XIII. 31 — XVI. 33.

Farewell conversation. Upon Judas's departure, Jesus began His Last, Farewell Discourse with His disciples (XIII. 31-XVI. 33). Its content is predetermined by the symbolic act of washing the feet, the interpretation given by Jesus, and the indication of the betrayer. We have the right to expect in the Farewell Discourse an understanding of the Passion – for Jesus himself and for the disciples – and a call to love. As we have seen, Jesus' ministry in washing His feet was an image of His Passion, and the disciples' consent to washing was an expression of their participation in the Passion of Jesus. We find both in the Farewell Discourse, and moreover from its first words. The Lord speaks to the disciples about the manifestation of Glory and about separation, and gives them a new commandment of love. These topics will be developed further, throughout the conversation. But, as always, starting from the symbolic act, the speeches of Jesus do not limit themselves to the revelation of the symbol, but also introduce new themes, in the symbolic act only barely or at all intended. Such a new theme is the promise of the sending down of the Spirit of the Comforter and the teaching about Him, to which the Lord turns again and again – four times during the Farewell Discourse and with increasing clarity. In the symbolic introduction XIII. 1-30 we find no reference to the Spirit. But we stopped with bewilderment on the question: why did the Evangelist need the image of water? Of course, he borrowed it from personal experience, but the personal experience experienced by the disciples at the Last Supper was also imprinted in other images that could express the path of the Passion of Jesus himself and the disciples' communion with it. Why did he stop at the image of ablution? Is it not because water, in the mind of the evangelist, was not only an image of the Old Testament, but also an instrument of the Spirit, and living water was a symbol of the Spirit? The image of water could have been needed by the evangelist as a symbolic starting point for the teaching about the Holy Spirit, which is given such a large place in the revelation of the Farewell Discourse. It might be imprudent to insist on this connection, but the question must be raised.

Building a conversation.

The structure of the Farewell Discourse attracted the attention of many interpreters. Some of the repetitions that are observed in Chapter XVI in comparison with Chapter XIV suggested a corruption of the text, and some interpreters, not only radical ones like Bultmann but also conservative ones like Bernard and even Temple, suggested reshaping the overlapping parts. This reshaping could not lead to positive results, because it was not based on objective data. And Dodd showed his strength this time again by suggesting that we be satisfied with the understanding of the Farewell Discourse, starting from the generally accepted order of the text. The division of conversation proposed below will take into account the logical development of thought and the psychology of conversation.

In this division in the Farewell Discourse, four parts will be distinguished: the introduction (XIII. 31-38), in which the main topics of the discourse are posed; Part One (Chapter XIV), Consolation in Separation; Part Two (XV. 1-XVI. 4), on abiding in love; and Part Three (XVI. 5-33), overcoming sorrow.

XIII. 31-38.

A well-known critical problem is connected with XIII. 32a. The words rendered in English, "if God is glorified in Him," are found in ancient manuscripts only in codices A and θ, and were known to Origen. They are absent in the P66. N[71], Β, Δ, and W, and yet most of the editors and interpreters of the Gospel retain them, believing that their omission is due to a copyist's error, which is often observed where at close range two sentences end with the repetition of the same words.

With the retention of the controversial phrase, the Farewell Discourse begins with the testimony of the mutual glorification of the Son of Man and God and of the subsequent glorification of the Son of Man by God.

There is much that requires our attention in these words. And first of all, verb forms. In the translation, both the passive voice and the aorist should be preserved: "... now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him" (v. 31). The passive voice raises the question of the actor. In the glorification of the Son of Man, God, only God can be the person acting for the Son of Man, but since God is glorified "in Him," then έν αύτφ contains an indication of by whom God is glorified. This time it can only be the Son of Man. It is about the mutual glorification of the Son of Man and God. Embarking on the path of the Passion, Jesus, in the interpretation of the Evangelist, to whom the latter remains faithful throughout the book, can understand by glorification only his Passion. The Glory manifested in the past, as we remember, was already spoken of in XII.28, but if the aorist form of XIII.31 justified the rapprochement of the two texts, it would have been excluded by the solemn νΰν ("now") with which the Farewell Discourse begins. The mutual glorification of the Father and the Son now, when the Son enters the path of the Passion, can only refer to the Passion. This path is thought of as having already been traveled. The aorist forms express his contemplation outside of time (v. 31).

But the glorification of God by the Son of Man is thought of as a condition for the glorification of the Son of Man by God. In contrast to the appearance of Glory in the Passion, expressed in the aorist forms, for this second glorification, which is the glorification of the Son of Man by God, the future tense forms (δοξάσει) are used, and this future is thought of as near (v. 32). How to understand this second glorification, the Lord does not yet say. It is noteworthy, however, that in the continuation of the discourse, speaking of the sending down of the Spirit, the Lord also uses the future tense for it: "He will glorify Me" (XVI. 14). And, as already shown in VII. 39, the evangelist makes the sending of the Spirit dependent on the glorification of Jesus. Thus, the Farewell Discourse begins with Jesus' testimony to the mutual glorification of God and the Son of Man, which can only be thought of as glorification in the Passion. But after this first manifestation of Glory and depending on it, a second manifestation of Glory is expected in the immediate future, understood as God's glorification of the Son of Man and allowing in the context of the Farewell Discourse a rapprochement with the sending of the Holy Spirit.

After that, the Lord begins to speak about separation. He repeats to his disciples what he said to the Jews: "... where I am going, you cannot go." And He gives them a new commandment of love, repeating His interpretation of the washing of feet: "As I have loved you, that you also love one another." By this sign of love, they are recognized by all as his disciples (vv. 33-35). Passions are not only glorification. Passions are separation. And in separation, the fulfillment of Communion will be obedience to the new commandment of love. Peter tries to resist. He asks Jesus where He is going. Jesus answers, "Where I am going, you cannot follow me now, but you will follow me after." Peter objects, he is ready to lay down his life for Jesus, and the Lord predicts his threefold denial (vv. 36-38). On the pages of the Gospel both Peter's foretold denial (ch. XVIII) and His prophesied rite (cf. XXI. 19-22) are fulfilled. And the theme of Peter, raised by the Evangelist in I. 41-42, returns again in the narrative of the Passion. In chapter XX, Peter, as we see, does not dare to ask Jesus about the betrayer himself, but resorts to the intermediary of the Beloved. Here the Lord responds to his impulse with a prediction of renunciation. From now on, the topic of Peter will return again. But the emphasis does not lie on it, and here, at the beginning of the Farewell Conversation, the dialogue with Peter is needed in order to better show the reader the inevitability of separation. The Lord responds to the inevitability of separation with consolation in the first main part of the discourse, which in the generally accepted division constitutes Chapter XIV.

Hl. XIV. 1.

Consolation begins with the most general call to faith. In faith, confusion is overcome: "Let not your heart be troubled: believe in God and believe in Me" (XIV. 1). In form, the invocation is a four-member figure of chiasm. It begins and ends with the thought of faith (coinciding terms one and four), and the object of faith is God and Jesus (members two and three). By the very construction of the call, Jesus as an object of faith is placed on an equal footing with God. This is the first consolation.

XIV. 2-3.