Passage

John 14.16

"I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;" (John 14:16, NASB95)

John 14:16 is the first of the four Paraclete sayings in the Farewell Discourse (14:16, 14:26, 15:26, 16:7), and the textual foundation for the New Testament's Spirit-as-Person theology. The Greek phrase allon paraklēton ("another Helper") and the masculine pronouns that follow are why orthodox Christianity confesses the Holy Spirit as a divine Person, not an impersonal force or mode.

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"14. If ye shall ask anything in my name, that will I do. 15. If ye love me, ye will keep my commandments."

"16. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may be with you for ever,"

"17. even the Spirit of truth: whom the world cannot receive; for it beholdeth him not, neither knoweth him: ye know him; for he abideth with you, and shall be in you. 18. I will not leave you desolate: I come unto you." (John 14:14-18, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"14. If you will ask anything in my name, I will do it. 15. If you love me, keep my commandments."

"16. I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, that he may be with you forever, ,"

"17. the Spirit of truth, whom the world can’t receive; for it doesn’t see him, neither knows him. You know him, for he lives with you, and will be in you. 18. I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you." (John 14:14-18, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"14. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. 15. If ye love me, keep my commandments."

"16. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;"

"17. Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. 18. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. ^{comfortless: or, orphans}" (John 14:14-18, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"14. if ye ask anything in my name I will do [it]. 15. 'If ye love me, my commands keep,"

"16. and I will ask the Father, and another Comforter He will give to you, that he may remain with you, to the age;"

"17. the Spirit of truth, whom the world is not able to receive, because it doth not behold him, nor know him, and ye know him, because he doth remain with you, and shall be in you. 18. 'I will not leave you bereaved, I come unto you;" (John 14:14-18, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: Jesus, addressing the eleven during the Upper Room discourse (John 13-17), the night before the crucifixion
Narrator: John the Apostle (traditionally)
Audience: later Christian audience (high-Christological emphasis; against early gnostic-style spirituality)
Location: Jerusalem upper room (events); composition possibly Ephesus
Time period: events Thursday evening of Passion Week c. AD 30/33; composed c. AD 85-95

Theological reading

The verse is a doctrinal load-bearer for three reasons.

The word allon matters. Greek distinguishes allos ("another of the same kind") from heteros ("another of a different kind"). John has Jesus use allos. The Spirit is another Paraclete of the same kind as Jesus, not a lesser substitute or a different sort of help, but one in the same category as Christ himself. Since Jesus has been the disciples' Paraclete throughout the Gospel, the promised replacement is at minimum the same kind of personal, relational, divine presence. Modalist and pure-energy readings of the Spirit have to ignore allos.

The word paraklētos is personal. A paraklētos is "one called alongside", advocate, helper, counselor, comforter, intercessor. Every English gloss is partial because the Greek covers a forensic role (advocate), a relational role (comforter), and a teaching role (counselor). The word does not denote a force or an effect. The Spirit is a Who, not a What. 1 John 2:1 calls Jesus a paraklētos using the same word, confirming the personal sense and the parallel between Christ and Spirit.

The masculine pronouns are doctrinally pointed. Greek pneuma ("spirit") is grammatically neuter, but John deliberately uses masculine pronouns ekeinos / autos of the Spirit in the Paraclete passages (14:26, 15:26, 16:7-14). Greek grammar would have used neuter pronouns if the antecedent governed. The masculine pronoun is theological: it marks the Spirit as a person, against the grain of the noun's gender. The translation choices vary (NASB95 uses "He," some translations soften to "it") but the Greek is unambiguous.

Trinitarian shape. The verse names three: Jesus (the asker), the Father (the giver), and another Paraclete (the gift). The Spirit is given by the Father at the Son's request to dwell with the disciples forever. The relations are personal, the action is coordinated, and the result is the indwelling of God in believers. This is one of the clearest Trinitarian-pattern texts in the Gospels and contributes directly to the Filioque debate, Latin theology reads "I will ask the Father, and He will give" + 15:26 "the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father" together as warrant for Filioque; Eastern theology reads them as warrant against. See Trinity vs Oneness vs Modalism vs Arianism and Pneumatology for the developed treatment.

For apologetic deployment: against Jehovah's Witnesses, Modalism, and Pentecostal Oneness theology, John 14:16 supplies the allon paraklēton + masculine-pronoun + personal-action package that grounds the personal-divine-Spirit reading. Against "Spirit is just God's energy" generic spiritualities (cf. New Age Spiritualism) the same lexical core applies.

Key words

G3875 - parakletos, paraklētos, "Helper" / "Advocate" / "Counselor" / "Comforter"; the load-bearing term, used 4× in the Farewell Discourse + 1× of Christ in 1 John 2:1
allos (Greek, "another of the same kind"), distinguished from heteros ("another of a different kind"); the Spirit is in Christ's category
G3962 - pater, patēr, "Father"; the giver of the Spirit at the Son's request
G0165 - aion, aion, "forever" / "to the age"; the permanence of the Spirit's indwelling, contrasted with the temporal presence of the incarnate Christ

Theological themes

Personal Holy Spirit, allos paraklētos + masculine pronouns + personal actions (teaches, reminds, testifies, convicts) establish the Spirit as a Person, not a force
Trinitarian relations, Son asks, Father gives, Spirit dwells; the verse names all three Persons in coordinated action
Permanent indwelling, "with you forever" replaces the temporal incarnation with the permanent in-dwelling of the Spirit; new-covenant fulfillment of Ezekiel 36:27, Joel 2:28
Continuity of Christ's presence, the allos signals that the Spirit's ministry continues what Jesus has been doing; the disciples lose the visible Christ but gain an equivalent-kind Paraclete
Filioque substrate, "I will ask the Father, and He will give" feeds the Western reading of the Spirit's procession from both Father and Son

Cross-references

John 14.17, the Spirit-of-truth identification immediately following
John 14.26, the second Paraclete saying: "He will teach you all things"
John 15.26, the third: "the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father"
John 16.7, the fourth: "if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you"
1 John 2.1, Jesus called paraklētos, confirming the personal-and-divine sense
Joel 2:28-29, Ezekiel 36:27, the OT background for the Spirit-poured-out promise

Quoted in

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.