In John 14, Jesus refers three times to his “coming” to his disciples or believers more generally, each time employing a form of the verb ἔρχομαι (John 14:3, 18, 23). Each of these references has generated debate within the secondary literature, which is only compounded when one considers how these references relate to one another. The first of these (14:3) has been read as pointing to the second coming or the rapture, a postresurrection appearance, the day of Pentecost, or Jesus’s coming at the believer’s death. The second reference (14:18) has been interpreted as referring to the second coming, a postresurrection appearance, or the day of Pentecost. The third has been understood as a spiritual coming through the indwelling presence of the Spirit or the second coming. Scholars debate not only the referential clarity of these references to Jesus’s “coming” but also whether they should be interpreted in light of one of the other references. For example, Keener thinks 14:2–3 employs ambiguous language, while Klink regards this as the clearest reference to the second coming found in the Gospels. Moreover, Keener interprets 14:3 as a spiritual coming in light of v. 23, while Moloney reverses this, reading 14:23 through the lens of v. 3 and thus as eschatological and the final coming of Jesus. Such examples could be multiplied.
The paper argues against the propensity of some scholars for facile conflation of the “comings” of Christ in John 14:3, 14:18, and 14:23. Instead, careful exegetical analysis of these verses supports the referential fluidity of ἔρχομαι in these respective verses, with each reference pointing to a distinct “coming” of Jesus. The paper aims to establish a more precise interpretation of each of these respective “comings” and then elucidate their relationship to one another and articulate the eschatological and pneumatological implications of this.