John 15:22-27

15:22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. ¹  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 ²  among them the miraculous deeds ³  that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. ⁴  But now they have seen the deeds ⁵  and have hated both me and my Father. ⁶  15:25 Now this happened ⁷  to fulfill the word that is written in their law, ‘They hated me without reason.’ ⁸  15:26 When the Advocate ⁹  comes, whom I will send you from the Father – the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father – he ¹⁰  will testify about me, 15:27 and you also will testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.

[15:22]  ¹ tn Grk “they would not have sin” (an idiom).

[15:24]  ² tn Or “If I had not done.”

[15:24]  ³ tn Grk “the works.”

[15:24]  ⁴ tn Grk “they would not have sin” (an idiom).

[15:24]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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.

[15:25]  ⁷ tn The words “this happened” are not in the Greek text but are supplied to complete an ellipsis.

[15:25]  ⁸ sn A quotation from Ps 35:19 and Ps 69:4. As a technical term law (νόμος, nomos) is usually restricted to the Pentateuch (the first five books of the OT), but here it must have a broader reference, since the quotation is from Ps 35:19 or Ps 69:4. The latter is the more likely source for the quoted words, since it is cited elsewhere in John’s Gospel (2:17 and 19:29, in both instances in contexts associated with Jesus’ suffering and death).

[15:26]  ⁹ tn Or “Helper” or “Counselor”; Grk “Paraclete,” from the Greek word παράκλητος (paraklhto"). See the note on the word “Advocate” in John 14:16 for discussion of how this word is translated.

[15:26]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “that one.”