The Spirit … who reveals the truth about God is repeated from 14.17 and 15.26. This expression may have several different forms, for example, “the Spirit who shows what is true about God” or “the Spirit who speaks the true words about God” or “the Spirit who will reveal what God truly is.”

The verb translated lead appears frequently in the Greek translation of the (Psalms for example 5.8; 27.11; 106.9; 119.35). In Revelation 7.17 it is used of the Lamb, who will guide God’s people to the springs of life-giving water. Will lead you into all the truth may be expressed as a causative, for example, “will cause you to know all the truth.” In this context all the truth refers to what the Spirit will reveal, namely, what he hears from God. Therefore all the truth may be rendered “all the truth that comes from God.”

The second half of verse 13 further describes the Spirit’s role: he will speak of what he hears and will tell you of things to come. Like the Son (12.49; 14.10), the Spirit does not speak on his own authority but only what he hears. The present tense (he hears has the support of some Greek manuscripts. The UBS Committee prefers the future tense (“he will hear”), but Anchor considers that he hears should be preferred as the more difficult reading, since all the verbs in the immediate context are future. Apart from the textual question, the present tense may be preferred on translational grounds. Although this verse does not indicate the source of what the Spirit hears, it is clearly the Father, just as Jesus himself tells the world only what he has heard from the Father (8.26).

The verb translates he … will tell is repeated in the following two verses. It is also used by the Samaritan woman in 4.25, where, as in 16.13,14,15, the object is divine revelation: when he (the Messiah) comes, he will tell us everything.

Things to come does not refer to events of the immediate future, such as Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, since the Spirit will not be given until Jesus has been raised to glory (7.39). In the Old Testament to tell … of things to come is reserved to God alone (compare Isa 44.7).

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .