Categoría: EVANGELIO SEGÚN SAN JUAN

The Bible – New Testament

Saint John

Chapter 14

1

^1 2 «Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me.

2

In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?

3

³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.

4

Where (I) am going you know the way.» ⁴

5

Thomas said to him, «Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?»

6

Jesus said to him, «I am the way and the truth ⁵ and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

7

If you know me, then you will also know my Father. ⁶ From now on you do know him and have seen him.»

8

Philip said to him, «Master, show us the Father, ⁷ and that will be enough for us.»

9

Jesus said to him, «Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

10

Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works.

11

Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves.

12

Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father.

13

And whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

14

If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.

15

«If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

16

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate ⁸ to be with you always,

17

the Spirit of truth, ⁹ which the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows it. But you know it, because it remains with you, and will be in you.

18

I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. ¹⁰

19

In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live and you will live.

20

On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you.

21

Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.»

22

Judas, not the Iscariot, ¹¹ said to him, «Master, (then) what happened that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?»

23

Jesus answered and said to him, «Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.

24

Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me.

25

«I have told you this while I am with you.

26

The Advocate, the holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name – he will teach you everything and remind you of all that (I) told you.

27

Peace ¹² I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.

28

¹³ You heard me tell you, ‘I am going away and I will come back to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I.

29

And now I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe.

30

I will no longer speak much with you, for the ruler of the world ¹⁴ is coming. He has no power over me,

31

but the world must know that I love the Father and that I do just as the Father has commanded me. Get up, let us go.

1 [1-31] Jesus’ departure and return. This section is a dialogue marked off by a literary inclusion in ⇒ John 14:1, ⇒ 27: «Do not let your hearts be troubled.»

2 [1] You have faith: could also be imperative: «Have faith.»

3 [3] Come back again: a rare Johannine reference to the parousia; cf ⇒ 1 John 2:28.

4 [4] The way: here, of Jesus himself; also a designation of Christianity in ⇒ Acts 9:2; ⇒ 19:9, ⇒ 23; ⇒ 22:4; ⇒ 24:14, ⇒ 22.

5 [6] The truth: in John, the divinely revealed reality of the Father manifested in the person and works of Jesus. The possession of truth confers knowledge and liberation from sin (⇒ John 8:32).

6 [7] An alternative reading, «If you knew me, then you would have known my Father also,» would be a rebuke, as in ⇒ John 8:19.

7 [8] Show us the Father: Philip is pictured asking for a theophany like ⇒ Exodus 24:9-10; ⇒ 33:18.

8 [16] Another Advocate: Jesus is the first advocate (paraclete); see ⇒ 1 John 2:1, where Jesus is an advocate in the sense of intercessor in heaven. The Greek term derives from legal terminology for an advocate or defense attorney, and can mean spokesman, mediator, intercessor, comforter, consoler, although no one of these terms encompasses the meaning in John. The Paraclete in John is a teacher, a witness to Jesus, and a prosecutor of the world, who represents the continued presence on earth of the Jesus who has returned to the Father.

9 [17] The Spirit of truth: this term is also used at Qumran, where it is a moral force put into a person by God, as opposed to the spirit of perversity. It is more personal in John; it will teach the realities of the new order (⇒ John 14:26), and testify to the truth (⇒ John 14:6). While it has been customary to use masculine personal pronouns in English for the Advocate, the Greek word for «spirit» is neuter, and the Greek text and manuscript variants fluctuate between masculine and neuter pronouns.

10 [18] I will come to you: indwelling, not parousia.

11 [22] Judas, not the Iscariot: probably not the brother of Jesus in ⇒ Mark 6:3 // ⇒ Matthew 13:55 or the apostle named Jude in ⇒ Luke 6:16 but Thomas (see the note on ⇒ John 11:16), although other readings have «Judas the Cananean.»

12 [27] Peace: the traditional Hebrew salutation salom; but Jesus’ «Shalom» is a gift of salvation, connoting the bounty of messianic blessing.

13 [28] The Father is greater than I: because he sent, gave, etc., and Jesus is «a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God» (⇒ John 8:40).

14 [30] The ruler of the world: Satan; cf ⇒ John 12:31; ⇒ 16:11.

The Bible – New Testament

Saint John

Chapter 10

1

^1 2 «Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber.

2

But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.

3

The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

4

³ When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice.

5

But they will not follow a stranger; they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.»

6

Although Jesus used this figure of speech, ⁴ they did not realize what he was trying to tell them.

7

⁵ So Jesus said again, «Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep.

8

⁶ All who came [before me] are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.

9

I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.

10

A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.

11

I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

12

A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them.

13

This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep.

14

I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me,

15

just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep.

16

I have other sheep ⁷ that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd.

17

This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.

18

No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again. ⁸ This command I have received from my Father.»

19

Again there was a division among the Jews because of these words.

