There is a Tablet of the Master 'Abdu'l-Baha relating to John 16:13
This lowly one translated it with footnotes
http://bahai-library.com/?file=abdulbaha_tafsir_ayat_yuhanna
Dear Brent
This lowly servant offered the following provisional translation that
hopefully will be added to my offerings
**
http://bahai-library.com/?file=abdulbaha_tafsir_ayat_yuhanna
Commentary on Verses of John
by Abdu'l-Bahá
Originally revealed as Tafsír-i-Áyát-i-Yuhanná.
The Master quotes:[1]
Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go
away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you;[2] but if
I depart, I will send him unto you.[3] And when he is come, he will reprove
the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgement: Of sin, because
they believe not on me; Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye
see me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. I
have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit
when he, the Spirit of truth,[4] is come, he will guide you into all truth:
for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, [that]
shall he speak: and he will show you things to come.[5]
The concourse of the Gospel have presently fallen lost in the wilderness
of error and purblindness and thus have considered as naught[6] these
assertions of the Gospel which are explicitly clear and without
allusiveness. This concourse of Christians have clung to interpretations
based on their own imaginings.[7] Thus they say that the purpose of the
above verses is the descent of the Holy Spirit, the descent that occurred
after the ascension of His holiness Christ upon the disciples.[8] This is in
truth the customary way of all peoples[9] and religious communities in that
they close their eyes to the strong and firm meanings of the divine verses
and then they adhere to suppositional[10] and dubious interpretations. Now
you should consider how much their assertion is trivial and invalid:
Firstly. He sayeth: He shall not come unless I go away. This utterance
indicates that He, the Spirit, the Comforter was not there at the time of
Christ[11] and that He would come afterwards. But the Holy Spirit was
inseparably and always co-existing with Christ.[12] So there would otherwise
be no meaning to the saying: He shall not come unless I go away.
Secondly. He said: I have many things to explain to you but you do not
posses the capacity to bear them; but that Sanctified Spirit of Truth will
expound these things and lead you into all truth.
Now consider further: In accord with Christian Teaching, the Holy Spirit
is the Third Hypostasis[13] and the Spirit Jesus Christ is the Second
Hypostasis.[14],[15],[16] Could it be the case that after all the training
imparted by the two Hypostases[17] the veils of ignorance and lack of
knowledge were not torn asunder and the disciples were not confirmed with
the full guidance of truth?[18] Were they then after the ascension of that
Supreme Luminary receiving the hidden unseen mysteries and the concealed and
sealed Lordly wisdoms from the Third Hypostasis? Did they then only become
able to hear these truths? Rather it is obvious[19] that if under the shade
of guidance of that Essence of Essences and the Spirit of Spirits and with
all the confirmations of the Holy spirit if souls be not educated and
trained, and, if the souls dark veils were still not burned away, then the
breaths of the Holy spirit [alone] would have no effect for a hundred
thousand years. And herein is manifest and recognizable truth.
Thus it has become clear and proven from those blessed Johannine verses
that after the Beauty of Jesus another Honoured Soul and Great Beauty will
appear Whose training will be even greater than the education imparted by
Christ, the Spirit of God.
Thirdly He said: That Comforter will not speak from Himself. That means
He shall be aided by the hosts of divine Revelation. He shall declare and
expound all that reaches His Blessed Hearing from the Kingdom of Glory.
Consider again, how clear it is. This means that that Comforting Spirit
is a Person[20] Who wilt be inspired with heavenly Inspirations and be the
Repository of Lordly Revelations. Further, the Holy Spirit doth not have
ears with which to hear.[21] The references that the disciples adduced as
proof from the Torah with respect to the Advent of Christ were never with
this degree of explicitness.
Notes
[1] From Makátib Abdul-Bahá Vol. 2. [al-juz ath-tháni, page 59]. The
title here given is provisionally added by the present editor. The
commentary which follows is only a part of a longer Tablet. Date and
recipient of this text are uncertain (KFs note, modified by MW).
[2] See eg. Summons of the Lord of Hosts: Tablets of Baháulláh, M15, H248
(MWs note).
[3] Here, we see Christ as the Sender of Messengers (MWs
