John 16:1-3

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  16:3 They ⁶  will do these things because they have not known the Father or me. ⁷ 

Acts 20:24

20:24 But I do not consider my life ⁸  worth anything ⁹  to myself, so that ¹⁰  I may finish my task ¹¹  and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the good news ¹²  of God’s grace.

[16:1]  ¹ tn Grk “so that you will not be caused to stumble.”

[16:2]  ² tn Or “expel you from.”

[16:2]  ³ sn See the note on synagogue in 6:59.

[16:2]  ⁴ tn Grk “an hour.”

[16:2]  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.

[16:3]  ⁶ tn Grk “And they.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[16:3]  ⁷ sn Ignorance of Jesus and ignorance of the Father are also linked in 8:19; to know Jesus would be to know the Father also, but since the world does not know Jesus, neither does it know his Father. The world’s ignorance of the Father is also mentioned in 8:55, 15:21, and 17:25.

[20:24]  ⁸ tn Grk “soul.”

[20:24]  ⁹ tn Or “I do not consider my life worth a single word.” According to BDAG 599 s.v. λόγος 1.a.α, “In the textually uncertain pass. Ac 20:24 the text as it stands in N., οὐδενὸς λόγου (v.l. λόγον) ποιοῦμαι τὴν ψυχὴν τιμίαν, may well mean: I do not consider my life worth a single word (cp. λόγου ἄξιον [ἄξιος 1a] and our ‘worth mention’).”

[20:24]  ¹⁰ tn BDAG 1106 s.v. ὡς 9 describes this use as “a final particle, expressing intention/purpose, with a view to, in order to.”

[20:24]  ¹¹ tn Grk “course.” See L&N 42.26, “(a figurative extension of meaning of δρόμος ‘race’) a task or function involving continuity, serious, effort, and possibly obligation – ‘task, mission’…Ac 20:24.” On this Pauline theme see also Phil 1:19-26; Col 1:24; 2 Tim 4:6-7.

[20:24]  ¹² tn Or “to the gospel.”