My father’s house

It is about a famous statement of Jesus. The text reads as follows:

“In My Father’s house are many abiding places; otherwise I would have told you that I was going to prepare a place for you. And when I have gone and prepared a place for you, I will come again and take you to Myself, so that you too may be where I am. And you know where I am going, and you know the way also”.
John 14:2-4 KNT

The postal address

The idea that is often attached to this passage is the following: God dwells in heaven. He is the father. So heaven is the Father’s house. That sounds logical, doesn’t it? It’s almost like a mailing address. So you can also read in some authors the shortened formula: “Heaven, the Father’s house”.

But back to the text. In the text itself, the word “heaven” does not appear anywhere. That one reads here now “heaven”, one concludes from the reference of Jesus “And when I am gone …”. This is supposed to mean that He went to heaven. Even though this may be so, the text is in no way talking about the Father’s house being in heaven. Jesus says He is going to prepare a place.

It is all too easy to conclude here that He would inspect the rooms, for example, that is, that He is on site in the house and clarifies whether everything is prepared. That would be something like a “room service” in advance. But is that the message of the text? Projections on the biblical text go like this.

It could be considered thereby with another comparison: It clarifies what it takes for this father’s house (place: Not defined) to be occupied once. Could Jesus also be pointing to His dying here? A healthy view of the Bible wants to evaluate possible views so as not to conclude what is not written at all. But Jesus only says “And when I am gone …”. However, this does not necessarily have to refer to heaven, but it can also speak of His sacrificial death. Just as we say someone is “gone” when they have actually “died.” So the question is whether there are arguments for or against a particular view. These can then be evaluated.

Let’s make a comparison to look at this Bible passage from a different angle. When I want to book a vacation home for my family, I am usually not at the vacation home on site. Instead, I address the landlord and settle with him the details of the rent, so that I can later move in with the family in the cottage. So the house is in a different place than the landlord himself. At least that is how it can happen. (No, I don’t mean to say here that Jesus is booking us a vacation rental).

It is easy to see in the text that this is the case. Because Jesus goes to prepare something and then says : “… I will come again and take you to Me, so that you also may be where I am”. Jesus comes back first. Afterwards the disciples (it is about them here!) are taken to Him.

From this it is easy to see that Jesus is not talking about us going to heaven after we die and then being with Him. That is not an issue in this passage (nor anywhere else in Scripture). Whatever the disciples hear here, it will only come to pass when Jesus returns – and not before.

With the image of a “vacation home” in mind, which I rented for my family, this in no way means that I now visit the landlord with the family. Rather, it is clear that we will then move into the cottage. One is not to be confused with the other.

Why is it not possible here ?

It is helpful for understanding a Bible text to record both what is actually written and what is not. Here are a few things that are not written:

1. The believer who dies goes to heaven after dying
2. In death is consciousness. Death, then, is not death, but simply another form of life.
3. Let the “house of my Father” be heaven
4. Jesus speaks here about the dying of the believers
5. The disciples have a future expectation in heaven

All this does not apply. Result:

• The believer who dies goes to heaven after dying
• In death is consciousness. Death, then, is not death, but simply another form of life.
• Let the “house of my Father” be heaven
• Jesus speaks here about the dying of the believers
• The disciples have a future expectation in heaven

It is quite a sobering inventory if until now one was always convinced that this passage was talking about heaven and what comes after dying. However, the only relevant question is: Why is it really going on here?

Why does it actually work?

Let us read the Bible text again and peel out from this text what is really mentioned:

“In My Father’s house are many abiding places; otherwise I would have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you. And when I have gone and prepared a place for you, I will come again and take you to Myself, so that you also may be where I am. And you know where I am going, and you know the way also.”
John 14:2-4

This is what we see mentioned in the text:

• My father’s house
• Many places to stay
• Jesus goes to prepare a place for “you”.
• Jesus comes again
• Jesus will then take the “you” back to himself
• so that they are where He is then.

When you take the text out of context like this, all of these things are not explained. It is not clear what is meant by my father’s house, nor what are the places of abode. But the fact that they are not explained means quite positively that his disciples understood this speech without further explanation. It must therefore be something that corresponds to their world of experience and their level of knowledge.

Let us keep in mind that Jesus was speaking as a Jew to Jews about Jewish expectation. No new concepts were introduced. When Jesus began to preach, it was said that “the kingdom of heaven has come near”. What was once far away had come near in the king. It was not something new, it was something old, but now it was to be fulfilled. Jesus spoke of known things. Therefore, it did not need to be explained in more detail. The meaning must have something to do with the expectation for Israel.

