Charles Ellicott Commentary John 16:2

"They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the hour cometh, that whosoever killeth you shall think that he offereth service unto God." — John 16:2 (ASV)

They shall put you out of the synagogues. Compare the notes on John 9:22 and John 12:42.

Will think that he doeth God service. A better translation is: will think that he offers to God a sacrificial service.

The word rendered “doeth” in the Authorized Version is the technical word for offering sacrifice (compare, e.g., the notes on Matthew 5:23 and Matthew 8:4). The word rendered “service” means the service of worship.

This can be seen by comparing other instances where it occurs in the New Testament: Romans 9:4, Romans 12:1, Hebrews 9:1, and Hebrews 9:6.

A Rabbinic comment on Numbers 25:13 is, “Whoever sheds the blood of the wicked is as he who offers sacrifice.”

The martyrdom of Stephen, or St. Paul’s account of himself as a persecutor (Acts 26:9; Galatians 1:13–14), shows how these words were fulfilled in the first years of the Church’s history, and such accounts are not absent from that history’s latest page.