What did Jesus (and the Comforter) ask people to believe? - 5

[Guest guest]

" The Kingdom of God that we were promised is at hand. This is not a

phrase out of a sermon or a lecture, but it is the actualization of

the experience of the highest Truth which is Absolute, now

manifesting itself in ordinary people at this present moment. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

 

 

" Jesus does not reveal the Holy Spirit fully, until he himself has

been glorified through his Death and Resurrection. . . . Only when

the hour has arrived for his glorification does Jesus promise the

coming of the Holy Spirit, since his Death and Resurrection will

fulfill the promise made to the fathers. The Spirit of truth, the

other Paraclete, will be given by the Father in the answer to Jesus'

prayer. "

 

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1992, p. 161

 

 

" Where then do we go for direct textual evidence that the Holy Spirit

was, in the origins of Christianity, considered feminine? We go to

the existing Greek minuscules copied in the early part of the last

millennium to find only circumstantial evidence. Likewise, as we go

to the earlier copied Greek uncials, the Byzantine copies, the

eastern Syriac Peshitta, and the Old Latin we find some peripheral

corroboration. Then when we go to the earlier copied Old Syriac that

predates the Peshitta we find a pearl of great price. In the most

ancient of the rare Old Syriac copies, the Siniatic Palimpsest, from

the 4th or 5th century, found in the Covenant of St. Catherine in the

Sinia by Mrs. Anes Lewis and transcribed by Syriac Professor R.L.

Bensly of Cambridge University in 1892, the words of Jesus in John

14:26 read:

 

But She -the Spirit, the Paraclete whom He will send to you, my

Father, in my name- She will teach you everything; She will remind

you of that which I have told you.

 

(Translation by Danny Mahar, author of Aramaic Made EZ)

 

In both the Hebrew and Aramaic language the word spirit is in the

feminine gender but in the Greek language it is neuter. It is the

Greek neuter word, pnuema, that was employed by the ancient

Septuagint translators of the Hebrew Old Testament when they

translated the feminine ruach into Greek. The authors who wrote in

Greek were limited in expressing the Holy Spirit in the feminine by

the constraints of the language...

 

This concept of the feminine gender of the Holy Spirit is not new or

original. The early church had this belief and within the last

several decades it has been considered at large with acceptance by

individuals of faith in all areas. It may be that this writing is a

unique synergism in understandings and that there are some new

considerations within what is written here to add to the accumulating

evidence. Whatever the case may be there is much more that is written

and to be written that patterns the feminine gender of the Holy

Spirit through the breadth of scripture...

 

I offer this presentation so that the revelatory script of the

knowing playwright and the intuitions of the wise director may be

more fully understood and, in the end, be joined harmoniously

together within our souls and within our family to bring to pass the

eternal plan of salvation for all humankind through the cross of

Christ. "

 

The Feminine Gender of the Holy Spirit

On the Orthodox Revision of the Gender of the Holy Spirit

A Journey Unto Revelation's End, by Steve Santini

 

 

" In the first portion of the Gospel of John, the holy spirit is

spoken of as something descending from heaven to remain upon Jesus

(John 1.32-33), as a medium into (or through) which one must be born

(John 3.5), as an enablement for Christ to speak the words of God

(John 3.34), as a medium through which one may worship the Father

(John 4.23), as the essential nature of God (John 4.24), as a life

giver (John 6.63), and as something to be received by the disciples

(John 7.39).

 

It is clear from these examples that the essential character and

functionality of God's spirit had not changed. However, the claim

that John 7.39 makes seems to contradict everything we have

discovered by saying " that the spirit was not yet given. "

 

" But this he spoke of the spirit, which those who believed in him

were to receive; for the spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was

not yet glorified. " (John 7.39)

 

Obviously, the spirit had been given in OT times, to Jesus, and to

the disciples who were able to go out performing miracles and healing

people. Nonetheless, there must be some essential difference between

the spirit that we have described up to this point in our inquiry and

that, which is described in detail in chapters 14, 15, and 16 of John

in order to warrant the phrase " the spirit was not yet given. "

 

Our Lord explained the coming presence of the parakletos (paraklete,

comforter, helper, advocate). The chain of events would be {1} the

disciple demonstrates love for Jesus by keeping his commandments

(John 14.15) {2} Jesus will ask the Father to send the paraklete

(John 14.16; 15.26; 16.7) {3} the paraklete will be sent in Jesus'

name to abide in the believer forever (John 14.16, 26). The paraklete

is " the spirit of truth " (John 14.17), which will teach the disciples

all things and bring to their remembrance all that Jesus has said

(John 14.26), testify about Jesus (John 15.26), be more advantageous

to the saint than the presence of Christ on earth (John 16.7),

convict the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment (John

16.8- 11), guide them into all truth (John 16.13), and disclose

Christ to the disciple (John 16.14-15). "

 

Sean Finnegan, www.kingdomready.org

 

 

" Jesus solemnly assures the disciples that they will, in the future,

perform even greater miracles than He. By this He means to say that

through the power of the Holy Spirit, they will bring about the

greatest miracle of all – the salvation of lost souls. He promises

them that whatever they ask for, in connection with their ministry of

bringing the miracle of salvation to lost men, will be granted them.

 

The theme of this section is reassurance and encouragement. Jesus

gives the disciples three basic reasons they should cease being

troubled in their spirits. First, He tells them that, although He is

going away, He will return for them so that they may ultimately join

Him where He is going (vv. 1-3). Second, He tells them that, though

He is going away, He will be the only means by which men may come to

God and go to Heaven (vv. 4-11). Third, He tells them that, though He

is going away, their ministries are not finished. In fact, the best

is still ahead. They are going, by the Holy Spirit's power, to be

part of the greatest miracle of all, bringing men to salvation (vv.

