What Does John 15:26 Mean?
But when the One who comes alongside arrives, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Breath of truth, which goes out from the Father, he will bear witness of me.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:THE KEY
The Comforter consoles by urging truth into the open as a witness to Jesus.
THE MEANING
The Comforter comes to you from the Father, and the Breath of truth bears witness to Jesus. This comfort consoles while urging truth into recognition; it is testimony about a living person, not an abstract idea.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that comfort is only soothing and has no part in telling the truth.
THE ROOT
παράκλητος
paraklētos
GROWS FROM
παρακαλε-
parakale-
To comfort or console, with a related sense of urging or appeal.
“One who comes alongside” in this verse is paraklētos. The English title can make the Comforter sound like a role defined only by consolation; the related verb also carries urging and appeal. The verse shows that active comfort as testimony, so consolation and truth arrive together.
ALSO GROWS
parakaleō: To comfort, console, or urge.
παρακαλέω
The verb holds consolation and appeal in one word family, illuminating a comfort that speaks and bears witness.
paraklēsis: Comfort, consolation, or appeal.
παράκλησις
This branch keeps comfort connected to an appeal that can make truth heard.
πνεῦμα
pneuma
GROWS FROM
πνευ-
pneu-
To breathe or blow.
The KJV’s “Spirit” stands over a Greek word that also means breath; the verse names the witness as the Breath of truth. One word holds together what English can separate into an unseen presence and bodily breathing.
ALSO GROWS
pneō: To breathe or blow.
πνέω
This verb reveals the breath within the word translated “Spirit.”
pnoē: Breath or blowing.
πνοή
This related word makes the breath connection explicit, joining the verse’s witness to something living and embodied.
μαρτυρήσει
martyresei
GROWS FROM
μαρτυρ-
martyr-
To witness or attest.
“bear witness” in this verse is martyresei. The witness-root binds the person who sees to the testimony that is borne. The Comforter’s work is therefore not a vague impression: it is a witness that points to Jesus.
ALSO GROWS
martys: A witness.
μάρτυς
The same root names the one who bears witness, not just the act of speaking.
martyria: Testimony or witness.
μαρτυρία
This branch names the testimony itself, showing how the witness becomes evidence about Jesus.
THE PATTERN
Truth becomes knowable through witness that makes the unseen source recognizable.
You are my witnesses, says the LORD, and my servant, whom I have chosen, so that you may perceive and lean your weight on me, and understand that I AM. Before me no God was shaped, and behind me there shall be none.And we are his witnesses to these words, and so is the Set-Apart Breath, whom God has given to those who obey him.This is the one who came through water and blood, Jesus, the Anointed One; not in the water only, but in the water and in the blood. And it is the breath that bears witness, because the breath is the truth.THE THREAD
The breath itself testifies together with our breath, that we are children of God.Romans uses the same witness-root and repeats the word translated “Spirit” for the human spirit beside it. John names the testimony as being about Jesus; Romans shows this witnessing breath alongside the reader’s own spirit.
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