Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
John 14:1-31, Rooms in the Father's house, and another Advocate
Jesus tells his troubled disciples that he is going to prepare a place for them in his Father's house, that he is the way, and that the Father will send another Advocate, the Spirit of truth. He leaves them his peace.
John 14:1-31, in every translation this tool compares.
Jesus tells the disciples not to let their hearts be troubled: in his Father's house are many rooms, he is going to prepare a place for them, and he will come back and take them to be with him. Thomas asks how they can know the way, and Jesus says he is the way, the truth and the life; Philip asks him to show them the Father, and Jesus says whoever has seen him has seen the Father. Whatever they ask in his name he will do, and he will ask the Father to give them another Advocate to be with them forever, the Spirit of truth, who will teach them and remind them of everything he has said. He leaves them his peace, not as the world gives, and says the ruler of this world is coming but has no hold on him.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/temple-and-courts\/","n":"The temple and its courts","s":"Herod's huge rebuilt temple in Jerusalem, believed to be God's dwelling, laid out in courts that kept Gentiles, women and Jewish men at set distances.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/gods-name\/","n":"God's name and I am","s":"God gave his name to Moses at the burning bush as I AM, and in Isaiah he says I am he. To make God's name known was to show who he is, and when Jesus uses those words in certain settings, his hearers can take them as God's own name.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/witnesses-and-advocates\/","n":"Witnesses and advocates in court","s":"Jewish law convicted no one on a single witness: it demanded two or three, examined them closely and gave little weight to the word of women. Courts also had accusers and advocates, and Jewish pictures of God's heavenly court gave those roles to Satan and to defenders of Israel.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/the-satan\/","n":"The satan, the tempter","s":"The accuser, tempter and deceiver of Jewish belief, seen as the power behind human and political evil. In the Gospels he tests Jesus and is the strong man Jesus binds, and John calls him the ruler of this world.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/rome-in-charge\/","n":"Rome in charge","s":"Rome ruled through client princes, local elites and governors. It kept the power to execute, and its soldiers, coins and taxes were everywhere.","r":""}
The Father's house is the temple (2:16), and the rooms probably echo the new temple of Ezekiel; the same word returns in 14:23 for God making his home with the believer (Keener and his notes). Keener takes the promised coming in 14:3 as Jesus' return after the resurrection to give the Spirit. In the Old Testament acting in God's name could mean acting as his representative, and Keener sets this far from pagan magic, which used names to manipulate spirits. The word for the Spirit can mean an advocate or defending attorney, and in Jewish pictures of the heavenly court Satan prosecutes while God, or the angel Michael, defends Israel (Keener); the cultural backgrounds notes say the term sometimes, though not always, carried a legal sense. The cultural backgrounds notes call the Roman peace "a hollow fiction in practice" wherever Rome was still at war or in danger of it. Wright reads the ruler of this world here on two levels, Caesar, whose soldiers will soon take Jesus, and the dark power behind Caesar; the ESV Study Bible sees Satan coming in the person of Judas and the arresting party.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on John 14:2, 14:3-4, 14:5, 14:8, 14:12-14, 14:16, 14:18-20 and 14:27
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on John 14:2, 14:5, 14:8, 14:13-14, 14:16, 14:18 and 14:27
- N. T. Wright, John for Everyone, Part Two, comments on John 14:12-21 and 14:22-31
- ESV Study Bible, study note on John 14:30
