Have We Understood John 14:1-3 Correctly with Regard to the 2nd Advent?
by Richard W. Coffen
Historically, many Christians have felt certain Jesus’ return was near. Some dared to set a date. If you read through this chronological sampling that expands a list Herbert Douglass once distributed, you can see that the imminence of the Second Coming has been touted since Jesus’ words in 30 CE or thereabouts.
After 20 centuries of insistence that Jesus will return soon, maybe we should rethink the matter?
As an intellectual exercise, let us consider the possibility that we have it wrong. Let us assume that everyone, including the first Christians, mistook the time and nature of Jesus’ return. I’ll pursue this by means of a careful exegesis of John 14:1-3. In this passage Jesus gives this message of reassurance,
In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
The physical context was the upper room. During their table talk, Jesus mentioned his forthcoming disappearance, subsequent tasks, and ensuing reappearance, then adds this passage often quoted with regard to his second coming: “I am going to prepare a place for you. . . . If I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again.”
A conventional interpretation concludes that (1) Jesus was returning to heaven, (2) where he’d build palatial homes for us; (3) then, upon finishing his work, he’d return for us, and (4) we would spend eternity with him while dwelling in our estates.
We forget that Jesus was talking to his 11 disciples (Judas having already slipped out to betray his Master), not to today’s 2,200,000,000 Christians.
A closer study
Perhaps it’s time for what scholars call a “close study” of this pericope.
First, Judas, the presumed treasurer, had already sneaked off to the priests. They clinked into his hands 30 pieces of silver, payment for his help to arrest Jesus. Scholars give the amount in today’s earnings over the broad range of $91 to a high of $20,400. In any case, it was a substantial addition to the group’s petty cash!
Second, Jesus mentioned his “Father’s house” (verse 2). As the late Tim Crosby, my former pastor, pointed out, in John 2:16, Jesus also speaks of his “Father’s house” as the Jerusalem temple. We know that it had devolved into an emporium, where entrepreneurs vended necessities to itinerant visitors who wished to participate in the rituals prescribed in the Torah: lambs, rams, goats, turtledoves, salt, food, and temple currency (Tyrian coins).
In this context Jesus’ Father’s house was not the one located in Nazareth and belonging to Joseph. Neither was it heaven. Rather, Jesus’ Father’s house was the temple. By letting one scripture explain another, John 2:16 and 14:2 denote the same site by the same name.
Third, Jesus says, according to the common KJV interpretation, that his Father’s house contains many “mansions.” Our Sabbath school teachers told us that Jesus is presently building palatial homes in heaven. Accordingly, at the second coming, he’ll take us to heaven so that we can take up residence in those mansions he’ll build. Each of us will have a home rivaling that of Bill Gates’ 66,000 square-foot house in Medina, Washington, with seven bedrooms, 24 bathrooms (10 are full baths), and six kitchens. It’s worth nearly $131,000,000! Each of our heavenly mansions will make Gates’ digs look like “a shanty in old Shanty Town”!
What, though, does the Greek mean? The term monaί denotes rooms—places to stay. That also was the meaning of “mansions” when the KJV was published. So, “in my Father’s house are many rooms.”
Fourth, Jesus was talking about a house—singular. His Father’s house is one domicile comprising many rooms. Might it have more rooms than those in the home of the Sultan of Brunei? Called the Palace of the Faith Light, that mansion has 1,788 rooms, including 257 bathrooms.
But even that is hardly capacious enough for 144,000 plus an innumerable group (Revelation 14:1; 7:9).
Fifth, the verb is present tense. “In my Father’s house are . . .” Jesus needn’t put on a carpenter’s apron. The construction was finished. What was he going to do? The verb for “prepare” is etoimásai, meaning to put in readiness. Think of it as tidying up rooms so that his disciples could take up residency.
Where might those rooms be located? They’re in “my Father’s house”—the temple in Jerusalem. In the temple, Jesus knew, were three tiers of rooms on the north, south, and west periphery. Trapdoors connected the upper and lower rooms. Sacrificial animals, Tyrian coins, and foodstuffs were stockpiled in those 39 rooms.
Cleansing the temple
Arguably, then, Jesus intended to complete the cleansing of the temple, which he’d first begun early on (John 2:16): he would muck out those 39 rooms that formerly housed sacrificial animals. (Remember the context: this was said as the disciples met in that upper room where they celebrated the Passover and later received the Holy Spirit.)
Sixth, Jesus said his disciples weren’t ignorant about his plans. “Whither I go ye know, and the way ye know” (John 14:4).
Jesus also here talked about the arrival of his alter ego: “I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he [the Father] may abide with you for ever” (14:16).
Two words need clarification. First, the term rendered “another” in the KJV. The Greek is ἄllon and connotes “another of the same kind.” Whomever Jesus promised to send, this entity was the same as he. This person (anarthrous) παράκλητον—is Jesus’ righthand man, in our lingo.
Therefore, ἄλλον παράκλητον is Jesus’ alter ego—the sort of helper Jesus himself was during his earthly ministry. Because the Holy Spirit is Jesus’ alter ego, he can bring Jesus’ teachings to his disciples’ memories (14:26). He maintains Jesus’ presence and ministry.
The Spirit would come “in his [Jesus’] name” (14:26). Doing something in the name of another meant “on behalf of.” Whatever one did or said in the name of the other was the same as the other’s actions and voice. Once Jesus left to prepare the 39 temple storerooms, his alter ego would arrive (John 16:7), who’d speak and act on Jesus’ behalf (16:13). The Spirit’s behavior exists only as Jesus’ alter ego and not on his own volition (verse 14).
Just as promised, Jesus’ alter ego, the Holy Spirit, arrived 40 days later—the Day of Pentecost.
So isn’t the Holy Spirit enough for us?
Nevertheless, it appears that first-century Christians, even those divinely inspired, held a range of beliefs about Jesus’ reappearance: (1) he’s already arrived; (2) he’s coming soon, while “we” are alive; (3) he’s coming later, after “we” die; and (4) he won’t return at all.
Meanwhile we Adventists, like those first Christians, continue to perpetuate our belief in the soon coming. Time has passed and continues to fly by.
But wait! Here’s another option. Assuming the validity of Ussher’s chronology (which is doubtful, but we’ll use it for this example), it took about 4,000 years for Jesus’ first coming. We’re only halfway there for his second appearance!
Or if you’re an anthropologist, around 300,000 years ago the first Homo sapiens appeared.
You do the math. Arguably, it could be a very long time before Messiah will reappear.
Perhaps it’s time to cease whining and enjoy the ministry of the Holy Spirit who Jesus left as his representative.
Richard W. Coffen is a retired vice president of editorial services at Review and Herald Publishing Association. He writes from Green Valley, Arizona.
