I go to prepare a place for you. American King James Version ×. Dr. “His house” is where he lives. 14:2] is not a reference to the salvation of our separated brothers and sisters. Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year A But it was home! A number of verses come to mind in which we are described as being the temple: Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? In notes from a commentary, it explains that the author was likely addressing a common polemic and divergence among the communities. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/StephenBeale1, The Vision of the Eucharist Given to the Fatima Visionaries, Juan Diego And Our Lady Of Guadalupe (Part II Of III). In this respect, it served as the ideal picture of heaven that Jesus sought to convey — an ongoing (eternal) “Walton’s Mountain” or your-favorite-family-reunion-ever kind of feel. /en/features/what-did-jesus-mean-by-many-mansions, Dr. Jesus promises that He is… All rights reserved. ). A quick review of the way Jesus typically uses visual aids suggests very strongly that He does—but after 2000 years, discovering them is the challenge! There are many rooms in my Father's house; if there were not, I should have told you. Tagged as: (Postscript: If Jesus used the insula-style home as a visual aid/word-picture in one of His most important teachings on heaven, is it possible that it provides the key to better understanding many of His other words and deeds? They have been discovered in places like Samaria, Capernaum, Meiron, Arbel, in the Negev (David A. Fiensy’s “The Galilean House in the Late Second Temple and Mishnaic Periods” in David A. Fiensy; and James Riley Strange, Galilee in the Late Second Temple and Mishnaic Periods, Volume 1: Life, Culture, and Society. about what it means: “In my fathers house are many mansions”!! The kind of dwelling we are talking about here then is mutual. Many abiding places or homes. In this article, Nunnally examines what Jesus was saying to his disciples about accommodations in heaven during the Last Supper. Even so, how would His hearers have understood a metaphor for heaven that suggested that within God’s house were situated thousands and thousands of individual “mansions”? First, we must recognize Jesus as a master teacher who was very skilled in the use of visual aids and word-pictures. If there was no room for them in His Father’s house, He would have been honest and told them. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. But this explanation then raises another question, according to Augustine. Prepare thus, Lord, what You are preparing; for You are preparing us for Yourself, and Yourself for us, inasmuch as You are preparing a place both for Yourself in us, and for us in You. In My Fathers's House Are Many Mansions (John 14:2) – came out from Saint Julian Press in November 2018.The book is a collection of thoughts and sermons written by Robert P. Starbuck, M.Div., PhD, in his fifty plus years as a Christian clergy, and over forty years as a practicing psychotherapist. The NIV has this, "My Father's house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?" In this article, Nunnally examines what Jesus was saying to his disciples about accommodations in heaven during the Last Supper. I go to prepare a place for you." Raised as an evangelical Protestant, he is a convert to Catholicism. St. Augustine of Hippo, Stephen Beale is a freelance writer based in Providence, Rhode Island. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? In my Father's house are many homes. John 14: 2 In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. This description coupled with the image above is surely the visual image Jesus had in mind in His teaching about heaven, and because this architectural motif was so popular in Roman Palestine, Jesus could assume that His audience (the Twelve) could easily understand His frame of reference. Let the believing in that place be desired, that the place desired may itself be possessed; the longing of love is the preparation of the mansion. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. This interpretation has the benefit of explaining a conundrum in the verse, which St. Augustine himself points out: If the Father’s house already has many mansions, why does Jesus need to go to prepare a place for us? (John 14:2) In today’s gospel we read these words from the gospel of John. In My Father’s House —John 14:1-6. I am going to prepare a place for you. 4 And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thankfully, there are many mansions for many people, and the Lord Jesus has prepared a way for us to be a part of that eternal dwelling place. 222-4) and at Chorazin. If we are the ones in need of preparation then why is Jesus departing to heaven to carry out the work of preparation? One community would say to the other: “Our way of living the faith is better than yours. Usually this verse is taken — correctly — as a reference to our destiny in heaven. b. I go to prepare a place for you. if not, I would have told you--that is, I would tell you so at once; I would not deceive you. The key to seeing this is the word house, which was a Hebrew term for the temple. Be you also as living stones built up, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:5; here we revert back to the term, Let the Lord then go and prepare us a place; let Him go, that He may not be seen; and let Him remain concealed, that faith may be exercised. 1 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. One thing is for certain, that when Christians literally walk where Jesus walked and experience God’s Word with historical context in place, the message of Scripture becomes instantly clearer to them — “faith becomes sight” — with a profound and often life-changing impact. John 14: "In My Father's House Are Many Mansions. 2 In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. 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