Don’t let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God — believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house there are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?[1] 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me, so that where I am, you may be too. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you’re going. How can we know the way?”
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you have known me, you will know my Father too. From now on you do know him — you have seen him.”
8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.”
9 Jesus replied, “Philip, I have been with you all this time, and still you don’t know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak to you I don’t speak on my own. The Father, living in me, is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.
12 “Amen, amen, I tell you: whoever believes in me will do the works I am doing, and even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, so that the Father may be honored in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you forever —[2] 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, because he stays with you and will be in you.
18 “I will not leave you as orphans. I am coming to you. 19 In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Because I live, you will live too. 20 On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them — that is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and show myself to them.”
22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, what has happened that you are going to show yourself to us and not to the world?”[3]
23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word you hear is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me.
25 “I have spoken these things to you while staying with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name — he will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you.
27 “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I don’t give as the world gives. Don’t let your hearts be troubled, and don’t be afraid. 28 You heard me say, ‘I am going away, and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I am. 29 I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen, you will believe.
30 “I won’t talk with you much longer, because the ruler of this world is coming. He has no hold on me.[4] 31 But I do as the Father commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.
“Get up. Let’s leave this place.”[5]
Notes
Note 1. The Greek word behind “rooms” is monai, meaning dwelling-places or abodes — the King James Version’s famous “mansions” came into English through the Latin. The word is built on the same root as the verb “to remain” or “abide,” which surfaces again in verse 23, where Jesus says he and the Father will “make our home” with anyone who loves him. ↩
Note 2. The Greek paraklētos literally means “one called alongside” — a helper, comforter, or legal defender who stands with you. There is no single Hebrew or Aramaic equivalent behind it. ↩
Note 3. The text distinguishes this Judas from the one who handed Jesus over. Early tradition identifies him with the apostle called “Judas son of James” in Luke and Acts, and with the Thaddaeus of Matthew and Mark — the same figure under different names. ↩
Note 4. The phrase (ho tou kosmou archōn) is generally read as a reference to Satan, and John uses it again at 12:31; Paul echoes it with “the god of this age” in 2 Corinthians 4:4. Second Temple Jewish writings had no fixed doctrine of Satan, so the title reflects an idea still taking shape rather than a settled formula. ↩
Note 5. The command to get up and go is followed by three more chapters of discourse (15–17) before the departure at 18:1. Readers have long puzzled over this: some think the command marks a real move toward Gethsemane, others that later material was gathered in after this line was already written. ↩