John 14.16 reads:
16 κἀγὼ ἐρωτήσω τὸν πατέρα καὶ ἄλλον παράκλητον δώσει ὑμῖν, ἵνα μεθ’ ὑμῶν εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα ᾖ, [NA 28]
‘And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;’ [KJV]
‘I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;’ [NASB]
‘And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.’ [NRSV]
‘And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you for ever,’ [RSV]
This is the first occurrence of the word παράκλητος (paraklētos) in the New Testament. It has been variously translated as ‘Comforter’ (Tyndale, KJV, ASV), ‘Counselor’ (RSV), ‘Helper’ (NASB, ESV, GNT, NKJV), and ‘Advocate’ (NIV, Lexham, NLT, NRSV).
Brian Simmons, however, in his version of John’s Gospel, renders it here as ‘Savior’:
‘And I will ask the Father and he will give you another Savior, the Holy Spirit of Truth, who will be to you a friend just like me—and he will never leave you.’
In the footnote which applies to the word ‘Savior’, he explains first of all, not incorrectly, if insufficiently, that παρἀκλητος means “one called to stand next to you as a helper”, and gives some of the previous English translations of the word:
He then says that all these previous attempts fall short in explaining ‘the full meaning’:
Note that he does not say ‘the full meaning of the word’. He is about to try to justify using the word ‘Savior’, but he cannot pretend that παράκλητος means ‘savior’, because there is no support for this in the usage of the word, or in the lexicons. Instead, he says that he has chosen the word ‘Savior’ because, in his opinion, this is what best expresses what the Holy Spirit does for us:
Please see that the dear brother is no longer translating, but trying to rewrite the Holy Bible. He is not claiming here that παράκλητος means ‘savior’; he is claiming that it is appropriate to call the Holy Spirit our Saviour, because of what He does for us.
why this is wrong
The Lord Jesus Christ is the Saviour of mankind. The angel told Joseph (Matthew 1.21) that Mary’s son would be called Jesus, Yeshua (Greek: Ἰησοῦς), because He would save us from our sins. Hallelujah! He died on the cross and shed His holy blood to redeem us from the curse of the law and to bear the punishment for our terrible sins. This is the basis of our wonderful salvation.
The Holy Spirit did not die on the cross for us or shed His blood for us to save us from our sins. Only the Lord Jesus did that. That is why we call Him Saviour. Let us not continue to allow Brian Simmons to publish this horrible version of the Holy Bible, bringing disgrace upon the body of Christ, which is failing to give Brian the loving correction he so desperately needs.
Andrew