John 16:13

However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — Jesus speaks to His disciples during the Farewell Discourse, following His statement that they cannot yet bear more teaching. He introduces the Spirit of truth as the immediate successor to His own instructional presence.

The words — ὅταν (hotan) = "when" establishes the temporal condition for the Spirit's arrival. πνεῦμα (pneuma) = "Spirit" identifies the divine agent who will guide, speak, and reveal.

The thread — The Spirit’s revelatory work parallels John 14:26, where the Father sends Him to teach and remind. 1 Corinthians 2:10 confirms the Spirit searches and discloses the deep things of God, while John 14:17 contrasts the world’s inability to receive Him with the disciples’ existing relationship to Him.

Why it lands — It requires readers to submit to the Spirit’s guidance rather than rely on independent reasoning. It demands recognition that truth and future revelation come through divine communication, not human initiative.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Greek words

King James Version

Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, 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 shew you things to come.

Cross-references

John 14:26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have told you.
1 Corinthians 2:10 But God has revealed it to us by the Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.
John 14:17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you do know Him, for He abides with you and will be in you.
John 15:26 When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father—He will testify about Me.
1 John 2:27 And as for you, the anointing you received from Him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But just as His true and genuine anointing teaches you about all things, so remain in Him as you have been taught.
1 John 2:20 You, however, have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.
Acts 2:17 ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.
John 12:49 I have not spoken on My own, but the Father who sent Me has commanded Me what to say and how to say it.
John 7:16 “My teaching is not My own,” Jesus replied. “It comes from Him who sent Me.
1 John 4:6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. That is how we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.