Le Paraclet dans le corpus johannique

The Greek term parakltos (paraclete) appears four times in the Gospel of John (Jn 14, 16.26; 15, 26; 16, 7) and once in the First Epistle (1 Jn 2, 1). In the Gospel, its meaning is enigmatic. After a status quaestionis, a detailed analysis of parakltos in ancient literature reveals two different degrees of lexicalization: a) an embryonic stage conveying the idea of movement associated with a mandate, to be found in the Gospel (common usage in the Greek language); b) the meaning of intercesseur, associated with a stereotyped triangular semantic structure, to be found in the Epistle (Jewish tradition). This term demands a moral qualification, supplied by the adjective righteous in 1 Jn and by the title the Spirit of truth in Jn; an evolution from the Epistle to the Gospel has taken place. The latter uses a term with a minimal semantic value to include it in the mission theme, by means of a recurrent prepositional strategy linked to the preverb para.