Furthermore, it should be clarified who is in the field of vision here. Does this statement simply apply generally to all Christians, to all Jews, or only to the small crowd of people present there? Can you find any clues about this in the text?

The context speaks of a dinner of Jesus with His disciples(John 13:2), which takes place before the Passover(John 13:1). He meets only with his twelve disciples. In the conversations that evening, there is also the statement about “my father’s house”. At the end of chapter 14, this conversation is over (John 14:31). This is the immediate context.

My Father’s House is the Temple

However, if we want to understand exactly what Jesus means by “my Father’s house,” we must draw the circle a little larger. He mentions “my father’s house” elsewhere:

Then Jesus went up to Jerusalem. He found the sellers of cattle, sheep and doves and the money changers sitting there in the consecration place. Then He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the consecration place, along with the sheep and the cattle, pouring out the change of the brokers and overturning the tables. To those who sold doves He said, “Take these away from here! Do not make My Father’s house a store” Then His disciples remembered that it is written, “Zeal for Your house will consume me.
John 2:13-17

Here it becomes clear that the “house of my Father” is the consecration place, namely the temple in Jerusalem. It is therefore obvious that Jesus simply means the temple in John 14 as well. For in the temple are many abiding places, like those for the priests. The designation as father’s house seems obvious. The intimate connection of Jesus with His Father – how could it not be experienced by Jesus in the temple? (Luk 2:46-50).

The word for “abode” in Greek is monê, related to meno (to remain). In the simplest sense, it is a simple place to “stay”. It probably doesn’t have much in common with an apartment as we know it today, including a shower, kitchen, living room and so on. Rather, they were simple shelters, chambers, rooms that could be used for various purposes – including accommodation.

When once David gave his son the order to build the temple, we read the following description:

“And David gave unto Solomon his son the plan of the porch of the temple, and of the buildings thereof, and of the treasuries thereof, and of the upper chambers thereof, and of the inner chambers thereof, and of the room of the covering; and the plan of all that was in him by the Spirit: for the courts of the house of the LORD, and all the cells round about; for the treasuries of the house of God, and the treasuries of the holy gifts; and for the divisions of the priests and Levites, and for all the service of the house of the LORD; and for all the vessels of the service of the house of the LORD.”
1 Chronicles 28:11-13

The future temple according to Ezekiel

There were various rooms in the temple, treasuries, meeting rooms for priests and Levites and for all serving in the house of the Lord. This also includes “cells” or “chambers”. It is significant that on the one hand the reference to the temple is there, on the other hand Jesus speaks of His going and coming again and makes the reference to the temple. This is an outlook reminiscent of Ezekiel’s statements regarding the temple that will stand in Jerusalem during the messianic kingdom.

Beginning in chapter 40, Ezekiel speaks at length of the new temple, of the chambers and rooms that will be there (specifically, Ezekiel 41 speaks of the interior of the future temple). Jeremiah also speaks of these rooms when it says, “…speak to them and bring them into the house of the LORD into one of the cells“ (Jer 35:2).

Future tasks of the 12 apostles

Jesus has already spoken to His disciples on another occasion about this future Messianic time. It is the coming age, the coming eon, in which the kingdom with heavenly origin will be established on earth (Dan 2:44). For this time was the outlook of Jesus and He also pointed this out to His disciples:

“Then Peter said, “Behold, we have left our possessions and followed Thee. But he answered them: “Verily I say to you: There is no one who has left his house, wife or brothers or sisters, parents or children, for the sake of the Kingdom of God, who will not in any case receive it again manifold in this term – and in the coming eon eonian life.”
Lk 18:28-30

Fittingly, then, Jesus would have had this very future temple in mind at his Second Coming and in view of the messianic kingdom. For there He will be and there His 12 disciples will also enter. Here we should also remember the words of Jesus, in which He provides special offices just for the 12 disciples in the Messianic Kingdom. In a parallel passage to the last quote we read more about this:

“Then Peter took the floor and said to Him, “Behold, we have left everything and followed You: What will our portion be?” Then Jesus answered them, “Verily I say unto you: You who have followed Me, in the regeneration, when the Son of Man is seated on the throne of His glory, become you also sit on twelve thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses, brothers or sisters, father or mother, wife or children or fields for the sake of My name will be restored a hundredfold, and aeonian life will be allotted to him.”
Mt 19:27-29

My Father’s house” has an amazingly clear meaning in the context of the Bible.