Abstract:
In John 7:39, the author of the fourth gospel explains that the concession of the Holy Spirit was conditioned to the previous glorification of Jesus. At least in two other moments Jesus called attention of the disciples to the occasion of the sending of the Holy Spirit: the first was registered in the farewell discourses (Jo 14-16) – therefore, before the death of Jesus – while the second appears in the narratives after his resurrection (cf. Lk 24:36-51 and Acts 1:3-12). Jo 7:37-39 gives us further information that the living water is related to the Spirit, which in the context, was a promise made by Jesus. But the concession of the Spirit required more than the simple belief of the human being in Jesus. There was something beyond the reach of belief: the requirement for the sending of the Spirit was the glorification of Jesus: “the Spirit, up to that moment, had not yet been given” (v. 39), even if some people already had believed in him – Jesus – even before the episode which occurred on the last day of the Festival of the Tabernacles. Besides analyzing the exegetical issues encountered in the pericope – which led to the divergence of opinions both about the scenario of the Feast of the Tabernacles as well as about the identification of the segment which connects the end of verse 37 to the beginning of verse 38 – the main goal of this thesis is to study the Johannine understanding of the glorification of Jesus and the reasons it offers for the conditionality regarding the receiving of the Holy Spirit.
