John 16:1-6

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  16:4 But I have told you these things ⁸  so that when their time ⁹  comes, you will remember that I told you about them. ¹⁰ 

“I did not tell you these things from the beginning because I was with you. ¹¹  16:5 But now I am going to the one who sent me, ¹²  and not one of you is asking me, ‘Where are you going?’ ¹³  16:6 Instead your hearts are filled with sadness ¹⁴  because I have said these things to you.

[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.

[16:4]  ⁸ tn The first half of v. 4 resumes the statement of 16:1, ταῦτα λελάληκα ὑμῖν (tauta lelalhka Jumin), in a somewhat more positive fashion, omitting the reference to the disciples being caused to stumble.

[16:4]  ⁹ tn Grk “their hour.”

[16:4]  ¹⁰ tn The words “about them” are not in the Greek text, but are implied.

[16:4]  ¹¹ sn This verse serves as a transition between the preceding discussion of the persecutions the disciples will face in the world after the departure of Jesus, and the following discussion concerning the departure of Jesus and the coming of the Spirit-Paraclete. Jesus had not told the disciples these things from the beginning because he was with them.

[16:5]  ¹² sn Now the theme of Jesus’ impending departure is resumed (I am going to the one who sent me). It will also be mentioned in 16:10, 17, and 28. Jesus had said to his opponents in 7:33 that he was going to the one who sent him; in 13:33 he had spoken of going where the disciples could not come. At that point Peter had inquired where he was going, but it appears that Peter did not understand Jesus’ reply at that time and did not persist in further questioning. In 14:5 Thomas had asked Jesus where he was going.

[16:5]  ¹³ sn Now none of the disciples asks Jesus where he is going, and the reason is given in the following verse: They have been overcome with sadness as a result of the predictions of coming persecution that Jesus has just spoken to them in 15:18-25 and 16:1-4a. Their shock at Jesus’ revelation of coming persecution is so great that none of them thinks to ask him where it is that he is going.

[16:6]  ¹⁴ tn Or “distress” or “grief.”