παράκλητος, 
παρακλητου, 
ὁ (
παρακαλέω), properly, 
summoned, called to one's side, especially called to one's aid; hence, 
1. "one who pleads another's cause before a judge, a pleader, counsel for defense, legal assistant; an advocate": 
Demosthenes, p. 341, 11; (
Diogenes Laërtius 4, 50, cf. 
Dio Cassius, 46, 20. 
2. universally, 
one who pleads another's cause with one, an intercessor: 
Philo, de mund. opif. § 59; de Josepho § 40; in Flaccum §§ 3 and 4; so of Christ, in his exaltation at God's right hand, pleading with God the Father for the pardon of our sins, 
1 John 2:1 (in the same sense, of the divine Logos in 
Philo, vita Moys. iii. § 14). 
3. in the widest sense, 
a helper, succorer, aider, assistant; so of the Holy Spirit destined to take the place of Christ with the apostles (after his ascension to the Father), to lead them to a deeper knowledge of gospel truth, and to give them the divine strength needed to enable them to undergo trials and persecutions on behalf of the divine kingdom: 
John 14:16, 
26; 
John 15:26; 
John 16:7, cf. 
Matthew 10:19; 
Mark 13:11; 
Luke 12:11f (
Philo de mund. opif. § 6 at the beginning says that God in creating the world had no need of a 
παράκλητος, an adviser, counsellor, helper. The Targums and Talmud borrow the Greek words 
פְּרַקְלִיט and 
פְּרַקְלִיטָא and use them of any intercessor, defender, or advocate; cf. Baxtorf, Lex. Talm., p. 1843 ((edited by Fischer, p. 916)); so Targ. on 
Job 33:23 for 
מֵלִיץ מַלְאָך, i. e. an angel that pleads man's cause with God; (cf. 
πλουσίων παρακλητοι in '
Teaching' etc. 5 [ET] under the end; the Epistle of Barnabas 20, 2 [ET]; Apostolic Constitutions 7, 18)). Cf. Knapp, Scripta varii Argumenti, p. 124ff; Düsterdieck on 
1 John 2:1, p. 147ff; (Watkins, Excursus 
G, in Ellicott's N. T. Commentary for English Readers; Westcott in the 
Speaker's commentary Additional Note on 
John 14:16; Schaff in Lange ibid.). 
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