16:1 “I have told you all these things so that you will not fall away. 1 16:2 They will put you out of 2 the synagogue, 3 yet a time 4 is coming when the one who kills you will think he is offering service to God. 5
1 tn Grk “so that you will not be caused to stumble.”
2 tn Or “expel you from.”
3 sn See the note on synagogue in 6:59.
4 tn Grk “an hour.”
5 sn Jesus now refers not to the time of his return to the Father, as he has frequently done up to this point, but to the disciples’ time of persecution. They will be excommunicated from Jewish synagogues. There will even be a time when those who kill Jesus’ disciples will think that they are offering service to God by putting the disciples to death. Because of the reference to service offered to God, it is almost certain that Jewish opposition is intended here in both cases rather than Jewish opposition in the first instance (putting the disciples out of synagogues) and Roman opposition in the second (putting the disciples to death). Such opposition materializes later and is recorded in Acts: The stoning of Stephen in 7:58-60 and the slaying of James the brother of John by Herod Agrippa I in Acts 12:2-3 are notable examples.