<p>14:26 and 16:12 likewise associate the work of the Comforter with the testimony of the disciples, who had been with the Lord from the beginning of His ministry. There was a special sense in which the Comforter was relevant only to the disciples, the first eye witnesses from the beginning of the ministry. But the connections with other teaching about the gift of the Spirit lead us to conclude that as with all New Testament teaching about the Spirit, the essence is for all time, although the miraculous manifestation was only for the first century. These passages (here and in 14:26; 16:12) make it clear that the disciples were to witness as Christ to this world exactly because they had been with the Lord from the beginning. John's gospel is his obedience to that. And so he explains that he is recounting how things were from the beginning off the Lord's ministry. And Luke does the same, writing that he too was a witness from the beginning and is therefore testifying to what he had seen (Lk. 1:2).</p><p>The whole purpose of the Lord&rsquo;s life was that He should &ldquo;bear witness&rdquo; unto the Truth of the Father (Jn. 18:37). But John also records the Lord&rsquo;s expectations that all in Him should likewise &ldquo;bear witness&rdquo; (Jn. 15:27). And as John recounted the Gospel of which the Gospel of John is a transcript, He stresses that by doing so he is &lsquo;bearing witness&rsquo;, living out the work of the Lord who lived as the faithful and true witness to men (Jn. 3:11; 19:35; 21:24 cp. 18:37).</p><p><strong>The Comforter: An Angel? </strong><br />The point has been made by several expositors that as Israel were led by a special Angel through the wilderness, whom Isaiah 63 associates with God's Holy Spirit, so the new Israel were led by a Holy Spirit Angel, the Comforter, who was sent to the church by Jesus after His assuming of all power over the Angels on His ascension. The gift of the Holy Spirit was to be &quot;within&quot; the disciples; but it could be feasible that this was superintended by an Angel. The following thoughts are presented more for reflection; I am undecided about the matter. It could be that the Lord is alluding to Jewish ideas about a <em>paraklete </em>Angel and deconstructing them; urging His people to forget Jewish angelology and have His direct personal presence in their hearts through the Spirit. But for the record, here is a summary of the reasons for thinking that the Comforter may have some reference to an Angel:</p><p>- Is. 63:7-11 describes the Angel that guided Israel through the wilderness as the &quot;Holy Spirit&quot;- which is the Comforter. <br />- The Comforter was sent in God and Christ's Name (Jn. 14:26)- the Angel was sent in God's Name (Ex. 23:21)<br />- The Comforter would teach (Jn. 14:26), guide (16:13), be a judge (16:8) and prophesy (16:13); the Angel guided Israel through the wilderness, taught them God's ways, judged Egypt and the Canaanites, gave prophecies, and represented God to Israel as the Comforter represented Jesus to His people.&nbsp; As the church&nbsp;began a new Exodus and was constituted God's Kingdom in prospect as Israel were at Sinai, it was fitting that it should also have an Angel leading them, representing God to them. <br />- The Comforter would &quot;shew you things to come&quot; (Jn. 16:13)- fulfilled by the Angel giving the Revelation to John. <br />- The Angel testified to the churches (Rev. 22:16)- &quot;the Comforter... shall testify of Me&quot; (Jn. 15:26). <br />- The references in Acts to the Holy Spirit as a person would then be easier to understand - e.g. &quot;The Holy Spirit said, Separate Me Barnabas. . &quot; (Acts 13:2). Similarly the frequent occurrences of the ideas of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit together fall into place if the Holy Spirit has some degree of reference to a personal being in the form of an Angel. The error of the doctrine of the trinity is not in identifying the three common forms of God manifestation (i.e. through God Himself, Jesus and the Holy Spirit Angel), but in the inter-relationships between them which it proposes. This idea is worth applying&nbsp;to our understanding of the baptismal formula. <br />- The work of the Comforter Angel may have been confined to the first century, in the same way as the Angel was particularly evident to the ecclesia in the wilderness during the initial Exodus period. Thus the words 'Angel' and 'Spirit'&nbsp; are&nbsp; obviously interchangeable in the book of Acts (e. g. 8:26,29; 10:3,19,20). <br />- The Angel in Revelation &quot;like the son of man&quot; (i.e. representing Him but not Him personally) would then be this same Comforter Angel representing Jesus (Rev. 1:11 cp. 22:13,8,16). He carried the titles of Jesus, who carried the titles of God- e. g. &quot;Alpha and Omega&quot;. <br />- The Comforter is called &ldquo;the spirit of truth&rdquo; (Jn. 14:17; 15:26; 16:13). In the Qumran Dead Sea Scrolls literature, this phrase describes an Angelic Spirit who is the leader of the &ldquo;good forces&rdquo; and &lsquo;in whom&rsquo; the righteous walk <em>Testament of Judah</em> 20, 1-5. The Aramaic translation of Job, and the targums on it, uses the term <em>prqlyt</em> to describe the Angelic spokesman the <em>malak melis</em> who makes a testimony in Heaven in Job&rsquo;s defence (Job 16:19; 19:25-27; 33:23).<br />- Otto Betz, <em>Der Paraklet </em>(AGJU, 1963), brings out many connections between the Comforter and the Angel &lsquo;Michael the Spirit of truth&rsquo; in contemporary Jewish writings. <br />- When we read of the &ldquo;spirit of the Lord&rdquo; snatching away Philip, it seems logical to interpret this as the same Angel already mentioned earlier in the chapter (Acts 8:26,29,39). But this Angel is defined as the Lord&rsquo;s Angel- and the Lord in Acts is nearly always the Lord Jesus. Clearly we are led to understand the Lord Jesus as being associated with a specific Angel.&nbsp; <br />- &quot;Ye have an unction from the Holy One (the Comforter/ Holy Spirit), and ye know all things&quot; (1 Jn. 2:20) is clearly alluding to the promise of the Comforter in Jn. 14:26; but &quot;Holy One&quot; is Angelic language, as if the Holy One was also an Angel.</p><p>- The tongues sitting like flames of fire on the apostles at Pentecost was an Angelic manifestation; the Angels can be made &quot;a flame of fire&quot;.</p><p>- Jude 5 reminds the new Israel of the first century that Israel of old had been condemned due to their provoking of the wilderness Angel- a warning that takes on special power once it is recognized that the very same Angel was leading the early church. <br />- Stephen's speech in Acts 7 contains many references to the Angel of Israel. He uses examples from Israel's history in which they&nbsp;rejected&nbsp;those&nbsp;who&nbsp;were&nbsp;types of Jesus- e. g. v. 9,10,22,25. It follows then that v. 35 must refer to this same aspect of Moses as a type of Christ being rejected. &quot;This Moses whom they renounced... even him God sent to be a ruler and a redeemer with the hand of that Angel which appeared to him in the bush&quot; (Diaglott). Israel resisted the work of the Angel supporting Moses, and so years later they were also rejecting the support of the same guardian Angel for the teachings of Jesus and His disciples, the greater than Moses. So v. 51 stresses &quot;ye do always resist the Holy Spirit (the title of the Comforter Angel in Is. 63): as your fathers did, so do ye&quot;. Their fathers resisted the Angel of the presence which went with them; and so the Jews of the first century were doing just the same.</p>