Sermon Tone Analysis

Gleanings from the Sermon

The Holy Spirit makes it possible to know God’s conflict against anything that seeks to unwind His Shalom.

The Spirit shows that human beings cannot bear abundance, vitality, richness, freedom, and the divine vocation to reflect God’s glory.

Par•a•clete \ˈpa-rə-ˌklēt\ noun

[Middle English Paraclyte, from Late Latin Paracletus, Paraclitus, from Greek Paraklētos, literally, advocate, intercessor, from parakalein to invoke, from para- + kalein to call—more at LOW] 15th century: HOLY SPIRIT

Paraclete.

Transliteration of a Greek word meaning “one who is called to someone’s aid” or “one who advocates another.”

Thus the term may be used technically for a lawyer.

More generally the word denotes one who acts in another’s behalf as a mediator, an intercessor, or a comforter.

Variety of translation in single words can throw light on important doctrines.

For paracletos it is so difficult to find a single satisfactory word that there is something to be said for transliterating it as Paraclete.

Wyclif’s rendering, “Comforter,” was intended not as Consoler but in the original Latin sense of Strengthener.

Both KJV and RSV at 1 John 2:1 render the term “Advocate,” a Latin word which is the precise etymological equivalent of paracletos.

It means “called to one’s side.”

This is what the ancient Paraclete was, a friend called in to plead one’s case.

“Advocate” today has a little too much the suggestion of a professional who does this for pay.

“Helper,” “Counselor,” “Friend at Court” are other terms that have been used.

Defender: the advocate.

It was competent for someone to aid a party in a court action.

This was the role of the kinsman-redeemer mentioned above.

It is also the role of the Paraclete of the NT, the Holy Spirit (Jn 14:16, 26).

The Roman prototype was qualified both forensically and oratorically.

The Meaning of Paraklētos.

In Greek the word is formally a passive verbal adjective, “one called alongside” (especially to offer assistance in a court), and so an “advocate” (though not with the professional legal sense of the Latin advocatus), and indeed later Rabbinic Judaism came to use peraqliṭ (a loan word) for “advocate” (cf.

Pirqe Aboth 4:11)

“He who performs one good deed has gotten to himself one advocate [paraclete], and he who commits one transgression has gotten to himself one accuser” (Abot iv.

11)

On the simplest of planes, Part II of our study debunks this false conception of Judaism during the Greco-Roman era.

Time after time we will encounter ancient claims, from Palestine to Egypt, that falsify the perception of Judaism as a religion void of the spirit.

It will no longer be possible to dismiss Second Temple Judaism as a spiritually impoverished religion that functions as a negative foil for the birth of early Christianity.

Levison, John R. (2009-10-06).

Filled with the Spirit (Kindle Locations 2409-2410).

Eerdmans.

Kindle Edition.

Levison, John R. (2009-10-06).

Filled with the Spirit (Kindle Locations 2409-2410).

Eerdmans.

Kindle Edition.

Levison, John R. (2009-10-06).

Filled with the Spirit (Kindle Locations 2406-2409).

Eerdmans.

Kindle Edition.