John 14: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Jesus tells his disciples not to be troubled by his leaving: he is going to his Father's house to prepare a place for them and will come back for them. He answers questions from Thomas, Philip, and Judas (not Iscariot), saying that he is the way to the Father and that whoever has seen him has seen the Father. He promises that the Father will send the Holy Spirit to teach them and remind them of his words, and he leaves them his peace. He tells them these things in advance so they will believe when they happen, and then says it is time to go.

Claim by Claim

1. 14:1
   • Jesus tells them not to let their heart be troubled.
   • Jesus tells them they believe in God.
   • Jesus tells them to believe also in him.
2. 14:2
   • Jesus says there are many dwelling places in his Father's house.
   • Jesus says that if it were not so, he would have told them.
   • Jesus says he is going to prepare a place for them.
3. 14:3
   • Jesus says that if he goes and prepares a place for them, he will come again.
   • Jesus says he will receive them to himself.
   • Jesus says the purpose is that they may be where he is.
4. 14:4
   • Jesus says they know where he is going.
   • Jesus says they know the way.
5. 14:5
   • Thomas speaks to Jesus.
   • Thomas addresses him as Lord.
   • Thomas says they do not know where Jesus is going.
   • Thomas asks how they can know the way.
6. 14:6
   • Jesus says to him that he is the way.
   • Jesus says he is the truth.
   • Jesus says he is the life.
   • Jesus says no one comes to the Father except through him.
7. 14:7
   • Jesus says that if they had known him, they would have known his Father also.
   • Jesus says that from now on they know the Father.
   • Jesus says they have seen the Father.
8. 14:8
   • Philip speaks to Jesus.
   • Philip addresses him as Lord.
   • Philip asks Jesus to show them the Father.
   • Philip says that showing them the Father is enough for them.
9. 14:9
   • Jesus asks Philip whether he has been so long a time with them and Philip still has not known him.
   • Jesus addresses Philip by name.
   • Jesus says whoever has seen him has seen the Father.
   • Jesus asks how Philip can say, Show us the Father.
10. 14:10
    • Jesus asks whether Philip does not believe that Jesus is in the Father and the Father is in Jesus.
    • Jesus says the words he speaks to them he does not speak from himself.
    • Jesus says the Father dwells in him.
    • Jesus says the Father does the works.
11. 14:11
    • Jesus tells them to believe him that he is in the Father and the Father is in him.
    • Jesus says that otherwise they should believe because of the works themselves.
12. 14:12
    • Jesus says truly, truly to them.
    • Jesus says the one who believes in him will also do the works that Jesus does.
    • Jesus says that person will do greater works than these.
    • Jesus gives the reason that he is going to the Father.
13. 14:13
    • Jesus says he will do whatever they ask in his name.
    • Jesus says the purpose is that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14. 14:14
    • Jesus says that if they ask anything in his name, he will do it.
15. 14:15
    • Jesus says that if they love him, they are to keep his commandments.
16. 14:16
    • Jesus says he will ask the Father.
    • Jesus says the Father will give them another Comforter.
    • Jesus says the purpose is that the Comforter may remain with them forever.
17. 14:17
    • Jesus identifies the Comforter as the Spirit of truth.
    • Jesus says the world cannot receive the Spirit of truth.
    • Jesus says the reason is that the world does not see him.
    • Jesus says the world does not know him.
    • Jesus says they know him.
    • Jesus says he dwells with them.
    • Jesus says he will be in them.
18. 14:18
    • Jesus says he will not leave them as orphans.
    • Jesus says he is coming to them.
19. 14:19
    • Jesus says that in a little while the world sees him no more.
    • Jesus says they see him.
    • Jesus says he lives.
    • Jesus says they also will live.
20. 14:20
    • Jesus says that on that day they will know that he is in his Father.
    • Jesus says they will know that they are in him.
    • Jesus says they will know that he is in them.
21. 14:21
    • Jesus says the one who has his commandments and keeps them is the one who loves him.
    • Jesus says the one who loves him will be loved by his Father.
    • Jesus says he will love that person.
    • Jesus says he will manifest himself to that person.
22. 14:22
    • Judas speaks to Jesus.
    • This Judas is not Iscariot.
    • Judas addresses him as Lord.
    • Judas asks how it is that Jesus will manifest himself to them and not to the world.
23. 14:23
    • Jesus answered and said to him.
    • Jesus says that if anyone loves him, that person will keep his word.
    • Jesus says his Father will love that person.
    • Jesus says he and the Father will come to that person.
    • Jesus says they will make their dwelling with that person.
24. 14:24
    • Jesus says the one who does not love him does not keep his words.
    • Jesus says the word they hear is not his own.
    • Jesus says the word is the Father's.
    • Jesus says the Father sent him.
25. 14:25
    • Jesus says he has spoken these things to them.
    • Jesus says he has spoken them while remaining with them.
26. 14:26
    • Jesus says the Comforter is the Holy Spirit.
    • Jesus says the Father will send the Comforter in his name.
    • Jesus says the Comforter will teach them all things.
    • Jesus says the Comforter will remind them of everything Jesus has said to them.
27. 14:27
    • Jesus says he leaves peace with them.
    • Jesus says he gives them his peace.
    • Jesus says he does not give as the world gives.
    • Jesus tells them not to let their heart be troubled.
    • Jesus tells them not to be afraid.
28. 14:28
    • Jesus says they heard him say that he goes away and comes again to them.
    • Jesus says that if they loved him they would rejoice because he said he is going to the Father.
    • Jesus says the Father is greater than he is.
29. 14:29
    • Jesus says he has told them now, before it happens.
    • Jesus says the purpose is that when it happens they may believe.
30. 14:30
    • Jesus says he will not talk much more with them.
    • Jesus says the reason is that the ruler of this world is coming.
    • Jesus says the ruler of this world has nothing in him.
31. 14:31
    • Jesus says this happens so that the world may know that he loves the Father.
    • Jesus says he does exactly as the Father commanded him.
    • Jesus tells them to arise.
    • Jesus tells them to go from there.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

