The word parakletos is a verbal adjective, often used of one called to help in a lawcourt. In the Jewish tradition the word was transcribed with Hebrew letters and used for angels, prophets, and the just as advocates before God's court. The word also acquired the meaning of 'one who consoles'. It is probably wrong to explain the Johannine parakletos on the basis of only one religious background. The word is filled with a complex meaning: the Spirit replaces Jesus, is an advocate and a witness, but also consoles the disciples.
The term is not common in non-Jewish texts. The best known use is by Demosthenes: A Greek–English Lexicon, apart from Demosthenes cites also the example of a slave summoned as a help.
In Judaism
speaks several times of "paraclete" advocates primarily in the sense of human intercessors. The word later went from Hellenistic Jewish writing into rabbinic literature. The word is not used in the Septuagint, the word "comforters" being different in the Book of Job. Other words are used to translate the Hebrew word mnaḥḥēm "comforter" and mliṣ yosher.
In Christianity
In the Greek New Testament the word is most prominent in the Johannine writings. It appears in the Gospel of John where it may be translated into English as "counselor", "helper", “advocate”, or "comforter". The New Testament Studies, a peer-reviewedacademic journal published by Cambridge University Press, describes a "striking similarity" between the defined attributes of what the Paraclete is, and is to do, and what the outcome of Christian prophecy has spoken to, explaining the Paraclete as the post-Passover gift of the Holy Spirit. "The Paraclete represents the Spirit as manifested in a particular way, as a pneumatic Christian speech charisma. Every verb describing the ministry of the Paraclete is directly related to his speech function." The early church identified the Paraclete as the Holy Spirit. In first-century Jewish and Christian understanding, the presence of the Holy Spirit is to claim rebirth of prophecy. During his period as a hermit in the mid-12th century, Peter Abelard dedicated his chapel to the Paraclete because "I had come there as a fugitive and, in the depths of my despair, was granted some comfort by the grace of God."
Scholarly interpretations
quotes Jesus as saying "another Paraclete" will come to help his disciples, implying, according to Lawrence Lutkemeyer, that Jesus is the first and primary Paraclete. In Jesus himself is called "paraclete". Raymond Brown, supported by George Johnston, also says that the "another Paraclete" of John 14:16 is in many ways another Jesus, the presence of Jesus after Jesus ascends to his Father. The Gospel of Matthew twice uses the passive form of the corresponding verb παρακαλῶ, in and . In both instances, the context is of mourning, and the meaning of the verb is "to be comforted".
Paraclete first appearing in gospel
Here is the context of the passage in John 14:15-14:27 with the translation of Paraclete as Advocate shown in bold:
In Islam
Many Muslim writers have argued that “another Paraclete” —the first being Jesus—refers to Muhammad. This claim is based on Quran 61:6. A few Muslim commentators, such as David Benjamin Keldani, have argued the theory that the original Koine Greek used was periklytos, meaning famed, illustrious, or praiseworthy, rendered in Arabic as Aḥmad, and that this was substituted by Christians with parakletos. However, there is not one Greek manuscript in existence with this reading, all Greek manuscripts read παράκλητος parakletos. Regarding what the original Greek term was, according to A. Guthrie and E. F. F. Bishop: Sean Anthony agrees that the connection of Ahmad to the Paraclete in the Gospel of John may have been a later tradition that is not found in the work of Ibn Ishaq and that the earliest extant attempts by Muslims to connect these two figures that inspire later discussion on the subject goes back to Ibn Hisham and Ibn Qutaybah. A later interpolation of this passage to the Quran has been rejected in modern Islamic studies. This has been supported by the fact that the earliest as well as the later manuscripts of the Quran contain the same passage and wording in Surah 61.