12-14). " ...

 

25 These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you.

26. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will

send in my name, shall teach you all things, and bring all things to

your remembrance, whatsoever I have told unto you.

 

Jesus now summarizes all that He has been saying in this section.

Referring to the many things which He has taught them while He has

been present with them in the flesh, He tell the disciples that the

Comforter not only is going to remind them of these things, but also

will go to teach them all things necessary to their understanding and

happiness. The Comforter will recall to their minds Jesus' teachings,

will enable them to understand truly and completely, and will develop

and expand them into new and wonderful truths.

 

Jesus has referred to the coming Comforter as the Spirit of Truth (v.

17)...[whose] primary function is the work of making men holy. This

is the work we call sanctification.

 

In v. 16 Jesus has said that the Comforter is going to be provided to

the disciples by the Father on the basis of His (Jesus') prayer that

He should do so. Now He says that the Father is going to send the

Comforter in His (Christ's) name. These statements are essentially

identical and imply a joint action involving both Father and Son. "

 

Jack Wilson Stallings and Robert E. Picirilli,

The Randall House Bible Commentary: The Gospel of John,

Randall House Publications, 1989, page 205

ISBN 9780892659524

 

Advocate, (Gr. parakletos), one who pleads another's cause, who helps

another by defending or comforting him. It is a name given by Christ

three times to the Holy Ghost (John 14:16; 15:26; 16:7, where the

Greek word is rendered " Comforter, " q.v.).

Comforter, the designation of the Holy Ghost (John 14:16, 26; 15:26;

16:7; R.V. marg., " or Advocate, or Helper; Gr. paracletos " ). The same

Greek word thus rendered is translated " Advocate " in 1 John 2:1 as

applicable to the Comforter to be sent by Christ. It means

properly " one who is summoned to the side of another " to help him in

a court of justice by defending him, " one who is summoned to plead a

cause. "

 

 

, " violettubb " <violettubb

wrote:

>

> What did Jesus ask people to " believe " ?

>

> ...Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and

saying, " The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent and

believe the gospel. " (Mark 1:14-15)

>

> (p.378) Jesus' exhortation to " believe the gospel " does not refer to study of

or belief in scriptural writings per se.[1] In the original Greek in which the

New Testament was written, the word used for gospel is 'euangelion', " good news "

or " good message. " As used by Jesus it expressed the " good message, " the

revelations of truth, he was bringing to man from God.

>

> When Jesus said to " believe the gospel, " he meant more than a casual mental

acceptance of his message. Belief in general is that conditional receptive

attitude of mind that must precede an experience in order to cognize it. One

must have sufficient belief in a concept in order to put it to the test, without

which one cannot possibly verify its validity. (p.379) If a man is thirsty and

is advised to quench his thirst with the water from a nearby good well, he must

believe in that advice sufficiently to make the effort to go to the well and

drink from it.

>

> Similarly, Jesus emphasizes that truth-seeking souls must not only repent of

the foolishness of following unsatisfying material ways of living, and believe

in the truths experienced by him through God; they must also act accordingly

that they might realize those truths for themselves.

>

> To be an orthodox unquestioning believer in any spiritual doctrine, without

the scrutiny of experimentation to prove it to oneself, is to be ossified with

dogmatism. Jesus did not ask the people merely to believe in his message, but to

keep faith in his divine revelations with the assurance that by believing in,

and hence concentrating upon, the gospel, they would surely and ultimately

experience within themselves the truths in those revelations. Belief is wasted

on false doctrines; but truth poured out to man through the authority of

God-realized saints is worthy of belief and sure to produce divine realization.

>

> Even on the authority of the fame of scriptural text, one cannot judge what it

teaches, for various are the meanings and consequent distortions drawn from holy

writ, some of which defy the laws of both reason and wisdom. Also, who can deny

what errors might have come down through the centuries in the form of

mistranslations or mistakes made by scribes? The Bible and the Vedas may well be

inspired texts that came from heaven, but the ultimate test of truth is one's

own realization, direct experience received through the medium of the soul's

omniscient intuition.

>

> The Second Coming of Christ (The Resurrection of the Christ Within

> You) Volume 1, Discourse 22, pg. 378-379

> Paramahansa Yogananda

> Printed in the United States of America 1434-J881

> ISBN-13:978-0-87612-557-1

> ISBN-10:0-87612-557-7

>

> Notes:

>

> [1] " While two of the New Testament gospels use the word 'gospel' (it is

missing in Luke and John), they use it to indicate not the written works

themselves, but rather the message preached either by Jesus (in Matthew) or

about him (in Mark). Not until the middle of the second century are documents

about the words and deeds of Jesus called gospels. " - Robert J. Miller, ed.,

'The Complete Gospels: Annotated Scholars Version' (HarperSanFrancisco, 1994).

>

> " The English word 'gospel' is a descendant of the Anglo-Saxon word 'godspel'

or 'good news'. 'Godspel' was an accurate equivalent of the original Greek word

'euangelion', literally a 'good message' or 'good tidings'. And the oldest

surviving Greek manuscript copies of the four canonical gospels bear only the

headings According to Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John (the four books together

comprise the whole of the single 'gospel'; and the word 'canonical' derives from

the Greek 'kanon' or 'measuring rod' and indicates, in this case, those few

gospels that were approved as holy scriptures by the orthodox church of the late

second century). " - Reynolds Price, 'Three Gospels' (New York: Simon and

Shuster, 1997). ('Publisher's Note')

>