14:1

The Greek verb behind "ye believe" and "believe also" has the same form for a statement and for a command, and both clauses are equally ambiguous. The sentence can be read as "you believe in God, and you believe in me," as "believe in God, believe also in me," or as either mixture of the two. Translators have to pick one; the Greek does not.

14:2

"Mansions" in 1611 meant simply a place to stay, from the Latin mansio, a lodging or stopping place on a journey. It carried nothing of the modern sense of a grand house. The Greek noun likewise means a dwelling or room, and it appears again in verse 23, where the King James renders it "abode." Ancient manuscripts have no punctuation, so the rest of the verse can be read as two statements, as the King James takes it, or as one question, as most modern versions do.

14:4

"Whither" is old English for "where to," the destination rather than the place; "hence" in verse 31 is its opposite, "from here."

14:5

Thomas was one of Jesus' twelve close friends, called disciples. "Lord" was a respectful name, a little like "master" or "sir."

14:6

"No man" in 1611 English means "no person" of either sex. The King James uses "man" this way throughout, not to restrict the statement to males.

14:7

"From henceforth" means "from now on."

14:8

"Shew" is just the old spelling of "show," and "it sufficeth us" means "that will be enough for us." Philip is asking for one direct sight of God, the kind of thing Moses asked for in Exodus 33.

14:10

"I speak not of myself" does not mean "I do not speak about myself." In 1611 "of myself" meant "from myself, on my own authority," the sense the Greek carries here.

14:11

"For the very works' sake" means "on account of the works themselves." In the King James, "for ... sake" regularly means "because of," not "for the benefit of." The "works" are the things Jesus has done, the healings and signs recorded earlier in this Gospel.

14:12

"Verily, verily" translates the Hebrew word amen, doubled. Amen means something firm or reliable, and it was normally said by a listener to affirm someone else's words. In this Gospel Jesus uses it to open his own, a striking reversal of the ordinary usage.

14:13

To ask or act "in my name" was the language of authorized representation: a messenger or agent spoke in the name of the one who sent him, and his words carried that person's weight. It is not a formula attached to the end of a request.

14:14

The manuscripts differ here. Some read "if ye shall ask any thing," as the King James has it; others read "if you ask me anything." The difference is a single word, and both readings are old.

14:15

The Greek verb here can be read either as a command, "keep my commandments," or as a prediction, "you will keep my commandments," and the manuscripts themselves vary between forms. The King James takes it as a command; the plain rendering takes it as a prediction.

14:16

Two old words. "Pray" here carries its ordinary 1611 sense of "ask" or "request," something one person could do of another, with no religious meaning attached. "Comforter" translates the Greek parakletos, literally someone called to your side: a supporter, a helper, and in a legal setting an advocate who speaks on the accused person's behalf. In 1611 "comforter" was still close to its Latin root confortare, to strengthen, rather than the modern sense of soothing someone.

14:17

"The world" translates kosmos, which in this Gospel usually means the ordered human world, people and their societies as they are, rather than the planet or the natural creation.

14:18

"Comfortless" translates a Greek word meaning orphaned, left as a child is left without parents. The same word was used of students left behind by the death of their teacher, which is the situation being described.

14:21

"Manifest" means to make plain or show openly. "Loved of my Father" means "loved by my Father"; in 1611 English "of" often marked who performs an action, where modern English uses "by."

14:22

The Gospels list two disciples named Judas. This one is identified only by not being Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed Jesus. Elsewhere he is called Judas son of James, or Thaddaeus. "Iscariot" is probably a place name, marking which Judas is meant.

14:23

"Make our abode" means "take up residence." The noun is the same Greek word translated "mansions" in verse 2, and those two verses are the only places it occurs in the New Testament.

14:26

In 1611 "ghost" simply meant spirit or breath, with none of the modern sense of a haunting. "Holy Ghost" and "Holy Spirit" translate the identical Greek phrase.

14:27

The everyday Hebrew word for both greeting and farewell was shalom, peace, and that ordinary parting word stands behind this. Shalom meant wholeness and wellbeing, a life in good order, not merely the absence of fighting.

14:28

"If ye loved me" uses the Greek construction reserved for conditions the speaker treats as not actually the case, the same form as English "if you loved me, you would have said so." The King James "if ye loved" preserves this; a reader might otherwise take it as an open question.

14:29

"Come to pass" is an old way of saying "happen."

14:30

"Prince" translates archon, ruler or chief official, not a king's son. "Hath nothing in me" is an idiom, possibly legal in origin: he has no claim on me, nothing in me that belongs to him, no hold.

14:31

"Hence" means "from here." The instruction to get up and leave sits oddly where it does, since the speech continues without a break for three more chapters before anyone moves in chapter 18. Readers have noticed this since antiquity; the Gospel offers no explanation.