In the upper room Jesus promises two Comforters — the Holy Ghost, and then his own personal coming: “I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you… we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.”
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The reading is the Restoration Edition — the Joseph Smith Translation reading — carried beside each Gospel and set against the King James baseline. Headers give both numbering systems: the RE chapter and verse, and the traditional KJV reference.
15If you love me, keep my commandments. 16And I will ask the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may be with you for ever — 17even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive because it sees him not, neither knows him. But you know him, for he dwells with you, and shall be in you. 18I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you.
19Yet a little while and the world sees me no more, but you see me. Because I live, you shall live also. 20At that day, you shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21He that has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me. And he that loves me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him.
22Judas says unto him (not Iscariot), Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself unto us and not unto the world? 23Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him.
24He that loves me not keeps not my sayings. And the word which you hear is not mine, but the Father’s, who sent me.
25These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. 26But the Comforter, who is the holy ghost whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance — whatever I have said unto you.
27Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you — not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
15If you love me, stand ready, watching for every communication I will send to you. 16Remember that I will ask the Father, and he will provide to you another Comforter, that he may be by your side endlessly. 17You will obtain the record of Heaven, the truth of all things which is denied to the world because the world refuses my Father, and therefore they do not know him. But you know him, for he is with you, and shall provide answers to guide you. 18I will not leave you comfortless. I will stand at your side also.
19Yet a little while, and the world will no longer see me, but you will not lose sight of me because I give life, and you shall share in endless lives. 20You will know that I and the Father are one, and I am one with you, and you are one with me. 21He that treasures my teachings, and stands ready, watching for every communication I send him, is he who shows love for me. To those who show love for me, my Father will show love to them, and I love all those, and I will personally minister to them.
22Judas (not Iscariot), asked, Lord, how is it you will manifest yourself to us, but not to the world? 23Jesus answered and said to him, If a man loves me, he will stand ready, watching for every communication I will send to him; and my Father will also love him, and we will come visit him, and continually abide by his side.
24Whoever claims to love me but does not stand ready, watching for every communication I will send, indeed does not love me. These teachings are not from me, but come from the Father who sent me.
25These words have I spoken to you while I am still present with you. 26But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost that the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things, and restore to your memory all truth I have taught to you, and the record of Heaven itself.
27I leave you in peace, the peace only my teachings can provide for you and not as the world claims to find peace. Do not be confused nor fearful.
Joseph Smith taught that John records two Comforters: the Holy Ghost, received by the laying on of hands; and a second, greater promise, reserved for those proven and made sure. He pointed the Saints to this very chapter.
Discourse, 27 June 1839, Commerce, Illinois (Willard Richards Pocket Companion; Words of Joseph Smith, pp. 14–15; Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 149–151)
The other Comforter spoken of is a subject of great interest, and perhaps understood by few of this generation. After a person has faith in Christ, repents of his sins, and is baptized for the remission of his sins and receives the Holy Ghost (by the laying on of hands), which is the first Comforter, then let him continue to humble himself before God, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, and living by every word of God, and the Lord will soon say unto him, Son, thou shalt be exalted. When the Lord has thoroughly proved him, and finds that the man is determined to serve him at all hazards, then the man will find his calling and his election made sure, then it will be his privilege to receive the other Comforter, which the Lord hath promised the Saints, as is recorded in the testimony of St. John, in the 14th chapter, from the 12th to the 27th verses.
Now what is this other Comforter? It is no more nor less than the Lord Jesus Christ himself; and this is the sum and substance of the whole matter: that when any man obtains this last Comforter, he will have the personage of Jesus Christ to attend him, or appear unto him from time to time, and even he will manifest the Father unto him, and they will take up their abode with him, and the visions of the heavens will be opened unto him, and the Lord will teach him face to face, and he may have a perfect knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of God — and this is the state and place the ancient Saints arrived at when they had such glorious visions: Isaiah, Ezekiel, John upon the Isle of Patmos, St. Paul in the three heavens, and all the Saints who held communion with the general assembly and Church of the Firstborn.
In the same record he went through the chapter verse by verse. Of verse 21 — I will manifest myself to him — he added, if he does not, he has not told the truth; I will put promises in your hearts that will not leave you, that will seal you up. And of verse 23, there are certain characters that walked with God, saw him, and conversed about heaven.
On the first Comforter (v16–17, 26): the gift of the Holy Ghost is not merely a feeling but the open channel of revelation.
Discourse, 19 December 1841, Nauvoo (Wilford Woodruff journal; Words of Joseph Smith, pp. 80–81; Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 328)
No man can receive the Holy Ghost without receiving revelations. The Holy Ghost is a revelator.
Four years later, in an instruction at Ramus, Joseph made the meaning of the twenty-third verse explicit — guarding it against the notion that the promise is merely a feeling in the heart:
Instruction, 2 April 1843, Ramus, Illinois (Doctrine and Covenants 130:3)
John 14:23 — the appearing of the Father and the Son in that verse is a personal appearance; and the idea that the Father and the Son dwell in a man’s heart is an old sectarian notion, and is false.
Denver Snuffer’s first book takes its title and subject from this passage — the promise that the Lord will appear to and minister personally to those who come to him.
The Second Comforter describes the process, as set out in the Gospel of Jesus Christ taught through the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is an Odyssey through the greatest principles, ordinances and meanings of the Latter-day Saint faith in a comprehensive narrative. It will change the way you think of yourself, and of your life.
View on Amazon ↗Publisher’s description; cover © its publisher. Link goes to Amazon (no affiliate).
The Comforter promised here is bound up, in Nibley’s reading, with the great teachings the risen Lord gave during the forty days — the most important instruction of all, which the commentators pass over as a curious interlude.
If anything like “The Great Forty Days” occurred, the enormous portent of it, which Luke puts at the very root of the Christian faith, quite escapes the commentators, who view it as an odd and rather “interesting” interlude, but admit that in the end we do not know what Christ did or said during the 40 days but can only conjecture.