---
title: John 16:26
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/john-16-26/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/john-16-26.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: John 16:26
testament: NT
section: Gospels
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# John 16:26

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> In that day you will ask in My name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "In that day you will make request of the Father in my name; in saying this, I do not mean that I will make request for you."

## JW Usage

Read as confirming Jesus' role as mediator — requests are made in his name and reach Jehovah through him. The second half of the verse is usually passed over quickly, since the Watchtower's picture of prayer has Jesus conveying requests to the Father, and the verse appears to say he does not.

## Protestant Usage

This is the verse that dismantles the middleman model, and it does it in the NWT as clearly as anywhere: "in saying this, I do not mean that I will make request for you." Jesus explicitly denies that he will be passing the message along. The reason he gives is the striking part — "for the Father himself has affection for you." The Father does not need persuading. He acts on a prayer offered in the Son's name as directly as if it were offered in his own. So put the two halves together. Prayer in the new era carries Jesus' name, and the Father honours it immediately, and Jesus is not relaying it. That leaves the question of what his name is doing in the transaction at all — and the answer cannot be "acting as a courier," because he has just ruled that out. Add John 14:14, where Jesus says he will answer such prayer himself, and you have someone receiving and answering requests made everywhere at once, in every language, often silently. Compare John 16:23, 1 Kings 8:39, 1 Corinthians 2:11.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Until Now You Have Not Asked in My Name](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/john-16-23-26-prayer-trap.md) — John 16:23-26 — the unitarian collapse on prayer [Deity of Christ]