摘要：The Paraclete sayings in the farewell discourse reveal a distinctively Johannine understanding of the church and the Spirit. 1 Although exhaustive investigations have been undertaken on the Paraclete sayings already with regard to the meaning of the Paraclete, its religious background and its Sitz im Leben,2 few have attempted to undertake an extensive study on the relation of the Church and the Paraclete.3 This hasprobably arisen from the presupposition that the most important characteristic of the Paraclete sayings is their christological concentration.4 Be that as it may, one must not fail to recognize that another important feature of the Paraclete sayings is that they reveal the Johannine understanding of the church. A lot of the Paraclete’s functions described in the farewell discourse, which are seemingly varied and are often regarded as contradictory vis-à-vis each other, are brought into an integrated whole by the fact that the Paraclete is the Spirit of the church.
