Paraclete
Paraclete (/ˈpærəkliːt/; Greek: παράκλητος, romanized: paráklētos) is a Christian biblical term occurring five times in the Johannine texts of the New Testament.
[2] René Kieffer further explains the development of the meaning of this term: 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 is filled with a complex meaning: the Spirit replaces Jesus, is an advocate and a witness, but also consoles the disciples.
When Greeks came into contact with the Roman Empire [...] the word παράκλητος was developed as a precise equivalent to the Latin legal term advocatus.
[4] The best-known use is by Demosthenes: Citizens of Athens, I do not doubt that you are all very well aware that this trial has been the center of keen partisanship and active canvassing, for you saw the people who were accosting and annoying you just now at the casting of lots.
But I have to make a request which ought to be granted without asking, that you will all give less weight to private entreaty or personal influence than to the spirit of justice and to the oath which you severally swore when you entered that box.
[7] 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.
"[9] Today, the Holy Spirit continues to be referred to as the Paraclete in a prayer known as the Divine Praises, recited during Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.
"A few Muslim commentators, such as David Benjamin Keldani (1928), have argued the theory that the original Koine Greek used was periklytos, meaning 'famed, illustrious, or praiseworthy', rendered in Arabic as Aḥmad (another name of Muhammad), and that this was substituted by Christians with parakletos.
[19] Regarding what the original Greek term was, according to A. Guthrie and E. F. F. Bishop: "Early translators knew nothing about the surmised reading of periklutos for parakletos, and its possible rendering as Ahmad ….
It would have clinched the argument to have followed the Johannine references with a Quranic quotation.”[20][21] "Once more, if we omit the phrase, ‘bearing the name Ahmad,’ and regard Muhammad as still drawing lessons from previous history, the dubious passage might refer to what happened at Pentecost, and other incidents recorded in the earlier chapters of the Acts.
[25][26][27] In Łewond's version of the correspondence between the Byzantine emperor Leo III (r. 717–741) and the Umayyad caliph Umar II (r. 717–720), a letter is attributed to Leo:[28] We recognize Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John as the authors of the Gospel, and yet I know that this truth, recognized by us Christians wounds you, so that you seek to find accomplices for your lie.
[God] has chosen the way of sending [the human race] Prophets, and it is for this reason that the Lord, having finished all those things that He had decided on beforehand, and having fore-announced His incarnation by way of His prophets, yet knowing that men still had need of assistance from God, promised to send the Holy Spirit, under the name of Paraclete, (Consoler), to console them in the distress and sorrow they felt at the departure of their Lord and Master.
[30] Evidence shows that the Abbasid caliph al-Mahdi (r. 775–785) debated the concept with the influential Christian patriarch Timothy I (d.
[30] The Persian theologian Ali al-Tabari (d. 870) believed that only Muhammad could have been the Paraclete since he taught people what they previously didn't know.
[30] The Syrian scholar Ibn Abi Talib al-Dimashqi (d. 1327) asserts that the verses were generally believed to be about the coming of a prophet, until the reign of Constantine I (r. 306–337) when the Christian priests altered the verses to refer to the Holy Spirit, fearing that Constantine would recognize the true faith.
