Psalms 35:19

35:19 Do not let those who are my enemies for no reason ¹  gloat ²  over me!

Do not let those who hate me without cause carry out their wicked schemes! ³ 

Psalms 69:4

69:4 Those who hate me without cause are more numerous than the hairs of my head.

Those who want to destroy me, my enemies for no reason, ⁴  outnumber me. ⁵ 

They make me repay what I did not steal! ⁶ 

Matthew 10:22

10:22 And you will be hated by everyone because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

John 15:18-25

The World’s Hatred

15:18 “If the world hates you, be aware ⁷  that it hated me first. ⁸  15:19 If you belonged to the world, ⁹  the world would love you as its own. ¹⁰  However, because you do not belong to the world, ¹¹  but I chose you out of the world, for this reason ¹²  the world hates you. ¹³  15:20 Remember what ¹⁴  I told you, ‘A slave ¹⁵  is not greater than his master.’ ¹⁶  If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they obeyed ¹⁷  my word, they will obey ¹⁸  yours too. 15:21 But they will do all these things to you on account of ¹⁹  my name, because they do not know the one who sent me. ²⁰  15:22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. ²¹  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 ²²  among them the miraculous deeds ²³  that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. ²⁴  But now they have seen the deeds ²⁵  and have hated both me and my Father. ²⁶  15:25 Now this happened ²⁷  to fulfill the word that is written in their law, ‘They hated me without reason.’ ²⁸ 

Acts 4:25-28

4:25 who said by the Holy Spirit through ²⁹  your servant David our forefather, ³⁰ 

‘Why do the nations ³¹  rage, ³² 

and the peoples plot foolish ³³  things?

4:26 The kings of the earth stood together, ³⁴ 

and the rulers assembled together,

against the Lord and against his ³⁵  Christ.’ ³⁶ 

4:27 “For indeed both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, assembled together in this city against ³⁷  your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, ³⁸  4:28 to do as much as your power ³⁹  and your plan ⁴⁰  had decided beforehand ⁴¹  would happen.

[35:19]  ¹ tn Heb “[with] a lie.” The Hebrew noun שֶׁקֶר (sheqer, “lie”) is used here as an adverb, “falsely, wrongfully” (see Ps 38:19).

[35:19]  ² tn Heb “rejoice.”

[35:19]  ³ tn Heb “[do not let] those who hate me without cause pinch [i.e., wink] an eye.” The negative particle is understood in the second line by ellipsis (see the preceding line). In the Book of Proverbs “winking an eye” is associated with deceit and trickery (see 6:13; 10:10; 16:30).

[69:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “[with] a lie.” The Hebrew noun שֶׁקֶר (sheqer, “lie”) is used here as an adverb, “falsely, wrongfully” (see Pss 35:19; 38:19).

[69:4]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew verb עָצַם (’atsam) can sometimes mean “are strong,” but here it probably focuses on numerical superiority; note the parallel verb רָבַב (ravav, “be many”).

[69:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “that which I did not steal, then I restore.” Apparently אָז (’az, “then”) is used here to emphasize the verb that follows.

[15:18]  ⁷ tn Grk “know.”

[15:18]  ⁸ tn Grk “it hated me before you.”

[15:19]  ⁹ tn Grk “if you were of the world.”

[15:19]  ¹⁰ tn The words “you as” are not in the original but are supplied for clarity.

[15:19]  ¹¹ tn Grk “because you are not of the world.”

[15:19]  ¹² tn Or “world, therefore.”

[15:19]  ¹³ sn I chose you out of the world…the world hates you. Two themes are brought together here. In 8:23 Jesus had distinguished himself from the world in addressing his Jewish opponents: “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world.” In 15:16 Jesus told the disciples “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you.” Now Jesus has united these two ideas as he informs the disciples that he has chosen them out of the world. While the disciples will still be “in” the world after Jesus has departed, they will not belong to it, and Jesus prays later in John 17:15-16 to the Father, “I do not ask you to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” The same theme also occurs in 1 John 4:5-6: “They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us.” Thus the basic reason why the world hates the disciples (as it hated Jesus before them) is because they are not of the world. They are born from above, and are not of the world. For this reason the world hates them.

[15:20]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “Remember the word that I said to you.”

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

[15:20]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ tn Or “if they kept.”

[15:20]  ¹⁸ tn Or “they will keep.”

[15:21]  ¹⁹ tn Or “because of.”

[15:21]  ²⁰ tn Jesus is referring to God as “the one who sent me.”

[15:22]  ²¹ tn Grk “they would not have sin” (an idiom).

[15:24]  ²² tn Or “If I had not done.”

[15:24]  ²³ tn Grk “the works.”

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

[15:24]  ²⁵ 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]  ²⁶ 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]  ²⁷ tn The words “this happened” are not in the Greek text but are supplied to complete an ellipsis.

[15:25]  ²⁸ 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).

[4:25]  ²⁹ tn Grk “by the mouth of” (an idiom).

[4:25]  ³⁰ tn Or “ancestor”; Grk “father.”

[4:25]  ³¹ tn Or “Gentiles.”

[4:25]  ³² sn The Greek word translated rage includes not only anger but opposition, both verbal and nonverbal. See L&N 88.185.

[4:25]  ³³ tn Or “futile”; traditionally, “vain.”

[4:26]  ³⁴ tn Traditionally, “The kings of the earth took their stand.”

[4:26]  ³⁵ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[4:26]  ³⁶ sn A quotation from Ps 2:1-2.

[4:27]  ³⁷ sn The application of Ps 2:1-2 is that Jews and Gentiles are opposing Jesus. The surprise of the application is that Jews are now found among the enemies of God’s plan.

[4:27]  ³⁸ sn A wordplay on “Christ,” v. 26, which means “one who has been anointed.”

[4:28]  ³⁹ tn Grk “hand,” here a metaphor for God’s strength or power or authority.

[4:28]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “purpose,” “will.”

[4:28]  ⁴¹ tn Or “had predestined.” Since the term “predestine” is something of a technical theological term, not in wide usage in contemporary English, the translation “decide beforehand” was used instead (see L&N 30.84). God’s direction remains as the major theme.