I'ARACLETE. The term Paraclete (Gk. parakletos) occurs four times in the Gospel of John (xiv. 16, 26; xv. 26, xvi. 7) and once in the First Epistle of John (ii. 1). In Job xvi. 2 it is used by Aquila and Theodotion in the plural to render the Hebrew word menaohamim, which means " comforters " (" wearisome comforters are ye all "). In Isaiah xl. 1, where the Hebrew has, " Com fort ye, comfort ye my people," the Septuagint renders by paracaleite, paraealeite. The Greek word paraelesis frequently means " consolation." It also means " en couragement." Philo sometimes uses the word "para in the sense of " helper " or " adviser." The word, it is true, is passive in form and most naturally means " one called in," or " called to the side of another," and so " an advocate." This Is perhaps the meaning in I. John ii. 1 " We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." But it seems also, perhaps ou the analogy of Hebrew usage, to have been used in an active sense and as the equivalent of the Hebrew menachem, " comforter." Origen and Chrysos torn understand the word in this sense. The Hebrew word often means to " console " those who are mourning, but it also means to " encourage" (Gen. 1. 21). In Psalm Lxxxvi. the verb is made parallel to the verb `dzar " to help," and in Jeremiah xxxi. 13 to the verb " to cause to rejoice." The Paraclete, then, may be regarded as some agency which consoles, comforts, encourages, and helps. Used as an equivalent of the Hebrew term, there is in the word no idea of acting as an advocate or pleader. And in the Gospel of John the
word is no doubt to be understood as the equivalent of menachem. Thus, John xiv. 16 says: " And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter (not necessarily a person), that he may be with you for ever, the spirit of truth." Vs. 26 reads : " But the Com forter, the holy spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said unto you." In xv. 26 it is said : " But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, the spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall bear witness of me." Lastly, in xvi. 7, Jesus is represented as saying : " If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I go, I will send him unto you." And he explains that it is necessary for the Comforter to come to convince (not " convict " in the sense of condemn) the world of the true nature of sin, righteousness, and judg ment. The Comforter, therefore, is the spirit of truth, which will comfort, help, encourage and enlighten men. Or as A. Juelicher expresses it : " in place of the Son about to return to the Father, the seemingly forsaken disciples are to receive the patronus, the " helper " 40xav, the spirit of truth, who will take them up and lead them up, in the struggle for light and life, step by step, from victory to victory." See A. Juelicher in the Enoyel. Bibl.; also the Prot. Diet.; and the Cath. Diet.