John 15:20-24

15:20 Remember what ¹  I told you, ‘A slave ²  is not greater than his master.’ ³  If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they obeyed ⁴  my word, they will obey ⁵  yours too. 15:21 But they will do all these things to you on account of ⁶  my name, because they do not know the one who sent me. ⁷  15:22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. ⁸  But they no longer have any excuse for their sin. 15:23 The one who hates me hates my Father too. 15:24 If I had not performed ⁹  among them the miraculous deeds ¹⁰  that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. ¹¹  But now they have seen the deeds ¹²  and have hated both me and my Father. ¹³ 

[15:20]  ¹ tn Grk “Remember the word that I said to you.”

[15:20]  ² tn See the note on the word “slaves” in 4:51.

[15:20]  ³ sn A slave is not greater than his master. Jesus now recalled a statement he had made to the disciples before, in John 13:16. As the master has been treated, so will the slaves be treated also. If the world had persecuted Jesus, then it would also persecute the disciples. If the world had kept Jesus’ word, it would likewise keep the word of the disciples. In this statement there is the implication that the disciples would carry on the ministry of Jesus after his departure; they would in their preaching and teaching continue to spread the message which Jesus himself had taught while he was with them. And they would meet with the same response, by and large, that he encountered.

[15:20]  ⁴ tn Or “if they kept.”

[15:20]  ⁵ tn Or “they will keep.”

[15:21]  ⁶ tn Or “because of.”

[15:21]  ⁷ tn Jesus is referring to God as “the one who sent me.”

[15:22]  ⁸ tn Grk “they would not have sin” (an idiom).

[15:24]  ⁹ tn Or “If I had not done.”

[15:24]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “the works.”

[15:24]  ¹¹ tn Grk “they would not have sin” (an idiom).

[15:24]  ¹² tn The words “the deeds” are supplied to clarify from context what was seen. Direct objects in Greek were often omitted when clear from the context.

[15:24]  ¹³ tn Or “But now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father.” It is possible to understand both the “seeing” and the “hating” to refer to both Jesus and the Father, but this has the world “seeing” the Father, which seems alien to the Johannine Jesus. (Some point out John 14:9 as an example, but this is addressed to the disciples, not to the world.) It is more likely that the “seeing” refers to the miraculous deeds mentioned in the first half of the verse. Such an understanding of the first “both – and” construction is apparently supported by BDF §444.3.