20

Many of them said, «He is possessed and out of his mind; why listen to him?»

21

Others said, «These are not the words of one possessed; surely a demon cannot open the eyes of the blind, can he?»

22

The feast of the Dedication ⁹ was then taking place in Jerusalem. It was winter.

23

¹⁰ And Jesus walked about in the temple area on the Portico of Solomon.

24

So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, «How long are you going to keep us in suspense? ¹¹ If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.»

25

Jesus answered them, «I told you ¹² and you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify to me.

26

But you do not believe, because you are not among my sheep.

27

My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.

28

I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand.

29

My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, ¹³ and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand.

30

¹⁴ The Father and I are one.»

31

The Jews again picked up rocks to stone him.

32

Jesus answered them, «I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of these are you trying to stone me?»

33

The Jews answered him, «We are not stoning you for a good work but for blasphemy. You, a man, are making yourself God.»

34

¹⁵ Jesus answered them, «Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, «You are gods»‘?

35

If it calls them gods to whom the word of God came, and scripture cannot be set aside,

36

can you say that the one whom the Father has consecrated ¹⁶ and sent into the world blasphemes because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?

37

If I do not perform my Father’s works, do not believe me;

38

but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may realize (and understand) that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.»

39

(Then) they tried again to arrest him; but he escaped from their power.

40

He went back across the Jordan to the place where John first baptized, and there he remained.

41

Many came to him and said, «John performed no sign, ¹⁷ but everything John said about this man was true.»

42

And many there began to believe in him.

1 [1-21] The good shepherd discourse continues the theme of attack on the Pharisees that ends John 9. The figure is allegorical: the hired hands are the Pharisees who excommunicated the cured blind man. It serves as a commentary on John 9. For the shepherd motif, used of Yahweh in the Old Testament, cf Exodus 34; ⇒ Genesis 48:15; ⇒ 49:24; ⇒ Micah 7:14; ⇒ Psalm 23:1-4; ⇒ 80:1.

2 [1] Sheepfold: a low stone wall open to the sky.

3 [4] Recognize his voice: the Pharisees do not recognize Jesus, but the people of God, symbolized by the blind man, do.

4 [6] Figure of speech: John uses a different word for illustrative speech than the «parable» of the synoptics, but the idea is similar.

5 [7-10] In ⇒ John 10:7-8, the figure is of a gate for the shepherd to come to the sheep; in ⇒ John 10:9-10, the figure is of a gate for the sheep to come in and go out.

6 [8] [Before me]: these words are omitted in many good early manuscripts and versions.

7 [16] Other sheep: the Gentiles, possibly a reference to «God’s dispersed children» of ⇒ John 11:52 destined to be gathered into one, or «apostolic Christians» at odds with the community of the beloved disciple.

8 [18] Power to take it up again: contrast the role of the Father as the efficient cause of the resurrection in ⇒ Acts 2:24; ⇒ 4:10; etc.; ⇒ Romans 1:4; ⇒ 4:24. Yet even here is added: This command I have received from my Father.

9 [22] Feast of the Dedication: an eight-day festival of lights (Hebrew, Hanukkah) held in December, three months after the feast of Tabernacles (⇒ John 7:2), to celebrate the Maccabees’ rededication of the altar and reconsecration of the temple in 164 B.C., after their desecration by Antiochus IV Epiphanes (⇒ Daniel 8:13; ⇒ 9:27; cf ⇒ 1 Macc 4:36-59; ⇒ 2 Macc 1:18-⇒ 2:19; ⇒ 10:1-8).

10 [23] Portico of Solomon: on the east side of the temple area, offering protection against the cold winds from the desert.

11 [24] Keep us in suspense: literally, «How long will you take away our life?» Cf ⇒ John 11:48-50. If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly: cf ⇒ Luke 22:67. This is the climax of Jesus’ encounters with the Jewish authorities. There has never yet been an open confession before them.

12 [25] I told you: probably at ⇒ John 8:25 which was an evasive answer.

13 [29] The textual evidence for the first clause is very divided; it may also be translated: «As for the Father, what he has given me is greater than all,» or «My Father is greater than all, in what he has given me.»

14 [30] This is justification for ⇒ John 10:29; it asserts unity of power and reveals that the words and deeds of Jesus are the words and deeds of God.

15 [34] This is a reference to the judges of Israel who,since they exercised the divine prerogative to judge (⇒ Deut 1:17), were called «gods»; cf ⇒ Exodus 21:6, besides ⇒ Psalm 82:6 from which the quotation comes.

16 [36] Consecrated: this may be a reference to the rededicated altar at the Hanukkah feast; see the note on ⇒ John 10:22.

17 [41] Performed no sign: this is to stress the inferior role of John the Baptist. The Transjordan topography recalls the great witness of John the Baptist to Jesus, as opposed to the hostility of the authorities in Jerusalem.