In John 14:2, what is Jesus' Father's house?

Question

In John 14:2, Jesus tells his disciples:

In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. (NIV)

What is Jesus referring to by "my Father's house?" Would the disciples have understood it as the temple? As heaven?

And what did Jesus mean by it - the temple, heaven, his own body, something else? The simplest idea seems to be heaven; but later in 14:23 Jesus talks about he and the Father coming and making his dwelling with the disciples (in my understanding by the indwelling of the Spirit) leading me to think he might be speaking otherwise in 14:2.

Answer 1

The Temple in Jerusalem was known as "the house of God" (2 Cor. 5:14) and "the house of YHVH" (1 Kings 8:10). However, we may conclude that this is not the "Father's house" to which Yeshu'a was referring, since that very house would be destroyed in 70 A.D. The physical Temple in Jerusalem had no further relevance to the body of Christ after Christ offered the ultimate sin offering (Heb. 10:10).

The KJV translates the Greek word μονή (monē) here as "mansions," but in v. 23 of the same chapter, it translates it as "abode." The English translation of "mansions" comes from the Vulgate which has mansiones. The Latin word mansio, like the Greek word μονή, simply means "dwelling" or "abobe." It did not have the same sense that the English word "mansion" possesses today, i.e. a grand estate.

The Greek verb ἑτοιμάζω (hetoimazō), meaning "to prepare," also occurs in another Johannine text, Rev. 21:2, in which it is written,

And I, Yochanan, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared (ἡτοιμασμένην) as a bride adorned for her husband.

Many believe that the place to which Yeshu'a refers is "heaven," but may I say, I do not believe heaven needs preparation, for it is the holy abode of God Himself created in the beginning.

On the other hand, the holy city, new Jerusalem, comes out of heaven and is indeed said to be prepared (cp. Rev. 21:2). I would also propose that the holy city of new Jerusalem is the body of Christ itself, i.e. the Church.

For, just as new Jerusalem is said to be "prepared as a bride adorned for her husband," elsewhere, the apostle Paulos writes (2 Cor. 11:2), "I have espoused you to one husband, so that I may present [you as] a chaste virgin to Christ." Furthermore, he writes that (Eph. 5:25-27) "Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it...so that he may present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish."

As both new Jerusalem and the Church are said to be the bride of Christ, I can only reason that new Jerusalem is indeed the Church, lest Christ be an adulterer.

If this is so, then the place that Yeshu'a is preparing is not only new Jerusalem, but the Church itself.

But, let each study the scripture and show himself approved.

Answer 2

The idea goes back to Noah's ark, which contained many "nests," in which every creature, clean or unclean, that is, priestly or kingly, could rest in comfort and safety.

Taking it back even further, the Father's house was the Garden of Eden. Sin against the Father was theft of what was God's. Sin against the Son was Cain's murder in the Land. Sin against the Spirit was the godless intermarriage (the Spirit is the "matchmaker" who knits things together).

Adam was to speak as a prophet against the serpent, and present his bride as a chaste virgin to God. The account of Noah follows the same pattern. He speaks and the animals submit and come to him for shelter. For Christ, it is the "animal nations," and the shelter was the fulfillment of Booths in the first century. Jesus would become a tree of righteousness, food and shelter - all that Adam was intended to be.

In application, every man in authority is to be a shelter for those in his care, whether a husband, father, employer or leader. How does God turn a man into a shelter? As with Abraham, he puts him under a deep darkness, and cuts into him to make a holy place, a place in his bosom that is safe for the bride. She is the gemstones on his breast, which is a house of many rooms (the Tabernacle was humaniform, and the High Priest was the Tabernacle in miniature).