St John 14:15-21
14:15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
14:16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.
14:17 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.
14:18 “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.
14:19 In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.
14:20 On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
14:21 They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”
15 Ἐὰν ἀγαπᾶτέ με, τὰς ἐντολὰς τὰς ἐμὰς τηρήσατε,
16 καὶ ἐγὼ ἐρωτήσω τὸν πατέρα καὶ ἄλλον παράκλητον δώσει ὑμῖν, ἵνα μένῃ μεθ’ ὑμῶν εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα,
17 τὸ Πνεῦμα τῆς ἀληθείας, ὃ ὁ κόσμος οὐ δύναται λαβεῖν, ὅτι οὐ θεωρεῖ αὐτὸ οὐδὲ γινώσκει αὐτό· ὑμεῖς δὲ γινώσκετε αὐτό, ὅτι παρ’ ὑμῖν μένει καὶ ἐν ὑμῖν ἔσται.
18 Οὐκ ἀφήσω ὑμᾶς ὀρφανούς· ἔρχομαι πρὸς ὑμᾶς.
19 Ἔτι μικρὸν καὶ ὁ κόσμος με οὐκέτι θεωρεῖ, ὑμεῖς δὲ θεωρεῖτέ με, ὅτι ἐγὼ ζῶ καὶ ὑμεῖς ζήσεσθε.
20 Ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ γνώσεσθε ὑμεῖς ὅτι ἐγὼ ἐν τῷ πατρί μου καὶ ὑμεῖς ἐν ἐμοὶ κἀγὼ ἐν ὑμῖν.
21 Ὁ ἔχων τὰς ἐντολάς μου καὶ τηρῶν αὐτάς, ἐκεῖνός ἐστιν ὁ ἀγαπῶν με· ὁ δὲ ἀγαπῶν με ἀγαπηθήσεται ὑπὸ τοῦ πατρός μου, καὶ ἐγὼ ἀγαπήσω αὐτὸν καὶ ἐμφανίσω αὐτῷ ἐμαυτόν.
Comments
The pericope begins with the vb ‘to love’ and culminates with an interlacing of the vb in various forms.
[14] ἀγαπᾶτέ με: pres. subj., ἀγαπῶ (άω), ‘love’ (in its Christian sense). The vb is already attested in Homer (Od. 23.214) in the weaker sense ‘to welcome, show affection to’. (‘Love’ as a passion was denoted in ancient Greek by ἐρῶ (άω) and related words. That said, a red-figure vase of the classical period depicts an attractive woman, perhaps a courtesan, who is labelled Ἀγάπη.) Cf. v. 21 for various forms of ἀγαπῶ.
[16] παράκλητον: παράκλητος, a legal term in cl. Gr., ‘defender, advocate’ < παρακαλῶ (έω), ‘I summon’ (cl. Gr.) , hence ‘I call someone (acc.) to my defence’ (Herodotus 34.29). The juridical noun is endowed, of course, with another meaning in NT.
[17] τὸ Πνεῦμα τῆς ἀληθείας: In its root sense in Archaic Greek poetry, the ‘truth’, ἡ ἀλήθεια (< privative ἀ-/ NON + λήθη, forgetting, oblivion), is the preserve of the Muses and poets, and is immune to oblivion. As G. Nagy remarks, ‘one must not be unmindful of whatever is true, and such truth must be not only memorable but also absolutely unforgettable.’ See https://classical-inquiries.chs.harvard.edu/about-greek-aletheia-truth-marcel-detienne-challenges-martin-heidegger/
οὐ θεωρεῖ αὐτὸ οὐδὲ γινώσκει αὐτό: θεωρῶ (έω), in cl. Greek fetches to mind theatre-going (cf. θέατρον, ‘theatre’), hence can mean ‘attend as a spectator’. It can also mean (e.g. in Plato) ‘I contemplate’ (cf. ‘theory’). Already in Aristotle and koine Greek, θ. = ‘I observe, see’, the meaning here.
γινώσκω (koine for γιγνώσκω) = ‘know, perceive’, c. acc. obj. The vb means ‘know by observation’, cf. ‘discern’. Thus in Greek you can say, οἶδ’ (‘I know by reflection’) ὅτι γιγνώσκετε (‘ that all of you know him by observation’) τοῦτον ἅπαντες (Demosthenes 18. 276). The connection of γινώσκω with perception/ sensation is confirmed by οὐ θεωρεῖ αὐτὸ.
[18] Οὐκ ἀφήσω ὑμᾶς ὀρφανούς· ἔρχομαι πρὸς ὑμᾶς: ὀρφανός, ‘orphan’, already in Homer. Its root sense ‘deprived of’ (cf. Latin orbus, ‘deprived of’) becomes a frequent metaphorical sense in Greek, as in our passage. (Mythic Orpheus, separated by death from his wife, may just be a generic ‘deprived’ figure.)
ἔρχομαι πρὸς ὑμᾶς: the vb, in the present, may be taken as a future (‘I shall come to you’); cf. v. 19, Ἔτι μικρὸν καὶ ὁ κόσμος με οὐκέτι θεωρεῖ.
ἔρχομαι πρὸς ὑμᾶς, not connected by a conjunction to the preceding sentence, is an asyndeton, and explanatory (‘for I shall come to you’).
[19] ἐγὼ ζῶ καὶ ὑμεῖς ζήσεσθε: ζῶ, ‘I live’, which can refer to animals, human beings, and plants. The addition of the personal pronouns lends emphasis (‘I live and you live’).
[20] ἐγὼ ἐν τῷ πατρί μου καὶ ὑμεῖς ἐν ἐμοὶ κἀγὼ ἐν ὑμῖν: ἐν ‘is by far the most frequent prep. in the NT’ (Exeg. Dict. NT s.v., p.448); it always governs a dat. It can be, among other usages, spatial (‘in, at or on’) or instrumental.
The subjects ἐγὼ and ὑμεῖς are emphatic; εἰμί is understood in the first and third statement; ἐστέ is understood in the second (middle) statement. The three short parallel statements are concentric and no doubt have a theological, or meta-theological import.
Insights into Biblical Greek Grammar and Syntax 