor 2:11)
    …no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
Will, can make decisions (1Cor 12:11)
    …[the Spirit] gives them to each one, just as he determines.
May be grieved (Ephesians 4:30)
    And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God…

The Spirit has roles that can be exercised by a Divine Person
He is our Counselor (John 14:16-17)
    …[the Father] will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth…
He is our Teacher, knowing all that Jesus said (John 14:26)
    …the Holy Spirit…will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
He is a Witness who testifies about Jesus (John 15:26)
    …the Spirit of truth…will testify about me.
He is a Judge (John 16:8)
    When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment:
He is our Leader (Romans 8:14)
    because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
He is our Intercessor (Romans 8:26-27)
    …the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express…the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.
The Spirit is ‘another of the same kind’ as Jesus
    – Greek is allos (same kind) rather than heteros (a different kind):
    And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another (allos) Counselor to be with you forever. (John 14:16)

EDIT: Although Presbyterian Reformed Ministries International (PRMI) is quite generous with it's teaching. I suppose that it would be a sign of honor and gratitude to attribute this way of presenting this material to them. I'm sure something like "Thanks to PRMI for this way of presenting these truths from the Bible" (or something to that effect) would be sufficient.

George Somsel

... said the apologist, researching the word to answer Jehovah's Witnesses' contentions that the Holy Spirit is a "force"... the only way I see the word "paraclete" used in the NT is in the sense of an advocate, (i.e. it always means a person and is never used in the sense of a "thing" such as a force)

Can anyone confirm this as I'm no Greek scholar...? All my dictionaries speak of a person though.

Also, would anyone know how to go about finding out about the use of the word in other, secular Greek writings (i.e. in case I'm told that all the false teachers just changed the meaning for the Bible to suit their own bias)

Thanks!

You asked regarding secular Greek writings. For that I would suggest LSJ which has

παράκλητος

From this you can see that Demosthenes used it in regard to a "legal assistant" or "advocate" which indicates that it is used somewhat in the sense of a defense attorney.

, ον, called to one’s aid, in a court of justice: as Subst., legal assistant, advocate, D.19.1, Lycurg.Fr.102, etc.

Carmen Gauvin-O'Donnell

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/220791#Comment_220791

Hey everyone, thanks for the wonderful feedback! I always know that when I ask in here I will be getting a veritable *buffet* of replies... which will invariably guide me to figure it all out. In this particular case, one of the comments I'll often hear is the fact that the Greek doesn't actually say "he", but that's what the (biased) writers put there to suit their bias (i.e. it should be "it".)

That is, until you look at John 16:14 where the "he" is actually "ekeinos", the masculine personal pronoun. HA! Which I found out in the New treasury of Scripture Knowledge...

So thanks for all the help!

George Somsel

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/220943#Comment_220943

So thanks for all the help!

Just one additional fact which hasn't yet been mentioned. A pair o' cleat(s) is what you wear when you play football, baseball or run track. Just thought you'd like to know. [6]

Carmen Gauvin-O'Donnell

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/220950#Comment_220950

Hey George! I had never noticed this witty reply. Of course, I should have thought of it myself, being a lifelong soccer player 'n all... [:D]