Genesis 1:26-28 tells us that both men and women were created in the image and likeness of God. The Holy Spirit stopped the disciples from being left alone as powerless orphans (John 14:18), and Eve stopped Adam from being alone, but I am reluctant to draw more similarities between the Holy Spirit and Eve and their respective descriptions as “helper,” especially as the words ezer and paraklētos have different senses. Max Turner observes that for John, “Jesus and the Spirit-Paraclete are parallel figures, or at least have parallel functions.” Furthermore, “the functions actually attributed to ‘the Paraclete’ in John are primarily teaching, revealing and interpreting Jesus to the disciples with forensic functions only explicit at 15:26 16:8–11.” This does not correspond with what Eve did for Adam. The Holy Spirit is effectively Jesus’ replacement and representative now Jesus has returned to the Father and is no longer on earth. He promised they would not be left alone and that another Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, would come and take his place. Jesus’ words in John 14-16 were meant to comfort his disciples. The ESV, NASB, and others simply have “helper,” while a small number of English Bibles and several Bible commentators leave paraklētos untranslated and use the word “Paraclete” (e.g., DRA). The CSB has “counsellor,” a word that can be used for a person who provides legal advocacy as well as a person who provides emotional support. The word also has the sense of consoling and comforting and is sometimes translated in John’s Gospel as “comforter” (e.g., ERV, KJV). This is because paraklētos can have other meanings. The Voice translates paraklētos here as “a high-powered defense lawyer”! Only a few translations, however, have “advocate” in John’s Gospel (NET, NIV, NLT, etc). 1 John 2:1 CSBĪlmost all English translations have the word “advocate” in 1 John 2:1. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father-Jesus Christ the righteous one. My little children, I am writing you these things so that you may not sin. It is used with this sense when speaking about Jesus in First John. Max Turner writes that it means “‘one called alongside,’ especially to offer counsel, support or assistance in a court, or in some other potentially adversarial setting.” And he adds that paraklētoi can act as “intercessors, mediators, or supporting witnesses.” Paraklētos can refer to an advocate, and the word was sometimes used in legal contexts. Paraklētos has a range of meanings and nuances, but it doesn’t typically have the same senses that ezer and boēthos do. John uses a different word for the Holy Spirit in his Gospel four times in his Farewell Discourse he uses the word paraklētos (John 14:16, 26 15:26 16:7). The word boēthos occurs only once in the New Testament, in Hebrews 13:6. Genesis 2 doesn’t tell us what Eve did as ezer/ boēthos other than remedy the problem of the (hu)man being alone. (All occurrences of boēthos in the Septuagint, the ancient Greek Old Testament, are here). Boēthos has a similar meaning as ezer and so also refers to a vital, urgent, powerful kind of help. When the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek over 2000 years ago, ezer was translated as boēthos in Genesis 2:18 and 20. (You can see these twenty-one verses here.) Without exception, these texts are talking about a vital, urgent, powerful kind of help. Sixteen times it is used in reference to God as a helper. Three times it is used of people helping (or failing to help) in life-threatening situations. Twice it is used to describe Eve when she was first created. The word translated into English as “helper” here is the Hebrew word ezer (pronounced ay-zar).Įzer occurs twenty-one times in the Old Testament. I will make a helper corresponding to him” (cf. In Genesis 2:18, God is recorded as saying, “It is not good for the (hu)man to be alone. In the original languages of the Bible, however, “helper” in Genesis 2 and “helper” in John’s Gospel are unrelated words with a different range of meanings. At first glance, this looks like an interesting similarity. I’ve often seen it pointed out that the woman in Eden is described as a “helper” in Genesis 2:18 and 20 and that the Holy Spirit is described as a “helper” in John 14:16, 26, 15:26 and 16:7.
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